Solzhenitsyn—a legend of Russ literature

Syed Tosharaf Ali :
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is considered as a legendary personality of Russian literature and one of the great writers of 20th century. It would not be possible to evaluate him on the basis of his literature only, because his popularity has surpassed his creations.
He was born in the context of First World War and his childhood passed in the terrible time of civil war. He experienced the iron rule of Joseph Stalin in his youth. And after wards he was accused for sedition and expelled from his country. From the boyhood who was habituated to walk in the dark corridor of history, then politics and memories would certainly reflect in his writings. In reality deep sense of history is available in his writings. At the end of the second world war his criticism against autocratic rule of Joseph Stalin and he was arrested and after interrogation in Moscow he was sent to a camp for eight years. He wrote his experiences in his first book about these Nazi types of camps. The name of his book was ‘First Circle’ and it was published in the year 1968. In the year 1950 he was sent to Kazakhstan where he had to work in a factory, brick fireplace and coal mine. In this time he became a cancer patient. From 1953 he was expelled from his country. He wrote his experiences in a book titled: ‘one day in the life of Ivan Denisovis’ and he also wrote on his tragic cancer treatment story under the title ‘cancer ward’.
In fact, life and literature of Solzhenitsyn are inseparable from one another. His remarkable and most popular Nobel Gulag archipelago is mixed with his life and history. Gulag the word in English is the creation of Solzanithsin. Primarily the word Gulag was used to mean the camp director, but later on its meaning expanded and now Gulag means concentration camps of Stalin, unusual islands separated from the whole world. The nature of his Nobel is though autobiographical, but there is deep sense of morality. The irony of his fate is that he fought as a red guard of Stalin and now repenting, on the other side there is vivid picture of unbearable suffering of camp life. It is not an autobiography of one suffering Man but story of an age, story of a total generation and history of frustration. There are more than two hundred confessional statements of prisoners and story of cruel activities of Stalin. Simply it is the honest exposure of inhuman camp life in the era of Stalin.
Unless Gulag was written and it did not reach to the free world the injustices and wrong deeds remain unknown to the west for a long time. The courageous effort of Solzanithsin for the first time demolished the bright dream of Lenin and Stalin. Many left wing thinkers and political activists turned their faces from Soviet Union.
He had a dream of social change. At the time of Nikita Khrushchev his thinking was active and alive. He was selected for Nobel Prize in the year 1970.But he was not allowed to go Stockholm for receiving Nobel Prize. He was under watch of KGB and they took his papers. They thought, he may not come back.
He was oppressed, suffered financial hardship and deprived of honour but never thought of better living in a foreign country. He reminded with his ill-fated people. But later on he was expelled from his country and his citizenship was cancelled. At that time he was living in Europe and America. In the year 1990 he regained his citizenship and after four years he reinstated in Russian Federation. He also regained his honour. But he did not agree with the new trend of affluence society. How far Russian people will remember him we cannot predict but his name will remain in history.

(The writer is journalist and
 political analyst).