Contents
The name of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn is known all over the world. This outstanding writer, citizen and human rights activist not only made an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian literature, but also became a real symbol of struggle and a truly Christian spirit, unbroken by the cruel “red machine”.
His biography was full of inhuman trials: a poor childhood, the Great Patriotic War, arrest, long years spent in camps and exile, a fatal illness, years of persecution, deportation from the country and, finally, deprivation of Soviet citizenship. Despite all this, Solzhenitsyn continued to follow the path of truth.
He was a devoted patriot. Hating the Soviet government, which exterminated millions of his fellow citizens, the writer loved his homeland with all his heart, wishing her well-being and prosperity.
All his works are literally imbued with love and compassion for the Russian man, who endured many losses, but never lost his inner divine light.
We present a list of the top 10 best works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
10 Love the revolution
In the story “Love the Revolution” describes the events of the summer of 1941 – the spring of 1942. According to the author, the work was conceived as a prose continuation of Dorozhenka.
At first the story was titled as “The History of One Division”. Chapters 1-5 were written in 1948 on Marfino’s sharashka. After 10 years in Ryazan, these episodes were edited – excerpts for chapters 6 and 7 were added to them.
Unfortunately, this work was not continued.
9. Apricot jam
Story “Apricot jam” was written in 1994.
The first part of the work is a letter to the famous Soviet writer, which was written by the son of dispossessed parents.
In his message, he details the terrible trials that befell his family. In conclusion, he asks the writer to send him a food parcel.
In the next part of the story, the same writer has a conversation with a friend professor of film studies. He admires the “original language” of the writer of the letter and discusses plans for writing the screenplay. However, he is not going to help the person who turned to him for help.
The symbol of well-being in this story is apricot jam. Before the revolution, the apricot tree adorned the peasant yard. During dispossession, the tree was cut down.
Now this very apricot jam is part of a tea feast in the house of a writer who has successfully integrated into the new realities.
8. Easter procession
In the work of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the “red line” traces the theme of Christian morality and national religious feeling.
Story “Easter Procession” was written in 1966. Here we are talking about a picture that is typical for that period of Russian history, when officially the ministers of the church were no longer persecuted, but the followers of Orthodoxy and the clergy were in a humiliatingly supervised position.
The writer describes the bright feast of Easter Sunday with nagging pain: a few ranks of clergy and believers surrounded by “roaring youth” – rude, boorish, half-drunk, but for some reason joining the procession – for the sake of laughter, entertainment, or for some other unknown reason.
Between the lines, Solzhenitsyn shares with the reader reflections on how a country with a thousand-year history of Orthodoxy could come to such a darkness of unbelief and militant atheism.
7. Case at Kochetovka station
Story “Case of Kochetovka stations” was written in November 1962 and published in the popular literary magazine Novy Mir in those years.
The events of the story take place on November 1, 1941 at the Kochetovka railway station in the Tambov region, not far from the front line.
The main character of the story is Lieutenant Vasily Zotov. This is an honest young man, endowed with strong moral principles. In the most difficult year of the war, he is forced to be in the rear and, as it seems to him, deal with routine.
Zotov sincerely cares about the fate of the Motherland and tries to do the right thing in any situation, but life presents him with such tasks, the “correct” solution of which contradicts him and universal morality.
The prototype of the protagonist of the work is a very real person – the commandant Leonid Vlasov, who was a friend of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
6. Cancer shell
Novel “Cancer Ward” was written in 1963-1966. The plot of the work was based on Solzhenitsyn’s memoirs related to his stay in the oncology department of a hospital in Tashkent in 1954, where he underwent inpatient treatment.
The action of the novel mainly takes place in the 13th cancer ward of an overcrowded hospital.
The author describes the discussions of patients, irreconcilable disputes in matters of ideology, a desperate struggle with a terrible disease, fear of imminent death.
Fate scatters the inhabitants of the hospital in different directions: some are allowed to go home to await death, for some a stuffy ward in a cancer ward becomes the last refuge, others are discharged with “improvement”.
5. In the circle the first
Novel “In the first circle” was written in 1955-1958 of the last century. The plot of the work tells about the everyday life of the so-called “sharashkas”, in which the imprisoned engineers worked. Solzhenitsyn himself was in one of these correctional institutions in the late 40s, but after some time he was transferred to the camp.
The heroes of the novel are a group of talented engineers and inventors who, in comparison with other prisoners, are in fairly comfortable conditions. One day they face a choice: to work on the development of a listening device, which will later be used to capture the same “enemies of the people” and receive various rewards for this, or refuse and plunge back into the harsh camp reality.
4. Red wheel
Legendary epic novel “Red Wheel” tells about the key events of Russian history at the beginning of the 1917th century: the First World War, the February and October revolutions of XNUMX. This is one of the most famous literary works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
The novel helps the reader to understand what are the true causes of the tragedy that happened to the Russian state in 1914-1917, and why the great empire at the very peak of its development suddenly collapsed into the abyss of enmity and unbelief.
3. Matrenin yard
“Matryonin’s yard” – the second of Solzhenitsyn’s published stories in the journal Novy Mir.
The author originally titled the story “A village does not stand without a righteous man”. However, the name was later changed due to censorship.
In the center of the plot is the fate of an ordinary village woman Matrena, who has faced many trials. But even they could not break her unprecedentedly strong spirit and endless love of life.
The author compares the heroine of the work with modern ascetics, on whom the morality and spirituality of the Russian people rest.
2. One day of Ivan Denisovich
“One day of Ivan Denisovich” became the first published work of Alexander Isaevich. This story made its author a real celebrity.
Despite the fact that Soviet censorship “with a creak” allowed this work to be published, it caused incredible delight in literary circles and among a wide section of society.
Readers were struck not only by the description of the “wrong side” of the socialist system, but also by the outstanding skill and sincerity of the novice author.
According to some authoritative historians, the publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich had a significant impact on the further course of the history of the USSR.
The plot of the story is based on the description of one ordinary day of a camp inmate, peasant and soldier Ivan Denisovich Shukhov.
1. GULAG Archipelago
This artistic and historical work, which tells about the repressions in the USSR in the period from 1918 to 1956, when published, produced the effect of an exploding bomb.
Alexander Isaevich for many years hid even from his close friends that he was working on a novel, which under no circumstances could be published in the Soviet Union.
The plot of the “Archipelago” is based on letters, memories and oral retellings of 257 people who went through the horrors of the penal camps.
The novel also describes in detail the history of the creation of camps in the USSR, describes in detail the people held there as prisoners, workers and guards, as well as the specifics of prison life.
Reviews of this work usually have two polar shades: from complete denial and accusation of the author of slandering the entire Soviet regime, to absolute delight. However, the novel, saturated with the pain of Solzhenitsyn himself and millions of other former prisoners of the camps, leaves no one indifferent.
In 2009 year “The Gulag Archipelago” was included in the compulsory school curriculum for high school students.