Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Municipal educational establishment “High school with a profound study of the English language № 27 ”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Plan.

Plan. 1

Introduction. 2

Main part. 3

1. Biography. 3

2. Master’s works. 8

3. The Cancer Ward. 9

Conclusion. 11

Literature. 12

Introduction.

"Who else, if not writers,

can censure not only their faulty

rulers but society at large?"

Solzhenitsyn (From Nobel lecture)

"We lived next door but did not understand that she was the upright person no settlement can do without. Nor can a city. Nor the entire land..."

This excerpt from the famous short story "Matriona's Home" about a peasant woman who gave shelter to the writer in the 1950s perfectly applies to the writer himself. A teacher in the broadest sense of the word, a human rights activist and a righteous man, whose principle has always been to live without lies.

Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature." Active member of Russian Academy of Sciences (1997).

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is now 84. "A legend of the 20th century, martyr and hero," thus the outstanding Russian scholar Dmitry Likhachyov described Solzhenitsyn once. For us Solzhenitsyn is not simply a great writer but rather the nation's conscience whose word strikes you not only by its artistic value but by its message of truth. This truth is all the more impressing since the writer's word and life are never at varience. They complement each other. Today we came to realize that the writer's most outstanding "work" is his own life.

"Longevity was given to me. 80 years is a longevity. At this age you have new opportunities. You can look back at your life and open something in it that you could not notice and understand while you were on the run. For a larger part of our lives we act, and action interferes with our ability to take a quiet look at things. An old age gives some scope to your soul, a chance to evaluate your deeds."

Main part.

1. Biography.

One of the leading Russian writers of the 20th century, Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, was born in Kislovodsk, on the 11th of December 1918 in a family of Cossack intellectuals and brought up primarily by his mother. His father had studied philological subjects at Moscow University, but did not complete his studies, as he enlisted as a volunteer when war broke out in 1914. He became an artillery officer on the German front, fought throughout the war and died in the summer of 1918, six months before his son was born. Alexander was brought up by his mother, who worked as a shorthand typist, in the town of Rostov-on-Don, where he spent the whole of his childhood and youth, leaving the grammar school there in 1936. Even as a child, without any prompting from others, he wanted to be a writer and, indeed, he turned out a good deal of the usual juvenilia. In the 1930s, he tried to get his writings published but he could not find anyone willing to accept his manuscripts. He wanted to acquire a literary education, but in Rostov such an education that would suit his wishes was not to be obtained. To move to Moscow was not possible, partly because his mother was alone and in poor health, and partly because of their modest circumstances.

Solzhenitsyn therefore began to study at the Department of Mathematics at Rostov University, where it proved that he had considerable aptitude for mathematics. But although he found it easy to learn this subject, he did not feel that he wished to devote his whole life to it. Nevertheless, it was to play a beneficial role in his destiny later on, and on at least two occasions, it rescued him from death. For he would probably not have survived the eight years in camps if he had not, as a mathematician, been transferred to a so-called sharashia , where he spent four years; and later, during his exile, he was allowed to teach mathematics and physics, which helped to ease his existence and made it possible for him to write. If he had had a literary education it is quite likely that he should not have survived these ordeals but would instead have been subjected to even greater pressures. Later on, it is true, Alexander Isayevich began to get some literary education as well; this was from 1939 to 1941, during which time, along with university studies in physics and mathematics, he also studied by correspondence at the Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature in Moscow.

In 1941, a few days before the outbreak of the war, Solzhenitsyn graduated from the Department of Physics and Mathematics at Rostov University. At the beginning of the war, owing to weak health, he was detailed to serve as a driver of horsedrawn vehicles during the winter of 1941-1942. Later, because of his mathematical knowledge, he was transferred to an artillery school, from which, after a crash course, he passed out in November 1942. Immediately after this he was put in command of an artillery-position-finding company, and in this capacity, served, without a break, right in the front line until he was arrested in February 1945.

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