Dmitry Samoilov Why did Alexander Solzhenitsyn receive the Nobel Prize? 10/08/2024, 08:24

54 years ago the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, and there is still a debate about what is more important: the Nobel Prize or Alexander Isaevich.

There is a widespread belief that Solzhenitsyn is remembered only because he was awarded the Nobel Prize. If there were no prizes, no one would read it. But to be honest, they don’t read much anyway. Because they read very little. But still the figure of the writer is often remembered.

On the other hand, it is generally accepted that Solzhenitsyn would not have been deemed worthy of the award if he had not been a dissident. The presentation of the Nobel Prize, or rather its award, was an element of the ideological struggle of what we now call the collective West against the USSR.

Solzhenitsyn, of course, is not remembered for receiving awards. To test this, try to name two other people who won the Nobel Prize in literature in the same decade, that is, from 1970 to 1979. You probably remember Heinrich Böll. And indeed he is more or less well known; this was mainly because Solzhenitsyn remained at home after his deportation from the USSR to Germany in 1974. Who else? And let’s say you remembered the two prize winners of the seventies, except Solzhenitsyn. Name two works from each. Here, not 9 out of 10 people who responded, but 99 out of 100 people will fall. At the same time, almost everyone will name Solzhenitsyn himself and his works without asking. Moreover, people did this before they received the award, and ten, twenty, thirty years later.

As a result, Solzhenitsyn’s importance to Russian literature and history does not end with the award.

Was the award a tool of ideological struggle? No doubt. Equally, every discourse, action or intention can be interpreted in the direction of ideological engagement. It depends on the task at hand. There are periods of international tension so pronounced that any event automatically takes on this or that ideological hue.

Let’s say in the same 1970 the Volzhsky Automobile Plant began producing 2101 Kopeika cars. This could be interpreted as a victory for the Soviet auto industry, or it could be interpreted as a collapse; the car was a copy of the Western Fiat. And even from former fascist Italy.

If we believe that the figure of Solzhenitsyn, with the Nobel Prize awarded to him, really played an important role in the ideological struggle of the West against the USSR, then we must first understand: what kind of USSR was this and how did Solzhenitsyn appear there? ?

1957–1990 is the third and final period of the life of the Soviet state. Very different from the first two – 1922-1934 and 1935-1955 respectively. This distinction is conditional and necessary for general understanding. After Stalin, the USSR is a country in need of restructuring. The main achievements have already been achieved, the price for them has already been paid, and now we need some kind of individual comfort, a moderate openness to the world, a concrete future, and not just a promised, bright future. We see officials in the sixties trying to rebuild the previous dark decades. The 20th Congress of the CPSU with its famous report, hence the development of consumer goods production, international exhibitions, the Sovremennik theater, films based on Shpalikov’s scripts and a significant easing of censorship in literature. In fact, it was the authorities who were looking for Solzhenitsyn, they needed him. In fact, if it were not for the Soviet government, Alexander Tvardovsky, the author of the poem “Vasily Terkin”, would never have published the story “Shch-854”, better known as “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”. ” in Novy Mir magazine.

And then we must look at Solzhenitsyn as a person who was first imprisoned under the Soviet regime – sentenced to eight years of correspondence and eternal exile – then released (not rehabilitated) for lack of evidence of a crime, then imprisoned. He was called in by the authorities for a recent artistic overhaul of the country, and when this overhaul went too far, Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country by that government. And meanwhile Yuri Andropov deported Solzhenitsyn, other members of the Politburo defended his imprisonment.

It turns out that the Nobel Prize did not play such an important role in the biography of Alexander Isaevich. This fate came true without any bonuses. Moreover, many events in his life are quite at odds with anti-Soviet, anti-state, and especially Western attitudes. It is believed that Solzhenitsyn’s main work is “The Gulag Archipelago”. This is why the author is often accused of lying. Although the work is designated as an artistic research experience. Moreover, this research was carried out under conditions where all sources were closed and it was possible to rely only on the private statements of people related to the subject of the study.

Still, Solzhenitsyn did not want to publish The Gulag Archipelago in the West before it was allowed in the USSR. It is clear that they would not allow this, but Solzhenitsyn had no intention of becoming a tool in the hands of the West.

A special unit was created in the KGB, dealing exclusively with the development of Solzhenitsyn, the 9th department of the 5th directorate. Officers of this unit interrogated Solzhenitsyn’s assistant Elizaveta Voronyanskaya. After interrogation, he hanged himself. And then, in despair, Solzhenitsyn decided that the “Gulag Archipelago” should be published in the West. Around the same time, he sent his letter to the leaders of the Central Committee about the need to create a Russian national state from the USSR. Such aspirations are still outside not only the Soviet but also the Western paradigm. These are all individual, non-systemic ideas that Solzhenitsyn had both before and after the award, even if he did not receive any award.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is a Russian realist writer. The award was given to him with exactly this statement. Realist does not mean documentarian. Actually, he may have been wrong, but as a fiction writer, he was right about everything.

The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.