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Alexander Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize. Solzhenitsyn in war: the line of least risk, or there were such “heroes”

20.04.2019

October 8, 1970 is the day when Alexander Solzhenitsyn received the highest award - the Nobel Prize in Literature.

A man who was not afraid to express his dissatisfaction with the situation in the country still causes a strong reaction in society.

Some believe that the award is deserved and he is a genius of Russian and world literature, others equate him with traitors to the Motherland and call him a liar, believing that he is not worthy of the Nobel Prize.

So why was the Nobel Prize given?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, and spent his childhood and youth in Rostov-on-Don. Having successfully graduated from Rostov State University with a degree in mathematics, he worked as a teacher at school, and later married Rostovite Natalya Reshetovskaya.

A guard searches prisoner Solzhenitsyn (staged photo) Photo: Wikipedia

Solzhenitsyn’s life flowed serenely: he worked and studied by correspondence in Moscow, in free time wrote essays and stories. Changes took place in the fall of 1941, the future writer was called up for service. And in 1945, Solzhenitsyn was arrested for correspondence with a friend containing criticism of Stalin. And he ended up in forced labor camps for eight years.

Later, all the horrors he experienced in Stalin’s camps would become the main theme of his works - “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “The Gulag Archipelago”.

During the " Khrushchev's thaw“The writer received freedom of creativity. The new government not only did not interfere with the exposure of Stalin’s policies, but also allowed the publication of the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” The work created a real sensation: already on the second day after the first publication in the magazine " New world"In 1962, the writer received m world fame. On the third day, his work began to be translated into several languages, and the author himself was soon accepted into the Union of Soviet Writers.

Two years later, the editorial board nominated the story for the Lenin Prize, but his candidacy was rejected - in the mid-70s there was a change in the government leadership. Then the persecution of the writer began.

Organs state security The manuscript of the novel “In the First Circle” and the prose writer’s archive were confiscated. The parties were instructed not to organize reading evenings with the participation of Solzhenitsyn, and in 1968 they banned the publication of the novel “ Cancer building" A year later, Alexander Isaevich, disliked by the authorities, was expelled from the Writers' Union.

However, the manuscripts of two novels, “In the First Circle” and “Cancer Ward,” ended up abroad and were published without the writer’s consent. After this, the situation of the prose writer in his homeland only worsened.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, on October 8, 1970, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "For the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature."

Contrary to popular belief, the prestigious award has nothing to do with The Gulag Archipelago. By that time, the novel had not been published and even those closest to Solzhenitsyn did not know about it.

The laureate wanted to receive the award in person, but the Soviet government opposed this, considering the decision of the Nobel Committee “politically hostile.”

“We have to regret that Nobel Committee allowed himself to be drawn into an unworthy game, started not in the interests of the development of spiritual values and literary traditions, but dictated by speculative political considerations,” she wrote "Literary newspaper" October 14, 1970.

Fearing that the authorities would prohibit him from returning home, he did not go to the awards ceremony. Only four years later, when he was deported from the USSR, Solzhenitsyn would personally receive his award.

By the way, Alexander Isaevich is a record holder: he received the Nobel Prize just eight years after the publication of the first work, in the history of this award this is the fastest award of the title and, accordingly, world recognition.

Implacable fighter

The Nobel Prize intensified the persecution of Solzhenitsyn in the Soviet Union. The writer’s manuscripts were confiscated, including his main work, “The Gulag Archipelago,” and all his other publications were destroyed.

Then the prize winner allowed his works to be published abroad. In 1972, August the Fourteenth was published in London.

In addition, Solzhenitsyn reconstructed his own notes from memory and submitted his work for publication. So in 1973, the first volume of “The Gulag Archipelago” was published in Paris. For this book, the writer was accused of treason, deprived of citizenship and deported to Germany.

Solzhenitsyn's wife Natalya Dmitrievna is sure that the Nobel Prize saved her husband from exile and prison and gave her the opportunity to write, despite censorship.

Solzhenitsyn lived with his family in Zurich for two years, then moved to America. The third volume of The Gulag Archipelago was completed there.

It was only in 1990 that Solzhenitsyn’s citizenship was returned. In the same year he was awarded the State Prize for “The Gulag Archipelago”. And then all of Solzhenitsyn’s main works were published in Russia.

In 1994, the writer and his wife Natalya Svetlova returned to their homeland and actively became involved in social life countries.

The attitude towards “The Gulag Archipelago”, as well as towards the author himself, still remains very controversial, since opinions about the country’s past and the era of political repression have not been settled. Therefore, both the personality of Solzhenitsyn, as one of the first to reveal to the world this hidden side of the Soviet regime, and his works will always cause heated political controversy.

This is also facilitated by the fact that although “The Gulag Archipelago” is perceived as a documentary book, the author himself called it artistic comprehension reality. Alexander Solzhenitsyn did not check (and could not check) the authenticity of many of the stories that he included in his work.

At the same time, the scale of repression and the unconditional innocence of hundreds of thousands of people who fell under their flywheel are beyond doubt.

Therefore, Solzhenitsyn’s opponents consider him an unscrupulous liar, a fraud historical facts. According to them, “The Gulag Archipelago” was written in order to instill in readers disgust for Soviet power to please the West. The Nobel Prize in this context becomes a kind of advance payment for slander against the country.

Supporters value Solzhenitsyn’s works not so much for juggling words in the text, but for honesty and showing the truth of the times of that era. The lines of his works are saturated with the pain and heaviness of the entire fate of the writer, who, despite numerous persecutions and exiles, was not afraid to publish and reveal to the world the truth about real life ordinary Soviet citizens.

With this article we open a series of articles dedicated to Nobel Prize laureates from Russia in the field of literature. We are interested in the question - for what, why and by what criteria is this award given, as well as why this award is not given to people who deserve it with their talent and achievements, for example, Leo Tolstoy and Dmitry Mendeleev.

Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature from our country in different years steel: I. Bunin, B. Pasternak, M. Sholokhov, A. Solzhenitsyn, I. Brodsky. It should be noted that with the exception of M. Sholokhov, all the rest were emigrants and dissidents.

In this article we will talk about the 1970 Nobel Prize winner writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

WHO IS ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is known to the reader for his works “In the First Circle”, “The Gulag Archipelago”, “Cancer Ward”, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and others.

And this writer appeared on our heads, thanks to Khrushchev, for whom SoLZHENITSYN (even the word “lie” is present in the surname itself) became another tool for dealing with the Stalinist past, and nothing more.

The pioneer of the “artistic” lies about Stalin (with the personal support of Khrushchev) was elevated to the rank of Nobel laureate in literature, the former camp informer Solzhenitsyn (see the article “Vetrov, aka Solzhenitsyn” in the Military Historical Journal, 1990, No. 12, p. 77), whose books were published in mass editions during the period of “perestroika” at the direction of the treacherous the country's leadership to destroy the USSR.

This is what Khrushchev himself writes in his memoirs:

I am proud that at one time I supported one of Solzhenitsyn’s first works... I don’t remember Solzhenitsyn’s biography. I was reported before that he spent a long time in the camps. In the story mentioned, he proceeded from his own observations. I read it. It leaves a heavy impression, disturbing, but truthful. And most importantly, it disgusts what happened under Stalin... Stalin was a criminal, and criminals must be condemned at least morally. The strongest judgment is to brand them work of art. Why, on the contrary, was Solzhenitsyn considered a criminal?

Why? Because the anti-Soviet graphomaniac Solzhenitsyn turned out to be a rare find for the West, which was rushed to in 1970 (even though given year was not chosen by chance - the year of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, as another attack on the USSR) to undeservedly award the author of “Ivan Denisovich” the Nobel Prize in Literature is an unprecedented fact. As Alexander Shabalov writes in the book “The Eleventh Strike of Comrade Stalin,” Solzhenitsyn begged for the Nobel Prize, declaring:

I need this bonus as a step up in position, in battle! And the sooner I get it, the harder I’ll become, the harder I’ll hit!

And, indeed, the name of Solzhenitsyn became the banner of the dissident movement in the USSR, which at one time played a huge negative role in the liquidation of the Soviet socialist system. And most of his opuses first saw the light “over the hill” with the support of Radio Liberty, the Russian department of the BBC, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, the Russian department of the State Department, the department of agitation and propaganda of the Pentagon, and the information department of the British MI.

And having done his dirty deed, he was sent back to Russia, destroyed by the liberals. Because even our enemies don’t need such traitors. Where he grumbled with the air of a “prophet” on Russian television with his “dissenting opinion” “exposing” the mafia Yeltsin regime, which no longer interested anyone and could change absolutely nothing.

Let's take a closer look at the biography, creativity, and ideological views of the writer A. Solzhenitsyn.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born on December 11, 1918 in Kislovodsk, into a Cossack family. The father, Isaac (that is, in fact, his patronymic is Isaakovich, that is, he lied to everyone, saying everywhere, including in writing, that he was Isaevich) Semenovich, died hunting six months before the birth of his son. Mother - Taisiya Zakharovna Shcherbak - from the family of a wealthy landowner.

In 1939, Solzhenitsyn entered the correspondence department of the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History (some sources indicate literary courses at Moscow State University). In 1941, Alexander Solzhenitsyn graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University (enrolled in 1936).

In October 1941 he was drafted into the army, and in 1942, after training at the artillery school in Kostroma, he was sent to the front as commander of a sound reconnaissance battery. Awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree and the Red Star.

The book written by Solzhenitsyn’s first wife, Natalia Reshetovskaya, published in the Soviet Union, contains funny things: it turns out that in 1944-1945, Solzhenitsyn, being a Soviet officer, composed projects for the elimination of Stalin.

At the same time, he wrote his directives in letters and sent them to his friends. So he wrote directly - “Directive number one”, etc., and this is obvious madness, because then there was military censorship and every letter was stamped “Checked by military censorship.” For such letters then, in wartime, they were guaranteed to be arrested and therefore only a half-crazed person, or a person hoping that the letter would be read and sent from the front to the rear, could do such things. And these are not simple words.

The fact is that among the artillery batteries during the Great Patriotic War there were also instrumental reconnaissance batteries - sound metering, in one of which Solzhenitsyn served. This was the most reliable means of identifying enemy firing batteries. Sound meters deployed a system of microphones on the ground that received the acoustic wave from the shot, the signal was recorded and calculated, on the basis of which they obtained the coordinates of the enemy’s firing batteries, even in a battlefield heavily saturated with artillery. This made it possible, with good organization of troop control, to begin to suppress enemy batteries with artillery fire after one to three volleys of the enemy.

Therefore, sound recorders were valued, and in order to ensure the safety of their combat work, they were stationed in the near rear, and not on the front line, and especially not in the first line of trenches. They were placed so that they would not end up near objects that could be subject to enemy air raids and artillery shelling. During the retreat, they were among the first to be taken out of the battle area; during the offensive, they followed the first line troops. Those. While doing their important work, they came into direct contact with the enemy in a combat situation only in some emergency cases, and to counter him they had only small arms - carbines and personal weapons of officers.

However, A.I. Solzhenitsyn was “lucky”: the Germans hit him, the front rolled back, control of the troops was lost for some time - the opportunity to show heroism presented itself. But it was not he who showed heroism, but the battery sergeant-major, who saved it and led it to the rear. War is paradoxical. If we talk specifically about the sound-metric battery, then the foreman’s actions were correct: he saved equipment and qualified personnel from useless death in a battle for which the sound-metric battery was not intended. Why this was not done by its commander Solzhenitsyn, who appeared at the battery location later, is an open question: “the war was written off” (there was no time for such trifles).

But this episode was enough for A.I. Solzhenitsyn: he realized that in the war for socialism, which was alien to him (he himself came from a clan of not the last rich people in Russia, although not from the main branch: on the eve of the First World War, his uncle owned one of the nine Rolls- Royce” who were present in the empire) may be killed, and then the “idée fixe” will not be fulfilled - a dream from childhood: to enter the history of world literature as Dostoevsky or Tolstoy of the 20th century. So A.I. Solzhenitsyn fled from the front to the Gulag in order to be guaranteed to survive. And the fact that he pawned his friend is a trifle against the background of saving the precious life of the future “great writer.” On February 9, 1945, he was arrested and on July 27 sentenced to 8 years in forced labor camps.

Natalya Reshetovskaya further describes Solzhenitsyn's arrest, where she was interrogated as a witness, and other people were also interrogated. One of the witnesses, a sailor, a young midshipman, testified that Solzhenitsyn accidentally met him on the train and immediately began to engage in anti-Stalin propaganda. To the investigator’s question: “Why didn’t you report it right away?” The midshipman replied that he immediately realized that in front of him was a madman. That's why I didn't report it.

He stayed in the camps from 1945 to 1953: in New Jerusalem near Moscow; in the so-called “sharashka” - a secret research institute in the village of Marfino near Moscow; in 1950 - 1953 he was imprisoned in one of the Kazakh camps.

In February 1953 he was released without the right to reside in the European part of the USSR and sent to “eternal settlement” (1953 - 1956); lived in the village of Kok-Terek, Dzhambul region (Kazakhstan).

On February 3, 1956, by decision of the Supreme Court of the USSR, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was rehabilitated and moved to Ryazan. Worked as a mathematics teacher.

In 1962, in the magazine “New World”, with the special permission of N.S. Khrushchev (!!!, which says a lot), the first story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn was published - “One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich” (the story “remade at the request of the editors”) Shch-854. One day of one prisoner"). The story was nominated for the Lenin Prize, which caused active resistance from the communist authorities.

In 1964, Nikita Khrushchev, the ideological inspirer and patron of A. Solzhenitsyn, was removed from power, after which Solzhenitsyn’s “star” in the USSR began to fade.

In September 1965, the so-called Solzhenitsyn archive fell into the hands of the State Security Committee (KGB) and, by order of the authorities, further publication of his works in the USSR was stopped: already published works were removed from libraries, and new books began to be published through “samizdat” channels and abroad .

In November 1969, Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Writers' Union. In 1970, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize in Literature, but refused to travel to Stockholm for the award ceremony, fearing that the authorities would not allow him back to the USSR. In 1974, after the publication of the book “The Gulag Archipelago” in Paris (in the USSR, one of the manuscripts was seized by the KGB in September 1973, and in December 1973 the publication took place in Paris, which leads to interesting thoughts, given the fact that the head of the KGB at that time was Yu.V. Andropov, about whom we wrote in this article - http://inance.ru/2015/06/andropov/), the dissident writer was arrested. On February 12, 1974, a trial took place: Alexander Solzhenitsyn was found guilty of high treason, deprived of citizenship and sentenced to deportation from the USSR the next day.

Since 1974, Solzhenitsyn lived in Germany, in Switzerland (Zurich), and since 1976 in the USA (near the city of Cavendish, Vermont). Despite the fact that Solzhenitsyn lived in the United States for about 20 years, he did not ask for American citizenship. He rarely communicated with representatives of the press and the public, which is why he was known as a “Vermont recluse.” He criticized both the Soviet order and American reality. Over 20 years of emigration in Germany, the USA and France, he published a large number of works.

In the USSR, Solzhenitsyn's works began to be published only in the late 1980s. In 1989, in the same magazine “New World”, where “One Day...” was published, the first official publication of excerpts from the novel “The Gulag Archipelago” took place. On August 16, 1990, by decree of the President of the USSR, the Soviet citizenship of Alexander Isaevich (?) Solzhenitsyn was restored. In 1990, for his book “The Gulag Archipelago,” Solzhenitsyn was awarded the State Prize (of course, awarded by liberals who hated Soviet power). On May 27, 1994, the writer returned to Russia. In 1997 elected full member of the Academy of Sciences Russian Federation.

WHO ARE YOU, ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN - “THE GREAT WRITER” OR “THE GREAT TRAITOR” OF OUR HOMELAND?

The name of Alexander Solzhenitsyn has always caused a lot of heated debate and discussion. Some call him and have called him a great Russian writer and active social activist, others call him a falsifier of historical facts and a detractor of the Motherland. However, the truth is probably out there somewhere. The casket opens very simply: Khrushchev needed a scribbler who, without a twinge of conscience, could denigrate the successes that were achieved during the reign of Joseph Stalin. It turned out to be Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

For almost 20 years, Russian liberal ministers and officials openly called Solzhenitsyn to his face a great Russian writer. And he, even for the sake of decency, never objected to this. Likewise, he did not protest against the titles “Leo Tolstoy of the 20th century” and “Dostoevsky of the 20th century.” Alexander Isaevich modestly called himself “Antilenin.”

True, the original title " great writer“In Russia, it was assigned only by Time. And, apparently, Time has already pronounced its verdict. It is curious that the lives of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov are known quite well to literary scholars and historians. And if they argue about something, it’s over some points.

The reader can easily find out why, when and how our writers were subjected to government repression. When and in what editions were their books published? What was the real success (salesability) of these books? What kind of royalties did the authors receive? For example, with what funds did Chekhov buy the Melikhovo estate? Well, Solzhenitsyn’s life is full of scandals, outrageousness, triumphs and a sea of white spots, and precisely at the most turning points of his biography.

But in 1974 Solzhenitsyn found himself not just anywhere, but in Switzerland, and then in April 1976 in the USA. Well, in the “free world” you don’t have to hide from the public and journalists. But even there, Solzhenitsyn’s life is known only in fragments. For example, in the summer of 1974, using royalties from the Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn created Russian public fund assistance to the persecuted and their families" to help political prisoners in the USSR (parcels and money transfers to places of detention, legal and illegal financial assistance to the families of prisoners).

"Archipelago" was published in a circulation of 50 thousand copies. The Soviet media at that time made jokes about the illiquid deposits of Solzhenitsyn’s books in Western bookstores. One of the secrets of Solzhenitsyn and the CIA is the ratio of copies of Solzhenitsyn’s books sold to the number of destroyed.

Well, okay, let's assume that all 50 thousand were sold. But what was the fee? Unknown.

It is curious that in the United States at the end of the twentieth century they came up with an analogue of the Soviet “Union of Writers” with its literary fund. That is, the writer teaches somewhere - at universities or in some training centers for aspiring writers. In this way, there is “feeding” of those who write works that are pleasing to Western states and business.

But Solzhenitsyn, unlike Yevtushenko and many others, did not teach anywhere. However, in 1976, he purchased an expensive 50-acre (!) estate in Vermont. Along with the estate, a large wooden house with furniture and other equipment. Nearby, Solzhenitsyn is building a large “for work” three-story house and a number of other buildings.

Solzhenitsyn's sons study in expensive private schools. Alexander Isaakovich (let's call him correctly) maintains a large staff of servants (!) and security guards. Naturally, their number and payment are unknown, if not classified. However, some eyewitnesses saw two karate champions on duty around the clock in his apartment in Switzerland.

But maybe rich Russian emigrants helped Solzhenitsyn? No! On the contrary, he helps everyone himself, establishes foundations, runs newspapers, such as Our Country in Buenos Aires.

“Where is the money, Zin?”

Oh! Nobel Prize! And here again the “top secret”: I received the award, but how much and where did it go?

The 1970 Nobel Prize was awarded to A. Solzhenitsyn - "For the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature" which he was awarded in 1974.

SOLZHENITSYN'S ANTI-PATRIOTISM

In May 1974, Solzhenitsyn said:

I will go to the USA, I will speak in the Senate, I will talk with the president, I want to destroy Fulbright and all the senators who intend to make agreements with the communists. I must get the Americans to increase pressure in Vietnam.

And so Solzhenitsyn proposes to “increase the pressure.” Kill a couple more million Vietnamese or start a thermonuclear war? Let's not forget that over 60 thousand Soviet military personnel and several hundred civilian specialists fought in Vietnam.

And Alexander Isaakovich shouted: “Come on! Let's!"

By the way, he several times called on the United States to destroy communism through nuclear war. Solzhenitsyn publicly stated:

The course of history has entrusted the leadership of the world to the United States.

Solzhenitsyn congratulated General Pinochet, who carried out a coup d'etat in Chile and killed thousands of people without trial in stadiums in Santiago. Alexander Isaakovich sincerely mourned the death of the fascist dictator Franco and called on the new Spanish authorities not to rush to democratize the country.

Solzhenitsyn angrily denounced American presidents Nixon and Ford for indulging and making concessions to the USSR. They say they “do not interfere actively enough in the internal affairs of the USSR”, and that “ Soviet people abandoned to the mercy of fate."

Intervene, Solzhenitsyn urged, Intervene again and again as much as you can.

In 1990 (by the new liberal authorities), Solzhenitsyn was restored to Soviet citizenship with the subsequent termination of the criminal case, and in December of the same year he was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR for “The Gulag Archipelago.” According to the story of the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Kostikov, during B. N. Yeltsin’s first official visit to the United States in 1992, immediately upon his arrival in Washington, Boris Nikolayevich called Solzhenitsyn from the hotel and had a “long” conversation with him, in particular, about the Kuril Islands.

As Kostikov testified, the writer’s opinion was unexpected and shocking to many:

I studied the entire history of the islands from the 12th century. These are not our islands, Boris Nikolaevich. Need to give it away. But expensive...

But perhaps Solzhenitsyn’s interlocutors and journalists misquoted or misunderstood our great patriot? Alas, having returned to Russia, Solzhenitsyn did not renounce any of the words he had previously spoken. So, he wrote in “Archipelago” and other places about 60 million prisoners in the Gulag, then about 100 million. But, having arrived, he could find out from various declassified sources that from 1918 to 1990 in Soviet Russia 3.7 million people were repressed for political reasons. Dissident Zhores Medvedev, who wrote about 40 million prisoners, publicly admitted the mistake and apologized, but Solzhenitsyn did not.

A writer, like any citizen, has the right to speak out against the existing government. You can hate Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Putin, but at the same time not go over to the side of Russia’s enemies. Pushkin wrote offensive poems about Alexander I and was exiled. Dostoevsky participated in an anti-government conspiracy and went to hard labor. But in 1831, Alexander Sergeevich, without hesitation, wrote “Slanderers of Russia,” and Fyodor Mikhailovich, on the eve of the 1877 war, wrote the article “And once again that Constantinople, sooner or later, must be ours.” None of them betrayed their country.

And now in schools, between the portraits of Pushkin and Dostoevsky, portraits of Solzhenitsyn are hung. Shouldn't we go even further and hang portraits of Grishka Otrepiev, Hetman Mazepa and General Vlasov (the latter was considered a hero by A. Solzhenitsyn) in classrooms?

End of the article here:

May 12th, 2018

Solzhenitsyn at war: the line of least risk, or there were such “heroes”
IA Krasnaya Vesna | May 11, 2018 05:27 / Igor Kudryashov

This is not exactly a celebratory article about very strange “heroes” declared moral in modern Russia guides and role models. But since Solzhenitsyn deliberately denigrated what happened during the Great Patriotic War, let us allow ourselves to offend him a little

Battalion commander A. Solzhenitsyn and commander of the artillery reconnaissance division E. Pshechenko. February 1943

There is such a disgusting meme “victory”. This meme declares the Victory Day, sacred to our people, to be “devilish.” Liberals have been trying to impose this idea on us for decades, dating back to Soviet times.

The collapse of the USSR allowed us to talk openly about many things. And in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the Victory, the “moral guide” of the liberals, Solzhenitsyn said in his speech that during the “Soviet-German war” (note that this is what the war is called by those who do not want to recognize it as the “Great Patriotic War”) The Soviet leadership senselessly made too many casualties. Therefore, on this day one should only mourn and remember the dead.

Well, what else could one expect from an author who constantly discussed the theme of the Great Patriotic War in his works through the theme of repression - as if they didn’t fight at all, but only imprisoned and threw millions into the furnace of battles - and at the same time persistently whitewashed Bandera and Vlasovites? Solzhenitsyn insisted on the idea of the normality of betraying the Motherland and becoming the Nazi six. Thus, he stated in “The Gulag Archipelago”: “But beyond the steaming mess, in the recruiter’s calls there was the ghost of freedom and real life- wherever he calls! To Vlasov's battalions. To the Cossack regiments of Krasnov. The labor battalions are to concrete the future Atlantic Wall. In the Norwegian fjords. To the Libyan sands. In “hiwi” - Нilfswillige - voluntary assistants of the German Wehrmacht (there were 12 hiwi in each German company). Finally, also - to become village policemen, to chase and catch partisans (of whom the Motherland will also abandon many). Wherever he called, anywhere, as long as he didn’t die here like a forgotten beast.”. Indeed, if it’s “normal” to become a six for a plate of porridge (and this idea for a “moral guideline” is also cross-cutting), then why not become a six among the Germans? And it’s more profitable, and at the same time you’ll help finish off the hated USSR.

The question arises: what did Alexander Isaevich himself do when the war was going on?

First, a few words about who Solzhenitsyn was before the start of the war. In 1936 he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Rostov State University. state university, who graduated with honors in 1941. On your own, by own initiative, additionally studied Marxism-Leninism. Since 1939, he also studied at the correspondence department of the Faculty of Literature of the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History in Moscow.

Education at that time was, let’s say, extraordinary. At the Russian State University he was recommended for graduate school with an eye toward teaching.

The war has begun. Solzhenitsyn was not drafted. His friends, such as Vitkevich, were called up almost immediately. But he was not drafted. Why?

His first wife, N.A. Reshetovskaya, testifies in her book “In a Dispute with Time,” published in 1975: “Suddenly the announcer (the radio in the room is on) offers to listen to an important government message... What is this? A vague and disturbing premonition of something significant...

War... War with Germany!

Many MIFLI students sign up as volunteers. Sanin's military ID remained in Rostov. He can only be mobilized there. Must go! He must ask to join the artillery. But won’t his “limited suitability” hinder him?”

Let us record that Solzhenitsyn did not sign up as a volunteer. People then rushed to the front, resorting to various tricks. They signed up as volunteers as teenagers, adding to their extra years, and professors who never had anything to do with the army and did not receive a military ID at one time.

“Having returned to Rostov, my husband hurried to the military registration and enlistment office. His impulse was contained. They offered to wait.

Almost all university graduates were soon mobilized and sent to military schools. Among them was our greatest mutual friend Nikolai Vitkevich - “Koka”.

Others were sent to military schools to train as officers. Why did they “restrain” Solzhenitsyn’s impulse? Because, as Reshetovskaya reports in her book, he had “limited usefulness.” Where did she come from? A. N. Ostrovsky in the book “Solzhenitsyn. Farewell to the myth” cites the testimony of the same Reshetovskaya, given in an interview with journalist E. Afanasyeva and published in the Rostov newspaper “Komsomolets” in 1990. Here is a quote from his book:

“Noting that the fact of her husband’s “limited suitability” for military service was confirmed by the certificate he had in his hands, N.A. Reshetovskaya said: “He even tried a little to get this certificate, he was afraid that in Peaceful time military service will harm the implementation of plans. And then there’s war.”

“I tried a little” means only one thing: “limited suitability” for military service was not the result of a disorder “ nervous system”, but the result of the efforts of the Stalinist scholarship holder himself.

When I turned to Natalya Alekseevna with a question about what exactly these “efforts” consisted of, she explained that, fearing conscription into the army, her husband turned for help to Lida Ezherets, whose father, being a doctor, helped A.I. Solzhenitsyn get exemption from military service. At the same time, Natalya Alekseevna explained that Alexander Isaevich resorted to such a “cunning” only in order to be able to graduate from the university.”

What did Solzhenitsyn officially suffer from? As Reshetovskaya said, it turns out that he was very nervous as a child and reacted inadequately to any comments from teachers, friends and acquaintances, even to the point of fainting. What forced his interlocutors to meet him halfway on any issues, so as not to provoke a “fit.” By the way, this is how he got the scar on his forehead: “But one day, history teacher Bershadsky began to lecture Sanya, and Sanya actually fainted, hit his desk and cut his forehead.”.

This is why, apparently, Solzhenitsyn was not drafted into the army in Rostov in June 1941. They did not “restrain the impulse”, but simply did not go against the medical certificate, which he was not ashamed to present.

What happened next? Solzhenitsyn, who graduated from the university with honors, does not remain at the university, but leaves (together with Reshetovskaya) to the city of Morozovsk and gets a job as a school teacher. Things at the front are becoming more and more serious and the certificate clearly does not help. More precisely, it helps only partially. He is already being called up in Morozovsk - “October 18, 1941 - Solzhenitsyn A.I. was mobilized by the Morozov District Military Commissariat. Enlisted as a private in the 74th Separate Horse-Drawn Transport Battalion (OGTB), subordinate to the headquarters of the Stalingrad Military District, stationed in the Novo-Annensky district of the Stalingrad region.". The help clearly helped here too. After all, to receive the direction of a “mare driver” is a mathematician with higher education could solely due to health limitations. Please note - the Novo-Annensky district of the Stalingrad region is located in the north to the west Stalingrad.

Solzhenitsyn served as the “driver of the mare” until March 1942, when he suddenly received a referral to an artillery school. The story of getting a referral is also extremely unclear. How could a driver in the Guzhbat receive a direction from the headquarters of the Stalingrad Military District? Where is he, and where is the headquarters? Unless someone really helped him with this. It seems that obtaining a ticket to the artillery school was Solzhenitsyn’s personal initiative. After all, being a driver in the 74th Guzhbat, located northwest of Stalingrad in the spring of 1942, obviously became very dangerous. Guzhbat could have ended up on the front line.

Solzhenitsyn recalled his studies at the school as follows:

“We were always hungry at school, looking for where to grab an extra piece, jealously watching each other to see who was talking. Most of all they were afraid of not finishing their studies (those who had not completed their studies were sent to Stalingrad). And they taught us like young animals: to make us more angry, so that we would then want to take it out on someone. We didn’t get enough sleep - so after lights out we could force a soldier to march alone (under the command of a sergeant) - this was a punishment. Or at night they raised the entire platoon and formed around one uncleaned boot: behold! He, the scoundrel, will clean now and until it’s shiny, you’ll all stand there. And in passionate anticipation of head over heels, we practiced the tiger-like officer’s gait and the metallic voice of commands.”

A. N. Ostrovsky comments on this passage in his book:

“When making this sketch, Alexander Isaevich did not separate himself from the general mass of cadets and, when using the concept “we,” he also meant himself. This means that he, too, “was looking for where to snatch an extra piece,” “jealously” watched those “who spoke,” “his greatest fear was not to finish his studies with cubes” and to end up “near Stalingrad.” And if he stood out from the crowd, it was only because he was the “best student” and, “in passionate anticipation of head over heels,” more successfully practiced his “tiger officer’s gait and metallic voice.”

I have a different opinion. Solzhenitsyn uses the pronoun “we” precisely in order to spread his unseemly thoughts and actions to everyone around him, to show that they also shared his immorality and his usual meanness.

Upon completion of training, on November 1, 1942, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the rank of lieutenant and sent to the 9th Reserve Reconnaissance Artillery Regiment, stationed at that time in the city of Saransk, Mari SSR.

On December 5, 1942, upon arrival in Saransk, Solzhenitsyn was appointed commander of the sound reconnaissance battery of the 794th OARAD (Separate Army Reconnaissance Artillery Division). Notice the word “separate.” This means that the division commander had very significant independence. Let's remember this fact.

How Solzhenitsyn managed to train as an artillery reconnaissance officer and get assigned to a reconnaissance regiment is unknown. But the fact that he managed to do it is a fact. And the more I read about him and about him, the more I am convinced that he was very purposeful person. Purposeful, first of all, regarding your personal safety.

On November 19, 1942, the defense of Stalingrad ended. The offensive of the Red Army began as part of Operation Uranus. After studying at the school for seven months, Solzhenitsyn naturally successfully avoided participation in one of the bloodiest battles of the Great Patriotic War.

The unit in which Solzhenitsyn served began moving towards the front only on February 13, 1943. Her “journey” ended in May of the same year, when she was finally assigned to the 63rd Army of the Bryansk Front.

This is how A. N. Ostrovsky describes Solzhenitsyn’s military specialty:

“According to Alexander Isaevich himself, his military profession was one of the rare ones. On average, there were two sound reconnaissance batteries per army. Therefore, in the Red Army of that time there were only about 150 such batteries. Moreover, the battery headed by A.I. Solzhenitsyn was part of a brigade that was in the Reserve of the main command.

To correctly understand the nature of Alexander Isaevich’s military service, it is also necessary to take into account that “in moderately rugged terrain, firing guns, mortars and multiple launch rocket systems are detected by sound reconnaissance units” at a distance of 5 to 20 km, i.e. far from the front line. To this it must be added that sound reconnaissance “is organizationally part of the reconnaissance artillery division,” and therefore represents a military intelligence unit.”

That is, while formally considered to be at the front, the 63rd Army was in reserve. But even in a combat situation, Solzhenitsyn’s battery was never on the front line.

What did he do there, besides serving? Reshetovskaya testifies. Here is what she writes about her meeting with her friend Koka (Vitkevich):

“And so Koka lives with Sanya, as if at a resort, lies in the shade of the trees, listens to the birds, sips seagulls and smokes cigarettes. “Everything has been spoken out, argued and told during this time.”

"Sometimes main topic in my husband’s letters it is not war at all, but literature. His literary exercises. I learned that, along with the plots of two new stories, a “wonderful third edition” of “The Lieutenant” was being built in his head.<...>

I calm myself down. Since he has the opportunity to devote so much time to writing, it means that life is calm and not so dangerous.”

And here is what the wife writes about Lieutenant Solzhenitsyn himself:

“However, neither smoking nor vodka bothered me. Something else was troubling. Being an officer and a commanding position began to negatively affect Sanya’s character.

Solzhenitsyn wrote - and not without visible pleasure - that before he had time to finish the porridge from the pot, several hands reached out to wash it, and on the other side they carried ready-made tea. He didn’t have time to bend down to pick up the thing that had fallen on the floor.”

Solzhenitsyn himself confirmed this, and much more harshly, in The Gulag Archipelago:

“I gave my subordinates unquestionable orders, convinced that there could be no better orders than those. Even at the front, where death seemed to equal us all, my power elevated me. Sitting, I listened to them standing at attention. He interrupted and pointed. He called his fathers and grandfathers “you” (they called me “you”, of course). He sent them under shells to splice broken wires so that only sound reconnaissance would take place and the authorities would not reproach them (Andreyashin died this way). I ate my officer’s butter with cookies, without wondering why I was entitled to it, but not the soldier. Of course, we had an orderly between us (or “orderly” in a noble way), whom I worried about in this way and that and urged him to keep an eye on my person and prepare all the food for us separately from the soldiers’ food... He forced the soldiers to hunch over and dig for me special dugouts in each new place and roll thicker logs there so that it would be comfortable and safe for me. But excuse me, but there was also a guardhouse in my battery, yes!.. I also remember: they sewed me a tablet from German leather (not human, no, from a driver’s seat), but there was no strap. I was struggling. Suddenly they saw just such a strap on some partisan commissar (from the local district committee) and took it off: we are the army... well, finally, I coveted my scarlet trophy cigarette case, that’s what I remember how they took it away...” “That’s what shoulder straps do to a person. And where are those grandmother’s suggestions in front of the icon! And - where are those pioneer dreams about the future holy Equality!

But, nevertheless, although Solzhenitsyn said goodbye to his pioneer dreams, this is what he wrote to his wife from the front: “You and everyone almost think about the future in terms of their personal life and personal happiness. But for a long time I have not been able to think otherwise than: what can I do for Leninism, how can I build a life for this?”

And: “Following the proud slogan “Unity of Purpose,” I must isolate myself in Russian literature and the History of the Communist Party.”.

To complete the digression that characterizes Political Views Solzhenitsyn of that time, here is an excerpt from his letter dated November 7, 1943: “On this day, the wisest of revolutionaries and the most revolutionary of sages put the world on its feet... For two years, with blood and courage, we confirmed our right to celebrate November 7”.

But finally, Solzhenitsyn’s battery began to take part in the hostilities. On July 5, 1943, the Battle of Kursk began.

Reshetovskaya mentions her like this: “But all this receded into the background as soon as we learned that after long “nothing significant happened” - in early July, fighting began in two directions: Oryol-Kursk and Belgorod”.

Note that Solzhenitsyn’s battery began to take part in battles no earlier than the start of the Battle of Kursk. Simply because until that time there had been no active hostilities in this area.

On July 26, 1943, the commander of the 794th ARAD, Captain E.F. Pshechenko, presented Solzhenitsyn with the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree. On August 10, 1943 he was awarded. And a month later, on September 15, 1943, he was promoted to senior lieutenant.

In other words, Solzhenitsyn was presented with the order 19 days after the start of hostilities, and received the order two months and 5 days after they began. Rank of senior lieutenant - after 3 months and 5 days. And Solzhenitsyn was nominated for the award by his commander Pshechenko.

In the spring of 1944, according to indirect evidence, between March 22 and April 9, Solzhenitsyn somehow ended up first in Rostov-on-Don, and then in Moscow. Getting leave (or a deployment to the rear) from the active army was extremely difficult. But apparently not for everyone. Only the division commander, Solzhenitsyn’s immediate superior, Major Pshechenko, could draw up such documents.

Having missed his wife, who was not in Rostov-on-Don at that moment, he leaves her a letter, informing her that he has planned her trip to his unit, to the front. Surprisingly, this intention came true. This is how Reshetovskaya describes it.

“One night, at three o’clock, my mother’s voice woke me up: “Natasha, the sergeant has arrived!” She jumped up, threw her robe over her nightgown, and went out into our first, large room. On the threshold is a young military man, in an overcoat, a winter hat, with a backpack on his back...

Let's get acquainted...

They fed him and put him to sleep.

I didn't fall asleep again. When it began to get light, I ran out of the house and wandered for a long time, happy, along our Pushkinsky Boulevard...

The sergeant's name was Ilya Solomin. His parents, Jews, lived in Minsk before the war. Solomin had little hope that they were alive. Few people managed to evacuate from Minsk. Maybe that’s why, even when he smiled, his black, slightly bulging eyes on his serious, most often gloomy face remained sad...

The sergeant brought me a tunic, a wide leather belt for it, shoulder straps and an asterisk, which I attached to a dark gray beret. He handed me a Red Army book written in my name. The date of its issue indicated that I had already served in the unit for some time. There was also a “vacation certificate”.

I reassured myself with the thought that nothing would be done to the front-line officer for this little “performance.” Moreover, I was going to stay to serve in Sanya’s unit until the end of the war.

That same day in the evening, Solomin and I left Rostov. The sergeant was a smart guy. When the electricity went out at the cash register, he managed to get candles somewhere. In the form of a “reward” he received train tickets for the officers.

And here I am, my husband and I. In his dugout. Isn't this a dream?..

The phone rings. The division commander invites us to his place. I feel a little embarrassed in officer society. But drinking vodka for the first time in my life will give me courage.”

I’ll explain right away. The division commander is clearly not a division commander, but a division commander. The same Pshechenko. Without him, there would have been no orders, no business leave, no “service” for Reshetovskaya in the “Sanina Unit”, no fake uniforms, Red Army book and leave certificate. Pay special attention to the fact that Reshetovskaya was going to “serve” in the “Sanina Unit” until the end of the war.

Of course, there were wartime romances. But at least there were no fake military personnel there. The women actually served, and did not pretend to. And here... The “divisional commander,” inviting his subordinate and his wife to his place, was clearly not only aware of Solzhenitsyn’s organization of bringing his wife to the front, but also contributed to him in every possible way.

This fact alone, told to us by the participants in this business themselves, clearly smelled like a tribunal to both Pshechenko and Solzhenitsyn. If only the law had gotten to them. But I didn’t get there, unfortunately... To whom is war, and to whom is mother dear. Who dies and who reigns supreme.

As a result, Reshetovskaya spent three weeks at the battery. Why? Here's what she writes about it:

“In his battery, Sanya was a complete master, even a master. If he needed orderly Golovanov, whose dugout was next to him, he would call: “Duty officer! Send Golovanov."

During one of his visits, political officer Pashkin said that big changes were coming. Their division ceases to be an independent unit. He will join the brigade. The brigade commander will be a certain Colonel Travkin, about whom they say that he is not inclined to tolerate women in the unit. This was the first time we talked about my departure.”

In general, there was a problem, since not everyone in the army were friendly accomplices and partners.

On January 14, 1945, the Red Army, as part of the Mlawa-Elbing operation, launched an offensive in Poland, which ended with the encirclement of the East Prussian group of German troops.

On February 9, 1945, Solzhenitsyn was arrested. Fearing “the war after the war,” he had already been writing letters to his wife and friends for a year, in which he discussed political topics, spoke negatively about Stalin, accused him of departing from “Leninist” principles, wrote about the need to change the government of the USSR after the war. At the same time, he knew very well that the letters were read by military censorship.

This was another choice of Solzhenitsyn. The risk of being imprisoned was, in his opinion, clearly less than the risk of being killed in the “war after the war.”

This could be the end of the story about Solzhenitsyn’s participation in the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. However, he left us some words about his participation in the offensive. Let's consider this too.

(To be continued.)

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is known to the reader for his works “In the First Circle”, “The Gulag Archipelago”, “Cancer Ward”, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and others.

The pioneer of the “artistic” lie about Stalin (with the personal support of Khrushchev) was the former camp informer Solzhenitsyn, elevated to the rank of Nobel laureate in literature, whose books were published in mass editions during the period of “perestroika” at the direction of the treacherous leadership of the country to destroy the USSR.

This is what Khrushchev himself writes in his memoirs:

I am proud that at one time I supported one of Solzhenitsyn’s first works... I don’t remember Solzhenitsyn’s biography. I was reported before that he spent a long time in the camps. In the story mentioned, he proceeded from his own observations. I read it. It leaves a heavy impression, disturbing, but truthful. And most importantly, it disgusts what happened under Stalin... Stalin was a criminal, and criminals must be condemned at least morally. The strongest judgment is to brand them in a work of fiction. Why, on the contrary, was Solzhenitsyn considered a criminal?

Why? Because the anti-Soviet graphomaniac Solzhenitsyn turned out to be a rare find for the West, which was hastened in 1970 (moreover, this year was not chosen by chance - the year of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, as another attack on the USSR) was unfairly awarded to the author “ Ivan Denisovich" Nobel Prize in Literature - an unprecedented fact. As Alexander Shabalov writes in the book “The Eleventh Strike of Comrade Stalin,” Solzhenitsyn begged for the Nobel Prize, declaring:

I need this bonus as a step up in position, in battle! And the sooner I get it, the harder I’ll become, the harder I’ll hit!

After he did his dirty deed, he was sent back to Russia, destroyed by the liberals. Because even our enemies don’t need such traitors. Where he grumbled with the air of a “prophet” on Russian television with his “dissenting opinion” “exposing” the mafia Yeltsin regime, which no longer interested anyone and could change absolutely nothing.

True, the true title of “great writer” in Russia was awarded only by Time. And, apparently, Time has already pronounced its verdict. It is curious that the lives of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov are known quite well to literary scholars and historians. And if they argue about something, it’s over some points.

But in 1974 Solzhenitsyn found himself not just anywhere, but in Switzerland, and then in April 1976 in the USA. Well, in the “free world” you don’t have to hide from the public and journalists. But even there, Solzhenitsyn’s life is known only in fragments. For example, in the summer of 1974, with fees from the Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn created the Russian Public Fund for Assistance to the Persecuted and Their Families to help political prisoners in the USSR (parcels and money transfers to places of detention, legal and illegal financial assistance to the families of prisoners ).

Well, okay, let's assume that all 50 thousand were sold. But what was the fee? Unknown.

But Solzhenitsyn, unlike Yevtushenko and many others, did not teach anywhere. However, in 1976, he purchased an expensive 50-acre (!) estate in Vermont. Along with the estate, a large wooden house with furniture and other equipment was purchased. Nearby, Solzhenitsyn is building “for work” a large three-story house and a number of other buildings.

But maybe rich Russian emigrants helped Solzhenitsyn? No! On the contrary, he helps everyone himself, establishes foundations, runs newspapers, such as Our Country in Buenos Aires.

1970 The Nobel Prize was awarded to A. Solzhenitsyn - “For the moral strength gleaned from the tradition of great Russian literature.”

For comparison, Mikhail Sholokhov, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, received 62 thousand dollars in 1965 (it is known what he spent on - on the improvement of his native village of Vyoshenskaya). This is not even enough to buy an estate and build a house. And Alexander Isaakovich didn’t seem to be involved in business. This is how our “new Tolstoy” lived without Yasnaya Polyana and Mikhailovsky, but much richer than Lev Nikolaevich and Alexander Sergeevich. And now in schools, between portraits of Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, portraits of Solzhenitsyn are hung. Shouldn't we go even further and hang portraits of Grishka Otrepiev, Hetman Mazepa and General Vlasov (the latter was considered a hero by A. Solzhenitsyn) in classrooms?

Solzhenitsyn honestly worked off his 30 pieces of silver for a lie, thanks to which many soviet people They began to hate their past and destroyed their country with their own hands. A people without a past is scum on their land. And in creating such a situation they take great responsibility creative people, dividing the people, preventing them from rising from the ashes. Russia needs creators of new Russian meanings, and not voluntary workers in garbage dumps, digging and putting Russian history into two piles. Solzhenitsyn did not become such a creator. It’s as if he doesn’t understand that by beating the USSR, he’s also hitting the Russian people.

This version should be considered the most reliable. It finds its confirmation in the memoirs of Solzhenitsyn himself and in the stories of his friends.
Solzhenitsyn was arrested for the correspondence he conducted during the war with his friends, in which he allowed himself extremely free statements about the Soviet leadership and personally about Stalin. Solzhenitsyn himself writes about it this way: “Our (with my fellow businessman Nikolai Vitkevich) descent into prison was of a boyish nature. We corresponded with him during the war and could not, under military censorship, refrain from almost openly expressing our political indignations and curses with which we reviled the Wise of the Wise.” Alexander Isaevich also admitted that he sent such letters not only to Vitkevich, but also to other people. “I boldly and almost with bravado expressed seditious thoughts in letters to my peers and contemporaries,” Solzhenitsyn later wrote.
Moreover, Solzhenitsyn, who before the war devoted a lot of time self-study foundations of Marxism-Leninism, believed that Stalin “distorted” Lenin’s ideas, and even intended to create an organization aimed at restoring Leninist norms after the end of the war. And he expressed all this in the most unambiguous way in his messages to his friends.
Of course, the contents of the letters could not but alert the army censorship. In wartime conditions, such thoughts expressed by an officer in the active army could well qualify as sedition.
Later, already in exile, Solzhenitsyn would write: The contents of our letters provided, at that time, full-fledged material for condemning both of us.” And in an interview given to French television, Alexander Isaevich will say: “I do not consider myself an innocent victim. By the time of my arrest, I had come to a very devastating conclusion about Stalin. And even with my friend, we drew up a written document on the need to change the Soviet regime.”