Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn ((11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a novelist, dramatist and historian of Soviet Union and Russia. His world famous works are ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ and ‘One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich’.

Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the forced labor camp of Soviet Union – particularly in two of his best-known works.

During World War II Solzhenitsyn served as the commander of a sound ranging battery in the Red Army. He was involved in major action at the front, and twice decorated.

A series of writings published late in his life, included the early uncompleted novel ‘Love the Revolution!’,the chronicles of his World War II experience and his growing doubts about the moral foundations of the Soviet regime.

In February 1945, while serving in East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn was arrested for writing derogatory comments in letters to friends about the conduct of the war by the master Joseph Stalin.

He was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and of “founding a hostile organization”. Solzhenitsyn was taken to the prison in Moscow, where he was beaten and interrogated. On 7 July 1945, he was sentenced in his absence by to an eight-year term in a labor camp. This was the normal sentence for most crimes similar to his own.

Nobel prize for Literature was awarded to Solzhenitsyn in 1970. He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1994 after the Soviet system had collapsed.