SCORPION

Solzhenitsyn

"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).

"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."