Noted Russian Novelist/Dissident Solzhenitsyn Is Dead

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CNN reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev passed along his condolences to Solzhenitsyn's wife and sons

In 1970, Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature". Solzhenitsyn did not attend the Nobel awards ceremony because he was afraid that the Soviet government would not let him back into the country.

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being? Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

When presenting Solzhenitsyn with his prize, personally a year later, Karl Gierow (who was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy when the Nobel prize winner was selected in 1970) said the following:

Alfred Nobel's intention was, that what mankind accomplishes in its best moments through its finest efforts, shall also benefit humanity all over the world, without respect to nation, language, race or creed. To that extent the goal of which Nobel dreamed can be said to be that which is happening here at this moment. If there is something we have the right to wish for, it is that every gathering should take the form of this one: a trusting fellowship between free people who, without fear, desire each other's good. That is the hope, for the moment realized, which must never be dashed. That is the demand which our earth cannot afford to give up. That is the significance of the ceremony taking place here.

It was only a few weeks ago, 40 years after it was first published that the first, uncut version of The Last Circle was released in English.

You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power - he's free again. Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

I must admit, Solzhenitsyn's book Gulag Archipelago was one of the hardest books I have ever read, and I am an absolute book fanatic. I remember reading it in fits and starts over a period of months, which is totally out of character for me. In fact, I am not really sure if I ever finished it entirely.

In the 70's, the Soviets stripped Solzhenitsyn of his citizenship and he was promptly deported to West Germany. He was offered, and he accepted, an an invitation from Stanford University in California to teach and then a few years later he moved his family to the woods of Cavendish, Vermont, where he lived until 1990, when his citizenship in Russia was restored and he returned to the land of his birth.

Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing? Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

No cause of death was released at this date, but Solzhenitsyn had had two heart attacks in the past and had also had a cancerous growth removed from his stomach.

We have placed too much hope in political and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life. Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn