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Solzhenitsyn lives to see his writings honoured in motherland

HE IS the greatest living Russian writer, a Nobel laureate whose exposé of the Soviet labour camps symbolised intellectual resistance to tyranny.

Now, in the twilight of an extraordinary life, the complete works of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn are to be published in his homeland for the first time.

The first of 30 volumes were released this week in a project that will be completed in 2010. The former dissident, 88 next month and in failing health, hinted that he did not expect to see its conclusion.

In an author’s note to the first book, he wrote that the collection would include “everything I have written — in my adult life, after my youth. And its publication will continue after my death.” Solzhenitsyn’s wife, Natalya, said that he could feel “the draining of the life force” within him.
Read entire article at Times Online (UK)