'''Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn'''{{efn|{{family name explanation|Isayevich|Solzhenitsyn|lang=Eastern Slavic}} His father's given name was Isaakiy, which would normally result in the patronymic ''Isaakievich''; however, the forms ''Isaakovich'' and ''Isayevich'' both appeared in official documents, the latter becoming the accepted version. His first name is often romanized to ''Alexandr'' or ''Alexander''.}}{{efn|{{IPAc-en|UK|ˌ|s|ɒ|l|ʒ|ə|ˈ|n|ɪ|t|s|ɪ|n}} {{respell|SOL|zhə|NIT|sin}},<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Solzhenitsyn,+Alexander |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411013540/https://www.lexico.com/definition/solzhenitsyn,_alexander |url-status=dead |archive-date=2022-04-11 |title=Solzhenitsyn, Alexander |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref><ref name="collins">{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/solzhenitsyn|title=Solzhenitsyn|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|access-date=27 August 2019}}</ref><ref name="longman">{{cite web|url=https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/alexander-solzhenitsyn|title=Solzhenitsyn, Alexander|work=[[Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English]]|publisher=[[Longman]]|access-date=27 August 2019}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|US|ˌ|s|oʊ|l|-|,_|-|ˈ|n|iː|t|-}} {{respell|SOHL|-,_-|NEET|-}};<ref name="collins"/><ref name="longman"/><ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|Solzhenitsyn|access-date=27 August 2019}}</ref> {{lang-rus|links=no|Александр Исаевич Солженицын|p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ɪˈsajɪvʲɪtɕɨˈsajɪvʲɪtɕ səlʐɨˈnʲitsɨn}}.}}{{efn|{{family name explanation|Isayevich|Solzhenitsyn|lang=Eastern Slavic}} His father's given name was Isaakiy, which would normally result in the patronymic ''Isaakiyevich''; however, the forms ''Isaakovich'' and ''Isayevich'' both appeared in official documents, the latter becoming the accepted version. His first name is often romanized to ''Alexandr'' or ''Alexander''.}} (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1970/solzhenitsyn/biographical/|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1970|website=NobelPrize.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2008/08/the_man_who_kept_on_writing.html|title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1918–2008.|author=Christopher Hitchens|date=4 August 2008|work=Slate Magazine}}</ref> was a Russian author and Soviet [[Soviet dissidents|dissident]] who helped to raise global awareness of [[political repression in the Soviet Union]], especially the [[Gulag]] prison system. He was awarded the [[1970 Nobel Prize in Literature]] "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature".<ref name="Noble">{{cite web|url= http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/ |title=Nobel Prize in Literature 1970|publisher=Nobel Foundation | access-date =17 October 2008}}</ref> His non-fiction work ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state" and sold tens of millions of copies.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Scammell |first1=Michael |title=The Writer Who Destroyed an Empire |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/opinion/solzhenitsyn-soviet-union-putin.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/opinion/solzhenitsyn-soviet-union-putin.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited |work=The New York Times |date=11 December 2018 |quote=In 1973, still in the Soviet Union, he sent abroad his literary and polemical masterpiece, 'The Gulag Archipelago.' The nonfiction account exposed the enormous crimes that had led to the wholesale incarceration and slaughter of millions of innocent victims, demonstrating that its dimensions were on a par with the Holocaust. Solzhenitsyn's gesture amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state, calling its very legitimacy into question and demanding revolutionary change.}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
Solzhenitsyn was born into a family that defied the [[USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928)|Soviet anti-religious campaign in the 1920s]] and remained devout members of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]]. However, he initially lost his faith in Christianity, became an [[atheist]], and embraced [[Marxism–Leninism]]. While serving as a captain in the [[Red Army]] during [[World War II]], Solzhenitsyn was arrested by [[SMERSH]] and sentenced to eight years in the Gulag and then [[Forced settlements in the Soviet Union|internal exile]] for criticizing Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]] in a private letter. As a result of his experience in prison and the camps, he gradually became a philosophically-minded [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christian]].
