Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is the most prominent literary heretic Russia has produced since Leo Tolstoy. Like Tolstoy, he is moved not only by a concern for spiritual values but also by a compelling corporeal interest in what is important for human fulfillment here on earth. He brings to Soviet literature a deep seriousness and reverence for humanity, a skeptical, exacting respect for the truth, and a passion for full disclosure. These qualities, enhanced by his enormous analytical powers and brilliant satirical talent, have made him intolerable to the Soviet establishment. But Solzhenitsyn is the kind of writer who would be dangerous to any establishment. He has a rare gift – a truly independent intelligence and a free, responsible spirit.

The basic psychological insecurity of a regime that cannot trust its most creative intellectuals has placed an interdiction on Solzhenitsyn during most of his public career. Only five of his works have been published in the Soviet Union. Of these the first four – the short novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and the stories “Matryona's House,” “An Incident at Krechetovka Station,” and “For the Good of the Cause” – were published within a nine-month period in 1962 and 1963. The story “Zakhar-Kalita” – perhaps his weakest and least significant – was allowed publication in 1966. And that is all. His large novels, Cancer Ward, The First Circle, and August 1914, his Sketches and Miniature Tales, his plays, and a few additional fragments, have been published only in the West.