Municipal educational establishment “High school with a profound study
                       of the English language № 27 ”



                           Alexander Solzhenitsyn



                                    Plan.


Plan. 1
Introduction.    2
Main part.  3
  1. Biography.  3
  2. Master’s works.   8
  3. The Cancer Ward.  9
Conclusion. 11
Literature. 12


                                Introduction.

                                                  "Who else, if not writers,
                                           can censure not only their faulty
                                               rulers but society at large?"
                                           Solzhenitsyn (From Nobel lecture)

      "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).
      Alexander Solzhenitsyn is now 84.  "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."



                                 Main part.


                                                     1. Biography.


      One of the leading Russian writers  of  the  20th  century,  Alexander
Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, was born in Kislovodsk,  on  the  11th  of  December
1918 in a family of Cossack intellectuals and brought up  primarily  by  his
mother. His father had studied philological subjects at  Moscow  University,
but did not complete his studies, as he enlisted as  a  volunteer  when  war
broke out in 1914. He became an  artillery  officer  on  the  German  front,
fought throughout the war and died in the summer of 1918, six months  before
his son was born. Alexander was brought up by his mother, who  worked  as  a
shorthand typist, in the town of Rostov-on-Don, where he spent the whole  of
his childhood and youth, leaving the grammar school there in 1936.  Even  as
a child, without any prompting from others, he wanted to be  a  writer  and,
indeed, he turned out a good deal of the usual juvenilia. In the  1930s,  he
tried to get his writings published but he could not find anyone willing  to
accept his manuscripts. He wanted to acquire a literary  education,  but  in
Rostov such an education that would suit his wishes was not to be  obtained.
To move to Moscow was not possible, partly because his mother was alone  and
in poor health, and partly because of their modest circumstances.
      Solzhenitsyn therefore began to study at the Department of Mathematics
at Rostov University, where it prov