Russian Post 100th Birth Anniversary of Alexander Solzhenitsyn

RUSSIAN POST in 2018 issued a commemorative stamp marking the 100th birth anniversary of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008). He was a prose writer, playwright, poet and publicist, a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1970).

His writings included: “The Deer and Shalashovka” (1954), “The Road” (1952), “In the First Circle” (1958), “The GULAG Archipelago” (1968), “One Day by Ivan Denisovich” (1959), “ Matryonin Yard ”and“ The Case at Krechetovka Station ”(1963),“ Cancer Building ”(1966),“ Red Wheel ”(1969–2000).

 He was awarded orders of the Patriotic War of the second degree (1943), the Red Star (1944), and the Big Gold Medal named after M.V. Lomonosov (1998), awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation for outstanding achievements in the field of humanitarian activities (2007). 

This is rather ironic considering that in 1945 Solzhenitsyn was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in various Soviet gulags for writing derogatory comments in private letters to a friend about the conduct of the war by Joseph Stalin. He also had talks with the same friend about the need for a new organisation to replace the Soviet regime.

The maxi card here features Solzhenitsyn with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. A postage stamp depicts a portrait of Solzhenitsyn and a gulag observation tower in Matryonin Yard. Only 10 maxi cards with this stamp were printed.

On a side note, the progressive rock group, Renaissance, recorded a song about Solzhenitsyn called "Mother Russia".