Gorbachev and Putin lead tributes to Solzhenitsyn [video 4min]
The former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and the former Russian president Vladimir Putin today led tributes to the Nobel-prize winning author and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Solzhenitsyn, whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system, died of heart failure last night, his son, Stepan, said. He was 89.
Gorbachev, who dismantled the last of the gulags in the 80s, described the internationally renowned writer as a "man of unique destiny whose name will remain in Russia's history".
"Solzhenitsyn's fate, as well as the fate of millions of the country's citizens, was befallen by severe trials," he told the Russian Interfax news agency.
"He was one of the first who spoke aloud about the inhuman Stalinist regime and about the people who experienced it but were not broken."
Putin, now the Russian prime minister, said in a statement that Solzhenitsyn's literary achievements, as well as "the entire thorny path of his life" would "remain for us an example of genuine devotion and selfless serving to the people, fatherland and the ideals of freedom, justice and humanism".
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Solzhenitsyn, whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system, died of heart failure last night, his son, Stepan, said. He was 89.
Gorbachev, who dismantled the last of the gulags in the 80s, described the internationally renowned writer as a "man of unique destiny whose name will remain in Russia's history".
"Solzhenitsyn's fate, as well as the fate of millions of the country's citizens, was befallen by severe trials," he told the Russian Interfax news agency.
"He was one of the first who spoke aloud about the inhuman Stalinist regime and about the people who experienced it but were not broken."
Putin, now the Russian prime minister, said in a statement that Solzhenitsyn's literary achievements, as well as "the entire thorny path of his life" would "remain for us an example of genuine devotion and selfless serving to the people, fatherland and the ideals of freedom, justice and humanism".