05 August 2008, 15:40
Chechen residents mourn for the deceased Alexander Solzhenitsin
Alexander Solzhenitsin was a great writer and his death is a loss not only for Russia but for the entire world, say many residents of Chechnya.
The report on the death of the great writer Alexander Solzhenitsin shook everyone who is acquainted with his books. Solzhenitsin is mostly known in Chechnya by his novel "Archipelago Gulag" in which, talking about deported nations, the writer described Chechens.
"Solzhenitsin was really a great writer, one of the few who dared to openly confront the regime. He strove to tell people the truth about what was going on in the country named the USSR. He has done a lot for Russian literature", says Rizvan Suleimanov, resident of Grozny.
"At the beginning of 1980's, I was a student of an institute in Moscow and it was then that I heard about Solzhenitsin. My friends gave me part of the novel "Archipelago Gulag" which was typewritten. It really was a discovery for me. I remember how we, students, were secretly discussing the book and sharing our impressions ", recalls Ruslanbek Sadulayev, a 48-year-old entrepreneur.
"I read "Archipelago Gulag" back in 1988 but I still remember by heart what Solzhenitsin said about Chechens: "There was a nation which has never yielded to the psychology of submissiveness. These are Chechens," recalls Movsar Musayev, resident of Grozny. "I think that for me and for all Chechens it is the highest praise and recognition of the courage of my compatriots during the hard years of deportation. The Chechen nation will remember Alexander Solzhenitsin with gratitude, just like Anatoli Pristavkin, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Lermontov and others who wrote about the Caucasus and Chechens".
Author: Muslim Ibragimov, CK correspondent
