Hundreds pay tribute to Solzhenitsyn
Tuesday, 05 Aug 2008 20:01
Hundreds of Russians pay tribute to writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn
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Hundreds of Russians have paid tribute to the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn who died at the age of 89 on Sunday.
His open coffin is lying in state at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow surrounded by a military guard of honour.
Famed for his chronicling of the Soviet gulag concentration camps, Mr Solzhenitsyn won numerous awards including the Nobel prize for literature.
The author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich spent 20 years in exile after exposing Stalin's brutal prison system.
Today his wife Natalya and his two sons Stepan and Yermolai stood by his coffin as mourners passed through the hall to pay their respects.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin spoke to Mr Solzhenitsyn's wife at the ceremony offering his condolences.
Yesterday, he described the writer's death as a "heavy loss for Russia".