Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)
'His diagnosis of Russia is dreadful'. 2006
Autograph letter signed to Michael Heifetz, 4 February 2006.

In Russian. 1½ pages, 208 x 147mm.

'His diagnosis of Russia is dreadful': a letter to a fellow dissident, only two years before his death. Solzhenitsyn apologises for not writing ('written correspondence slips away from my life completely'), expressing pleasure that Heifetz maintains his 'creative edge (I could not say the same about myself)'; he will only read Heifetz's latest work, Arabs and Jews, 'if my life spares enough time for it: I am almost running out of time'. Heifetz has sent an article by Egerman about the state of Russia: 'His diagnosis of Russia is dreadful – it is difficult to argue with, but challenging to accept readily'.

Michael Heifetz (1934-2019) was a Soviet and Israeli historian and journalist. In 1974 he had been sentenced to four years in prison and two in exile for writing the preface to a samizdat edition of Joseph Brodsky, amongst other activities. He emigrated to Israel on his release in 1980.

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