SOURCE: Nicholson, Michael. “Solzhenitsyn and Samizdat.” In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Critical Essays and Documentary Materials, edited by John B. Dunlop, Richard Haugh, and Alexis Klimoff, pp. 63-93. Belmont, Mass.: Nordland Publishing Company, 1973.

In the following essay, Nicholson points out that Solzhenitsyn's participation in the culture of the opposition, or samizdat, in Russia was conscious and deliberate, but that the author also made a distinction between a writer's obligation as an artist and as a creator who has a responsibility to defend the free expression of political beliefs.

In September 1967 Solzhenitsyn appeared before the Secretariat of the Board of the Soviet Writers' Union for a discussion of mutual grievances. Towards the close of what proved to be a hostile encounter, he was involved in the following exchange with Aleksei Surkov, an established poet of the older generation:

SURKOV:

You should tell us whether you disassociate yourself from the role ascribed...