SOURCE: "Solzhenitsyn's Portrait of Lenin," in CLIO, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1984, pp. 1-13.

In the following essay, Siegel concludes that Alexander Solzhenitsyn's portrayal of Lenin in Lenin in Zurich bears little resemblance to the personality of the historical Lenin.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn's portrait of Lenin in Lenin in Zurich, which consists of chapters drawn from three volumes of his work in progress, is of interest in itself, in the light it casts on the historical accuracy of his project, whose avowed purpose is the correction of wide-spread misconceptions concerning the Russian revolution, and in its unwitting revelations about its author.

While using the methods of the literary artist, which permit him to enter his characters' heads, Solzhenitsyn emphasizes in an author's note that his fictional Lenin's "choice of words" and "way of thinking and acting" are drawn from a study of Lenin's works. In a BBC interview he stated: "I gathered...