Word: solzhenitsyns
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...soon blighted-not so much by the leaders of the Soviet Union but by the government of democratic Sweden. In a short, explosive book, Go-Between in Moscow, to be published this week in Stockholm and Oslo, Hegge adds a disturbing chapter to the record of Solzhenitsyn's misfortunes. Solzhenitsyn chose Hegge to act for him in making arrangements with the Swedish embassy for receiving the award. This was necessary because Solzhenitsyn was under constant police surveillance and the target of fierce attack in the Soviet press for having won the prize. Hegge soon realized that the Swedish embassy...
Cheerfully unaware that he was less than welcome, says Hegge, Solzhenitsyn requested that the Swedish embassy provide him with a formal invitation card. Without this, he thought that he might not get past the Soviet policemen ordinarily posted outside embassies. Hegge writes that when the Swedish officials heard of Solzhenitsyn's intention to visit them, they demurred: "We are not exactly begging him to come." The invitation card was refused...
Problematic Ceremony. While the Swedish embassy fretted, Solzhenitsyn decided not to go to Stockholm to receive his award from King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden, because he feared that the Soviet government would not allow him to return to Russia. He then inquired if the Nobel Prize could be given to him at the Swedish embassy. The ambassador, Gunnar Jarring, could have acted as the King's representative. At first there seemed to be no obstacle; Jarring's predecessor in Russia had presented the prize to Soviet Physicist Lev Landau in Moscow...
Hegge says that the Swedish government refused to do the same for Solzhenitsyn. As he reports it, an embassy spokesman explained to Hegge: "We are here to maintain good relations with the Soviet state officials. A ceremony in honor of an author who is being increasingly criticized, with the authorities' obvious approval, is problematical...
Happy and Enthusiastic. Hegge describes his unenviable task of telling this to Solzhenitsyn, whom he met on a Moscow street. Writes Hegge: "Solzhenitsyn came to me very happy and enthusiastic." When told he could not receive his Nobel Prize at the Swedish Embassy, Solzhenitsyn said sadly: "It is too bad I will not get to see Jarring. I had really looked forward to meeting such a famous...