ABSTRACT
Ekibastuz was as rich in human interest as Solzhenitsyn’s earlier prisons and camps, and there were writers there too. Two young students, Nikolai Borovikov and Yuri Kireyev, whose freshness and innocence greatly impressed Solzhenitsyn, turned out to be active poets, reminding him of his two young poet companions in New Jerusalem. Despite the urge to conceal his literary interests, Solzhenitsyn was unable to keep away from the camp’s cultural and educational section. On Sunday, 6 January 1952, the prisoners in Solzhenitsyn’s hut found themselves locked in after morning roll-call. Solzhenitsyn remained a brigade leader, and was still in the same hut as his old friend Panin. Solzhenitsyn was also out in the compound and had shots fired over his head before he gained the safety of his hut.
