ABSTRACT
In the century or so since Dahl compiled his dictionary, Russian has followed the path of all Indo-European languages in becoming relatively more analytical and less synthetic, a development that Solzhenitsyn respected in his writing. In addition to Dahl’s dictionary Solzhenitsyn formed a deep attachment to the same author’s dictionary of Russian proverbs, a copy of which Aunt Irina had once given him in boyhood but which he had long since lost. In the autumn of 1960 Solzhenitsyn returned to his story about Matryona Zakharova and successfully completed it. The figure of the revolutionary executioner was at the opposite pole to Matryona, but perhaps for that very reason spoke to Solzhenitsyn’s creative impulse almost as strongly as the old woman. In Ryazan, Solzhenitsyn continued to isolate himself from the mainstream of the city’s life and to preserve his jealously guarded privacy.
