ABSTRACT
Will-power Solzhenitsyn certainly had, but according to his memoir, intermittent feelings of hopelessness persisted for about three months, during which he daily expected to be arrested. He psychologically prepared himself for arrest and a long imprisonment. One may easily believe that these were the worst months of Solzhenitsyn’s life, but it was not in his nature to remain inactive in the face of danger, and with his characteristic resilience he took steps to avert further disasters. The most immediate risk was presented by his notes and unfinished drafts for The Gulag Archipelago, which he had taken to Moscow with him when hastily leaving Rozhdestvo. The farcical story of how Natalia was finally excluded from the Obninsk institute was further depressing evidence, if evidence was needed, of the amazing lengths to which the Soviet authorities were apparently prepared to go now to thwart Solzhenitsyn’s most innocuous plans.
