ABSTRACT
The literaturnaya gazeta printed Solzhenitsyn’s letter to Western publishers on 26 June 1968, two months after he had written it. The Literaturnaya Gazeta had got the best of both worlds. It had published Solzhenitsyn’s letter, which though not nearly militant enough by Party standards, was still the most anti-Western statement he had ever made, and it had used the occasion to launch a wide-ranging attack on all aspects of Solzhenitsyn’s behaviour. Natalia Reshetovskaya has stated that Solzhenitsyn never kissed the hands of Orthodox priests, as true members of the church were supposed to dot nor did he seem attracted to the mysteries of the church ritual. It is rather surprising, therefore, that he should have come to the idea of building a church, but this was now what he had in mind, and he intended to finance it from his foreign royalties.
