ABSTRACT
Solzhenitsyn had good reason to prize the publicity that Tvardovsky’s funeral brought him that winter, for he was beset with personal and political problems more serious and more numerous than ever. In his personal life, he continued to experience difficulties with Natalia. They had not seen each other throughout the summer. About a week later, on 25 October 1971, Solzhenitsyn submitted a formal divorce claim to the district court in Ryazan on the grounds that his marriage to Natalia had irretrievably broken down, and that it could not be restored again. Natalia concluded by asking for a six-month adjournment, which the court granted. Solzhenitsyn suspected that the authorities might have seized on his divorce case as an opportunity to harass him, and might be behind this delay, but it seems likely that the judge was influenced by the distraught and weeping Natalia, who was literally on the verge of hysteria.
