ABSTRACT
Solzhenitsyn’s mood was buoyant in the summer of 1973, yet at the back of his mind one unresolved problem continued to nag him: what to do about The Gulag Archipelago. The most galling aspect of this tragic affair was that Solzhenitsyn had thrice asked Voronyanskaya to burn her copy of the manuscript, and at the third time of asking she had assured him it was done. Solzhenitsyn did not dare go personally to Leningrad to investigate Voronyanskaya’s death for fear of stepping into a trap, and it took him several weeks to piece together a hazy picture of what must have happened. When the unthinkable happened, Solzhenitsyn was still under the influence of the euphoria engendered by his and Sakharov’s successes in their unequal struggle wth the Soviet authorities.
