ABSTRACT
Solzhenitsyn took advantage of the pause at Zhlobin to get back to his writing, recording his impressions of the recent fighting in his diaries and continuing work on some stories. Solzhenitsyn’s single-mindedness about his writing was now greater than ever before. He complained in his letters to Natalia and Nikolai that his duties took “too much time” and that the continuous fighting hindered him from getting down to his “main work.” Solzhenitsyn sent off a batch of new stories for her to forward, torn between foreboding and anxious hopes for a positive response. Solzhenitsyn had not seen Kirill or Lydia since their university days, and with Kirill sat up all night to exchange news. Kirill did not share Solzhenitsyn’s political enthusiasms. From Moscow, Solzhenitsyn made his way painfully slowly by train to Rostov, only to find that Natalia and her mother had not yet arrived.
