Solzhenitsyn, A. I.

Pismo vozhdiam Sovetskogo Soiuza [Letter to the Leaders of the Soviet Union]

Paris: YMCA-Press, 1974. Item #1475

51 pages; 15.5 × 11.8 cm. In original publisher’s typographic wrappers. Minor edgewear.

First edition of this significant open letter written by Nobel Prize laureate Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) on September 5, 1973, shortly before his forced exile from the USSR. In this polemical essay, Solzhenitsyn appeals to the Soviet leadership to abandon communist ideology and transition toward a Russian national state. As noted in the foreword, the letter had originally been sent privately six months earlier but was subsequently published due to the lack of any official response.

Though not exceedingly rare — the print run appears to have been relatively substantial — the publication remains an important historical artifact of Soviet dissent and a key moment in Solzhenitsyn’s political legacy.

Price: $40.00