LASHES OUT AT SOVIET CRITIC SOLZHENITSYN'S EX-WIFE DEFENDS HIM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700073-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 73
• Publication Date: May 22, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-
LOS ANGELES TIMES
22 May 1980
LASHES OUT AT... SOVIET, CRITIC
Solzhenitsyn's
By DAN FISHER
Tunas stn" N!rita~
MOSCOW--Nat.alya Reshetov-'
skaya, the divorced wife of author,
Alexander Solzhenit-syn, is a lonely
pensioner now, shunned by most of
het former husband's friends. But she
finds solace and purpose in the let-
ters, notes and diaries he wrote so
long ago.
"There's nobody in Moscow today
who thinks about Solzhenitsyn more
or defends him,inore-than his former
wife," a friend said recently..
That statement may surprise some
who'recall that her name was associ-
ated with harsh; officially supported
criticism of Soithenitsyn.at the time
of his-expulsion- from the Soviet!
Union in 1974.
But now Reshetovskaya has writ
ten a blistering letter to the author of
a new book on the CIA, branding as
an "irresponsible lie" a charge that 1
her former husband Wrote his famous
novels under the auspices of tile
American intelligence agency.
A copy of the lettvr, dated April 9,
was given to The'limes by a friend of
Reshetovskaya, who said she was
afraid to meet Western correspon-
dents herself
The book she criticized is titled
"CIA Against the USSR. It was
written by Nikolai N. Yakovlev, an
Americanologist. and polemicist who
has frequently attacked Solzhenit-
syri s work: It was published early,
this year by Moloday Guardia, (Young
Guard) publishers, ~ an arm` of the
Young Communist League, which is
'know; as'a mouthpiece for the views
of the'most nationalistic and conser_
vative elements in the Sov et laader?
ship
Yakovlev devotes more,; than 50
pages of the 287-page book to Solzhe- 1
S HIM
el kf
nitzsyn, accusing him of being a facist
and a traitor. He says that Solzhenit-
syn wrote his eloquent denunciations
of Stalinism as part of a CIA-directed
psychological war against the, social-
st countries.
"Operation Solzhenitsyn ? was
launched by the CIA in full opposition
to the Soviet order, to that which is
dear to all Soviet people." he wrote. _
Reshetovskaya, a childhood friend
of Solzhenitsyn who married hid-in
1940 and lived with him during the
years after his release from a Stalinist?
camp, years in which he wrote' most .
of his best-known works, replied ;I
her letter:
"Unfortunately, Alexander Isayeg
vich Solzhenitsyn has, disappointed
me much in recent years, I cannot say
that at present I..approve of;of his
current activities, as I used to be able
to say. However; most of what .N.
Yakovlev has written about Alexan=
der Isayevich in "CIA Against the
USSR" disturbed me deeply as a most
,irresponsible
.?i:The nine-page letter, which Re-
shetovskaya is said to have: delivered
personalty to a reportedly,:.startled
and embarrassed Yakovlev:: at; his
Moscow home, makes no Judgments
about the new book as a whole. But it.l
is a scathing, point-by-point rebuttal
to Yakovlev's assertions about the in-
spiration for Solzhenitsyn's work.
Yakovlev contends iii his book that
the CIA provided the "spiritual food"
:,which _!,'imparted a specific taste and
odor to the works of Solzhenitsyn."
#y Reshetovskaya countered: "Solzhe-
mtsyn received the spiritual food that
gave birth to his works in Soviet pri-
sons : and camps where, incidentally,
-
.the father.of these books stayed
Solzhenitsynhimself.",.'..:,-
Reshetovskaya wrote that "Yakov
lee's charge against Solzhenitsyn .. .
A a like those in the well-known court
trials in the 1930s," when Stalin's
purges sent- millions to their deaths
.. before firing squads or in the camps.
!And how much insulting indiffer
ence there is here '(in Yakovlev's
book) to the. tensof thousands of pri ,,
soners who languished and died in the';;
campsin30years!,, {.:1
Reshetovskaya; a biologist, met;',
Solzhenitsyn'in their student days,in,
Rostov-on-Don, an industrial `,city
about 600 miles south of Moscow.
They married a year before the Ger-
man invasion of World War II.
With the outbreak of war, Solzhe-
nitsyn went to the front. His young
wife was evacuated to Soviet Central
Asia, where she worked as a teacher.
Xe loved her mindlessly," according
a friend who knew them both well.
u? Solzhenitsyn wrote her daily,dur-
ing the war", and at one point she dis-
guised herself in a Red Army uniform
and, with the help of a friend, went to
live briefly with him at the front.",
Solzhenitsyn was arrested in. NO
and sentenced to eight years in prison
camps for. Intemperate remarks' he
wrote to a friend about the Stalin. re
gime. Later, he was sent .into per
manent exile.
After years, of separation and at
Solzhenitsyn's urging, Reshetovskaya ;
:remarried while he was in exile in
Kazakhstan. ',('After Nikita S. : Krushchev's dentin
''elation of Stalin in.1956. and the sub
sequent rehabilitation of Solzhenitsyn
and thousands of other prisoners, Re='T
shetovskaya left her second husband
and rejoined the author. ,
Reshetovskaya,was the model for
the wife of the hero in Solzhenitsyn s'
novel "First Circle." She typed and l,
;proofread, the manuscripts for, that
work: and several others, including
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Deniso-,
vitch," "Gulag Archipelago,".;'Cancer
Ward," and "August 1914.",_ The ,couple split up in 1970, after
Solzhenitsyn. met. Natalya Svetlova;
his present wife. Reshetovskaya re-
mained his legal .wife until they were
divorced, officially in 1973, so Solzhe
-.nitsyn could marry Svetlova.
14._7heparting was.bitter, according
to friends, and it was during this peri-
od that a denunciation of Solzhenit-,l
,syn said tohave.been written by Re-
shetovskaya was circulated abroad by
,the official. Novosti press 'agency,;.It
-accused, the: exiled Nobel ,Prize win-.
:ner. of being. an anti-Semitic Russian
'nationalist. Reshetovskaya later disa-1
vowed portions, of the,Novosti, aq-i
count; :3 1
~
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000605700073-5