Solzhenitsyn was born in 1918 in the USSR, and grew up “believing in communism” He wanted to become a teacher, but his career was interrupted by the Second World War. “This is where the intention and content of “The Gulag Archipelago” will be forged” says Cécile Vaissié.
The book first appeared in France in 1973, before being introduced into the Soviet Union where it circulated clandestinely in "samizdat"