В круге первом

Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novel takes place in the early fifties. The search for a Soviet diplomat who betrayed state secrets to a foreign military attache, the life of a "sharashka", a special camp for scientists, disputes and thoughts about the fate of Russia, about the people, about the personal participation of everyone in the history of the country are woven into a complex, exciting work. For the first time in our literature, A. Solzhenitsyn wrote out a psychological portrait of Stalin, closely examined the system he created.

First of all, this novel is folk. Moreover, "In the First Circle" makes one take a fresh look at all of Solzhenitsyn's work, and it becomes clear that he, his books, his very personality are the people's response to what happened in the country during the years of Stalin's arbitrariness ... There is not even a shadow of despair in the book . On the contrary, it is imbued with the triumph of humanity and hope.

Veniamin Kaverin

Solzhenitsyn's book "In the First Circle" is notable for its grandiose scope, the high intensity of many force fields, several dimensions: prose-narrative, political-historical, cultural-historical, social, its vaulted galleries diverge in different directions, intersecting in many ways - it rises among the novels like a Gothic cathedral...

Heinrich Böll