ABSTRACT
Solzhenitsyn’s strictures on the American press would have been more convincing if his Letter had been more enthusiastically received by his comrades in the Soviet Union, but the sad fact was that there, too, it was widely criticized—often on the same grounds as those advanced in the West. The usefulness of Solzhenitsyn’s Letter from the point of view of concerned Russians was that it drew attention once more to the problem of Russia’s future and brought into greater prominence the debate that had been going on, in rather subterranean fashion, between various groups of dissidents for some time. Solzhenitsyn declined both invitations on the grounds that, after the upheaval of his expulsion, it was essential he get down to literary work again in order to regain his equilibrium.
