Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn left a vast body of work, an inestimable influence on Russian culture, and a deeply divided public opinion. He documented the Soviet prison system, developed forms of literary representation for describing the experiences of prisoners, and was courageous in the face of repression. But doubts linger about him as artist, thinker and person, and thus prompt us to raise the Solzhenitsyn question. Robert Bird is Associate Professor at The University of Chicago in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the College. He is also Associate Faculty at the Divinity School and Resource Faculty for Cinema and Media Studies, Medieval Studies, and the Program in Poetry and Poetics.