Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a Russian dissident and novelist who exposed the horrors of the Soviet forced labor system in his books The Cancer Ward, The First Circle and The Gulag Archipelago.

Solzhenitsyn's first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) is the examination of an ordinary day for an ordinary prisoner in a Soviet forced labor camp.Amazon.com: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Published in 1968, Solzhenitsyn's autobiographical novel chronicles the experiences of a group of cancer patients in the hospital of a Soviet forced labor camp. Solzhenitsyn nearly died of cancer while a prisoner.Amazon.com: Cancer Ward

Published the same year as The Cancer Ward, The First Circle is also autobiographical. Solzhenitsyn drew from his experiences in special technically-oriented labor camps in the 1950s.Amazon.com: The First Circle

The work which led to Solzhenitsyn's exile from the Soviet Union, The Gulag Archipelago is a massive collection of primary documents and eyewitness testimony describing the horrors of the Soviet forced labor system.Amazon.com: The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Volume One)