The Western World in the Novel “In the First Circle” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The purpose of this work is to analyze the concept of the Western World in the novel “In the First Circle” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The relationships between Russia and the Western World described in the novel reflect the political and historical views of Solzhenitsyn. The theme of the West, that is highly essential to discuss in the novel itself, is also very important for Solzhenitsyn too, because he always thought of the world in its unity and about the General fate of mankind. The object of our study is a novel “In the First Circle” by A. I. Solzhenitsyn. The subject of the study is the Western world in the novel. We consider "Western" motives in both storylines (the lives of prisoners in the Marfino sharashka and enlightenment of Innokenty Volodin) due to their semantic connections. As the materials for work along with the novel itself also journalistic texts by A. I. Solzhenitsyn were used. The writer accused the West being blind to everything happening around. It is reflected in the novel “In the First Circle” as well as it is discussed in his journalistic articles. Although Solzhenitsyn's essay was written after the last edition of the novel, the idea came first. The main purpose of this work is to analyze the different motives and “plot blocks” of the novel, one way or another connected with the Western World, which are the most important to determine the ideological intention of the novel. We hypothesize that the consideration of the Western world in the novel gives an extra layer of meaning that contributes to an adequate interpretation of the text.