Solzhenitsyn Will Not Visit Soviet Union, Tass Says

Exiled writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose Soviet citizenship was restored last week by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, has rejected an invitation to visit his homeland, the Soviet news agency Tass reported Thursday.

In a letter sent to the Russian federation’s prime minister, Solzhenitsyn said it would be unthinkable for him to be a guest or tourist in his native country, Tass said.

“When I return home, it will be to live and to die there,” he said, according to the news agency.

A call to Solzhenitsyn’s secretary, Leonard Dilisio, went unanswered Thursday night. Solzhenitsyn, who lives with his family in Cavendish, Vt., has consistently refused to talk to the media.

But, on Aug. 17, Solzhenitsyn’s wife, Natalia, released a statement denying a Tass report that the 1970 Nobel laureate has had high-level contacts with Soviet authorities and has agreed to accept restoration of Soviet citizenship.

She said her husband demands that expulsion orders and treason charges against him be lifted and that all his books be printed and widely distributed in the Soviet Union before he will return.