Solzhenitsyn Says He Will Return to Homeland Once Charges Are Dropped

Alexander Solzhenitsyn emerged from seclusion for a parade celebrating the town that’s been home to the exiled Nobel laureate for 15 years. The 72-year-old writer said he is ready to return to the Soviet Union once treason charges against him are dropped.

“We’ll definitely return back home to Russia,” the reclusive writer said at the town’s bicentennial parade Saturday. “I said a long time ago that I definitely will return, and that stays intact. I’m not going to live here forever.”

Solzhenitsyn said the democratic movement sweeping his homeland makes his return likelier than ever.

“Without these events, my return was completely out of the question,” he said, with his son Stephan translating. “Under the rule of the KGB and the Communist Party, who I always fought with, I could not return.”