I’m very excited by the prospect of the new, revised and expanded edition of my biography of Solzhenitsyn, which will be published by Ignatius Press this spring. It contains several new chapters covering the great man’s life from the time of the publicaiton of the first edition of my biography in 1999 until his death in 2008. Although the expanded edition contains a great deal of new information, I was a little disappointed that Solzhenitsyn’s meeting, a few months before his death, with the US Ambassador will not be included in my book. The Ambassador’s report on the meeting was one of the confidential documents released by WikiLeaks at the end of last year, too late for its incorporation in my book which was already at page proof stage. It was forwarded to me by Solzhenitsyn aficianado, Steve Petrica. Here is the text of Steve’s e-mail, together with the links to the leaked documents and to a story about them in the UK’s Guardian newspaper:

Steve Petrica writes:

Among the vast cache of confidential diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, was an April 2008 memo from William J. Burns, the American ambassador to Russia, reporting on interviews he conducted with AIS and with Metropolitan Kyril of the Orthodox Church. Solzhenitsyn offers qualified support for Putin’s leadership after the Gorbachev and Yeltsin years. However, he was concerned about the growing gap between the rich and poor, and disapprove of Putin’s decision to have regional governors appointed rather than elected. He reiterated his familiar admiration for Vermont town meeting as exemplars of local grassroots democracy.  He also refers briefly to Kosovo, Ukraine, and NATO.

The ambassador contrasts Solzhenitsyn’s physical debility with his active intellect and his engagement with current affairs.

The full text is at http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2008/04/08MOSCOW932.html and there is a concise article about it in the Guardian, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/wikileaks-cables-solzhenitsyn-vladimir-putin