The first version of the novel «The First Circle» was written by A.I. Solzhenitsyn in 1955-1958 without any hope of publication. In 1964, Solzhenitsyn revised the novel, hoping to get it published legally. In the new edition, the places unacceptable for censorship were removed or smoothed out. But even in such a modified form, the novel was not published and was distributed exclusively in samizdat. As a separate edition, the novel was released in a restored original version only in 1990.
The novel takes place in Moscow in December 1949. Soviet diplomat, an employee of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Innokenty Volodin calls the US embassy and informs that Soviet intelligence is preparing to steal information regarding the production of an atomic bomb. MGB workers listening to the embassy’s phones are recording the conversation on magnetic tape. To establish the identity of the caller, the recording is sent to the «sharashka» Marfino — a secret institute where the prisoners are engineers.
© A. Solzhenitsyn (heirs)
© & ℗ SP Vorobiev
© & ℗ ID SOYUZ
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