# The First Circle

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/the-first-circle

![The First Circle](https://quivercdn.com/covers/harvill-press/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/the-first-circle_978-18-6046-090-6-ccb6ef9d.jpg?v=2026-09-21%2002%3A32%3A51)

- Authors: [Alexandre Soljénitsyne](https://www.bookquiver.com/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn)
- Language: en_GB
- Published: 1988-08-04

## Description

At the height of Stalin's postwar terror, Innokenty, a young diplomat and scion of a corrupt ruling class, discovers an earlier and more spiritual tradition than that adopted by the October Revolution, the beginning of a process which is Solzhenitsyn's basic theme: the individual's experience of acquiring an immortal soul. Unwisely but generously, Innokenty helps a friend in danger of arrest, only to be arrested himself and sent to a special prison. This, the archetype of the Gulag, is described with masterful psychological insight. There are no heroes and hardly any villains; oppressors are no less victims then the oppressed. In the great tradition of the Russian novel, The First Circle is both a brooding account of human nature and a scrupulously exact description of a historical period.

## Editions

### The First Circle

- Publisher: harvill_press
- ISBN: 978-18-6046-090-6
- Pages: 592
- Published: 1988-08-04
- Language: en_GB