Famed Russian writer and former dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn is set to receive one of Russia's most prestigious state honours, the Kremlin announced Tuesday.

In accordance with an order signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Solzhenitsyn next week will receive the Russian State Prize for work in the humanities, the government said in a statement.

Dissident author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, seen here in 2000, will be honoured with the Russian State Prize for work in the humanities.
(Misha Japaridze/Associated Press)

The 88-year-old Nobel Prize-winner, Russia's best-known living writer, is responsible for works "without which the history of the 20th century is unthinkable," Yury Osipov, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in making the announcement.

Though he attended Rostov State University to study mathematics, Solzhenitsyn had aspired to be a writer from childhood. Despite spending years in a labour camp — after authorities found him criticizing Josef Stalin in personal correspondence — and later in exile in Kazakhstan, Solzhenitsyn secretly wrote on the side.

Finally, in 1962, his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was published and caused a sensation for its frank depiction of the Soviet prison camp system.

The authorities vilified Solzhenitsyn, generally prevented the publication of subsequent works — despite his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 — and sent the KGB to seize his documents. During this time, he was sheltered by his friend, acclaimed cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, but Russia eventually stripped citizenship from both of them and they were deported.

Living as an exile in Switzerland and then the U.S., Solzhenitsyn became known as the "conscience of Russia" for his writings, which include The Gulag Archipelago and his book cycle detailing Russian history, The Red Wheel.

Solzhenitsyn's citizenship was restored in 1990 and the writer returned to his homeland in 1994. Over the years, he has continued to write — including poetry, short stories, a memoir and historical books — and has also maintained his role as a critic of the government.