World leaders join Russians in paying their respects

Moscow: World leaders joined Russians in mourning the death of Nobel prize-winning writer and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who devoted his life to exposing the brutal Soviet Gulag.

"It's a great loss for our family. It's also a loss for the country," said his son Stepan. "He was always really happy he returned. This is his home."

Solzhenitsyn's widow, Natalya, who is publishing his complete works, told Echo of Moscow radio that the writer lived "a difficult but happy life".

The Soviet Union's last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said Solzhenitsyn had helped undermine Stalinism by changing the views of millions through his writing and had fought until the end for the cause of democracy in Russia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent the family his condolences.

Gorbachev said Solzhenitsyn's name will go down in Russian history.

Totalitarianism

"Until the end of his days he fought for Russia not only to move away from its totalitarian past but also to have a worthy future, to become a truly free and democratic country. We owe him a lot," Gorbachev told Interfax news agency.

In a telegram expressing his condolences to Solzhenitsyn's family, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the death was a "heavy loss for Russia". "We will remember him as a strong, brave person with enormous dignity."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy honoured Solzhenitsyn as "one of the greatest consciences of 20th century Russia".

"His intransigence, his ideals and his long, eventful life make of Solzhenitsyn a hero from a novel, an heir to Dostoyevsky. He belongs to the pantheon of world history," Sarkozy said.

In a bookstore in central Moscow, a selection of his most famous books was put on display beneath a large black-and-white portrait of the author.

Television channels and radio stations ran constant solemn reports on his life but some younger Russians confessed they knew little about his work.

"He is very famous. I'm just starting his works. Unfortunately I haven't read very much yet," said Viktoria Danilova, a 17-year-old in central Moscow.