The First Circle

Interesting Facts

• The book is based on the author's personal experience, as he spent several years in Stalinist camps.
• The title of the novel refers to the first circle of hell in Dante's "Divine Comedy," where souls are not subjected to torment but are deprived of paradise.
• The novel was written between 1955 and 1958 but was first published in the USSR only in 1990.
• Initially, the novel was published abroad in an abridged form, as the full version could not pass Soviet censorship.
• The main character of the novel, Nerzhin, is largely autobiographical and reflects Solzhenitsyn himself.
• The book describes the lives of prisoners in a special research institute where they work on secret projects for the state.
• The novel raises themes of moral choice, human dignity, and resistance to the totalitarian system.