Alexander Solzhenitsyn is a Russian writer, publicist, and public figure. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature ('For the moral strength with which he continued the traditions of great Russian literature,' 1970), received the State Prize of the Russian Federation for outstanding achievements in the humanities (2006), and was a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The novel's dense action unfolds over three December days in 1949—at a sharashka (a research institute-cum-prison for imprisoned specialists), at Stalin's dacha, in a student dormitory, in the home of a Stalinist nobleman, and in Lubyanka. The dynamic plot revolves around the search for a diplomat who has revealed a state secret. It intertwines many characters, the daily life of the sharashka, and debates and reflections on the fate of Russia and the personal role of each person in its history.