Despite being decorated twice during the Second World War for bravery, he was arrested for writing a letter in which he criticised Stalin and, like thousands of his countrymen, sentenced to eight years in forced labour camps.

In 1983 he met Britain's Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher at Number 10 Downing Street. His work was widely acclaimed in the west, but on returning to Russia after a 20 year exile he found there were few who wanted to listen to his sermons.

Pictured here with his wife Natalya, Solzhenitsyn arrives at the 'Theatre Na Taganke' to participate in the premiere of his play 'Sharashka' which was performed to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Branded a traitor, Solzhenitsyn was deported to Germany. But, towards the end of his life he was courted by former Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, in a belated recognition, awarded him the State Prize of the Russian Federation for his humanitarian work.

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin lays roses at the coffin of Solzhenitsyn, whose death he described as a "heavy loss for Russia". Hundreds of mourners filed into the church to pay their respects at a lying-in-state of the author in Moscow.