I just got done reading Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life (D. M. Thomas, 1998, St. Martin's Press); it's a big book, but well worth the read.
The book not only covers the life of this Giant of the 20th Century (1918-2008; the book was written while he was still alive), but throughout gives a good overview of Russian history of the last century, and explains his prolific research for his histories, most notably The Gulag Archipelago.
The Gulag Archipelago, perhaps the most important literary work of the last century, should be required reading for primitives, but alas it's three big volumes and has a lot of really big words in it, so no primitive could possibly be up to the task.
The author examines Solzhenitsyn's complicated and failed "relationship" with his first wife, but both the author and reader fail to come up with any conclusion as to why it failed.
It was most peculiar; this was a woman Solzhenitsyn met and married just a year before the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, meaning they had only a year of marital bliss before the war separated them.
And of course after the war (actually near the end of the war), Solzhenitsyn was sent to the camps for subversion, and absent for 11 years, 1945-1956.
Even though such was perilous during the socialist Stalinist regime, she and her family actually kept in contact with Solzhenitsyn, visiting him in person a few times (something usually impossible, and involving a great deal of trouble), writing him all the time, and occasionally managing to get food packages through to him.
A very hazardous thing to do, fraternizing with an Enemy of the State.
Solzhenitsyn's wife had been educated and trained as a chemist, but he persuaded her to punch the ivories, becoming a better-than-middling pianist.
After his release in 1956, Solzhenitsyn and his wife got back together, but something didn't work out. She was in love with him (and remained so the rest of their lives), and the writer got along well with her relatives, but he essentially shunned her.
One is mystified; not only did she care about him very much, but she was also a very aesthetic woman.
The book answers all questions one might have about Solzhenitsyn, excepting this one.