Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Dostoyevsky of 20th century, dies of heart failure

But the two men, so different, gradually developed a rapport. By steps, Putin adopted Solzhenitsyn's criticisms of the West, perhaps out of a recognition that Russia really is a different civilization, perhaps because the author offered justification for the Kremlin's determination to muzzle critics, to reassert control over Russia's natural resources and to concentrate political power.

Like Putin, Solzhenitsyn argued that Russia was following its own path to its own form of democratic society. In a June 2005 interview with state television he said that Russia had lost 15 years following the collapse of the Soviet Union by moving too quickly in the rush to build a more liberal society. "We need to be better, so we need to go more slowly," he said

Following the death of Naguib Mahfouz in 2006, Solzhenitsyn became the oldest living Nobel laureate in literature. He is survived by his wife, Natalya, who acted as his spokesman, and his three sons, including Stepan, Ignat, a pianist and conductor, and Yermolai. All live in the United States.

Despite his belief in a separate political and cultural fate for Russia, Solzhenitsyn's works continue to inspire people of all nations and cultures in the fight for human dignity and the right to hold unpopular views.

His belief in the power of conscience, and of courage against all odds, speaks to readers beyond the narrow limits of ideology and politics.

"It is we who shall die - art shall remain," he wrote in his 1970 Nobel lecture, which he was not allowed to deliver. "And shall we comprehend, even on the day of our destruction, all its facets and all its possibilities?"