Town Saying Farewell To Solzhenitsyn -- Reclusive Russian Author, Family Have Brought Fame To Vermont Community

CAVENDISH, Vt. - The sturdy sign beside the entrance to the Cavendish General Store is a measure of respect, Vermont-style, for this town's renowned resident - Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

In small black lettering, it warns the ceaseless trickle of tourists, literature buffs and reporters not to bother even asking for the way to Solzhenitsyn's wooded, hillside retreat 3 miles out of town.

Joe Allen, the store owner, said he lost count of how many times treasure hunters made off with his "No Directions to the Solzhenitsyn Home" display. So, a few years ago, he jammed it up against the wall with two 9-inch spikes.

Now that the Solzhenitsyn family is preparing to return to the motherland, the sign could serve as a difficult-to-remove reminder of Cavendish's 17 years as a respectful host to a reclusive celebrity.

"I'll miss the notoriety - I'm a famous person," Allen said, chuckling. "This is my last hurrah."

"They're good neighbors," he added. "I just hope I get to say goodbye."

Few of the 1,373 residents have come in direct contact with the Nobel Prize-winning author of "The Gulag Archipelago" since he settled in this Black River valley town in southern Vermont in 1976, two years after Soviet leaders exiled him for his anti-Communist writings.

But many are dogged defenders of the family's privacy.

"This is the way Vermonters are," said Barry Stearns, who runs a dairy around the bend from the Solzhenitsyn compound. "If you want to mingle, you mingle. If you don't, you don't."

Although the Solzhenitsyns have not exactly been active in town affairs, it hasn't been uncommon through the years to see Solzhenitsyn's wife, Natalya, or her mother, Katerina Svetlova, stopping by the general store.

Solzhenitsyn himself attended a couple of town meetings and caused a minor stir in 1991 when he joined in Cavendish's parade and celebration of the bicentennial of Vermont statehood.

Best-known to the townspeople are the couple's children, Ignat, Stephan and Yermolay, who are now in college. They attended Cavendish's public elementary school and a regional high school in nearby Chester and eagerly filled in their schoolmates on Russian culture.

"It was good for everybody," said Sandra Stearns, whose daughter helped one of the boys - she can't remember which one - on algebra homework.

In return, he helped her with other subjects and taught her some Russian. It was only natural that they turned out to be swear words, Stearns recalled with a laugh.

The Solzhenitsyns will return home once construction is complete on their new brick house in the Troitse-Lykovo resort outside Moscow. Natalya Solzhenitsyn is in Russia overseeing construction and working with the Russian Social Fund, which Solzhenitsyn founded from exile to help other political prisoners.

"It all depends on when (the house) is finished," said Leonard DeLisio, who spends several days a week at the compound as Solzhenitsyn's assistant. "It's not like the United States. Some materials are not available."

Natalya Solzhenitsyn has been quoted as saying she thought the new house would be finished next May.

The Russian media speculated the 74-year-old writer may be returning to play a role in Russia's politics, but his wife has denied that the author has any political ambitions.

"He asked me to tell you all that he is not going to run for president or even for parliament," she said in a recent television interview.

DeLisio said the couple haven't decided yet whether they'll sell the Vermont house, where Solzhenitsyn writes as much as 12 hours a day.

During his years here, Solzhenitsyn has written three multivolume historical novels spanning World War I and the October 1917 Communist revolution. Published in Russian, French and German, they have yet to be translated into English.

He is not currently working on any single topic. "He's got all kinds of projects going," DeLisio said.

Solzhenitsyn has given relatively few interviews during his exile. The last was with a European publication more than a year ago, DeLisio said.