Today, 51 years ago, on February 15, 1974 (Calendar, January 24, 1974), Soviet expelled writer Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn arrived in Switzerland on February 15, 1974, Soviet writer Solzhenitsyn. He was expelled two days ago by the Soviet Union. The Nobel Prize-winning writer was forced to leave his homeland due to the publication of a grand new book describing the Soviet prison system, the Gulag Islands. The Soviet government issued an expulsion order that required the 55-year-old writer to exile from West Germany. He had left West Germany to Zurich where he would be given political asylum.