Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ( December 11 , 1918 â `` August 3 , 2008 ) was a Russian writer of novels , dramatist , and historian . Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn ( soÊ lÊ ' É Ë niË tsÉ n , ) ( 11 December 1918 â `` 3 August 2008 ) was a Russian and Soviet novelist , dramatist , and historian .