Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, a towering figure in 20th-century literature and a relentless critic of Soviet totalitarianism, passed away on August 3, 2008, at the age of 89. His death, attributed to heart failure, occurred near Moscow, the city that held both the pain of his imprisonment and the eventual triumph of his return. A burial service was conducted at Donskoy Monastery, Moscow, on August 6, 2008, where he was laid to rest in a spot he had personally chosen.