Putin Celebrates Russia Day With Honors

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, visits Alexander Solzhenitsyn, center, in his house in Troitse-Lykovo in the outskirts of Moscow, Tuesday, June 12, 2007. Shown from left in the background are, Solzhenitsyn's sons, Stepan and Yermolai, an unidentified. While celebrating the holiday of Russia's emergence from the crumbling Soviet Union Putin honored the Nobel laureate and longtime exile who documented the murderous Soviet prison camp system, with an award for humanitarian achievement and visited the ailing 88-year-old author, who has not appeared in public in recent years. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Presidential Press Service, Mikhail Klimentyev) (Mikhail Klimentyev - AP)

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin underscored the importance of moral values and military might Tuesday, honoring Russians from a frail-looking Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who documented the Soviet Union's brutality, to men who designed its nuclear-armed submarines.

The pomp-filled State Prize ceremony in a Kremlin hall was the elaborate centerpiece for nationwide festivities on Russia Day, a holiday that was created to mark the country's emergence from the crumbling Soviet Union but has become a celebration of Russia itself.

It was a fresh chance for Putin, who has challenged the West and demanded his resurgent but troubled nation be treated as an equal on the global stage, to talk up Russia's achievements and call for unity at home as his presidency approaches its end.

Putin strode through a golden doorway to start the ceremony beneath glittering chandeliers, and handed out medals carried across the room by goose-stepping guards in uniforms evocative of the czarist era.

He said the recipients _ rewarded for work as diverse as cruise-missile design, film restoration and neurosurgery _ have improved lives and boosted Russia's spiritual wealth, global clout and military security.

"We pay increasing attention to the revival of science and culture, the establishment of morals and spirituality in society," Putin said in the nationally televised ceremony. He also proclaimed that "modern Russia is a country that is open to the world."

Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel laureate and longtime exile who documented the murderous Soviet prison camp system in works such as "The Gulag Archipelago," was given a State Prize for "humanitarian activity" _ a lifetime achievement honor for the 88-year-old author.

"Practically his entire life has been devoted to the fatherland," Putin said.

Solzhenitsyn, who was not present, has not appeared in public in recent years, and his wife, Natalya, accepted the award.

Putin later visited the writer at his home in Troitse-Lykovo, on the outskirts of Moscow, thanking him in a televised portion of the meeting for "all your work for the good of Russia."

Solzhenitsyn, sitting in a wheelchair, thanked Putin for coming.

In a taped message, Solzhenitsyn said Russia's rough experience during the "cruel and troubled years" he chronicled should help the country avoid new upheaval.