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.

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.

Solzhenitsyn, who was not present, has not appeared in public in recent years; 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.”