Cancer Ward

The story Cancer Ward was conceived by Solzhenitsyn in the summer of 1954 in Tashkent, where he was undergoing treatment in an oncology dispensary after his exile. Memories of this period formed the basis of the story. Its characters are patients of the cancer ward. Among them are people from all social strata, ages from all corners of the vast country. Their fates reflect the state of Soviet society when, stricken by lawlessness of power like a terrible disease, it received hope for healing. The author's position in the work sharply diverged from the official ideology, so he was only able to publish it abroad. In his homeland, the story was first published in 1990.