The Cancer Ward

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The Cancer Ward is a 1968 novel by Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

[edit] Plot summary

The novel is set in a hospital in Soviet Uzbekistan in the 1950s. As the title hints, the plot focuses on a group of cancer patients as they undergo therapy. The novel deals with Political theories, mortality and hope, themes that are often explored either through descriptive passages or the conversations the characters have within the ward.

Also explored is the effect life in the labour camps will have on a man's life, as Oleg Kostoglotov, the main character, is shocked to discover the materialist world of the city outside the cancer ward. Oleg is in "Perpetual Exile" in Ush-Terek, in Kazakhstan.

Bureaucracy and the nature of power in Stalin's state is represented by Pavel Nikolayevich Rusanov, a "personnel officer". The corrupt power of Stalin's regime is shown through his dual desires to be a "worker" but also achieve a "special pension". At the end, Rusanov's wife drops rubbish from her car window, symbolising the carelessness with which the regime treated the country.

At times, the novel seems autobiographical because a major character, Oleg Kostoglotov, was admitted to the hospital from a Gulag, similar to Solzhenitsyn, and later subjected to internal exile.

Some Uzbek landmarks are mentioned in the novel, such as the trolleyline and Chorsu Bazaar. The zoo Oleg visits is now a soccer field near Mirabad Amusement Park.

The hospital which inspired Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for his novel The Cancer Ward as it stands in 2005 in The Republic of Uzbekistan

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