Decoding Solzhenitsyn. "Cancer building

03.11.2019

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The most important question that is asked to the heroes throughout the novel is the question posed by Efrem Podduev: "How do people live?" Kostoglotov gave Ephraim Kostoglotov a little blue book with gold painting, he would not have read it if it were not for his illness, and a little story with the title "What People Live By" interested Ephraim. The name itself was as if he had composed it himself. Having asked this question to his neighbors in the ward, Ephraim received a number of answers, but not a single person named what this story taught. Akhmadzhan answered with grocery and clothing allowances, and nurse Turgun added with salary. Air, water and food - said Demka. Qualification - answered Proshka. Pavel Nikolaevich said that he was ideological and a public good. It is surprising that all their answers are, to some extent, too material, no one thinks about kindness, love, friendship. After all, the question itself seems to suggest an answer. These people are in the hospital, they are sick with one of the most terrible diseases, some are fatal, and it does not even occur to them that a person can think of something lofty and spiritual. After all, it is just before death that many people begin to understand the highest meaning of life, but for some reason these thoughts did not touch them, and, even lying on a hospital bed, they only care about the material. It is not without reason that Solzhenitsyn emphasizes before Akhmadzhan's answer that he is recovering, a man who has almost recovered from a terrible illness did not even think about what gift life gave him, for him its meaning is still in clothing contentment. It is also striking that all their answers are connected exclusively with taking care of themselves, not a word about their loved ones and other people, even about their children. Only Sibgatov's answer gives hope: Homeland. But he does not mean the high concept of Motherland, but the fact that in his native places the disease will not become attached. Ephraim himself is surprised at the answers of his neighbors and understands that earlier he would have answered in the same way that a person is alive with air, water, food and even alcohol, and all his life he thought so. But Leo Tolstoy's little story made Ephraim think, completely re-evaluate his outlook on life. It was even somehow strange for him to say to everyone, it was not pronounced out loud, it was indecent, but at the same time it was correct that people are alive with love for others. This answer caused a wave of indignation among Rusanov, he began to demand the name of the author who could write such nonsense. The other heroes didn’t answer, probably, they also don’t understand how people can be alive with love, so also neither to themselves, but to others. In addition to this conversation, Efrem also addresses this question to a new patient - Vadim Zatsyrko. He replies that creativity is truly a "human" answer to the question. Demka also asks this question to the girl Asya, she, in turn, replies that with love, it seems, here he is - the only person who answered this question correctly, because that's what the book said - with love. But Asya means by the word love not at all what was said in the book, not love for other people, but love between a man and a woman and love not even spiritual, but physical. After all, when Asya realizes that she will undergo an operation, she asks: why live, who will need me now. It seems to her wild what Demka is trying to explain to her: people love for their character. What kind of love was she talking about then?

It seems that the question of how people live influenced only one Ephraim. He was always a strong man, worked, enjoyed life and never got sick. I got sick only once and immediately with cancer. “Throughout his life he was prepared for life,” writes Solzhenitsyn. But after the first operations, he stopped liking work and fun. He always believed that a good specialty or grip was required from a person, all of this had money, but when you find yourself sick with something fatal, you don't need any grip or specialty, it turns out that you are a weakling and something important in life missed. The little blue book forced to revise many of Ephraim's principles. He analyzed his past, his actions and the actions of other people, but somehow everyone acted wrong, not according to the book. When everyone in the ward talks about spontaneous healing, Ephraim says that this requires a clear conscience, that he himself “ruined” many women, abandoned them with children, made them cry, and therefore the tumor will not dissolve in him. Before his death, Ephraim completely repented of his sins, he realized that he had lived wrongly and that everything that he had previously considered a full life was not life at all. That life, it turns out, lies in something else - in love for neighbors. Ephraim does not forgive himself for past mistakes, but the author and readers forgive him. But his conscience torments him to the end, and he realizes that he will not have time to fix anything, soon death awaits him ... Ephraim had no choice but to convince and frighten others that there is no way to get away from here and never any of this cancer the corps did not leave, and this prediction came true: as soon as Ephraim was discharged, he died at the station.

Most of all, when he heard the answer that people are alive with love, Rusanov is indignant. "No, this is not our morality!" - he answers Ephraim. According to Rusanov, people are alive with ideology and public good. Pavel Nikolaevich Rusanov works in the field of questionnaire management. He considers his low and vile work - to expose people to fear, bring them to court and even send them to prison - "delicate delicate work" that requires a lot of effort, because about any person, if you search well, you can find something suspicious, each the person is guilty of something, hides something. And with the help of his excellent profiles, Rusanov finds out what this person is hiding. He believes that people respect him for his work, that his position is isolated, mysterious and semi-other-worldly. All this, in his opinion, he does for the good of society, so that all liars, brave and abstruse, disappear, and people who are principled, stable, such as Rusanov, would walk with their heads held high. Rusanov even has three stages of intimidating people: which one he uses depends on the degree of guilt of the person. With the help of his ingenious ways, he makes people nervous and worried, and only his profiles will reveal what is in a person's head. He is proud that with the help of his questionnaires he managed to obtain divorces of several women who tried to help their husbands in exile. Also in front of his office there is a “vestibule”, a safety box a meter deep, and a person entering his office is imprisoned for a few seconds, he feels his insignificance, in the vestibule a person “part” with his insolence and self-wisdom. And of course, people only enter his office one at a time. Rusanov believes that his work gives him the opportunity to know true processes life... Other people see life as a production, meetings, a canteen, a club, etc. But the true direction of life was decided in “quiet offices between two or three people who understand each other, or by an affectionate telephone call. True life was still streaming in secret papers, deep into the portfolios of Rusanov and his employees. " Rusanov is an informer, he “knocks” on people, and not only for the public good, but also for his personal goals, but his whole family and he himself treat his work with respectable trepidation and consider it very important and noble. So, for the sake of the apartment, which he and his wife shared with the family of his old friend, he submitted material to him that Rodichev was going to create a group of pests. Together with Rodichev, the secretary of the factory party committee, Guzun, was also sent into exile, who resisted the expulsion of Rodichev from the party. And now, when Rusanov's wife, Kapitolina Matveyevna, told him that her brother had seen Rodichev, Rusanov was overcome by a terrible fear that all those people who suffered because of him would return and he himself would suffer from them. He thinks that it is better to die than wait for each return with fear, and believes that they should not be returned, because they are already used to that exiled life, and here they will stir up the lives of other people. Because of his selfishness and desire that everything was fine only with him, Rusanov does not even think that he broke the lives of many people and that for them returning from exile is the beginning of a new life, happiness. For him, the main thing in life is the calmness of himself and his family, and for those who can prevent this, Rusanov will always have compromising evidence.

The change of the Supreme Court is what really shocked Rusanov, because it almost means that he was left without protection. After reading about this in the newspaper, Rusanov has a nightmare. In it, he first sees a girl, whose mother he denounced, after which the girl was poisoned. Then it seems to him that he has lost some important piece of paper. After that, the woman, who was imprisoned because of him, and she entrusted him with her daughter, whom he gave to the orphanage. And now the mother wants to find out where her daughter is, but Rusanov cannot tell her this, because he himself does not know. And it all ends with the fact that he is called to the Supreme Court, and Rusanov is terribly afraid, because now he has no protection there. On the website of Saratov State University, I found an article by O.V. Garkavenko "That true, natural sound ..." Christian motives in the story of A.I. Solzhenitsyn's "Cancer Ward". In it, the meaning of Rusanov's dream is interpreted as follows:

“In the confused minds of a bureaucrat-informer, everyday service is intertwined with her phone calls“ from below ”and“ from above ”, a newspaper article read during the day, and events of the distant past. However, the deep meaning of this dream is revealed only in the context of Christian symbolism. Rusanov's dream is a model of his posthumous existence, a warning about what awaits him in another world. “He was crawling. He was crawling with some kind of concrete pipe, not a pipe, but a tunnel, or something, where an unsealed reinforcement was sticking out of the sides, and sometimes he clung to it just with the right side of his neck, sick. He crawled on his chest and most of all felt the weight of the body pressing him to the ground. This weight was much greater than the weight of his body, he was not used to such a weight, he was simply crushed. He thought at first that it was the concrete from above that was pressing down - no, it was such a heavy body. He felt it and dragged it like a sack of scrap iron. He thought that with such a weight and on his feet, perhaps, he would not get up, but the main thing would be to crawl out of this passage, at least breathe, at least look at the light. And the passage did not end, did not end, did not end "Rusanov, in Christian terminology a man is purely fleshly, doomed and posthumously drag this carnal burden, which makes one recall the words of the Apostle Paul:" He who sows to his flesh from the flesh will reap corruption. " Further, Pavel Nikolaevich hears, “as someone's voice - but without a voice, but conveying only thoughts, ordered him to crawl sideways. How can I crawl there if there is a wall? he thought. But with the same weight with which his body was flattened, he had an inevitable command to crawl to the left. He groaned and crawled - and really, he just crawled straight as before ”. The Holy Scripture says that at the Last Judgment, some will be on the right side of the Savior, others on the left. "And these will go away into eternal torment." Considering the Christian symbolism of the right and left sides, it is interesting to note that Rusanov's tumor is on the right. Crawling through the tunnel, he clings to the unsealed reinforcement, "and just the right side of the neck, sick." This detail is persistently repeated. So, hearing the voice of Yelchanskaya, one of the many victims of his denunciations, Rusanov felt "how much it hurt in the neck, on the right side." But suddenly, crawling along the tunnel, Pavel Nikolayevich, following the first order, hears a new, strange for him: “He just got used to it - the same intelligible voice told him to turn to the right, but quickly. He worked with his elbows and feet, and although there was an impenetrable wall on the right, he was crawling and seemed to work. " What is it? Perhaps the last act of Divine mercy, the last call to repentance, a reminder that this path is not closed to any person until the last hour of his earthly life? But the "impenetrable wall" of the heavy burden of unrepentant sins blocks this saving path for Rusanov. “All the time he clung to his neck, but it was given to the head. He has never been so hard in life, and it will be the most offensive if he dies here without crawling. But suddenly his legs felt better - they became light, as if they had been inflated with air, and his legs began to rise<…>... He listened - there was no command to him.<…>he began to back away and, squeezing in his arms, - where did the strength come from? - He began to climb after his feet back through the hole.<…>And he found himself on the pipe, in the midst of some construction, only deserted, obviously the working day was over. There was muddy, swampy ground around. " Crawling along the tunnel, Pavel Nikolayevich passionately wanted to "at least look at the light", "but neither the light, nor the end could be seen." There is no light on the abandoned construction site: “Everything around was vague, nothing could be seen in the distance. This suggests that we are talking about hellish space: “Hell<…>by word production from Greek, it means a place devoid of light. " (It is also noteworthy that Rusanov meets the suicidal girl here, but Yelchanskaya does not. He only feels the touch of a hand and hears her voice, but does not see her herself at a deserted construction site). It is here that Rusanov crawls through the deadly illness that put an end to his willfulness, through the last months or weeks of earthly existence. But he still does not realize in which particular "New Supreme Court" calls his voice "from above" from the telephone receiver. The victims of his denunciations shown to Pavel Nikolaevich evoke in him not repentance, but only an animal fear of exposure. The horror is aggravated by a meeting with a mysterious "guy in a canvas welder's jacket, with wings on his shoulders", who knows his innermost deeds and thoughts. Biblical allusions are also heard in the question Yelchanskaya asks Rusanov: “My friend!<..>Tell me where is my daughter? " To this question, he, who once killed both the Yelchansky spouses and their child sent to the orphanage, cannot give a clear answer. “And the Lord said to Cain: where is your brother Abel? He said: I do not know; Am I my brother's keeper? " A little earlier, barely free from the pipe, Rusanov asks a similar question (by the inertia of his earthly existence - even with a judicial intonation) to a suicidal girl, the daughter of press officer Grusha: “Girl, where is your mother?<...>- And I want to ask you, - the girl looked. It was after this dialogue that Pavel Nikolaevich began to experience an agonizing thirst, which he never managed to quench: he did not get to the trough with rainwater, and the decanters on the tables were all empty. The materialistic justification for this burning thirst in the throat is the effect of the embihin. But in Holy Scripture, thirst often metaphorically expresses the state of distance from God. And in the light of biblical symbolism, this detail is a sign of the final spiritual death of Rusanov. "Those who depart from Me will be written on the dust, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water."

In his dream, Rusanov recalls the innocent people whom he imprisoned, but he does not feel remorse for this. Rusanov, like Svidrigailov from Crime and Punishment, dreams of people who committed suicide because of him. Svidrigailov dreams of a girl who hanged herself because he insulted her, and he constantly sees his wife as a ghost. Svidrigailov commits crimes in order to assert his will, to fully feel his freedom to do both good and evil, creating moral and ethical standards for himself. Rusanov does evil for the sake of his own well-being and does not repent at all.

So, even cancer and fear of death could not make Rusanov understand that he was living wrong. For him, the meaning of life still remains in the public good and in his “noble work”.

Rusanov's daughter, Avietta, is in many ways similar to her father. She is smart and strong. Avietta is an aspiring poetess, it is immediately obvious from her that she will achieve everything in life, and she will achieve all this in the same ways, low and mean, like her father. Avietta is in many ways a copy of her dad, she thinks only for herself, about how to get into people, she travels to Moscow to show herself and see what kind of furniture there is in Moscow, furniture is more important to her even than her own creativity. She assures Demka that sincerity is harmful in literature and is not needed at all, Avietta believes that it is better to tell people a lie than to talk about how it really is.

The complete opposite of the father is his son Yura. He tells his father a story that one man was carrying food, and a storm broke out in the middle of the road, and he had to leave the car and go to the nearest settlement. The next morning it turned out that one box was missing, the driver was accused of everything and was put in jail. The father completely agrees with the verdict and says that even if he didn’t take it, then how can you leave the state property ??? He is very upset that his son against and even wrote a protest. According to Yura, the person had nothing else to do, otherwise he would have died. This torments Rusanov, torments that he could not instill his point of view in his son.

The entire Rusanov family considers themselves superior to other people, they all think that their father has an honest job and that he does only good things, that he recognizes criminals. Solzhenitsyn also writes about the Rusanov family, at first glance, a completely absurd phrase, but in which their whole essence is expressed: “The Rusanovs loved the people - their great people, and served this people, and were ready to give their lives for the people. But over the years, they could not endure more and more - the population. This obstinate, eternally evading, obstinate and still demanding something from the population "I would like to ask the question: is the population not a people ??? Here it is - the mask of the Rusanov family: they say that they love everyone, that they are honest and kind people, but in fact they love only themselves and despise others.

Librarian Shulubin appears in the ward unnoticed and does not want to communicate with anyone. Behind his eyes they called him "owl", he usually looked at someone with round eyes for a very long time. His tumor is located in the most humiliating place, and therefore Shulubin worries that after the operation no one will sit next to him, and even now he does not want to talk to anyone, because it is not customary to talk about such an illness. Previously, he lectured in several specialties, but the professors began to "suppress". And from that moment on, Shulubin bent his back and said nothing: “We had to admit mistakes? I recognized them! Should I have renounced? I have renounced! ... Should I have left the lectures? I left! ... Textbooks of great scientists were destroyed, programs were changed - well, I agree! " So he reached the level of an ordinary librarian, but even there he was forced to destroy books on genetics, and he obediently thrust them into the stove. And he did all this for the sake of his wife and his children, not even for himself. But his wife died, the children grew up and left their father. It turns out that everything he did is pointless! He lived for the children, but they left him, did not give a damn about his soul. And it turns out that life has been lived in vain. He was silent all his life, bent down and thought that he had provided life for other people with his torment and betrayal, but he himself did not deserve even a little thought. And now, at the end of his life, he realizes that he was wrong in everything, that he lived wrong, that he chose the meaning of life not at all what should be, and now it is too late to change anything.

In the cancer building lies a sixteen-year-old boy Demka, he is young, just beginning to live and is already facing such a terrible disease as cancer. Demka's father died when he was two years old, after which there was a stepfather, who soon abandoned his mother. Since then, she took men to the house of men in the room with Dema, all of which makes him disgusted with what his peers thought "with a shudder." Because of the mother's behavior, Demka does not believe in love and shuns women. He left his mother to live with a school watchman, after he moved to the factory village and lived in a hostel. Demka has a difficult life, he was always not full, malnourished all his life. He worked diligently, did not drink, did not walk, but only studied. Demo reads all the time, he was even admitted to the bookcase of the senior laboratory assistant, for him literature is the teacher of life. He wanted to take up social life, go to university, but one game of football, which he occasionally allowed himself to play with friends, turned everything upside down, made him find himself here, in a cancer building. Someone accidentally hit Demo on the shin with a ball. I would like to ask the question, why is it so unfair? This question Demo asks Aunt Stefa, whom he met in the cancer building. To which she replies to him that everything is visible to God, one must submit. But Dema categorically disagrees with this, for him religion is a dope. In his opinion, why, if God can see everything, some have a smooth life, without problems, while others have everything overturned. And when Ephraim asks Demka the question "How do people live", Demka replies that by air, water and food. On the one hand, Demka does not recognize any spiritual value, the main thing for him is work and study, but, on the other hand, he is constantly trying to learn something new, he is interested in everything they talk about in the ward, leads smart conversations, asks everyone endless questions of interest to him, and we understand that when Demka grows up, he will probably understand that the meaning of life is not at all in the air and food. But so far Demka does not even recognize love, either spiritual or physical. Until he meets Asya. Asya seemed to him as beautiful as from a movie, such girls were unattainable for him. He would never have dared to get to know her, but he saw her - and there was a wickedness in his chest. So he waited until Asya herself met him. Asya is so light, unconstrained ... her fun seemed to overflow with Demka. When Demka tells her that they want to cut off his leg, she exclaims in horror that it is better to die than live without a leg. - "Life is given for happiness!" And Demka wants to agree with her in everything, what kind of life is it with a crutch? ?? Life is for happiness! She answers the question of what a person lives for - "For love, of course!" He says that in life there is nothing but love. “This is always ours! ... Love !! - and that's it !! " The word love is alien to Demke, he objects that love is not the whole life, that it is only a certain period, to which Asya claims that all sweetness is at their age. Asya is open with him, their conversation is so easy, as if they have known each other for a very long time. And that love, which earlier disgusted him, seemed to him something innocent and unstained. And even a sore leg with an eternal gnawing pain forgot for a while ... And when Asya bursts into his room with the terrible news that she will be operated on, and cries that no one will need her now, Demka says that he needs her and that he even marries her willingly. So, thanks to the meeting with Asya, Demka understands and knows love. The demo is terribly afraid of losing a leg: “No matter how they take it away. No matter how cut off. How would not have to give. " For him, losing a leg at sixteen is tantamount to death, what kind of life would it be without it ??? Therefore, Demka willingly agrees to X-ray therapy, because he thinks that it is instead of an operation. But time and unbearable pain did their job. The sore leg began to seem to Demke not as precious for life, but as a burden, from which he would like to get rid of it as soon as possible. The operation now seemed to him to be salvation, not the end of life. And Demka, after consulting with everyone, decided on an operation. After her, he did not give up his desires, Demka still wants to go to university. But he still has one more dream - to go to the zoo. He dreams that he will be discharged, and he will walk around the zoo all day, get acquainted with different animals. And then she will return to her home and devote herself entirely to her studies, because now she will not need to go to the dance floor or play with friends. All the time will be only for study.

The fate of the Ukrainian guy Proshka is tragic in that they don't even tell him what awaits him, they just let him go ... as it seems, free, but in fact .... He is the only one of the patients who did not complain of anything and did not have any external lesions. Swarthy, young guy. He is also very afraid of the operation, and suddenly during the examination the doctor tells him that he is being discharged. Proshka is incredibly happy, they are discharged without surgery! Ustinova tells him that he cannot work and lift heavy things, that he will be given a disability and he will live on it. But Proshka refuses this, for him life is work: "I am still young, I want to be." And to the question “How do people live?” Proshka also answers that by qualification. In Proshka's help, a strange inscription is written - Tumor cordis, casus inoperabilis. He approaches Kostoglotov for help so that he can translate this for him. Oleg, who once took Latin lessons, translates this inscription. A heart tumor, a case that is not amenable to surgery, she says. Oleg does not tell Proshka about this, and the happy guy leaves the hospital, it seems, into a new life, but in fact he is going to death ...

Vadim Zatsyrko, having already arrived at the cancer building, knows that he has the most dangerous type of tumor - melanoblastoma. This means that he has only eight months left to live. Vadim is engaged in geology, he devoted himself entirely to his work, he also has a very friendly family - his mother and two more brothers. The disease caught him at the most necessary moment, when he was on the verge of opening a new search for ore deposits in radioactive waters. He was born with a large age spot on his leg, and his mother, worried about her son, decided to undergo surgery, which, most likely, caused him to develop cancer. From childhood, Vadim had a premonition that he would not have enough time. He was always annoyed by empty talk, watery books and films, useless radio broadcasts, etc. As if from childhood he felt that he would die so early, at the age of 27. All his life he seemed to be racing with his still invisible tumor. And she finally overtook him. But Vadim accepted death, for him now the most important thing is that he will have time to do in the little time that is given to him. He dreams of being given at least three years, no more, he would have time for everything! But he has only a few months left, and then he will spend them in a hospital bed. The only remaining hope is that the mother will be able to find colloidal gold, which will somehow stop the spread of metastases. To the question “how people live”, which Ephraim asks him, Vadim replies that by creativity. And he also mentions that for him the meaning of life is only in movement. For Vadim, his work is the most important thing in life. He did his best to help science, to leave people behind a new method of searching for ores. He compares himself to the young Lermontov, who left a mark in literature, and left him forever, and Vadim will not be able to leave a mark after himself, he will not have enough time ... He could do so much, discover so much new, see ... If at first Vadim had there was still a small hope that he would break free, jump out, then soon, after a month spent in the dispensary, a whole month during which he could do at least something else in freedom, he lost it, he no longer even wanted to read books ... "Carrying in yourself a talent that has not yet thundered, bursting with you is torment and duty, while dying with it - not yet flared up, not exhausted - is much more tragic." When he is finally informed that colloidal gold is to be brought soon, Vadim literally comes to life, he thinks that gold will protect his entire body, and a leg can be sacrificed for the sake of life. He does not sleep at night, all thinks about gold, but does not even suspect that doctors are deliberately examining his entire body, hiding the fact that in fact metastases have already passed to the liver, and gold is unlikely to help here. Even before the news about gold, Vadim begins to think that everything to which he devoted his life does not make any sense at all. That he was in a hurry all his life to prove his experience, and now what? He will soon die…. and why was all this done then? To remain undiscovered and unproven like this? It turns out that he spent his whole life in vain, hurrying for something ... trying ... And all his former meaning of life, contained in work, does not mean anything ... But, however, as soon as he learns that gold will still be brought, he dreams of work again, that the race for life will begin again. Probably, only in the face of a new threat of death will Vadim think about the true meaning of life, which is not work at all.

One day, a new patient suddenly appears in the ward, who gives the oppressed people a charge of vigor and his incredible optimism - this is Vadim Chaly. He bursts into the room like a stream of refreshing wind, stirring the sick. A confident smile plays on his face, his face is innocent and disposed. It seems that he is not at all sick, he talks so simply about his operation on the stomach, as if it is like taking medicine: “They chop off the ventricle. They'll cut out three quarters. " He calms Rusanov, says, in order not to bend, you need to be less upset. "Life always wins!" - that's his motto. And after all these optimistic words Rusanov really thinks, why live with gloomy thoughts? We can say that Chaly's arrival is like a ray of light and an example to people, oppressed, already resigned to their illness, how to treat it! Always with a smile! But it is very interesting that of all the patients, Chaly had the closest relationship with Rusanov. This can only be explained by the fact that he, like Rusanov, is ready to overcome all obstacles in his path for the sake of his pleasure. Roan is not at all as kind and good as it seems, his meaning of life is only to eat enough, to enjoy women and money, he, like Rusanov, thinks only of himself. His dreams are material and low, just like those of Pavel Nikolaevich.

The fate of doctors in a cancer building is very difficult. One of the problems that gnaws at all of them is that they are unable to cure their patients, that they are powerless. Lyudmila Afanasyevna Dontsova is the head of the X-ray therapy department. She constantly thinks about Sibgatov, that she once cured him, cured him with an X-ray, but from him all the other tissues were almost on the verge of a new tumor, and from a simple bruise he had a new tumor, and no X-ray could defeat her it was impossible. Powerlessness in front of the sick, doomed to death, like a cross, falls on the souls of doctors. And from above, they demand to increase the turnover of beds, that is, to write out the doomed so that they die outside the dispensary, and to some, like Proshke, not even say that he is terminally ill. All this depresses Dontsova, she thinks about her work and about X-rays, through which each sick building passes, irradiating herself with thousands of "eras", killing diseased cells and striking healthy ones, like a vicious circle ... People who were cured of cancer in their youth with X-rays returned later with a new cancer, but in other unexpected places. Such cases caused shock and an inexorable feeling of guilt in Dontsova ... And, thinking about the many whom she cured, she realizes that she will never forget about the few that she could not save. Dontsova thinks about the doctors' right to heal, because what Oleg says is true: “Why do you even assume the right to decide for another person? After all, this is a terrible right, it rarely leads to good. Fear him! It is not given to a doctor either! " But Dontsova objects to him that it was given first of all to a doctor, but she herself understands that it is dishonest not to tell people about what they are ill with and how they are treated, that doctors do not have the right to decide whether a person needs this treatment or not, because only a person decides what to choose. Dontsova has been working here for twenty years, every day she breathes air saturated with X-rays, and has long felt a pressing sometimes sharp pain in the stomach. But no one wants to believe that he has cancer... Dontsova goes to her old friend Dormidont Tikhonovich with a request to examine her stomach. She says that it is easier for her not to know her diagnosis, so as not to suffer and not suspect what will happen to her, argues why it was she, the oncologist, who suffered an oncological disease, what kind of injustice? But Oreshenkov argues that this is justice. He himself does not work in any of the clinics, he runs a private practice and tried a lot to get him allowed. Oreshenkov loves his job, loves to help people, but in the last years of his life his main pastime is deepening into himself, into his thoughts. For him, the whole meaning of existence is not in the activities of people, which they were constantly engaged in, but in how “how much they managed to keep the image of eternity, planted to everyone, unclouded, undisturbed, undistorted”. Due to illness, literally everything turned upside down in Dontsovaya in a few days. What was previously so known has now become completely alien, unfamiliar. The thought that she was sick was unbearable. Suddenly it turned out that life is so beautiful and so impossible to part with it! She understood what kind of tumor she had, at the entrance to the stomach, and this is one of the most difficult cases. On her last round, she could not help but leave a single patient, so she wanted to help. And again I remembered Sibgatov, how much had been invested in him, and nothing helped. But at the same time, a healthy Akhmadzhan was discharged, and Vadim should soon receive gold, and Rusanov should be discharged ... But all this is still nothing compared to those whom Dontsova still could not save.

The conscience of the surgeon Yevgenia Ustinova is also tormented. She believes that the best surgeries are those that have been avoided. Chief surgeon Lev Leonidovich is tormented by the fact that he constantly has to deceive patients, not tell them the truth about their diseases. Use innocuous names like ulcers, gastritis, inflammation, polyps instead of cancer or sarcoma. So people have no idea what awaits them, they are given unnecessary hope that everything is fine with them. And this lie also weighs heavily on the souls of doctors.

Zoya is a young girl, she is simultaneously studying to be a doctor and working in a cancer building, because their grandmother's pension is not enough for them. She is young, full of strength, busy all the time, it's not for nothing that Oleg calls her Bee. Zoya believes that one must hurry to take from life, as early as possible and as fully as possible. In the novel, very little is written about Zoya's inner world, about her feelings and emotions. I believe that this is because Zoe has yet to understand the meaning of her life.

The protagonist of the story is Oleg Kostoglotov. He is 34 years old; when Oleg was a student, he and his friends were "grabbed". They were ordinary students: they had fun, studied, looked after the girls, but they talked about politics, and there was something that did not suit them, and before the exams they were all taken away, even the girls. And exiled forever. Forever ... a terrible word ... now never to return home, even dead, even when the sun goes out ... He was exiled to Ush-Terek. It seems that Oleg should hate the place of exile, but, on the contrary, he only dreams of returning to dear Ush-Terek again. Oleg is thinking about taking a walk in the night Ush-Terek, watching a movie and sitting in a tea house. This perception of the place of exile was formed because of the Kadmin family. Whatever happens in exile, they always repeat: “How good! How much better than it was! How lucky we are to be in this lovely place! " Every little thing, like a loaf of bread, a good film, was perceived by the Cadmins as incredible joy. And Oleg completely agrees with their position, because it is not the level of well-being that makes people happy, but their point of view on their life. And he just wants to jump out of the ticks of the cancer building, go to Ush-Terek to get married!

Oleg himself says that his life was too poor in luck. He is used to not trusting everyone, suspecting, arguing. Oleg cannot come to terms with the fact that he is being treated, but not explained. He asks Nurse Zoe for a book on cancer treatment to understand what exactly is being done to him. He wants to know what is the method of treatment, what are the prospects and complications. He is trying to find out from all doctors how this x-ray works. He dreams of stopping the treatment, does not want to be treated. He tries to persuade the doctors to discharge him as soon as possible, but is rebuffed. Oleg arrived at the cancer building almost lifeless, now he has recovered, at least outwardly, he feels great and wants to live in this excellent condition for at least a year, the further he torments himself with an X-ray. Kostoglotov has a negative attitude towards blood transfusions, he does not want someone else's ... Oleg does not trust anyone at all, not even someone else's blood ...

Soon after five weeks of treatment, Oleg is unrecognizable, the treatment killed his former life, now, as he himself says, harmful treatment has begun. In a letter to the Kadmins, he writes that he does not ask for a long life, that he does not want either Leningrad or Rio de Janeiro, he only wants to go to the modest Ush-Terek. He talks about how much you can pay for life, and how much you can't, what is the upper price of life? And he understands that he pays the most expensive for preserving his life, he pays with the color that gives life. He turns into a walking circuit, he gets life with digestion, respiration, muscular and brain activity, but why would he need it ??? His whole life is already lost, and fate does not bode well, but in him the last feelings, the delights of life are also killed, artificially killed, hiding behind the fact that they are saving his life, but why save such a life?

And now he is discharged, the long-awaited freedom, he is about to return to Ush-Terek, but there is still a lot to do: you have to visit the zoo, on Demka's advice, take a walk around the city, see the blossoming apricot, and Vega and Zoya gave him their addresses! “It was the morning of creation! The world was created again in order to return to Oleg: go! Live! " Now, uncertainly, a new Kostoglotov left the clinic, he felt that this was a new life, and he so wanted it not to look like the old one. At 34, Oleg for the first time in his life saw a blooming apricot, a transparent pink miracle, and tried barbecue, and his whole life could not be compared with this wonderful day! Unexpected discoveries pursued Oleg at every step: the phototelegraph, which was recently written about in science fiction books, is now reality, and the central department store, he simply could not help but go there! Cameras, plates, things - all this was not yet available recently, but now it lies on the shelves and beckons. But all this is too expensive for Oleg, too much, and a man who comes up to expensive silk shirts and asks the saleswoman for a specific collar number amazes Oleg. Collar number ... people have nothing to eat, and even more so to wear, but this clean-shaven and pomaded even a certain collar buys for himself, all this is wild for Oleg, he does not understand why such a sophisticated life ??? He sees himself in the mirror ... before that he was flying down the street, he felt new, renewed, and now he sees himself in the mirror, tattered, in old clothes and boots, like a beggar ... And that’s all - confidence disappears, but he has to go to Vega , And How??? In this form ??? Oleg understands that he absolutely cannot fit into this life, he missed too much, he is a stranger here ... he cannot even buy a gift for Vega, because suddenly it is already unfashionable, but what to give to a woman at all ??? Oleg is afraid, and all because of this department store, all because he realized that he was not created for this life, the life of large department stores, photo telegraphs and collar numbers. He came to her, but was late, and now even dear Ush-Terek does not seem so alluring, now I just want to return to Vega. "But it was more forbidden than not allowed."

Conclusion

The main problem of the meaning of life in the story of A.I. Solzhenitsyn's "Cancer Ward". In relation to this main problem, the heroes can be roughly divided into four groups. To the first group, I would include those who do not care about the meaning of life, since the answer to it is clear for them. One way or another, their views are reduced to hedonism, utilitarianism and materialism. Rusanov, Avietta, Chaly live for their own pleasure, although they believe that they are of benefit to others; they do not see any higher meaning of life and do not believe in it. The difference between them is only in what moral boundaries they are ready to cross in order to live the way they want.

The second group consists of heroes who, under the influence of illness and impending death, became disillusioned with the former sense of life (Vadim Zatsyrko), who severely judge themselves for a life that was not lived correctly (Efrem Podduev, Shulubin) and vaguely guesses about the existence of some other, intangible meaning of life ...

7) Philosophical Dictionary / I. T. Frolova - M. 1991. - 843p.

8) Philosophical Dictionary / P. S. Gurevich - M. 1997. - 994p.

9) How does a person live // Literary review №7 / EM Shklovsky - M. 1990. - 30s.

10) Shukhov and others: models of human behavior in the camp world / K.G. Krasnov - L. 1984. - 48p.

There are some questions that are embarrassing to ask, and even more so in public. So I at some point asked a stupid question: why was "Cancer Corps" written? The question is doubly stupid. Firstly, because any real work of art is created for one reason: the artist cannot but create it. And secondly, Solzhenitsyn explained everything in detail about the Cancer Ward. There is his diary entry in 1968 - "The Corps" had already been written by this time. It is from the so-called P-17 diary, not yet fully published, but fragments of it were printed. These fragments were used in Vladimir Radzishevsky's commentaries on Cancer Ward in the 30-volume forthcoming collection of Solzhenitsyn.

The idea for the story "Two Cancers" originated in 1954. They meant the cancer of the former prisoner and the cancer of a functionary, party worker, prosecutor, with whom Solzhenitsyn did not lie at the same time. He endured his ailment a year earlier and was known to the future author of "Cancer Ward" only from the reports of neighbors in this most sad institution. Then he writes that on the day of discharge he had a different plot - "The Story of Love and Illness." And they did not immediately connect. “Only 8-9 years later, already before the appearance of Iva-na Denisovich, the two subjects merged - and the Cancer Ward was born. I started it in January 1963, but it might not have taken place, it suddenly seemed unreadable, on the same line with "For the good of the cause" ... ".

This story, I must say, Solzhenitsyn, it seems, was the least favorite of what he wrote. Whether fair or not is another matter.

“... I hesitated and wrote 'DPD', but I completely abandoned 'RK'. Then somehow “The Right Hand” came out - a wonderful Tashkent “oncological” story. “It was necessary to create a desperate situation after the seizure of the archive, so that in 1966 I would simply compelled(Sol-zhenitsyn is italics for himself this word. - Approx. lecturer) was from tactical considerations, purely tactical: to sit down at the "RK", to do an open thing, and even (with haste) in two eshelo-ons. " This means that the first part was submitted to the editorial board of Novy Mir, when the second had not yet been completed. Cancer Ward was written so that they could see that I had something - such a purely tactical move. It is necessary to create some kind of appearance. For what? What is the “Cancer Corpus” covering? "Cancer Corps" covers the final stage of work on "Archi-Pelag".

Work on a summary book about the Soviet camps began a long time ago. But the shock time for work on the "Archipelago", as we know, is from 1965 to 1966 and from 1966 to 1967, when Solzhenitsyn left for Estonia to the farm of his friends, naturally in the camp. And it was there in the Shelter, as it was called later in the book "Butting a calf with an oak", in quite such Spartan conditions "Archipelago" was written. Here "Corpus" covers it.

It's like that. Tactics are tactics. But something here, in my opinion, remained undecided. Perhaps Solzhenitsyn himself did not need to agree on this. Of course, in 1963 Solzhenitsyn began writing and left Corpus. In 1964, he even made a special trip to Tashkent to talk with his doctors, to delve into the matter. But the strong work went at the same time, literally in parallel to the "Archipelago". No, he wrote this at a different time of the year, so to speak, in different conditions, in an open field. But these things went in parallel.

And this has some very deep meaning. We know that Solzhenitsyn did not intend to publish Archipelago right away. Moreover, its publication at the turn of 1973-1974 was forced: it was associated with the KGB seizure of the manuscript, the death of Voronyanskaya This refers to the suicide (according to the official version) of Elizaveta Voronyanskaya, Solzhenitsyn's assistant and typist and the secret keeper of part of his manuscripts., with all these terrible circumstances - when he gave the command to print. In principle, he envisioned this publication later. Even in a situation of confrontation in the late 1960s - early 1970s with the government, and by no means only from the instinct of self-preservation, Solzhenitsyn believed that the time had not yet come for this book. The blast wave will be too powerful, and God knows what will happen here.

And while breathing this out, building it up, he simultaneously wrote "Cancer Ward", a book that made it possible to go on the path of reconciliation. Not forgetting the past, but reconciliation, repentance and human conversation, including, not least, with the authorities. That is why this initial message was so important. Two cancers. What does this mean? This means that all people are mortal, and according to the Tolstov story, which is read in the Cancer Ward This refers to the story of Tolstoy in 1881 "How people live.", an inescapable question: how are people alive?

The key phrase for the "Cancer Ward" is what Efrem Pod-Duyev recalls how he did not spare the prisoners. Not because he had any special feelings for them, but because they would ask him if the ditch was not expensive. And I heard: "And you will die, foreman!" Here are prosecutors, personnel officers, and super-party functionaries - you, too, are not immune from cancer and from diseases that are worse than cancer. Remember Rusanov exclaims: "What could be worse?" Bone-glotov answers him: "Leprosy". You are not insured either from ailments or from death, remember.

That is why the Tolstoy component of the subtext and death of Ivan Il-ich is so important, as well as the direct discussion of the story "How People Live". Solzhenitsyn has always been, as they say, fanatically fascinated by the accuracy of the fact. At the same time, the operation time of the "Cancer Corps" was postponed for a year. He was ill in the spring of 1954 - yes, and the action takes place in 1955. Why? Because it was in 1955 that shifts became tangible in the country. The removal of most of the members of the Supreme Court, the resignation of Malenkov and those cheerful promises of the commandant, which sound in the last chapter: soon it will all end, there will be no eternal exile.

Cancer Ward was written about a time of hope, and we note that it is also written during a difficult time, but in some way a time of hope. In hindsight, we are well aware that he drove liberalization into the coffin. But in reality, the situation in 1966, 1965, 1967 was extremely fluctuating. It is not clear what this collective leadership will be. And here this human message was extremely important. It was some missed chance for the authorities and for society. While the focus on society was very important, Solzhenitsyn wanted Corpus to be published in samizdat.

And here it is impossible not to give two analogies. When the noose came close, in the autumn of 1973, everything became clear, and Aleksandr Isaevich does not know whether to go west or east or be killed. What is he doing at this very moment? He writes a letter to the leaders of the Soviet Union, they say, you live on this earth, you are Russian people, is there something human in you? It was not there. And I must say that about the same thing happened many years later with a word addressed not so much to the authorities as to society, with the article "How to equip Russia", where the very soft paths, understanding, negotiation, recovery were not seen, not heard. In general, approximately the same as happened with the "Cancer Ward" in due time.

I would like to write about a story to which a great genius, a man who received the Nobel Prize, gave part of his life. This story is called "Cancer Ward". Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn spent many years in concentration camps, but this did not break him. There he acquired his own views on what was happening in the camps, his vision of this horror Solzhenitsyn reveals to us in the story "Cancer Ward". The main theme of this work is the fact that everyone is equal before the disease: bad and good people, educated or not, occupying high positions or vice versa. If a person gets seriously ill, he just wants to live. Cancer building is the most terrible of hospitals; people doomed to death lie here. Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn raises many problems in his story, describing the struggle of a person with death, who wants to survive, get rid of pain and suffering, the author touches on the topic of the meaning of life, the relationship between a man and a woman, the purpose of literature.

Alexander Isaevich unites in one hospital ward people with completely different professions, nationalities, adherents of different ideas. One of them was an exile, a former prisoner - Oleg Kostoglotov, the other was his complete opposite, Rusanov, a party leader, a valuable worker and an honored person devoted to the party. The events of the story are first shown through the eyes of Rusanov, and later by the perception of Kostoglotov. By this, the author makes it clear that the power will change over time, that people like Rusanov and their questionnaire economy will be replaced by people like Kostoglotov, who do not understand the concepts of the remnants of bourgeois consciousness and social origin.

In the story, the author reveals to us different views on life: Run, Asi, Dema, Vadim and others. Of course, many of the views coincide, but there are also differences. For the most part, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn proves how wrong are those who have the same thoughts with Rusanov's daughter and with Rusanov himself. Such people believe that the people are somewhere below, they do everything only for themselves, do not think about the people around them. Kostoglotov is the spokesman for the author's ideas, in Oleg's disputes with his ward neighbors, in his stories about the camps, the paradox of life is revealed, and to be more precise, that there is no meaning in such a life, there is none in the literature extolled by Avieta.

Avieta believes that it is harmful to speak sincerely in literature. She does not want to understand that books teach us life, they do not serve us only for entertainment when we are in a bad mood. Avieta does not understand that not every person can truly write about what is happening, the girl does not imagine even a hundredth part of the horror when a woman turns into a workhorse and subsequently loses the ability to bear children. Zoya tells the whole horror about hormone therapy to Kostoglotov, he is horrified by the fact that he is not given a chance to continue his family. Oleg is outraged that he was first deprived of his own life, and now they want to deprive him of the right to continue himself. He believes that he will become the worst of the freaks. The desire to continue their family is the same for all participants in the dispute about the meaning of life: Ephraim, Vadim, Rusanov. Kostoglotov went through a lot that left a deep mark on his value system. The style of the narrative of the story was also influenced by the fact that the author himself, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, spent many years in the camps. But this makes the story more understandable, because everything that happens is described so clearly that it seems that we saw everything with our own eyes. It is very difficult for us to fully understand Oleg Kostoglotov, he sees a prison everywhere, he seeks and finds a prison approach everywhere, even in a zoo. His life was crippled by the camp, he understands that it will be impossible to return to his past life, the camp closed his way back. And he is not the only one, many people were thrown out into the street, and those who have no relation to the camp will be separated from them by a wall of incomprehension, just as Lyudmila Afanasyeva Oleg Kostoglotova does not understand.

We are very sorry for those people who were mutilated by life, disfigured by the regime, who fought for life, suffered terribly. They now have to suffer from the rejection of society. They are forced to give up the life they dreamed of and deserve.

What I understood after reading Solzhenitsyn's story "Cancer Ward"

Decoding Solzhenitsyn. "Cancer building

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