Ch 20 part 1

Overview

Reading of Chapter 20 “Memories of Beauty” from Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, focused on Oleg’s reflections on exile, hope, daily life in Usk, and modest joys.

Oleg’s Attitude to Hope and Exile

• He forbade himself faith; past hopes of release always ended in darker cells.
• Amnesty rumors repeatedly failed; faith’s “cramped quarters” decayed within him.
• Exile felt spacious after camps; fewer dimensions of cruelty, yet survival was hard.
• He accepted “in perpetuity” exile mentally, avoiding marriage due to lingering hope.
• Exile removed choice anxiety; authorities chose place, easing his burden of decisions.

Usk: Place and Nature

• Usk named for three ancient, twisted poplars visible across the steppe.
• Ancient trees once plentiful, cut down in 1931; new plantings fail due to goats.
• American maple thrives by the party committee, contrasting failed local plantings.
• Steppe smells and flora: wormwood’s bitter scent, jantak, jinzil with violet May flowers, jida’s heady blossom.
• Climate often harsh: too hot or windy; overcast days respite, rain a holiday.
• Oleg grows fond; calls it “my place,” willing to live and die there.

First Taste of Semi-Freedom

• First night allowed to sleep unguarded in a hay shelter by security police yard.
• Horses’ quiet munching, moonlit yard, ecstatic pacing under white sky.
• Night alive with donkeys and camels braying, conjugal vitality echoing his reborn hope.

Daily Hardships and Work

• Needed roof, food, and work; avoided hard labor after seven years on the pick.
• Declined becoming a husband-help to village women; felt life was beginning.
• Became land surveyor’s assistant, 350 rubles/month; little actual work needed.
• Collective farms held land “in perpetuity”; occasional slicing for industry.
• Admired the mirab’s eternal irrigation mastery, sensing his own limits.

Social Life and Small Joys

• Joy in putting on his single white shirt; collar frayed, rough trousers and boots.
• Trophy films at the community center; village crier Vasya urging attendance.
• Cheapest cinema ticket in front row; monthly beer binge at tea house with drivers.
• Exile compared to rest after camps; irritations became humorous anecdotes.

Local Characters and Anecdotes

• New headmaster Abanbonov removed a picture for supposed religious propaganda.
• Chief Health Officer lectured publicly; privately resold fashion items at double price.
• Ambulance used by party secretary for errands and deliveries, often without patients.
• Retailer Orlov’s store: empty shelves, full of empty boxes; served elites first.
• Orlov pushed full-box purchases delivered direct, inflating turnover and bonuses.
• District party third secretary bribed a teacher-exile with an astrakhan pelt for math exams.

Relationships and Constraints

• Women in village sought honorable marriage and a visible house, not casual ties.
• Exiles expected women to be eager; reality showed women absorbed in family life.
• He wrote to an old girlfriend in exile and a Leningrad acquaintance; visits unrealized.
• Illness and tumor shattered life; pain dulled attraction to people and romance.

Comparative Suffering and Article 39

• Oleg saw those with Article 39 as truly unfortunate, restricted in work and residence.
• With intact rights in assigned exile, he avoided constant moves and rejections.
• Clarity of having one path gave him “cheerful courage” amidst life’s tangle.

Health, Recovery, and Perspective

• Spent three-fourths of a year in Usk ill; nature felt dusty, sun harsh, labor heavy.
• At medical center, colors and life rekindled longing for Usk despite incomplete cure.
• Wrongdoing in Usk felt like funny stories; after camps, most things seemed a rest.

People of the Steppe

• Men like Simovtanov and the Skokov brothers raised his respect for locals.
• Saw under waywardness a simple-hearted people who reciprocate sincerity and goodwill.
• Language barrier remained, but mutual sincerity bridged differences.

Education and Limits

• Oleg was 34; colleges barred students over 35, ending his educational hopes.
• He told Zoya he was a surveyor, but truth was assistant with low awareness in office.

The Cadmans’ Optimism

• Cadmans, an exiled couple, reframed hardships as fortune and improvements.
• Celebrated small wins: white bread, two-volume Pushkin, good films, new dentures.
• Welcomed another exiled gynecologist; Nikolai shifted to general practice for peace.
• Ritual sunsets: vivid colors over the steppe; they walked to watch together.
• Joy peaked buying a tumble-down mud hut with garden; final haven to live and die.

Structured Details

Decisions

• Oleg chooses to return to Usk after treatment, even half-cured; accepts it as home.