Short Stories from the 1960s

• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

• "Matryona's Home"

• "The Right Hand"

• "Incident at Kochetovka Station"

• "For the Good of the Cause"

• "Zakhar-the-Pouch"

• "What a Pity"

• "Easter Procession"

“The Right Hand” (1960) is Solzhenitsyn’s only work, besides Cancer Ward itself, that is based on his own experience as a cancer patient. It was never published in the Soviet Union. “Incident at Kochetovka Station” (1962) is based on a real-life WWII-era incident with one of Solzhenitsyn’s fellow officers. “For the Good of the Cause” (1963) depicts a real-life drama that unfolded at the Ryazan Polytechnic Institute in the late 1950s. "Zakhar-the-Pouch" (1965) is based on the author’s bicycle trip to the Kulikovo battlefield in August 1963, and turned out to be the last prose of Solzhenitsyn's published in the Soviet Union, in 1966. “What a Pity” (1965) is based on an incident with the daughter of a prisoner whom Solzhenitsyn had met on his way from camp to exile. “Easter Procession” (1966), written immediately after the Easter service at a church outside Moscow, depicts the beleaguered situation of practicing Christians in the USSR.