One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
He later moved to Ryazan, near Moscow, to work as a mathematics teacher. There he wrote his early novels and novellas: "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and "The First Circle", based on his time in the Gulag; and "Matryona's Place" and "Cancer Ward", based on his experiences in "internal" exile in rural Russia and Tashkent between 1953 and 1957.