Varlaam Shalamov is a writer who spent three terms in the camps, survived hell, lost his family, friends, but was not broken by the ordeals: “The camp is a negative school from the first to the last day for anyone. The person - neither the boss nor the prisoner - needs to see him. But if you saw him, you must tell the truth, no matter how terrible it may be.<…>For my part, I decided long ago that I would devote the rest of my life to this truth.”
The collection “Kolyma Stories” is the main work of the writer, which he composed for almost 20 years. These stories leave an extremely heavy impression of horror from the fact that this is how people really survived. The main themes of the works: camp life, breaking the character of prisoners. All of them were doomedly awaiting inevitable death, not holding out hope, not entering into the fight. Hunger and its convulsive saturation, exhaustion, painful dying, slow and almost equally painful recovery, moral humiliation and moral degradation - this is what is constantly in the focus of the writer’s attention. All the heroes are unhappy, their destinies are mercilessly broken. The language of the work is simple, unpretentious, not decorated with means of expressiveness, which creates the feeling of a truthful story from an ordinary person, one of many who experienced all this.
Analysis of the stories “At Night” and “Condensed Milk”: problems in “Kolyma Stories”
The story “At Night” tells us about an incident that does not immediately fit into our heads: two prisoners, Bagretsov and Glebov, dig up a grave in order to remove the underwear from a corpse and sell it. Moral and ethical principles have been erased, giving way to the principles of survival: the heroes will sell their linen, buy some bread or even tobacco. The themes of life on the verge of death and doom run like a red thread through the work. Prisoners do not value life, but for some reason they survive, indifferent to everything. The problem of brokenness is revealed to the reader; it is immediately clear that after such shocks a person will never be the same.
The story “Condensed Milk” is dedicated to the problem of betrayal and meanness. The geological engineer Shestakov was “lucky”: in the camp he avoided compulsory work and ended up in an “office” where he received good food and clothing. The prisoners envied not the free ones, but people like Shestakov, because the camp narrowed their interests to everyday ones: “Only something external could bring us out of indifference, take us away from the slowly approaching death. External, not internal strength. Inside, everything was burned out, devastated, we didn’t care, and we didn’t make plans beyond tomorrow.” Shestakov decided to gather a group to escape and hand him over to the authorities, receiving some privileges. This plan was unraveled by the nameless protagonist, familiar to the engineer. The hero demands two cans of canned milk for his participation, this is the ultimate dream for him. And Shestakov brings a treat with a “monstrously blue sticker”, this is the hero’s revenge: he ate both cans under the gaze of other prisoners who were not expecting a treat, just watched the more successful person, and then refused to follow Shestakov. The latter nevertheless persuaded the others and handed them over in cold blood. For what? Where does this desire to curry favor and set up those who are even worse off? V. Shalamov answers this question unequivocally: the camp corrupts and kills everything human in the soul.
Analysis of the story “The Last Battle of Major Pugachev”
If most of the heroes of “Kolyma Stories” live indifferently for unknown reasons, then in the story “The Last Battle of Major Pugachev” the situation is different. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, former military men poured into the camps, whose only fault was that they were captured. People who fought against the Nazis cannot simply live indifferently; they are ready to fight for their honor and dignity. Twelve newly arrived prisoners, led by Major Pugachev, have organized an escape plot that has been in preparation all winter. And so, when spring came, the conspirators burst into the premises of the security detachment and, having shot the duty officer, took possession of the weapons. Holding the suddenly awakened soldiers at gunpoint, they change into military uniforms and stock up on provisions. Having left the camp, they stop the truck on the highway, drop off the driver and continue the journey in the car until the gas runs out. After that they go into the taiga. Despite the willpower and determination of the heroes, the camp vehicle overtakes them and shoots them. Only Pugachev was able to leave. But he understands that soon they will find him too. Does he obediently await punishment? No, even in this situation he shows strength of spirit, he himself interrupts his difficult life path: “Major Pugachev remembered them all - one after another - and smiled at each one. Then he put the barrel of a pistol in his mouth and fired for the last time in his life.” The theme of a strong man in the suffocating circumstances of the camp is revealed tragically: he is either crushed by the system, or he fights and dies.
“Kolyma Stories” does not try to pity the reader, but there is so much suffering, pain and melancholy in them! Everyone needs to read this collection to appreciate their life. After all, despite all the usual problems, modern man has relative freedom and choice, he can show other feelings and emotions, except hunger, apathy and the desire to die. “Kolyma Tales” not only frightens, but also makes you look at life differently. For example, stop complaining about fate and feeling sorry for yourself, because we are incredibly lucky than our ancestors, brave, but ground in the millstones of the system.
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Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov
"Kolyma Tales"
The plot of V. Shalamov’s stories is a painful description of the prison and camp life of prisoners of the Soviet Gulag, their similar tragic destinies, in which chance, merciless or merciful, an assistant or a murderer, the arbitrariness of bosses and thieves rule. Hunger and its convulsive saturation, exhaustion, painful dying, slow and almost equally painful recovery, moral humiliation and moral degradation - this is what is constantly in the focus of the writer’s attention.
Funeral word
The author remembers his camp comrades by name. Evoking the mournful martyrology, he tells who died and how, who suffered and how, who hoped for what, who and how behaved in this Auschwitz without ovens, as Shalamov called the Kolyma camps. Few managed to survive, few managed to survive and remain morally unbroken.
Life of engineer Kipreev
Having not betrayed or sold out to anyone, the author says that he has developed for himself a formula for actively defending his existence: a person can only consider himself human and survive if at any moment he is ready to commit suicide, ready to die. However, later he realizes that he only built himself a comfortable shelter, because it is unknown what you will be like at the decisive moment, whether you simply have enough physical strength, and not just mental strength. Engineer-physicist Kipreev, arrested in 1938, not only withstood a beating during interrogation, but even rushed at the investigator, after which he was put in a punishment cell. However, they still force him to sign false testimony, threatening him with the arrest of his wife. Nevertheless, Kipreev continued to prove to himself and others that he was a man and not a slave, like all prisoners. Thanks to his talent (he invented a way to restore burnt-out light bulbs, repaired an X-ray machine), he manages to avoid the most difficult work, but not always. He miraculously survives, but the moral shock remains in him forever.
To the show
Camp molestation, Shalamov testifies, affected everyone to a greater or lesser extent and occurred in a variety of forms. Two thieves are playing cards. One of them is lost to the nines and asks you to play for “representation”, that is, in debt. At some point, excited by the game, he unexpectedly orders an ordinary intellectual prisoner, who happened to be among the spectators of their game, to give him a woolen sweater. He refuses, and then one of the thieves “finishes” him, but the sweater still goes to the thieves.
At night
Two prisoners sneak to the grave where the body of their deceased comrade was buried in the morning, and remove the dead man’s underwear to sell or exchange for bread or tobacco the next day. The initial disgust at taking off their clothes gives way to the pleasant thought that tomorrow they might be able to eat a little more and even smoke.
Single metering
Camp labor, which Shalamov clearly defines as slave labor, is for the writer a form of the same corruption. The poor prisoner is not able to give the percentage, so labor becomes torture and slow death. Zek Dugaev is gradually weakening, unable to withstand a sixteen-hour working day. He drives, picks, pours, carries again and picks again, and in the evening the caretaker appears and measures what Dugaev has done with a tape measure. The mentioned figure - 25 percent - seems very high to Dugaev, his calves ache, his arms, shoulders, head hurt unbearably, he even lost the feeling of hunger. A little later, he is called to the investigator, who asks the usual questions: name, surname, article, term. And a day later, the soldiers take Dugaev to a remote place, fenced with a high fence with barbed wire, from where the whirring of tractors can be heard at night. Dugaev realizes why he was brought here and that his life is over. And he only regrets that he suffered the last day in vain.
Rain
Sherry Brandy
A prisoner-poet, who was called the first Russian poet of the twentieth century, dies. It lies in the dark depths of the bottom row of solid two-story bunks. He takes a long time to die. Sometimes some thought comes - for example, that the bread he put under his head was stolen, and it is so scary that he is ready to swear, fight, search... But he no longer has the strength for this, and neither does the thought of bread weakens. When the daily ration is placed in his hand, he presses the bread to his mouth with all his might, sucks it, tries to tear it and gnaw it with his scurvy, loose teeth. When he dies, he is not written off for another two days, and inventive neighbors manage to distribute bread for the dead man as if for a living one: they make him raise his hand like a puppet doll.
Shock therapy
Prisoner Merzlyakov, a man of large build, finds himself in general labor and feels that he is gradually giving up. One day he falls, cannot get up immediately and refuses to carry the log. He is beaten first by his own people, then by his guards, and they bring him to the camp - he has a broken rib and pain in the lower back. And although the pain quickly passed and the rib has healed, Merzlyakov continues to complain and pretends that he cannot straighten up, trying to delay his discharge to work at any cost. He is sent to the central hospital, to the surgical department, and from there to the nervous department for examination. He has a chance to be activated, that is, released due to illness. Remembering the mine, the pinching cold, the empty bowl of soup that he drank without even using a spoon, he concentrates all his will so as not to be caught in deception and sent to a penal mine. However, the doctor Pyotr Ivanovich, himself a former prisoner, was not a mistake. The professional replaces the human in him. He spends most of his time exposing malingerers. This pleases his pride: he is an excellent specialist and is proud that he has retained his qualifications, despite a year of general work. He immediately understands that Merzlyakov is a malingerer, and anticipates the theatrical effect of the new revelation. First, the doctor gives him Rausch anesthesia, during which Merzlyakov’s body can be straightened, and a week later he undergoes the so-called shock therapy procedure, the effect of which is similar to an attack of violent madness or an epileptic seizure. After this, the prisoner himself asks to be released.
Typhoid quarantine
Prisoner Andreev, having fallen ill with typhus, is quarantined. Compared to general work in the mines, the position of the patient gives a chance to survive, which the hero almost no longer hoped for. And then he decides, by hook or by crook, to stay here as long as possible, in the transit train, and then, perhaps, he will no longer be sent to the gold mines, where there is hunger, beatings and death. At the roll call before the next sending to work of those who are considered recovered, Andreev does not respond, and thus he manages to hide for quite a long time. The transit is gradually emptying, and Andreev’s turn finally reaches. But now it seems to him that he has won his battle for life, that now the taiga is saturated and if there are any dispatches, it will be only for short-term, local business trips. However, when a truck with a selected group of prisoners, who were unexpectedly given winter uniforms, passes the line separating short-term missions from distant ones, he realizes with an internal shudder that fate has cruelly laughed at him.
Aortic aneurysm
Illness (and the emaciated state of the “gone” prisoners is quite equivalent to a serious illness, although it was not officially considered as such) and the hospital are an indispensable attribute of the plot in Shalamov’s stories. Prisoner Ekaterina Glovatskaya is admitted to the hospital. A beauty, she immediately attracted the attention of the doctor on duty Zaitsev, and although he knows that she is on close terms with his acquaintance, prisoner Podshivalov, the head of an amateur art group (“serf theater,” as the head of the hospital jokes), nothing prevents him in turn try your luck. He begins, as usual, with a medical examination of Glowacka, with listening to the heart, but his male interest quickly gives way to purely medical concern. He finds that Glowacka has an aortic aneurysm, a disease in which any careless movement can cause death. The authorities, who have made it an unwritten rule to separate lovers, have already once sent Glovatskaya to a penal women's mine. And now, after the doctor’s report about the prisoner’s dangerous illness, the head of the hospital is sure that this is nothing more than the machinations of the same Podshivalov, trying to detain his mistress. Glovatskaya is discharged, but as soon as she is loaded into the car, what Dr. Zaitsev warned about happens - she dies.
The last battle of Major Pugachev
Among the heroes of Shalamov’s prose there are those who not only strive to survive at any cost, but are also able to intervene in the course of circumstances, stand up for themselves, even risking their lives. According to the author, after the war of 1941−1945. Prisoners who fought and were captured by Germans began to arrive in the northeastern camps. These are people of a different temperament, “with courage, the ability to take risks, who believed only in weapons. Commanders and soldiers, pilots and intelligence officers...” But most importantly, they had an instinct for freedom, which the war awakened in them. They shed their blood, sacrificed their lives, saw death face to face. They were not corrupted by camp slavery and were not yet exhausted to the point of losing strength and will. Their “fault” was that they were surrounded or captured. And it is clear to Major Pugachev, one of these not yet broken people: “they were brought to death - to replace these living dead” whom they met in Soviet camps. Then the former major gathers equally determined and strong prisoners to match himself, ready to either die or become free. Their group included pilots, a reconnaissance officer, a paramedic, and a tankman. They realized that they were innocently doomed to death and that they had nothing to lose. They've been preparing their escape all winter. Pugachev realized that only those who avoid general work could survive the winter and then escape. And the participants in the conspiracy, one after another, are promoted to servants: someone becomes a cook, someone a cult leader, someone who repairs weapons in the security detachment. But then spring comes, and with it the planned day.
At five o'clock in the morning there was a knock on the watch. The duty officer lets in the camp cook-prisoner, who has come, as usual, to get the keys to the pantry. A minute later, the guard on duty finds himself strangled, and one of the prisoners changes into his uniform. The same thing happens to the other duty officer who returned a little later. Then everything goes according to Pugachev’s plan. The conspirators break into the premises of the security detachment and, having shot the duty officer, take possession of the weapon. Holding the suddenly awakened soldiers at gunpoint, they change into military uniforms and stock up on provisions. Having left the camp, they stop the truck on the highway, drop off the driver and continue the journey in the car until the gas runs out. After that they go into the taiga. At night - the first night of freedom after long months of captivity - Pugachev, waking up, remembers his escape from a German camp in 1944, crossing the front line, interrogation in a special department, being accused of espionage and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. He also remembers the visits of General Vlasov’s emissaries to the German camp, recruiting Russian soldiers, convincing them that for the Soviet regime, all of them who were captured were traitors to the Motherland. Pugachev did not believe them until he could see for himself. He looks lovingly at his sleeping comrades who believed in him and stretched out their hands to freedom; he knows that they are “the best, the most worthy of all.” And a little later a battle breaks out, the last hopeless battle between the fugitives and the soldiers surrounding them. Almost all of the fugitives die, except for one, seriously wounded, who is cured and then shot. Only Major Pugachev manages to escape, but he knows, hiding in the bear’s den, that they will find him anyway. He doesn't regret what he did. His last shot was at himself.
Shock therapy
One of the prisoners named Merzlyakov, while at general work, felt that he was getting worse and worse. When he fell while carrying a log one day, he refused to get up. For this, he was beaten first by his own people, then by the guards. He arrived at the camp with a broken rib and lower back pain. The rib healed and the pain went away, but Merzlyakov did not show this, trying to stay longer in the infirmary. Realizing that doctors cannot cure the prisoner, he is taken to a local hospital to be examined by specialists. There is a chance for him to be activated for health reasons, because with such illnesses he will not be sent again to the machinations, where it was damp, cold, and fed with an incomprehensible soup, where there was only water, which could easily be drunk without the help of a spoon. Now he concentrated entirely on his behavior, so as not to be carried away in a lie and not earn himself further fines.
But Merzlyakov had no luck with the doctor. He was treated by Pyotr Ivanovich, a doctor who specialized in exposing malingerers. And although he himself had one year of imprisonment, he was guided by truly medical principles. Realizing that Merzlyakov is a malingerer, he first sends the patient to raush anesthesia, which allows him to sort of straighten out the patient, and then to shock therapy, after which the patient himself asked to be discharged.
Typhoid quarantine
After contracting typhus, prisoner Andreev is placed under quarantine. At the mines themselves, compared to general work, health plays a big role. Andreev awakens to the long-hushed hope of not returning to where dampness, hunger and death reigned. He hopes to stay longer in transit, and then maybe he’ll be lucky that he won’t be returned to the mines. Andreev did not respond to the line-up of prisoners before departure, since he was considered not yet recovered. He was in the transit until it was empty and the line came to him. It seemed to Andreev that he had conquered death, that the path to the mines in the taiga was already closed to him, that now he would only be sent on local business trips. But when a truck with prisoners who were given winter clothes suddenly crosses the dividing line between near and far business trips, Andreev realizes that the essence has simply mocked him, and that everything starts all over again.
Aortic aneurysm
Prisoner Ekaterina Glovatskaya ends up in the hospital where the emaciated, emaciated prisoners were kept. She was pretty, which immediately attracted Zaitsev, the doctor on duty at the hospital. He is aware that Katya and his prisoner friend Podshivalov, who was the leader of an amateur art group, had a relationship. But this did not stop him, and Zaitsev decides to try his own luck.
He began, as befits a doctor, with a medical examination of the patient-prisoner. But that masculine interest in a beautiful woman quickly changes to medical concern when he finds out that Katya suffers from an aortic aneurysm - a disease that, with the slightest wrong movement, can lead to death. The authorities thought that this was Podshivalov’s trick, so that his beloved would stay nearby longer, and gave the command to Zaitsev to discharge the patient.
The next day, when the prisoners were loaded into the car, what the doctor warned about happened - Catherine was dying.
Essays
Shalamov - Kolyma storiesAdditional essays
Kolyma stories
V. T. Shalamov
Kolyma stories
The plot of V. Shalamov's stories is a painful description of the prison and camp life of prisoners of the Soviet Gulag, their similar tragic destinies, in which chance, merciless or merciful, an assistant or a murderer, the tyranny of bosses and thieves rule. Hunger and its convulsive saturation, exhaustion, painful dying, slow and almost equally painful recovery, moral humiliation and moral degradation - this is what is constantly in the focus of the writer’s attention.
Funeral word
The author remembers his camp comrades by name. Evoking the mournful martyrology, he tells who died and how, who suffered and how, who hoped for what, who and how behaved in this Auschwitz without ovens, as Shalamov called the Kolyma camps. Few managed to survive, few managed to survive and remain morally unbroken.
Life of engineer Kipreev
Having not betrayed or sold out to anyone, the author says that he has developed for himself a formula for actively defending his existence: a person can only consider himself human and survive if at any moment he is ready to commit suicide, ready to die. However, later he realizes that he only built himself a comfortable shelter, because it is unknown what you will be like at the decisive moment, whether you simply have enough physical strength, and not just mental strength. Engineer-physicist Kipreev, arrested in 1938, not only withstood a beating during interrogation, but even rushed at the investigator, after which he was put in a punishment cell. However, they still force him to sign false testimony, threatening him with the arrest of his wife. Nevertheless, Kipreev continued to prove to himself and others that he was a man and not a slave, like all prisoners. Thanks to his talent (he invented a way to restore burnt-out light bulbs and repaired an X-ray machine), he manages to avoid the most difficult work, but not always. He miraculously survives, but the moral shock remains with him forever.
To the show
Camp molestation, Shalamov testifies, affected everyone to a greater or lesser extent and occurred in a variety of forms. Two thieves are playing cards. One of them is lost to the nines and asks you to play for “representation”, that is, in debt. At some point, excited by the game, he unexpectedly orders an ordinary intellectual prisoner, who happened to be among the spectators of their game, to give him a woolen sweater. He refuses, and then one of the thieves “finishes” him, but the sweater still goes to the thug.
Two prisoners sneak to the grave where the body of their dead comrade was buried in the morning, and remove the dead man’s underwear to sell or exchange for bread or tobacco the next day. The initial disgust at taking off their clothes gives way to the pleasant thought that tomorrow they might be able to eat a little more and even smoke.
Single metering
Camp labor, which Shalamov clearly defines as slave labor, is for the writer a form of the same corruption. The poor prisoner is not able to give the percentage, so labor becomes torture and slow death. Zek Dugaev is gradually weakening, unable to withstand a sixteen-hour working day. He drives, picks, pours, carries again and picks again, and in the evening the caretaker appears and measures what Dugaev has done with a tape measure. The mentioned figure - 25 percent - seems very high to Dugaev, his calves ache, his arms, shoulders, head hurt unbearably, he even lost the feeling of hunger. A little later, he is called to the investigator, who asks the usual questions: first name, last name, article, term. And a day later, the soldiers take Dugaev to a remote place, fenced with a high fence with barbed wire, from where the whirring of tractors can be heard at night. Dugaev realizes why he was brought here and that his life is over. And he only regrets that he suffered the last day in vain.
Sherry Brandy
A prisoner-poet, who was called the first Russian poet of the twentieth century, dies. It lies in the dark depths of the bottom row of solid two-story bunks. He takes a long time to die. Sometimes some thought comes - for example, that his bread, which he put under his head, was stolen, and it is so scary that he is ready to swear, fight, search... But he no longer has the strength for this, and neither does the thought of bread weakens. When the daily ration is placed in his hand, he presses the bread to his mouth with all his might, sucks it, tries to tear it and gnaw it with scurvy, loose teeth. When he dies, he is not written off for another two days, and inventive neighbors manage to distribute bread for the dead man as if for a living one: they make him raise his hand like a puppet doll.
Shock therapy
Prisoner Merzlyakov, a man of large build, finds himself in general labor and feels that he is gradually giving up. One day he falls, cannot get up immediately and refuses to carry the log. He is beaten first by his own people, then by his guards, and they bring him to the camp - he has a broken rib and pain in the lower back. And although the pain quickly passed and the rib has healed, Merzlyakov continues to complain and pretends that he cannot straighten up, trying to delay his discharge to work at any cost. He is sent to the central hospital, to the surgical department, and from there to the nervous department for examination. He has a chance to be activated, that is, released due to illness. Remembering the mine, the pinching cold, the empty bowl of soup that he drank without even using a spoon, he concentrates all his will so as not to be caught in deception and sent to a penal mine. However, the doctor Pyotr Ivanovich, himself a former prisoner, was not a mistake. The professional replaces the human in him. He spends most of his time exposing malingerers. This pleases his pride: he is an excellent specialist and is proud that he has retained his qualifications, despite a year of general work. He immediately understands that Merzlyakov is a malingerer, and anticipates the theatrical effect of the new revelation. First, the doctor gives him Rausch anesthesia, during which Merzlyakov’s body can be straightened, and after another week the procedure of so-called shock therapy, the effect of which is similar to an attack of violent madness or an epileptic seizure. After this, the prisoner himself asks to be discharged.
Typhoid quarantine
Prisoner Andreev, having fallen ill with typhus, is quarantined. Compared to general work in the mines, the position of the patient gives a chance to survive, which the hero almost no longer hoped for. And then he decides, by hook or by crook, to stay here as long as possible, in the transit train, and then, perhaps, he will no longer be sent to the gold mines, where there is hunger, beatings and death. At the roll call before the next sending to work of those who are considered recovered, Andreev does not respond, and thus he manages to hide for quite a long time. The transit is gradually emptying, and Andreev’s turn finally reaches. But now it seems to him that he has won his battle for life, that now the taiga is saturated and if there are any dispatches, it will be only for short-term, local business trips. However, when a truck with a selected group of prisoners, who were unexpectedly given winter uniforms, passes the line separating short-term missions from long-distance ones, he realizes with an internal shudder that fate has cruelly laughed at him.
Aortic aneurysm
Illness (and the emaciated state of the “gone” prisoners is quite equivalent to a serious illness, although it was not officially considered such) and the hospital are an indispensable attribute of the plot in Shalamov’s stories. Prisoner Ekaterina Glovatskaya is admitted to the hospital. A beauty, she immediately attracted the attention of the doctor on duty Zaitsev, and although he knows that she is on close terms with his acquaintance, the prisoner Podshivalov, the head of an amateur art group (“serf theater,” as the head of the hospital jokes), nothing prevents him in turn try your luck. He begins, as usual, with a medical examination of Glowacka, with listening to the heart, but his male interest quickly gives way to purely medical concern. He finds Glowacka has an aortic aneurysm - a disease in which any careless movement can cause death. The authorities, who have made it an unwritten rule to separate lovers, have already once sent Glovatskaya to a penal women's mine. And now, after the doctor’s report about the prisoner’s dangerous illness, the head of the hospital is sure that this is nothing more than the machinations of the same Podshivalov, trying to detain his mistress. Glovatskaya is discharged, but as soon as she is loaded into the car, what Dr. Zaitsev warned about happens - she dies.
The last battle of Major Pugachev
Among the heroes of Shalamov’s prose there are those who not only strive to survive at any cost, but are also able to intervene in the course of circumstances, stand up for themselves, even risking their lives. According to the author, after the war of 1941-1945. Prisoners who had fought and survived German captivity began to arrive in the northeastern camps. These are people of a different temperament, “with courage, the ability to take risks, who believed only in weapons. Commanders and soldiers, pilots and intelligence officers...” But most importantly, they had an instinct for freedom, which was awakened in them. They shed their blood, sacrificed their lives, saw death face to face. They were not corrupted by camp slavery and were not yet exhausted to the point of losing strength and will. Their “fault” was that they were surrounded or captured. And Major Pugachev, one of these not yet broken people, is clear: “they were brought to their death - to replace these living dead” whom they met in Soviet camps. Then the former major gathers equally determined and strong prisoners to match himself, ready to either die or become free. Their group included pilots, a reconnaissance officer, a paramedic, and a tankman. They realized that they were innocently doomed to death and that they had nothing to lose. They've been preparing their escape all winter. Pugachev realized that only those who avoid general work could survive the winter and then escape. And the participants in the conspiracy, one after another, are promoted to servants: someone becomes a cook, someone a cult leader, someone who repairs weapons in the security detachment. But then spring comes, and with it the planned day.
At five o'clock in the morning there was a knock on the watch. The duty officer lets in the prisoner camp cook, who has come, as usual, to get the keys to the pantry. A minute later, the guard on duty finds himself strangled, and one of the prisoners changes into his uniform. The same thing happens to the other duty officer who returned a little later. Then everything goes according to Pugachev’s plan. The conspirators break into the premises of the security detachment and, having shot the duty officer, take possession of the weapon. Holding the suddenly awakened soldiers at gunpoint, they change into military uniforms and stock up on provisions. Having left the camp, they stop the truck on the highway, drop off the driver and continue the journey in the car until the gas runs out. After that they go into the taiga. At night - the first night of freedom after long months of captivity - Pugachev, waking up, remembers his escape from a German camp in 1944, crossing the front line, interrogation in a special department, being accused of espionage and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. He also remembers the visits of General Vlasov’s emissaries to the German camp, recruiting Russian soldiers, convincing them that for the Soviet regime, all of them who were captured were traitors to the Motherland. Pugachev did not believe them until he could see for himself. He looks lovingly at his sleeping comrades who believed in him and stretched out their hands to freedom; he knows that they are “the best, the most worthy of all.” And a little later a battle breaks out, the last hopeless battle between the fugitives and the soldiers surrounding them. Almost all of the fugitives die, except for one, seriously wounded, who is cured and then shot. Only Major Pugachev manages to escape, but he knows, hiding in the bear’s den, that they will find him anyway. He doesn't regret what he did. His last shot was at himself.
Year of publication of the collection: 1966
Shalamov’s “Kolyma Stories” were written based on the writer’s personal experience; he spent thirteen years in Kolyma. Varlam Shalamov created the collection for quite a long time, from 1954 to 1962. First « Kolyma Stories” could be read in the New York magazine “New Journal” in Russian. Although the author did not want to publish his stories abroad.
Collection "Kolyma Stories" summary
In the snow
Varlam Shalamov’s collection “Kolyma Stories” begins with a question: do you want to know how they trample the road through the virgin snow? The man, cursing and sweating, walks ahead, leaving black holes in the loose snow behind him. They choose a windless day, so that the air is almost still and the wind does not sweep away all human labor. The first is followed by five or six more people, they walk in a row and step near the tracks of the first.
The first one always has it harder than everyone else, and when he gets tired, he is replaced by one of the people walking in the row. It is important that each of the “pioneers” steps on a piece of virgin soil, and not on someone else’s footprint. And it is readers, not writers, who ride horses and tractors.
To the show
The men played cards at Naumov's, a horse-driver. The guards usually did not enter the barracks of the horsemen, so every night the thieves gathered there for card fights. In the corner of the barracks, on the lower beds, blankets were spread, on which lay a pillow - a “table” for card games. On the pillow lay a recently made deck of cards, cut from a volume of V. Hugo. To make a deck you needed paper, a crayon, a loaf of bread (used for gluing thin paper) and a knife. One of the players tapped the pillow with his fingers, the nail of his little finger was incredibly long - criminal chic. This man had an appearance very suitable for a thief; you look at his face and no longer remember his features. It was Sevochka, they said that he performed “excellently” and showed the dexterity of a sharper. The thief's game was a game of deception, played only by two people. Sevochka's opponent was Naumov, who was a railway thief, although he looked like a monk. A cross hung around his neck, such was the fashion of thieves in the forties.
Next, the players had to argue and swear to set the bet. Naumov lost his suit and wanted to play for the show, that is, as a loan. Konogon called the main character to him and Garkunov demanded to take off his padded jacket. Under his padded jacket, Garkunov had a sweater, a gift from his wife, which he never parted with. The man refused to take off his sweater, and then the others attacked him. Sashka, who had recently poured soup for them, took a knife from the top of his boot and extended his hand to Garkunov, who sobbed and fell. The game was over.
At night
Dinner is over. Glebov licked the bowl, the bread melted in his mouth. Bagretsov kept looking into Glebov’s mouth, not having enough strength to look away. It was time to go, they walked onto a small ledge, the stones burned their feet with cold. And even walking didn’t warm me up.
The men stopped to rest; they still had a long way to go. They lay down on the ground and began to throw stones. Bagretsov swore, he cut his finger and the bleeding did not stop. Glebov was a doctor in the past, although now that time seemed like a dream. The friends were removing stones, and then Bagretsov noticed a human finger. They pulled out the corpse, took off his shirt and underpants. Having finished, the men threw stones at the grave. They were going to exchange clothes for the most valuable things in the camp. Like this there was bread and perhaps even tobacco.
Carpenters
The next content in the collection “Kolyma Stories” contains the story “Carpenters”. He talks about how there was fog on the street for days, so thick that you couldn’t see a person two steps away. For two weeks the temperature had remained below minus fifty-five degrees. Potashnikov woke up with the hope that the frost had fallen, but this never happened. The food that the workers were fed gave energy for a maximum of one hour, and then I wanted to lie down and die. Potashnikov slept on the upper bunks, where it was warmer, but his hair froze to the pillow overnight.
The man grew weaker every day, he was not afraid of death, but did not want to die in a barracks, where the cold froze not only human bones, but also souls. After finishing breakfast, Potashnikov walked to the place of work, where he saw a man in a reindeer hat who needed carpenters. He and another man from his team introduced themselves as carpenters, although they were not. The men were brought to the workshop, but since they did not know carpentry, they were sent back.
Single metering
In the evening, Dugaev was informed that the next day he would receive a single measurement. Dugaev was twenty-three and everything that happened here greatly surprised him. After a meager lunch, Baranov offered Dugaev a cigarette, although they were not friends.
In the morning, the caretaker measured out the length of time for the man to work. Working alone was even better for Dugaev; no one would grumble that he was doing a bad job. In the evening the caretaker came to evaluate the work. The guy completed twenty-five percent, and this number seemed huge to him. The next day he worked together with everyone, and at night he was taken behind the base, where there was a high fence with barbed wire. Dugaev regretted one thing, that he suffered and worked that day. Last day.
The man was on watch to receive a package. His wife sent him several handfuls of prunes and a burqa, which they still could not wear, because it was not proper for ordinary workers to wear such expensive shoes. But the mountain ranger, Andrei Boyko, offered him to sell these cloaks for a hundred rubles. With the proceeds, the main character bought a kilogram of butter and a kilogram of bread. But all the food was taken away and the brew with prunes was knocked over.
Rain
The men had been working at the site for three days, each in his own pit, but no one had gone deeper than half a meter. They were forbidden to leave the pits or talk to each other. The main character of this story wanted to break his leg by dropping a stone on it, but nothing came of this idea, only a couple of abrasions and bruises remained. It rained all the time, the guards thought that this would make the men work faster, but the workers only began to hate their work even more.
On the third day, the hero’s neighbor, Rozovsky, shouted from his pit that he realized something - there was no meaning in life. But the man managed to save Rozovsky from the guards, although he still threw himself under the trolley after some time, but did not die. Rozovsky was tried for attempted suicide and the hero never saw him again.
Kant
The hero says that his favorite northern tree is cedar, dwarf. You could tell the weather by looking at the dwarf tree; if you lie down on the ground, it means it will be snowy and cold and vice versa. The man had just been transferred to a new job collecting elfin wood, which was then sent to a factory to make unusually nasty anti-scurvy vitamins.
They worked in pairs while assembling dwarf wood. One chopped, the other pinched. That day they failed to collect the quota, and in order to correct the situation, the protagonist’s partner stuffed a large stone into a bag of branches; they still didn’t check it.
Dry rations
In this “Kolyma Tale”, four men from the stone quarries are sent to cut down trees on the Duskanya spring. Their ten-day rations were negligible, and they were afraid to think that this food would have to be divided into thirty parts. The workers decided to dump all their food together. They all lived in an old hunting hut, at night they buried their clothes in the ground, leaving a small edge outside so that all the lice would crawl out, then they scorched the insects. They worked from sun to sun. The foreman checked the work done and left, then the men worked more relaxed, did not quarrel, but rested more and looked at nature. Every evening they gathered around the stove and talked, discussing their difficult life in the camp. It was impossible to refuse to go to work, because there was no pea coat or mittens; the document wrote “dressed for the season” so as not to list everything that was missing.
The next day, not everyone returned to camp. Ivan Ivanovich hanged himself that night, and Savelyev cut off his fingers. Upon returning to the camp, Fedya wrote a letter to his mother saying that he was living well and dressed for the season.
Injector
This story is Kudinov’s report to the head of the mine, where a worker reports a broken injector that does not allow the entire team to work. And people have to stand in the cold for several hours at temperatures below minus fifty. The man informed the chief engineer, but no action was taken. In response, the head of the mine offers to replace the injector with a civilian one. And the injector should be held accountable.
Apostle Paul
The hero sprained his leg and was transferred as an assistant to the carpenter Frisorger, who in his past life was a pastor in some German village. They became good friends and often talked about religious topics.
Frizorger told the man about his only daughter, and their boss, Paramonov, accidentally overheard this conversation and offered to write a wanted report. Six months later, a letter arrived saying that Frisorger’s daughter was renouncing him. But the hero noticed this letter first and burned it, and then another one. Subsequently, he often remembered his camp friend, as long as he had the strength to remember.
Berries
The main character lies on the ground without strength, two guards approach him and threaten him. One of them, Seroshapka, says that tomorrow he will shoot the worker. The next day, the team went to the forest to work, where blueberries, rose hips and lingonberries grew. The workers ate them during smoke breaks, but Rybakov had a task: he collected the berries in a jar and then exchanged them for bread. The main character, together with Rybakov, came too close to the prohibited territory, and Rybakov crossed the line.
The guard fired twice, the first warning, and after the second shot Rybakov lay on the ground. The hero decided not to waste time and picked up a jar of berries, intending to exchange them for bread.
Bitch Tamara
Moses was a blacksmith, he worked wonderfully, each of his products was endowed with grace, and his superiors appreciated him for this. And one day Kuznetsov met a dog, he began to run away from it, thinking that it was a wolf. But the dog was friendly and remained in the camp - she was given the nickname Tamara. Soon she gave birth, and a kennel was built for the six puppies. At this time, a detachment of “operatives” arrived at the camp, they were looking for fugitives - prisoners. Tamara hated one guard, Nazarov. It was clear that the dog had already met him. When the time came for the guards to leave, Nazarov shot Tamara. And then, while skiing down the slope, he ran into a stump and died. Tamara's skin was torn off and used for mittens.
Sherry-brandy
The poet was dying, his thoughts were confused, life flowed out of him. But it appeared again, he opened his eyes, moved his fingers, swollen from hunger. The man reflected on life, he deserved creative immortality, he was called the first poet of the twentieth century. Although he had not written down his poems for a long time, the poet put them together in his head. He was dying slowly. In the morning they brought bread, the man grabbed it with his bad teeth, but the neighbors stopped him. In the evening he died. But the death was recorded two days later, the poet’s neighbors received the dead man’s bread.
Baby pictures
That day they had an easy job - sawing wood. Having finished working, the squad noticed a pile of garbage near the fence. The men even managed to find socks, which was very rare in the north. And one of them managed to find a notebook filled with children's drawings. The boy drew soldiers with machine guns, painted the nature of the North, with bright and pure colors, because that’s how it was. The northern city consisted of yellow houses, shepherd dogs, soldiers and blue skies. A man from the detachment looked into the notebook, felt the pages, and then crumpled it and threw it away.
Condensed milk
One day after work, Shestakov suggested that the main character escape; they were in prison together, but were not friends. The man agreed, but asked for canned milk. At night he slept poorly and did not remember the working day at all.
Having received condensed milk from Shestakov, he changed his mind about running away. I wanted to warn others, but I didn’t know anyone. Five fugitives, along with Shestakov, were caught very quickly, two were killed, three were tried a month later. Shestakov himself was transferred to another mine; he was well-fed and shaven, but did not greet the main character.
Bread
In the morning they brought herring and bread to the barracks. Herring was given out every other day, and every prisoner dreamed of a tail. Yes, the head was more fun, but there was more meat in the tail. Bread was given out once a day, but everyone ate it at once, there was not enough patience. After breakfast it became warm and I didn’t want to go anywhere.
This team was in typhoid quarantine, but they still worked. Today they were taken to a bakery, where the master, out of twenty, chose only two, stronger and not inclined to escape: the Hero and his neighbor, a guy with freckles. They were fed with bread and jam. The men had to carry broken bricks, but this work turned out to be too hard for them. They often took breaks, and soon the master sent them back and gave them a loaf of bread. In the camp we shared bread with our neighbors.
Snake charmer
This story is dedicated to Andrei Platonov, who was a friend of the author and himself wanted to write this story, even came up with the name “Snake Charmer,” but died. Platonov spent a year on the Dzhankhar. On the first day, he noticed that there are people who don’t work - thieves. And Fedechka was their leader, at first he was rude to Platonov, but when he found out that he could squeeze novels, he immediately softened. Andrei retold “The Jacks of Hearts Club” until dawn. Fedya was very pleased.
In the morning, when Platonov was going to work, some guy pushed him. But they immediately whispered something in his ear. Then this guy approached Platonov and asked not to say anything to Fedya, Andrei agreed.
Tatar mullah and clean air
It was very hot in the prison cell. The prisoners joked that first they would be tortured by evaporation, and then torture by freezing out. The Tatar mula, a strong man of sixty years old, was talking about his life. He hoped to live in the cell for another twenty years, and in clean air for at least ten, he knew what “clean air” was.
It took twenty to thirty days for a person to become a goner in the camp. The prisoners tried to escape from prison to the camp, thinking that prison was the worst thing that could happen to them. All the prisoners' illusions about the camp were very quickly destroyed. People lived in unheated barracks, where in winter ice froze in all the cracks. Parcels arrived within six months, if they arrived at all. There is nothing to talk about money at all, they were never paid, not a penny. The incredible number of diseases in the camp left the workers no choice. Given all the hopelessness and depression, clean air was much more dangerous for a person than prison.
First death
The hero saw many deaths, but he remembered the first one he saw best. His team worked the night shift. Returning to the barracks, their foreman Andreev suddenly turned in the other direction and ran, the workers followed him. A man in military uniform stood in front of them, a woman lay at his feet. The hero knew her, it was Anna Pavlovna, the secretary of the head of the mine. The brigade loved her, and now Anna Pavlovna was dead, strangled. The man who killed her, Shtemenko, was the boss who several months ago broke all the prisoners' homemade pots. He was quickly tied up and taken to the head of the mine.
Part of the brigade hurried to the barracks to have lunch, Andreev was taken to give evidence. And when he returned, he ordered the prisoners to go to work. Soon Shtemenko was sentenced to ten years for murder out of jealousy. After the verdict, the chief was taken away. Former bosses are kept in separate camps.
Aunt Polya
Aunt Polya died of a terrible disease - stomach cancer. No one knew her last name, not even the wife of the boss, for whom Aunt Polya was a servant or “orderly.” The woman did not engage in any shady affairs, she only helped to arrange easy jobs for her fellow Ukrainians. When she became ill, visitors came to her hospital every day. And everything that the boss’s wife gave, Aunt Polya gave to the nurses.
One day Father Peter came to the hospital to confess to the patient. A few days later she died, and soon Father Peter appeared again and ordered a cross to be placed on her grave, and they did so. On the cross they first wrote Timoshenko Polina Ivanovna, but it seemed that her name was Praskovya Ilyinichna. The inscription was corrected under the supervision of Peter.
Tie
In this story by Varlam Shalamov, “Kolyma Tales,” you can read about a girl named Marusya Kryukova, who came to Russia from Japan and was arrested in Vladivostok. During the investigation, Masha’s leg was broken, the bone did not heal properly, and the girl was limping. Kryukova was a wonderful needlewoman, and she was sent to the “directorate’s house” to embroider. Such houses stood near the road, and the leaders spent the night there two or three times a year, the houses were beautifully decorated, paintings and embroidered canvases hung. In addition to Marusya, two more needlewomen worked in the house; they were looked after by a woman who gave the workers threads and fabric. For fulfilling the norm and good behavior, the girls were allowed to go to the cinema for prisoners. The films were shown in parts, and one day, after the first part, they showed the first again. This is because the deputy head of the hospital, Dolmatov, arrived late, and the film was shown first.
Marusya ended up in the hospital, in the women's ward, to see a surgeon. She really wanted to give ties to the doctors who cured her. And the woman overseer gave permission. However, Masha was unable to fulfill her plans, because Dolmatov took them away from the craftswoman. Soon, at an amateur concert, the doctor was able to see the boss’s tie, so gray, patterned, and of high quality.
Taiga golden
There are two types of zone: small, that is, transfer, and large - camp. On the territory of the small zone there is one square barracks, with about five hundred seats, bunks on four floors. The main character lies on the bottom, the top ones are only for thieves. On the very first night, the hero is called to be sent to the camp, but the zone foreman sends him back to the barracks.
Soon the artists are brought into the barracks, one of them is a Harbin singer, Valyusha, a criminal, and asks him to sing. The singer sang a song about the golden taiga. The hero fell asleep; he woke up from a whisper on the upper bunk and the smell of shag. When his work assistant wakes him up in the morning, the hero asks to go to the hospital. Three days later, a paramedic comes to the barracks and examines the man.
Vaska Denisov, pig thief
Vaska Denisov could only avoid arousing suspicion by carrying firewood on his shoulder. He carried the log to Ivan Petrovich, the men sawed it together, and then Vaska chopped all the wood. Ivan Petrovich said that now he had nothing to feed the worker, but gave him three rubles. Vaska was sick from hunger. He walked through the village, wandered into the first house he came across, and in the closet he saw the frozen carcass of a pig. Vaska grabbed her and ran to the government house, the department of vitamin business trips. The chase was already close. Then he ran into the red corner, locked the door and began to gnaw on the pig, raw and frozen. When Vaska was found, he had already chewed half of it.
Seraphim
There was a letter on Seraphim’s table; he was afraid to open it. The man had been working in the North in a chemical laboratory for a year, but he could not forget his wife. Seraphim had two other prison engineers working with him, with whom he hardly spoke. Every six months the laboratory assistant received a ten percent salary increase. And Seraphim decided to go to a neighboring village to unwind. But the guards decided that the man had escaped from somewhere and put him in a barracks; six days later the head of the laboratory came for Seraphim and took him away. Although the guards did not return the money.
Returning, Seraphim saw a letter; his wife wrote about divorce. When Seraphim was left alone in the laboratory, he opened the director’s closet, took out a pinch of powder, dissolved it in water and drank it. It started to burn in my throat, and nothing else. Then Seraphim cut his vein, but the blood flowed too weakly. Desperate, the man ran to the river and tried to drown himself. He woke up already in the hospital. The doctor injected a glucose solution, and then unclenched Seraphim’s teeth with a spatula. The operation was performed, but it was too late. The acid eroded the esophagus and the walls of the stomach. Seraphim calculated everything correctly the first time.
Day off
A man was praying in a clearing. The hero knew him, it was the priest from his barracks, Zamyatin. Prayers helped him live like a hero, poems that are still preserved in his memory. The only thing that was not supplanted by the humiliation of eternal hunger, fatigue and cold. Returning to the barracks, the man heard noise in the instrumental room, which was closed on weekends, but today the lock was not hanging. He went inside, two thieves were playing with the puppy. One of them, Semyon, pulled out an ax and lowered it on the puppy’s head.
In the evening, no one slept from the smell of meat soup. The Blatari did not eat all the soup, because there were few of them in the barracks. They offered the remains to the hero, but he refused. Zamyatin entered the barracks, and the thugs offered him soup, saying that it was made from lamb. He agreed and five minutes later returned a clean pot. Then Semyon told the priest that the soup was from a dog, Nord. The priest silently went outside, vomiting. Later he admitted to the hero that the meat tasted no worse than lamb.
Domino
The man is in the hospital, his height is one hundred and eighty centimeters, and his weight is forty-eight kilograms. The doctor took his temperature, thirty-four degrees. The patient was placed closer to the stove, he ate, but the food did not warm him. The man will stay in the hospital until spring, two months, that’s what the doctor said. At night a week later, the patient was woken up by an orderly and told that Andrei Mikhailovich, the doctor who treated him, was calling him. Andrei Mikhailovich invited the hero to play dominoes. The patient agreed, although he hated the game. During the game they talked a lot, Andrei Mikhailovich lost.
Several years passed when a patient in a small zone heard the name of Andrei Mikhailovich. After some time, they finally managed to meet. The doctor told him his story: Andrei Mikhailovich was sick with tuberculosis, but he was not allowed to be treated, someone reported that his illness was false “bullshit.” And Andrei Mikhailovich traveled a long way in the cold. After successful treatment, he began working as a resident in the surgical department. On his recommendation, the main character completed paramedic courses and began working as an orderly. Once they finished cleaning, the orderlies played dominoes. “It’s a stupid game,” Andrei Mikhailovich admitted, he, like the hero of the story, played dominoes only once.
Hercules
For his silver wedding, the head of the hospital, Sudarin, was given a rooster. All the guests were delighted with such a gift, even the guest of honor Cherpakov appreciated the cockerel. Cherpakov was about forty, he was the head of the rank. department. And when the guest of honor got drunk, he decided to show everyone his strength and began to lift chairs, then armchairs. And later he said that he could tear off the rooster’s head with his hands. And he tore it off. The young doctors were impressed. The dancing began, everyone danced because Cherpakov did not like it when someone refused.
Shock therapy
Merzlyakov came to the conclusion that it was easiest for short people to survive in the camp. Since the amount of food given out is not calculated according to the weight of people. One day, while doing general work, Merzlyakov, carrying a log, fell and was unable to go further. For this he was beaten by the guards, the foreman, and even his comrades. The worker was sent to the hospital, he was no longer in pain, but with any lie he delayed the moment of returning to the camp.
At the central hospital, Merzlyakov was transferred to the nervous department. All the prisoner’s thoughts were about only one thing: not to unbend. During the examination by Pyotr Ivanovich, the “patient” answered at random and it didn’t cost the doctor anything to guess that Merzlyakov was lying. Pyotr Ivanovich was already anticipating a new revelation. The doctor decided to start with raush anesthesia, and if that did not help, then shock therapy. Under anesthesia, the doctors managed to straighten Merzlyakov, but as soon as the man woke up, he immediately bent back. The neurologist warned the patient that in a week he would ask to be discharged. After the shock therapy procedure, Merzlyakov asked to be discharged from the hospital.
Stlanik
In autumn, when it’s time for snow, the clouds hang low, and there’s a smell of snow in the air, but if the cedar trees don’t spread, there won’t be snow. And when the weather is still autumn, there are no clouds, but the elfin forest lies on the ground, and after a few days it snows. The cedar tree not only predicts the weather, but also gives hope, being the only evergreen tree in the North. But the dwarf tree is quite gullible; if you light a fire near a tree in winter, it will immediately rise from under the snow. The author considers dwarf dwarf to be the most poetic Russian tree.
Red Cross
In the camp, the only person who can help a prisoner is a doctor. Doctors determine the “labor category”, sometimes even release them, issue certificates of disability and release them from work. The camp doctor has great power, and the thugs realized this very quickly; they respected medical workers. If the doctor was a civilian employee, they gave him gifts; if not, then most often they threatened or intimidated him. Many doctors were killed by thieves.
In exchange for the good attitude of the criminals, the doctors had to admit them to the hospital, send them on travel vouchers, and cover up for the malingerers. The atrocities of thieves in the camp are innumerable, every minute in the camp is poisoned. Having returned from there, people cannot live as before, they are cowardly, selfish, lazy and crushed.
Lawyers' conspiracy
Next, our collection “Kolyma Stories” will briefly tell about Andreev, a former student of the law university. He, like the main character, ended up in the camp. The man worked in Shmelev’s brigade, where human waste was sent; they worked on the night shift. One night the worker was asked to stay because Romanov had called him to his place. Together with Romanov, the hero went to the department in Khatynny. True, the hero had to ride in the back in sixty-degree frost for two hours. Afterwards, the worker was taken to the authorized Smertin, who, as before Romanov, asked Andreev whether he was a lawyer. The man was left overnight in a cell where there were already several prisoners. The next day, Andreev sets off with his guards on a journey, as a result of which his fingers freeze.
The plot of V. Shalamov’s stories is a painful description of the prison and camp life of prisoners of the Soviet Gulag, their similar tragic destinies, in which chance, merciless or merciful, an assistant or a murderer, the tyranny of bosses and thieves rule. Hunger and its convulsive saturation, exhaustion, painful dying, slow and almost equally painful recovery, moral humiliation and moral degradation - this is what is constantly in the focus of the writer’s attention.
Funeral word
The author remembers his camp comrades by name. Evoking the mournful martyrology, he tells who died and how, who suffered and how, who hoped for what, who and how behaved in this Auschwitz without ovens, as Shalamov called the Kolyma camps. Few managed to survive, few managed to survive and remain morally unbroken.
Life of engineer Kipreev
Having not betrayed or sold out to anyone, the author says that he has developed for himself a formula for actively defending his existence: a person can only consider himself human and survive if at any moment he is ready to commit suicide, ready to die. However, later he realizes that he only built himself a comfortable shelter, because it is unknown what you will be like at the decisive moment, whether you simply have enough physical strength, and not just mental strength. Engineer-physicist Kipreev, arrested in 1938, not only withstood a beating during interrogation, but even rushed at the investigator, after which he was put in a punishment cell. However, they still force him to sign false testimony, threatening him with the arrest of his wife. Nevertheless, Kipreev continued to prove to himself and others that he was a man and not a slave, like all prisoners. Thanks to his talent (he invented a way to restore burnt-out light bulbs and repaired an X-ray machine), he manages to avoid the most difficult work, but not always. He miraculously survives, but the moral shock remains with him forever.
To the show
Camp molestation, Shalamov testifies, affected everyone to a greater or lesser extent and occurred in a variety of forms. Two thieves are playing cards. One of them is lost to the nines and asks to play for “representation”, that is, in debt. At some point, excited by the game, he unexpectedly orders an ordinary intellectual prisoner, who happened to be among the spectators of their game, to give him a woolen sweater. He refuses, and then one of the thieves “finishes” him, but the sweater still goes to the thieves.
Two prisoners sneak to the grave where the body of their dead comrade was buried in the morning, and remove the dead man’s underwear to sell or exchange for bread or tobacco the next day. The initial disgust at taking off their clothes gives way to the pleasant thought that tomorrow they might be able to eat a little more and even smoke.
Single metering
Camp labor, which Shalamov clearly defines as slave labor, is for the writer a form of the same corruption. The poor prisoner is not able to give the percentage, so labor becomes torture and slow death. Zek Dugaev is gradually weakening, unable to withstand a sixteen-hour working day. He drives, picks, pours, carries again and picks again, and in the evening the caretaker appears and measures what Dugaev has done with a tape measure. The mentioned figure - 25 percent - seems very high to Dugaev, his calves ache, his arms, shoulders, head hurt unbearably, he even lost the feeling of hunger. A little later, he is called to the investigator, who asks the usual questions: first name, last name, article, term. And a day later, the soldiers take Dugaev to a remote place, fenced with a high fence with barbed wire, from where the whirring of tractors can be heard at night. Dugaev realizes why he was brought here and that his life is over. And he only regrets that he suffered the last day in vain.
Sherry Brandy
A prisoner-poet, who was called the first Russian poet of the twentieth century, dies. It lies in the dark depths of the bottom row of solid two-story bunks. He takes a long time to die. Sometimes some thought comes - for example, that the bread he put under his head was stolen, and it is so scary that he is ready to swear, fight, search... But he no longer has the strength for this, and neither does the thought of bread weakens. When the daily ration is placed in his hand, he presses the bread to his mouth with all his might, sucks it, tries to tear it and gnaw it with scurvy, loose teeth. When he dies, he is not written off for another two days, and inventive neighbors manage to distribute bread for the dead man as if for a living one: they make him raise his hand like a puppet doll.
Shock therapy
Prisoner Merzlyakov, a man of large build, finds himself in general labor and feels that he is gradually giving up. One day he falls, cannot get up immediately and refuses to carry the log. He is beaten first by his own people, then by his guards, and they bring him to the camp - he has a broken rib and pain in the lower back. And although the pain quickly passed and the rib has healed, Merzlyakov continues to complain and pretends that he cannot straighten up, trying to delay his discharge to work at any cost. He is sent to the central hospital, to the surgical department, and from there to the nervous department for examination. He has a chance to be activated, that is, released due to illness. Remembering the mine, the pinching cold, the empty bowl of soup that he drank without even using a spoon, he concentrates all his will so as not to be caught in deception and sent to a penal mine. However, the doctor Pyotr Ivanovich, himself a former prisoner, was not a mistake. The professional replaces the human in him. He spends most of his time exposing malingerers. This pleases his pride: he is an excellent specialist and is proud that he has retained his qualifications, despite a year of general work. He immediately understands that Merzlyakov is a malingerer, and anticipates the theatrical effect of the new revelation. First, the doctor gives him Rausch anesthesia, during which Merzlyakov’s body can be straightened, and after another week the procedure of so-called shock therapy, the effect of which is similar to an attack of violent madness or an epileptic seizure. After this, the prisoner himself asks to be discharged.
Typhoid quarantine
Prisoner Andreev, having fallen ill with typhus, is quarantined. Compared to general work in the mines, the position of the patient gives a chance to survive, which the hero almost no longer hoped for. And then he decides, by hook or by crook, to stay here as long as possible, in the transit train, and then, perhaps, he will no longer be sent to the gold mines, where there is hunger, beatings and death. At the roll call before the next sending to work of those who are considered recovered, Andreev does not respond, and thus he manages to hide for quite a long time. The transit is gradually emptying, and Andreev’s turn finally reaches. But now it seems to him that he has won his battle for life, that now the taiga is saturated and if there are any dispatches, it will be only for short-term, local business trips. However, when a truck with a selected group of prisoners, who were unexpectedly given winter uniforms, passes the line separating short-term missions from long-distance ones, he realizes with an internal shudder that fate has cruelly laughed at him.
Aortic aneurysm
Illness (and the emaciated state of the “gone” prisoners is quite equivalent to a serious illness, although it was not officially considered such) and the hospital are an indispensable attribute of the plot in Shalamov’s stories. Prisoner Ekaterina Glovatskaya is admitted to the hospital. A beauty, she immediately attracted the attention of the doctor on duty Zaitsev, and although he knows that she is on close terms with his acquaintance, the prisoner Podshivalov, the head of an amateur art group (“serf theater,” as the head of the hospital jokes), nothing prevents him in turn try your luck. He begins, as usual, with a medical examination of Glowacka, with listening to the heart, but his male interest quickly gives way to purely medical concern. He finds that Glowacka has an aortic aneurysm, a disease in which any careless movement can cause death. The authorities, who have made it an unwritten rule to separate lovers, have already once sent Glovatskaya to a penal women's mine. And now, after the doctor’s report about the prisoner’s dangerous illness, the head of the hospital is sure that this is nothing more than the machinations of the same Podshivalov, trying to detain his mistress. Glovatskaya is discharged, but as soon as she is loaded into the car, what Dr. Zaitsev warned about happens - she dies.
The last battle of Major Pugachev
Among the heroes of Shalamov’s prose there are those who not only strive to survive at any cost, but are also able to intervene in the course of circumstances, stand up for themselves, even risking their lives. According to the author, after the war of 1941-1945. Prisoners who had fought and survived German captivity began to arrive in the northeastern camps. These are people of a different temperament, “with courage, the ability to take risks, who believed only in weapons. Commanders and soldiers, pilots and intelligence officers...” But most importantly, they had an instinct for freedom, which the war awakened in them. They shed their blood, sacrificed their lives, saw death face to face. They were not corrupted by camp slavery and were not yet exhausted to the point of losing strength and will. Their “fault” was that they were surrounded or captured. And it is clear to Major Pugachev, one of these not yet broken people: “they were brought to death - to replace these living dead” whom they met in Soviet camps. Then the former major gathers equally determined and strong prisoners to match himself, ready to either die or become free. Their group included pilots, a reconnaissance officer, a paramedic, and a tankman. They realized that they were innocently doomed to death and that they had nothing to lose. They've been preparing their escape all winter. Pugachev realized that only those who avoid general work could survive the winter and then escape. And the participants in the conspiracy, one after another, are promoted to servants: someone becomes a cook, someone a cult leader, someone who repairs weapons in the security detachment. But then spring comes, and with it the planned day.
At five o'clock in the morning there was a knock on the watch. The duty officer lets in the prisoner camp cook, who has come, as usual, to get the keys to the pantry. A minute later, the guard on duty finds himself strangled, and one of the prisoners changes into his uniform. The same thing happens to the other duty officer who returned a little later. Then everything goes according to Pugachev’s plan. The conspirators break into the premises of the security detachment and, having shot the duty officer, take possession of the weapon. Holding the suddenly awakened soldiers at gunpoint, they change into military uniforms and stock up on provisions. Having left the camp, they stop the truck on the highway, drop off the driver and continue the journey in the car until the gas runs out. After that they go into the taiga. At night - the first night of freedom after long months of captivity - Pugachev, waking up, remembers his escape from a German camp in 1944, crossing the front line, interrogation in a special department, being accused of espionage and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. He also remembers the visits of General Vlasov’s emissaries to the German camp, recruiting Russian soldiers, convincing them that for the Soviet regime, all of them who were captured were traitors to the Motherland. Pugachev did not believe them until he could see for himself. He looks lovingly at his sleeping comrades who believed in him and stretched out their hands to freedom; he knows that they are “the best of all, the most worthy of all.” And a little later a battle breaks out, the last hopeless battle between the fugitives and the soldiers surrounding them. Almost all of the fugitives die, except for one, seriously wounded, who is cured and then shot. Only Major Pugachev manages to escape, but he knows, hiding in the bear’s den, that they will find him anyway. He doesn't regret what he did. His last shot was at himself.
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Brief summary of Shalamov’s collection “Kolyma Stories”
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