Kolyma rain stories summary. "The Life of Engineer Kipreev"

The plot of V. Shalamov’s stories is a painful description of the prison and camp life of prisoners of the Soviet Gulag, how they are similar to each other tragic destinies, in which chance, merciless or merciful, assistant or 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.

FUTURE WORD The author recalls the names of his camp comrades. 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. THE LIFE OF ENGINEER KIPREEV Having not betrayed or sold out anyone, the author says that he has developed for himself a formula for the active defense of 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 the 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.

AT THE PRESENTATION Camp molestation, Shalamov testifies, to a greater or lesser extent to a lesser extent concerned everyone and happened in the most different 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.

AT NIGHT 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, unambiguously defined by Shalamov as slave, for the writer is 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 high fence with barbed wire, from where you can hear the whirring of tractors 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 The 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 that he put under his head was stolen from him, and it is so scary that he is ready to swear, fight, search... But he no longer has the strength for this, and the thought of bread also 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, two more people do not write him off, 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. SHOCK THERAPY Prisoner Merzlyakov, a man of large build, finds himself in general labor and feels that he is gradually giving in. One day he falls, cannot get up immediately and refuses to drag 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. Most He spends his time precisely on 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 the so-called procedure shock therapy, the effect of which is similar to an attack of violent madness or an epileptic fit. After this, the prisoner himself asks to be discharged.

TYPHUS QUARANTINE Prisoner Andreev, having fallen ill with typhus, is placed in quarantine. Compared to general work in the mines, the patient's position 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 Disease (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, the doctor on duty Zaitsev immediately liked her, and although he knows that she is on close terms with his friend, the prisoner Podshivalov, the head of the circle amateur performances, (“the serf theater,” as the head of the hospital jokes), nothing prevents him, in turn, from trying his 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 gone through the war began to arrive in the northeastern camps. German captivity. 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. It is clear to Imajor 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 pass through the winter can survive the winter and then escape. general work. 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 uniform 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 will go to 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, who recruited Russian soldiers, convincing them that for Soviet power All of them, captured, are 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.

Varlam Tikhonovich 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, 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 drag 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 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 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 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 short and long-distance business trips, Andreev realizes that the essence simply mocked him, and that everything begins anew.

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 male and interest in 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 stories

Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov

"Kolyma Tales"

Summary

Funeral word

Life of engineer Kipreev

To the show

At night

Single metering

Rain

Sherry Brandy

Shock therapy

Typhoid quarantine

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

Shock therapy

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

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 stories

How do they build a road through virgin snow? At first a man is walking in calm weather, leaving your mark on untouched snow. 3 others follow him, but without stepping on his tracks. After reaching the end of the path, they turn back to make the road wide and suitable for transport. Everyone who follows the trail must step on at least a small piece of virgin soil. Only readers ride tractors and horses, writers pave the way.

To the show

Gathering at Naumov's horse-driver was the safest place. The guards on duty never looked there. That is why card fights between thieves took place here every night. That evening the cards were made from a volume by V. Hugo. Every criminal should be able to draw them. This distinguished those gathered from the rest of the prisoners. Sevochka had all the qualities of a thief.

His face was forgettable, his hands were white and non-working. The nail of the little finger seemed longer than all the others. He was a cheater. His opponent in the game was Naumov. Naumov’s side put a suit on the line, Sevochka’s side put up a thousand rubles and several worn jumpers. The narrator and Garkunov, who were sawing wood for the Naumov barracks, watched the game. Naumov lost his suit, but was not going to give up. They put a blanket on the line.

Having lost all his things, Naumov offered to play in debt. Having examined those sitting in the barracks, he beckoned the narrator to him, but, not finding valuable things on him, he sat him down. Garkunov was wearing a wool sweater, which the players liked. The partner’s resistance was quickly suppressed. The players, satisfied, dispersed. The narrator now had to look for a new partner to cut wood.

After dinner, Glebov and Bagretsov went to the mountain where the deceased had recently been buried. While throwing stones, Bagretsov injured himself, and Glebov suddenly remembered that he had once been a doctor. But that didn't matter now. Having taken off the deceased’s clothes, Glebov felt uncomfortable. Tomorrow they will be able to use the proceeds from the sale of linen to buy bread and some tobacco.

Carpenters

It had been -50 degrees below zero for two weeks now. Potashnikov could no longer endure this cold. While working, he could not warm up. A meager lunch and dinner did not help restore strength. Yesterday his neighbor died - he just didn’t wake up. Potashnikov realized that something needed to be done. But he couldn’t think in the cold. It seemed that my soul was frozen.

Now he tried to simply survive these cold days. He had a chance to become a foreman, but he did not take advantage of it: he did not want to destroy his comrades. The team was offered to work as carpenters, and only Potashnikov and Grigoriev agreed. It turned out that neither of them knew how to do carpentry. But they didn’t care, the main thing was that they would spend at least two days warm. Carpenter Arnstrem, having seen how the arriving prisoners worked, allowed them to warm themselves by the stove for two days. After the expiration of the period, the frost dropped to thirty degrees. Winter 3 was coming to an end.

Single metering

In the evening, the caretaker said that tomorrow twenty-three-year-old Dugaev would receive a single measurement. This news alarmed the foreman. After dinner, Dugaev wanted to smoke. Suddenly his partner Baranov handed him a cigarette. Dugaev knew that no one could be trusted here. The next morning the caretaker himself put Dugaev on workplace. By evening he had completed only twenty-five percent of the necessary work. He was sent for questioning to an investigator.

After answering four standard questions: first name, last name, article, term, he went to the barracks and fell asleep. The next day, Bugaev again worked with his brigade, and in the evening he was taken under escort into the forest. Walking along the path, he suddenly realized that he had wasted his energy working on his last day.

Parcels are received on duty. Standing in line, the narrator dreamed that he would now receive sugar and shag, but his wife sent him unnecessary burkas and some prunes. Warden Boyko immediately offered to buy burkas for a hundred rubles. There was no other choice, so he sold. I decided to buy butter and bread with the money I received. He ran to the store manager, and then to Semyon Sheinin, Kirov’s former assistant. He ran for boiling water, but then the narrator was hit on the head and the food was taken away.

He returned to the barracks and began to cook the remaining prunes. Next to him, Sintsov and Gubarev were each cooking soup in their own pot. Suddenly the military burst in and scattered their dishes. The prisoners could only eat the remaining food from the floor. After some time, they brought Efremov, beaten half to death for stealing firewood.

“It has been raining for the third day. The authorities hoped that because of him the prisoners would work faster. They stood waist-deep in the ground and drilled rocks. Looking at the dying horses, the narrator realized that man became human because he was physically stronger than all other animals. He tested his viability recently, in the same pit. And I realized that I was not capable of self-harm. He had to wait until the end of the working day. And while he waited, he remembered the woman who passed them along the path yesterday. “Pointing to the sky, she said: “Soon, guys, soon.” Her support amazed the prisoner. At this time, a cry was heard from Rozovsky, who realized that there was no meaning to life. After some time, he was accused of attempted suicide and transferred to another place.

In Siberia, spring is always short. During this time, many plants have time to bloom. The prisoners went to collect dwarf wood. This plant was considered a useful cure for scurvy, although after some time it was proven that it did not benefit the body. For collecting elfin wood, there was a kanth - a short rest. The narrator’s partner has been going to the elfin wood gathering for a long time. He understood that with a narrator who was not accustomed to this work, he would not be able to fulfill the quota. The partner helped the narrator and urged him on. Having placed a stone in the bag for added weight, the prisoners hurried to dinner. They barely had time to get soup and tea.

Dry rations

Four prisoners were sent on a business trip to the Duskanya key to clear a clearing in the forest. The rations given to them were frighteningly small, but still they were glad to escape from the stuffy barracks into nature, where there was no convoy. All of them were exhausted by long years of imprisonment. Lack of food and frost affected their health. Ivan Ivanovich was once one of the best workers, but now he has weakened. He was happy to go on this business trip, because in the colony he had no authority, anyone could humiliate and beat him.

Fedya Shchapov, the youngest of the four, was sentenced to ten years for illegal slaughter of livestock. His natural love for work distinguished him from all other prisoners. Savelyev once studied at the Moscow Institute of Communications. He was sentenced to ten years for writing a letter to the leader about the horrors of prison life from the Butyreka prison, where he ended up on a trivial matter. The narrator loved to talk with him about Moscow. After working all day, they completed only ten percent of the quota. The foremen did not like this. The prisoners realized that they would now be sent back to the camp.

At night, Ivan Ivanovich hanged himself. Savelyev refused to take the dead man's things. He took an ax and, in front of the foreman, cut off four of his fingers. When they returned to the camp, a case was opened against Savelyev for premeditated self-harm. The narrator and Fedya continued their lives in the same tent from which they had gone on a forest business trip some time ago.

Injector

Report to the head of the mine, Comrade. A.S. Queen. On November 12th there was six hours of idle work for the fourth brigade. This was due to low temperatures reaching minus fifty degrees. As a result, the injector broke down. Having considered this report, Korolev decided to arrest the convict Inzhektor and bring him to legal responsibility. Instead, he suggested installing a civilian worker.

Apostle Paul

The narrator sprained his foot while going down the slippery stairs in the pit. He was sent to help carpenter Adam Frisorger, who had formerly been a pastor in a German village near Markstadt on the Volga. They already knew each other: they were sent together to coal exploration as servants. The narrator liked Frizorger for his peaceful nature. They never fought.

Once, during one of the conversations, the narrator corrected Adam, who called Paul an apostle. Frizorger sincerely repented of his mistake. He began to trust the narrator and even showed him a photograph of his only daughter. She did not write to him, and the boss offered to help find her. After some time, a statement came in which the daughter refused her father due to the fact that he was an enemy of the people. The narrator burned the statement, and then the one that arrived later letter. He was soon transferred to another location and never heard from Adam again.

The detachment had been waiting for the narrator for a long time: he fell under the weight of a log and could not get up. Only after the guard Seroshapka threatened to shoot him did the narrator stand up. The next day, Sero Hat took the prisoners out to collect fallen timber. He marked the territory beyond which it was forbidden to go. Rybakov, the narrator’s friend, was collecting rose hips. They promised to give him bread for this. Seeing that the jar is not completely filled, he enters forbidden territory. A shot is fired and Rybakov falls. When the detachment was built, Gray hat, looking at the narrator, said that he wanted to kill him, but he did not give a reason.

Bitch Tamara

She was brought from the taiga by the blacksmith Moisey Moiseevich Kuznetsov. He ended up in the camp following a denunciation from his own young wife. The authorities appreciated his skill and for this forgave him a lot. The dog immediately won over the entire camp. She only took food from her hands and never stole. Soon the bitch gave birth. When a group of operatives searching for escaped prisoners arrived at the camp, Tamara rushed at them and bit through the felt boots of the head of the task force, Nazarov. She was tied to a tree. It was clear from her behavior that this was not the first time she had encountered escorts. When the operatives were leaving, Nazarov, hearing the dog’s growl, fired a burst from a machine gun at it and disappeared into the forest. Nothing passes without a trace: Nazarov ran into a stump in the forest and died. The dog was skinned. Soon a forester bought it to sew “dog shoes.”

Sherry brandy

The poet was dying. He did not have the strength to argue with those who stole his bread. The mittens were also stolen by someone. He lay there and thought that man could be immortal. He himself gained creative immortality: his poems will live on after him. He thought that all life was created to inspire the poet. He compared the whole world to poetry.

Once upon a time as a child, a Chinese man told him a fortune happy life, now he remembered this man without malice. He wanted to eat, but there was nothing. When the daily ration was handed out, he grabbed the bread with his loose teeth and greedily ate it. Everyone told him not to rush, that he could finish eating later. The poet suddenly asked himself: when then? In the evening he died. The neighbors received bread for the dead man for another two days.

Baby pictures

Prisoners were taken to work in groups of five. Today they were sawing wood. Having finished their work, the prisoners began to dig through the pile of garbage. They found torn socks, frozen bread and cutlets there. The narrator was especially jealous of his socks. He was lucky to find only a children's notebook. Looking at the drawings, he remembered the legend about the boy-god who created the taiga.

The child, judging by the drawings from the notebook, had seen very little in his life. All his drawings were dedicated to prison barriers and soldiers. The partner, having felt the sheets of the notebook, threw it back into the trash and advised him to look for a newspaper from which he could make cigarettes.

Condensed milk

Shestakov was the luckiest. He was the only one in the camp who got a job in his specialty. One day, when the narrator could not take his eyes off the loaves of bread in the store, Shestakov suggested that he run away. The narrator realized that this was a trap, that he would definitely deceive him, but he agreed, but first he needed to refresh himself.

He received two cans of condensed milk from Shestakov. Having immediately eaten them, he refused to participate in the escape. Those five whom Shestakov persuaded were soon either killed or their sentences were extended. The conspirator himself was transferred to another place, and when the narrator met him again, Shestakov did not greet him because of those two cans of condensed milk.

Today was distribution day. They gave out herring. Usually they got either heads or tails. Today were the last ones. Everyone waited their turn with bated breath, hoping for luck. What if he gets a piece ten grams more than the others? After eating the herring, the prisoners begin to eat bread. When everything is eaten, you need to get dressed and go to work.

Now everyone is in typhus quarantine, but even here they are forced to work. Every time prisoners are assigned to work, everyone tries to get to where they sort vegetables or some other food. In this lottery, some are lucky and others are not. When the detachment passed by the bakery, two were taken into the workshop. Everyone else could only envy their luck. The master fed both prisoners hot, freshly baked bread and led them to work. In the evening they were given a loaf of bread, and they went back to camp. The day ended well.

Snake charmer

Andrei Fedorovich Platonov told how he retold “Javkhara” to the thieves at the mine. Dumas, Conan Doyle, Wallace. He dreamed of writing the story “The Snake Charmer,” but three weeks after the conversation he died. The narrator decided to write this work for him himself. In The Snake Charmer, Platonov, having found himself in Dzhanhara, experienced the full power of the thieves. When he agreed to retell the novels to them, he found himself under their protection. Thanks to them, he ate well, slept well, and worked little. No one touched him, fearing reprisals from the thieves.

Tatar mullah and clean air

It was hot in the prison. The Tatar mullah, the investigative prisoner in the “Big Tatary” case, said that if he was not shot, he would live another ten years in the “clean air” in a camp or twenty in prison. The narrator knew that in the camp you could become exhausted after twenty to thirty days of working in “clean air.”

Many considered arrest and prison the most terrible event their lives. They rushed to the camp, thinking that it would be easier there. They were taken further north, where the country air gave way to the smell of fumes from the swamps and was overcome by the ubiquitous mosquitoes. The northern air was too heavy for the cores. No one moved here at a run, except perhaps the youngest. Reality has destroyed all illusions.

The only connection with the mainland was through parcels. Everyone knew that what was sent had to be used immediately, otherwise the thieves would take it away. No money was paid for the work. Sometimes the teams themselves decided who to give the overfulfilled percentage so that at least someone would receive a bonus. Having tasted camp life, the prisoners recalled the cell of the interrogation prison as something bright and the best thing that happened to them. If you count all the misfortunes and difficulties that overtake you in the camp, then you can no longer talk about beneficial properties"clean air".

First death

The prisoners who went to clear the road from snow drifts, were heavily guarded by a convoy. They could not get warm until the working day was over. Six hours later, no longer feeling anything, the prisoners think only about one thing: how not to freeze completely. The end of the day always comes unexpectedly, and everyone is so happy that they even find the strength to talk.

Kolya Andreev was a foreman. He always walked ahead of the squad, paving the way. That evening he led the brigade along the top of the snow-covered rampart. Suddenly he began to go down. There, mine investigator Shtemenko stood near the woman’s body. The mine manager's secretary, Anna Pavlovna, was killed. Shtemenko was sentenced to ten years for murder out of jealousy, but served his sentence elsewhere.

Aunt Polya

Aunt Polya died of stomach cancer. She was an orderly for the boss's wife. Aunt Polya was a great cook, for which she was highly valued. The woman helped her fellow Ukrainians, but only gave advice to the rest of the prisoners. Her bosses really liked her integrity. They patronized her and worked for her release. But Aunt Polya fell ill.

From the day she was admitted to the hospital, bosses began to come to her. One day Father Peter came to confess her. Everyone called him Petka Abramov, and it was unusual for them to see him in the role of a priest. When Aunt Polya died, Peter demanded to put a cross on the grave and write the real name of the deceased: Praskovya Ilyinichna Timoshenko.

Marusya Kryukova came to Moscow from Japan. When she was arrested and sentenced to twenty-five years, her leg was broken. In Kolyma, the authorities immediately saw her talent for embroidery, but never paid her for her work. Soon Marusya was sent to Dalstroy to embroider curtains. Two other girls worked there with her. A woman was assigned to watch them, who believed that at any second the girls could steal something. But they didn't steal. All three were arrested and sent to a camp under Article 58.

When Marusya was admitted to the hospital, she was diagnosed with osteomyelitis. Soon she was discharged, and she promised to embroider ties for the doctors. While Marusya was embroidering, Dolmatov came in and took away the ties. She was very upset, but she could not do anything. Dolmatov came to the next film show wearing one of the ties, and Marusya, gesticulating, showed the doctor that it was supposed to be his gift.

Taiga golden

In the small zone, prisoners are waiting to be sent further to work. The narrator, knowing this system, deceives the contractor who came to pick up the people: he pretends to be sick and unable to work, although there was no need to pretend in the camp. Remaining in the small zone, he hears how singers are brought to the thieves for entertainment, but he no longer cares. He tries to sleep as much as possible.

In the evening, the contractor angrily asks where he wants to go to work. The narrator doesn't want to go anywhere. He says he is sick and needs to go to the hospital. Three days later, a doctor comes and examines him, but does not send him to the hospital.

Vaska Denisov, pig thief

Vaska, in order to go to the village, borrowed a newer pea coat from his friend. He understood that in his dirty clothes he would be too noticeable for the freestyle girls.

Prisoners had to walk around the village under escort or with firewood on their backs. Vaska found the hidden log and knocked on the door. They opened the door for him and let him into the house. Having chopped wood, he began to wait until he was fed, but the owner gave him only three rubles. Hungry, he walked through the entire village and climbed into a house. There he found a raw, frozen pig in the pantry and was about to leave, when suddenly people began to come out of the rooms. He started to run. Hid in the house of the vitamin business trips management. Having barricaded himself in the room, he began to eat the pig. When the door was broken down, he managed to eat half of it.

Seraphim worked as a laboratory assistant in a chemical laboratory in the North. He left because of a “family disagreement,” believing distance to be the best cure for grief. After working for a year, he felt that love for his wife still lived in his heart. All this time, Seraphim hardly spoke to anyone, he only exchanged a few words with the head of the laboratory, Presnyakov.

One day he decided to go to another village to buy the necessary things. Arriving there, he discovered that he had forgotten his documents. The guards immediately grabbed him and sent him to the isolation ward. He sat in it for five long days. When they finally released him, beaten and hungry, Seraphim decided to commit suicide. The wife's letter, in which she demanded a divorce, was the last straw. He drank acid, but without feeling the effect, he tore the veins in his left arm. Not satisfied with this, he ran to the river and threw himself into the icy water. He was pulled out and sent to the hospital. There Seraphim underwent surgery on his stomach, but the acid had already done its work and he died.

Day off

Everyone relaxes in their own way at the camp. While walking in the forest, the narrator saw Zamyatin praying. He had no rank, but still often repeated Sunday service so as not to forget. Returning to the barracks, the author heard noise in the instrumental room. Going inside, he saw two thieves holding a puppy. They killed the animal with an ax and cooked soup from it in the evening. They offered the remains to the narrator, but he refused. Then they gave the soup to Zamyatin. When he ate it, the thugs revealed to him the secret of what the broth was made from. Zamyatin ran out of the barracks. He vomited. Later he admitted to the narrator that the meat seemed to him to taste no worse than lamb.

When the narrator was admitted to the hospital, his weight was forty-eight kilograms. The attending physician, Andrei Mikhailovich, allowed him to stay in the hospital for two months. One evening he called the patient into his room and invited him to play dominoes. The narrator did not like this game, but out of gratitude he agreed. The game was played slowly. They talked more. A few years later the narrator found himself in a small zone. He sought to be sent to the hospital. Having heard the name of Andrei Mikhailovich from the paramedic, he asked to give him a note. After waiting several weeks, he began to despair, but then he was called to the dentist. Andrei Mikhailovich was waiting for him in the corridor. During the time they did not see each other, he fell ill with tuberculosis. The doctor was already sailing to the mainland, when suddenly, following a denunciation, he was removed from the ship. When he recovered, he began working as a surgical resident. Thanks to Andrei Mikhailovich, the narrator managed to return to the mainland. He first worked for him as an orderly, then trained as a paramedic. One day in a conversation, the narrator finds out that Andrei Mikhailovich also does not like dominoes: for the first time he picked up dominoes. “I wanted to do something nice for you,” the doctor admits. Their term was supposed to end in one year, but Andrei Mikhailovich died earlier.

Hercules

Andrei Ivanovich Dudar was a little late for the silver wedding of the head of the hospital Sudarin. Having given the couple a rooster, he sat down at the table. After drinking a little, the guest of honor Cherpakov began to demonstrate his physical abilities: he lifted chairs and let them touch his biceps. After some time, he came up with another trick: taking a rooster, the guest of honor tore off its head. Admiring women rushed to wipe the blood from his trousers and shirt. When everyone went to dance, Andrei Ivanovich stepped on the corpse of his favorite rooster. He pushed it deeper under the table and went to dance.

Shock therapy

Merzlyakov often wondered why, when compiling rations for prisoners, no one looks at a person’s weight: a tall and large prisoner receives the same amount of bread as a thin and short one. He knew that the frail intellectual would live in the camp longer than any giant. He himself was tall and suffered greatly from lack of food.

When he was appointed groom, he began to steal oats and grind them. This is how he thought he would survive the winter. But soon the head of the horse farm was replaced by another senior groom, who reported to his superiors about the theft of oats. Merzlyakov was sent to general work. Having lost the rest of his strength, he fell under the weight of the log, thereby delaying the return of the brigade to the barracks. He was severely beaten and sent to the hospital.

Merzlyakov decided to pretend to be sick to the last, but one of the doctors, Pyotr Ivanovich, loved to expose the malingerers. He undertook to expose Merzlyakov. First, the doctor used Rausch anesthesia, under which it turned out that the patient was faking it. But Merzlyakov was not ready to give up. Then Pyotr Ivanovich used shock therapy. It was as follows: a large dose of camphor oil is injected into the patient’s blood, which leads to an attack. After the procedure, Merzlyakov agreed to leave the hospital.

Dwarf dwarf is the only evergreen plant in the North. This is a tree of hope. It doesn't like winter as much as the prisoners do. When the elfin wood rises from under the snow, it means the end of the cold weather has come. Even the warmth of a fire can cause a tree to awaken from its sleep. This is the most poetic wood, and it produces more warmth than other firewoods.

Red Cross

In the zone, only a doctor can really help a prisoner. He cares about people’s lives, protects them from the arbitrariness of their superiors, can send them to the hospital, apply for disability, and give them rest. But the doctor is also forced to survive in the camp conditions. Blatari play a big role in prison life. They bribe or intimidate doctors, authorities, and other prisoners. They are devoid of morality, shame, and conscience. They can steal, humiliate, kill.

Their lifestyle affects the fate of other prisoners. Those who end up in the camp are forced to adapt to the wishes of the thieves. By pleasing them, you can count on extending your life. In the camp main argument- force. If you are weak, you will suffer. An intellectual loses all his knowledge after a few weeks. He becomes a servant of thieves at the first blow. The opinions and tastes of thieves and murderers affect the entire camp life in Kolyma.

Lawyers' conspiracy

Andreev was transferred to Shmelev’s brigade, which consisted of “human slag” - all those who had visited the gold mines. He did not see the foreman's face, he only knew his hoarse voice. When the brigade was being built, Shmelev sent Andreev to the authorized Romanov. Arriving at the appointed time, Andreev knocked on the door. A plump man smelling of perfume let him in. He asked Andreev about his specialty. It turned out that he studied at Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. Romanov took him to another city, where senior commissioner Smertin was waiting for them. Andreev was put in a prison cell for the night. In the morning he was taken away by guards. Romanov gave him bread, two herrings and shag. Andreev was taken further. When the car approached the Serpentine investigative prison, he thought that his end had come, but the car moved on. The next stop was in the village of Yagodny. Andreev stayed there for two days. During the next trip, the convoy stopped at a road canteen. Andreev was placed on the floor next to another prisoner who was being taken to Magadan to be shot. After some time, they were put in the back of a car and again taken to an unknown destination. When they reached Sporny, the prisoners were numb from the cold. They were placed in an unheated isolation ward, where Andreev froze all ten of his toes. When they arrived in Magadan, the hero was sent to the regional department. There he was received by Captain Rebrov, who began to ask if he knew Parfentyev and Vinogradov. The first was once Andreev’s foreman, but he did not know the second. After interrogation, Andreev was sent to “Vaskov’s house” - a Magadan prison. After some time, it was announced that Rebrov had been arrested and all those convicted on his warrants were being released.

Typhoid quarantine

Andreev was sent to typhoid quarantine. There he felt that he was still able to respect himself and fight for life. He realized that he needed to avoid being seen by the contractor who was recruiting people for the gold mines for as long as possible. Andreev did not want to return there anymore. More than a thousand people were in quarantine. There was the same peace there as in the camp.

The thieves took places closer to the stove and ate more than everyone else. Andreev managed to deceive his superiors and was sent to do light work. Sometimes he was able to work alone, which was much preferable. When about thirty people remained in quarantine, Andreev was sent on a local business trip. But, to the surprise of the prisoners, they were given winter clothes. When they were put in the car, everyone realized that they were being sent north again, further than the Apple Ridge.

Kolyma stories by Shalamov. Summary

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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

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 in him forever.

To the show

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’s so scary that he’s 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 drag 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 patient's position 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 (“the 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 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.