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.
FUTURE 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 KIPREV
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 REPRESENTATION
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.
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.
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 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.
AT THE PRESENTATION 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.
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.
SOLITARY MEASURING Camp labor, which Shalamov unambiguously 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 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. 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.
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, 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 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 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 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, 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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In the evening, while winding up the tape measure, the caretaker said that Dugaev would receive a single measurement the next day. The foreman, who was standing nearby and asked the caretaker to lend him “a dozen cubes until the day after tomorrow,” suddenly fell silent and began to look at the evening star flickering behind the crest of the hill. Baranov, Dugaev’s partner, who was helping the caretaker measure the work done, took a shovel and began to clean up the face that had been cleaned long ago.
Dugaev was twenty-three years old, and everything he saw and heard here surprised him more than frightened him.
The brigade gathered for roll call, handed over their tools and returned to the barracks in uneven prison formation. The difficult day was over. In the dining room, Dugaev, without sitting down, drank a portion of thin, cold cereal soup over the side of a bowl. The bread was given in the morning for the whole day and was eaten long ago. I wanted to smoke. He looked around, wondering who he could ask for a cigarette butt. On the windowsill, Baranov collected shag grains from an inside out pouch into a piece of paper. Having collected them carefully, Baranov rolled up a thin cigarette and handed it to Dugaev.
“You can smoke it for me,” he suggested.
Dugaev was surprised - he and Baranov were not friends. However, with hunger, cold and insomnia, no friendship can be formed, and Dugaev, despite his youth, understood the falsity of the saying about friendship being tested by misfortune and misfortune. In order for friendship to be friendship, it is necessary that its strong foundation be laid when conditions and everyday life have not yet reached the final limit, beyond which there is nothing human in a person, but only mistrust, anger and lies. Dugaev remembered well the northern proverb, the three prison commandments: do not believe, do not be afraid and do not ask...
Dugaev greedily sucked in the sweet tobacco smoke, and his head began to spin.
“I’m getting weaker,” he said. Baranov remained silent.
Dugaev returned to the barracks, lay down and closed his eyes. Lately he had been sleeping poorly; hunger did not allow him to sleep well. The dreams were especially painful - loaves of bread, steaming fatty soups... Oblivion did not come soon, but still, half an hour before getting up, Dugaev had already opened his eyes.
The crew came to work. Everyone went to their own slaughterhouses.
“Wait,” the foreman said to Dugaev. - The caretaker will put you in charge.
Dugaev sat down on the ground. He had already become so tired that he was completely indifferent to any change in his fate.
The first wheelbarrows rattled on the ramp, shovels scraped against the stone.
“Come here,” the caretaker told Dugaev. - Here's your place. “He measured the cubic capacity of the face and put a mark - a piece of quartz. “This way,” he said. - The ladder operator will carry the board for you to the main ladder. Take it where everyone else goes. Here's a shovel, a pick, a crowbar, a wheelbarrow - take it.
Dugaev obediently began work.
“Even better,” he thought. None of his comrades will grumble that he works poorly. Former grain farmers are not required to understand and know that Dugaev is a newcomer, that immediately after school he began studying at the university, and exchanged his university bench for this slaughter. Every man for himself. They are not obliged, should not understand that he is exhausted and hungry for a long time, that he does not know how to steal: the ability to steal is the main northern virtue in all its forms, starting from the bread of a comrade and ending with issuing thousands of bonuses to the authorities for non-existent, non-existent achievements. Nobody cares that Dugaev cannot stand a sixteen-hour working day.
Dugaev drove, picked, poured, drove again and again picked and poured.
After the lunch break, the caretaker came, looked at what Dugaev had done and silently left... Dugaev again kicked and poured. The quartz mark was still very far away.
In the evening the caretaker appeared again and unwound the tape measure. – He measured what Dugaev did.
“Twenty-five percent,” he said and looked at Dugaev. - Twenty-five percent. Can you hear?
“I hear,” said Dugaev. He was surprised by this figure. The work was so hard, so little stone could be picked up with a shovel, it was so difficult to pick. The figure - twenty-five percent of the norm - seemed very large to Dugaev. My calves ached, my arms, shoulders, and head ached unbearably from leaning on the wheelbarrow. The feeling of hunger had long since left him.
Dugaev ate because he saw others eating, something told him: he had to eat. But he didn't want to eat.
“Well, well,” said the caretaker, leaving. - I wish you good health.
In the evening, Dugaev was summoned to the investigator. He answered four questions: first name, last name, article, term. Four questions that are asked to a prisoner thirty times a day. Then Dugaev went to bed. The next day he again worked with the brigade, with Baranov, and on the night of the day after tomorrow the soldiers took him behind the conbase and led him along a forest path to a place where, almost blocking a small gorge, there stood a high fence with barbed wire stretched across the top, and from there at night the distant whirring of tractors could be heard. And, realizing what was going on, Dugaev regretted that he had worked in vain, that he had suffered this last day in vain.
Let's look at Shalamov's collection, on which he worked from 1954 to 1962. Let us describe its brief content. "Kolyma Stories" is a collection whose plot is a description of the camp and prison life of Gulag prisoners, their tragic destinies, similar to one another, in which chance rules. The author’s focus is constantly on hunger and satiety, painful dying and recovery, exhaustion, moral humiliation and degradation. You will learn more about the problems raised by Shalamov by reading the summary. “Kolyma Stories” is a collection that is an understanding of what the author experienced and saw during the 17 years he spent in prison (1929-1931) and Kolyma (from 1937 to 1951). The author's photo is presented below.
Funeral word
The author recalls his comrades from the camps. We will not list their names, since we are making a brief summary. "Kolyma Stories" is a collection in which fiction and documentary are intertwined. However, all killers are given a real last name in the stories.
Continuing the narrative, the author describes how the prisoners died, what torture they endured, talks about their hopes and behavior in “Auschwitz without ovens,” as Shalamov called the Kolyma camps. Few managed to survive, and only a few managed to survive and not break morally.
"The Life of Engineer Kipreev"
Let us dwell on the following interesting story, which we could not help but describe when compiling a summary. “Kolyma Stories” is a collection in which the author, who has not sold or betrayed anyone, says that he has developed for himself a formula for protecting his own existence. It consists in the fact that a person can survive if he is ready to die at any moment, he can commit suicide. But later he realizes that he only built a comfortable shelter for himself, since it is unknown what you will become at the decisive moment, whether you will have enough not only mental strength, but also physical strength.
Kipreev, a physics engineer arrested in 1938, was not only able to withstand interrogation and beating, but even attacked the investigator, as a result of which he was put in a punishment cell. But still they are trying to get him to give false testimony, threatening to arrest his wife. Kipreev nevertheless continues to prove to everyone that he is not a slave, like all prisoners, but a human being. Thanks to his talent (he fixed a broken one and found a way to restore burnt out light bulbs), this hero manages to avoid the most difficult work, but not always. It is only by a miracle that he survives, but the moral shock does not let him go.
"To the show"
Shalamov, who wrote “Kolyma Stories,” a brief summary of which interests us, testifies that camp corruption affected everyone to one degree or another. It was carried out in various forms. Let us describe in a few words another work from the collection “Kolyma Tales” - “To the Show”. A summary of its plot is as follows.
Two thieves are playing cards. One loses and asks to play in debt. Enraged at some point, he orders an unexpectedly imprisoned intellectual, who happened to be among the spectators, to give up his sweater. He refuses. One of the thieves “finishes” him, but the sweater goes to the thieves anyway.
"At night"
Let's move on to the description of another work from the collection "Kolyma Stories" - "At Night". Its summary, in our opinion, will also be interesting to the reader.
Two prisoners sneak towards the grave. The body of their comrade was buried here in the morning. They take off the dead man's linen in order to exchange it for tobacco or bread tomorrow or sell it. Disgust for the clothes of the deceased is replaced by the thought that perhaps tomorrow they will be able to smoke or eat a little more.
There are a lot of works in the collection "Kolyma Stories". "The Carpenters", a summary of which we have omitted, follows the story "Night". We invite you to familiarize yourself with it. The product is small in volume. The format of one article, unfortunately, does not allow us to describe all the stories. Also a very small work from the collection "Kolyma Tales" - "Berry". A summary of the main and, in our opinion, most interesting stories is presented in this article.
"Single metering"
Defined by the author as slave labor in camps, it is another form of corruption. The prisoner, exhausted by it, cannot work his quota; labor turns into torture and leads to slow death. Dugaev, a prisoner, is becoming increasingly weaker due to the 16-hour working day. He pours, picks, carries. In the evening, the caretaker measures what he has done. The figure of 25% mentioned by the caretaker seems very large to Dugaev. His hands, head, and calves ache unbearably. The prisoner no longer even feels hungry. Later he is called to the investigator. He asks: “Name, surname, term, article.” Every other day, soldiers take the prisoner to a remote place surrounded by a fence with barbed wire. At night you can hear the noise of tractors from here. Dugaev realizes why he was brought here and understands that his life is over. He only regrets that he suffered an extra day in vain.
"Rain"
You can talk for a very long time about such a collection as “Kolyma Stories”. The summary of the chapters of the works is for informational purposes only. We bring to your attention the following story - "Rain".
"Sherry Brandy"
The prisoner poet, who was considered the first poet of the 20th century in our country, dies. He lies on the bunks, in the depths of their bottom row. It takes a long time for a poet to die. Sometimes a thought comes to him, for example, that someone stole bread from him, which the poet put under his head. He is ready to search, fight, swear... However, he no longer has the strength to do this. When the daily ration is placed in his hand, he presses the bread to his mouth with all his might, sucks it, tries to gnaw and tear with his loose, scurvy-infested teeth. When a poet dies, he is not written off for another 2 days. During the distribution, the neighbors manage to get bread for him as if he were alive. They arrange for him to raise his hand like a puppet.
"Shock therapy"
Merzlyakov, one of the heroes of the collection “Kolma Stories”, a brief summary of which we are considering, is a convict of large build, and in general work he understands that he is failing. He falls, cannot get up and refuses to take the log. First his own people beat him, then his guards. He is brought to camp with lower back pain and a broken rib. After recovery, Merzlyakov does not stop complaining and pretends that he cannot straighten up. He does this in order to delay discharge. He is sent to the surgical department of the central hospital, and then to the nervous department for examination. Merzlyakov has a chance to be released due to illness. He tries his best not to be exposed. But Pyotr Ivanovich, a doctor, himself a former prisoner, exposes him. Everything human in him replaces the professional. He spends most of his time exposing those who are simulating. Pyotr Ivanovich anticipates the effect that the case with Merzlyakov will produce. The doctor first gives him anesthesia, during which he manages to straighten Merzlyakov’s body. A week later, the patient is prescribed shock therapy, after which he asks to be discharged himself.
"Typhoid quarantine"
Andreev ends up in quarantine after falling ill with typhus. The patient's position, compared to working in the mines, gives him a chance to survive, which he almost did not hope for. Then Andreev decides to stay here as long as possible, and then, perhaps, he will no longer be sent to the gold mines, where there is death, beatings, and hunger. Andreev does not respond to the roll call before sending those who have recovered to work. He manages to hide in this way for quite a long time. The transit bus gradually empties, and finally it’s Andreev’s turn. But it seems to him now that he has won the battle for life, and if there are any deployments now, it will only be on local, short-term business trips. But when a truck with a group of prisoners who were unexpectedly given winter uniforms crosses the line separating long- and short-term business trips, Andreev realizes that fate has laughed at him.
The photo below shows the house in Vologda where Shalamov lived.
"Aortic aneurysm"
In Shalamov's stories, illness and hospital are an indispensable attribute of the plot. Ekaterina Glovatskaya, a prisoner, ends up in the hospital. Zaitsev, the doctor on duty, immediately liked this beauty. He knows that she is in a relationship with prisoner Podshivalov, an acquaintance of his who runs a local amateur art group, but the doctor still decides to try his luck. As usual, he begins with a medical examination of the patient, listening to the heart. However, male interest is replaced by medical concern. In Glowacka he discovers this is a disease in which every careless movement can provoke death. The authorities, who have made it a rule to separate lovers, have once already sent the girl to a penal women's mine. The head of the hospital, after the doctor’s report about her illness, is sure that this is the machinations of Podshivalov, who wants to detain his mistress. The girl is discharged, but during loading she dies, which is what Zaitsev warned about.
"The Last Battle of Major Pugachev"
The author testifies that after the Great Patriotic War, prisoners who fought and went through captivity began to arrive in the camps. These people are of a different kind: they know how to take risks, they are brave. They only believe in weapons. Camp slavery did not corrupt them; they were not yet exhausted to the point of losing their will and strength. Their “fault” was that these prisoners were captured or surrounded. It was clear to one of them, Major Pugachev, that they had been brought here to die. Then he gathers strong and determined prisoners to match himself, who are ready to die or become free. The escape is prepared all winter. Pugachev realized that only those who managed to avoid general work could escape after surviving the winter. One by one, the participants in the conspiracy are promoted to service. One of them becomes a cook, another becomes a cult leader, the third repairs weapons for security.
One spring day, at 5 am, there was a knock on the watch. The duty officer lets in the prisoner cook, who, as usual, has come to get the keys to the pantry. The cook strangles him, and another prisoner dresses in his uniform. The same thing happens to other duty officers who returned a little later. Then everything happens according to Pugachev’s plan. The conspirators burst into the security room and seize weapons, shooting the guard on duty. They stock up on provisions and put on military uniforms, holding the suddenly awakened soldiers at gunpoint. Having left the camp territory, they stop the truck on the highway, disembark the driver and drive until the gas runs out. Then they go into the taiga. Pugachev, waking up at night after many months of captivity, recalls how in 1944 he escaped from a German camp, crossed the front line, survived interrogation in a special department, after which he was accused of espionage and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He also recalls how emissaries of General Vlasov came to the German camp and recruited Russians, convincing them that the captured soldiers were traitors to the Motherland for the Soviet regime. Pugachev did not believe them then, but soon became convinced of this himself. He looks lovingly at his comrades sleeping nearby. A little later, a hopeless battle ensues with the soldiers who surrounded the fugitives. Almost all of the prisoners die, except one, who is nursed back to health after being seriously wounded in order to be shot. Only Pugachev manages to escape. He is hiding in a bear's den, but he knows that they will find him too. He doesn't regret what he did. His last shot is at himself.
So, we looked at the main stories from the collection, authored by Varlam Shalamov (“Kolyma Stories”). A summary introduces the reader to the main events. You can read more about them on the pages of the work. The collection was first published in 1966 by Varlam Shalamov. "Kolyma Stories", a brief summary of which you now know, appeared on the pages of the New York publication "New Journal".
In New York in 1966, only 4 stories were published. The following year, 1967, 26 stories by this author, mainly from the collection of interest to us, were published in translation into German in the city of Cologne. During his lifetime, Shalamov never published the collection “Kolyma Stories” in the USSR. A summary of all the chapters, unfortunately, is not included in the format of one article, since there are a lot of stories in the collection. Therefore, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the rest.
"Condensed milk"
In addition to those described above, we will tell you about one more work from the collection “Kolyma Stories” - Its summary is as follows.
Shestakov, an acquaintance of the narrator, did not work at the mine face, because he was a geological engineer, and he was hired into the office. He met with the narrator and said that he wanted to take the workers and go to the Black Keys, to the sea. And although the latter understood that this was impracticable (the path to the sea is very long), he nevertheless agreed. The narrator reasoned that Shestakov probably wants to hand over all those who will participate in this. But the promised condensed milk (to overcome the journey, he had to refresh himself) bribed him. Going to Shestakov, he ate two jars of this delicacy. And then he suddenly announced that he had changed his mind. A week later, other workers fled. Two of them were killed, three were tried a month later. And Shestakov was transferred to another mine.
We recommend reading other works in the original. Shalamov wrote “Kolyma Tales” very talentedly. The summary ("Berries", "Rain" and "Children's Pictures" we also recommend reading in the original) conveys only the plot. The author's style and artistic merits can only be assessed by becoming familiar with the work itself.
Not included in the collection "Kolyma Stories" "Sentence". We did not describe the summary of this story for this reason. However, this work is one of the most mysterious in Shalamov’s work. Fans of his talent will be interested in getting to know him.
Even in that fertile time, when Merzlyakov worked as a groom, and in a homemade cereal jar - a large tin can with a punched bottom like a sieve - it was possible to prepare cereals for people from oats obtained for horses, cook porridge and with this bitter hot mash to stifle and appease hunger , even then he was thinking about one simple question. Large mainland convoy horses received a daily portion of government oats, twice as large as the squat and shaggy Yakut horses, although both carried equally little. The bastard Percheron Grom had as much oats poured into the feeder as would be enough for five “Yakuts”. This was correct, this was how things were done everywhere, and this was not what tormented Merzlyakov. He did not understand why the camp human ration, this mysterious list of proteins, fats, vitamins and calories intended for absorption by prisoners and called the cauldron sheet, was compiled without taking into account the living weight of people. If they are treated like working animals, then in matters of diet they need to be more consistent, and not adhere to some kind of arithmetic average - a clerical invention. This terrible average, at best, was beneficial only to the short, and indeed, the short reached it later than others. Merzlyakov’s build was like a Percheron Grom, and the measly three spoons of porridge for breakfast only increased the sucking pain in his stomach. But apart from rations, the brigade worker could get almost nothing. All the most valuable things - butter, sugar, and meat - did not end up in the cauldron in the quantities written on the cauldron sheet. Merzlyakov saw other things. The tall people died first. No habit of hard work changed anything here. The puny intellectual still lasted longer than the giant Kaluga resident - a natural digger - if they were fed the same, in accordance with the camp rations. Increasing rations for percentages of production was also of little use, because the basic design remained the same, in no way designed for tall people. In order to eat better, you had to work better, and in order to work better, you had to eat better. Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians were the first to die everywhere. They were the first to get there, which always caused comments from doctors: they say that all these Baltic states are weaker than the Russian people. True, the native life of Latvians and Estonians was further from camp life than the life of a Russian peasant, and it was more difficult for them. But the main thing was something else: they were not less hardy, they were simply larger in stature.
About a year and a half ago, Merzlyakov, after scurvy, which quickly overwhelmed the newcomer, happened to work as a freelance orderly in a local hospital. There he saw that the choice of dose of medicine was made by weight. Testing of new drugs is carried out on rabbits, mice, guinea pigs, and the human dose is determined based on body weight. Doses for children are less than doses for adults.
But the camp ration was not calculated based on the weight of the human body. This was the question, the wrong solution of which surprised and worried Merzlyakov. But before he completely weakened, he miraculously managed to get a job as a groom - where he could steal oats from horses and fill his stomach with them. Merzlyakov already thought that he would spend the winter, and then God willing. But it didn't turn out that way. The head of the horse farm was removed for drunkenness, and a senior groom was appointed in his place - one of those who at one time taught Merzlyakov how to handle a tin grinder. The senior groom himself stole a lot of oats and knew perfectly how it was done. In an effort to prove himself to his superiors, he, no longer needing oatmeal, found and broke all the oatmeal with his own hands. They began to fry, boil and eat oats in their natural form, completely equating their stomach to that of a horse. The new manager wrote a report to his superiors. Several grooms, including Merzlyakov, were put in a punishment cell for stealing oats and sent from the horse base to where they came from - to general work.
While doing general work, Merzlyakov soon realized that death was near. It swayed under the weight of the logs that had to be dragged. The foreman, who did not like this lazy forehead (“forehead” means “tall” in the local language), each time put Merzlyakov “under the butt”, forcing him to drag the butt, the thick end of the log. One day Merzlyakov fell, could not get up immediately from the snow and, suddenly making up his mind, refused to drag this damned log. It was already late, dark, the guards were in a hurry to go to political classes, the workers wanted to quickly get to the barracks, to get food, the foreman was late for the card battle that evening - Merzlyakov was to blame for the whole delay. And he was punished. He was beaten first by his own comrades, then by the foreman, and by the guards. The log remained lying in the snow - instead of the log they brought Merzlyakov to the camp. He was released from work and lay on a bunk. My lower back hurt. The paramedic smeared Merzlyakov’s back with solid oil - there had been no rubbing products in the first-aid post for a long time. Merzlyakov lay half-bent the entire time, persistently complaining of pain in his lower back. There had been no pain for a long time, the broken rib healed very quickly, and Merzlyakov tried to delay his discharge to work at the cost of any lie. He was not discharged. One day they dressed him, put him on a stretcher, loaded him into the back of a car and, together with another patient, took him to the district hospital. There was no X-ray room there. Now it was necessary to think about everything seriously, and Merzlyakov thought. He lay there for several months, without straightening up, was transported to the central hospital, where, of course, there was an X-ray room and where Merzlyakov was placed in the surgical department, in the wards of traumatic diseases, which, in the simplicity of their souls, the patients called “dramatic” diseases, without thinking about the bitterness of this pun.
“Here’s another one,” said the surgeon, pointing to Merzlyakov’s medical history, “we’ll transfer him to you, Pyotr Ivanovich, there’s nothing to treat him in the surgical department.”
– But you write in the diagnosis: ankylosis due to spinal injury. What do I need it for? - said the neuropathologist.
- Well, ankylosis, of course. What else can I write? After a beating, not such things can happen. Here I had a case at the “Grey” mine. The foreman beat up a hard worker...
“Seryozha, I have no time to listen to you about your cases.” I ask: why are you translating?
“I wrote: “For examination for activation.” Poke it with needles, activate it - and off to the ship. Let him be a free man.
– But you took pictures? Violations should be visible even without needles.
- I did. Here, if you please, see. “The surgeon pointed a dark film negative at the gauze curtain. - The devil will understand in such a photo. Until there is good light, good current, our X-ray technicians will always produce such dregs.
“It’s truly dreary,” said Pyotr Ivanovich. “Well, so be it.” - And he signed his last name on the medical history, consenting to Merzlyakov’s transfer to himself.
In the surgical department, noisy, confused, overcrowded with frostbite, dislocations, fractures, burns - the northern mines were not joking - in a department where some of the patients lay right on the floor of the wards and corridors, where one young, endlessly tired surgeon worked with four paramedics: all They slept three to four hours a day, and there they could not closely study Merzlyakov. Merzlyakov realized that in the nervous department, where he was suddenly transferred, the real investigation would begin.
All his prison-like, desperate will had long been focused on one thing: not to straighten up. And he didn’t straighten up. How my body wanted to straighten up even for a second. But he remembered the mine, the breath-choking cold, the frozen, slippery stones of the gold mine, shining from the frost, the bowl of soup that at lunch he drank in one gulp, without using an unnecessary spoon, the butts of the guards and the boots of the foreman - and found the strength in himself not to straighten up . However, now it was already easier than the first weeks. He slept little, afraid to straighten up in his sleep. He knew that the orderlies on duty had long been ordered to monitor him in order to catch him in deception. And after being convicted—and Merzlyakov also knew this—followed being sent to a penal mine, and what kind of a penal mine should it be if an ordinary mine left such terrible memories for Merzlyakov?
The next day after the transfer, Merzlyakov was taken to the doctor. The head of the department asked briefly about the onset of the disease and nodded his head sympathetically. He said, as if by the way, that even healthy muscles get used to it after many months of an unnatural position, and a person can make himself disabled. Then Pyotr Ivanovich began the inspection. Merzlyakov answered questions at random when pricking with a needle, tapping with a rubber hammer, or pressing.
Pyotr Ivanovich spent more than half of his working time on exposing malingerers. He understood, of course, the reasons that pushed the prisoners into simulation. Pyotr Ivanovich himself was a recent prisoner, and he was not surprised by either the childish stubbornness of the malingerers or the frivolous primitiveness of their fakes. Pyotr Ivanovich, a former associate professor at one of the Siberian institutes, laid down his scientific career in the same snow where his patients saved their lives by deceiving him. It cannot be said that he did not feel sorry for people. But he was a doctor more than a person, he was a specialist first and foremost. He was proud that a year of general work had not knocked the specialist doctor out of him. He understood the task of exposing deceivers not at all from some high, national point of view and not from a moral standpoint. He saw in it, in this task, a worthy use of his knowledge, his psychological ability to set traps into which, to the greater glory of science, hungry, half-crazed, unhappy people would fall. In this battle between the doctor and the malingerer, the doctor had everything on his side - thousands of cunning medicines, hundreds of textbooks, rich equipment, the help of a convoy, and the vast experience of a specialist, and on the patient’s side there was only horror of the world from which he came to the hospital and where he was afraid to return. It was this horror that gave the prisoner the strength to fight. Unmasking yet another deceiver, Pyotr Ivanovich experienced deep satisfaction: once again he receives evidence from life that he is a good doctor, that he has not lost his qualifications, but, on the contrary, has honed and polished it, in a word, that he can still do...
“These surgeons are fools,” he thought, lighting a cigarette after Merzlyakov left. – They don’t know topographic anatomy or have forgotten it, and they never knew reflexes. They are saved by one x-ray. But there is no photograph, and they cannot say with confidence even about a simple fracture. And what a style! – That Merzlyakov is a malingerer is clear to Pyotr Ivanovich, of course. - Well, let it lie there for a week. During this week we will collect all the tests so that everything is in order. We’ll paste all the papers into the medical history.”
Pyotr Ivanovich smiled, anticipating the theatrical effect of the new revelation.
A week later, the hospital was preparing for the transfer of the patients to the mainland. The protocols were written right there in the ward, and the chairman of the medical commission, who came from the department, personally examined the patients prepared by the hospital for departure. His role was limited to reviewing documents and checking proper execution - a personal examination of the patient took half a minute.
“On my list,” said the surgeon, “there is a certain Merzlyakov.” A year ago, guards broke his spine. I'd like to send it. He was recently transferred to the nervous department. The shipping documents are ready.
The chairman of the commission turned towards the neurologist.
“Bring Merzlyakov,” said Pyotr Ivanovich. A half-bent Merzlyakov was brought in. The Chairman glanced at him briefly.
“What a gorilla,” he said. - Yes, of course, there is no point in keeping such people. - And, taking the pen, he reached for the lists.
“I don’t give my signature,” said Pyotr Ivanovich in a loud and clear voice. - This is a simulator, and tomorrow I will have the honor of showing it to both you and the surgeon.
“Well, then we’ll leave it,” the chairman said indifferently, putting down his pen. - And anyway, let's finish, it's too late.
“He’s a malingerer, Seryozha,” said Pyotr Ivanovich, taking the surgeon’s arm as they left the room.
The surgeon released his hand.
“Maybe,” he said, wincing in disgust. - May God grant you success in exposing. Have a lot of fun.
The next day, Pyotr Ivanovich reported in detail about Merzlyakov at a meeting with the head of the hospital.
“I think,” he said in conclusion, “that we will carry out the exposure of Merzlyakov in two steps.” The first will be Rausch anesthesia, which you forgot about, Sergei Fedorovich,” he said triumphantly, turning towards the surgeon. – This should have been done immediately. And if raush doesn’t give anything, then... - Pyotr Ivanovich spread his hands, - then shock therapy. It's an interesting thing, I assure you.
- Isn't it too much? - said Alexandra Sergeevna, the head of the largest department of the hospital - tuberculosis, a plump, overweight woman who had recently arrived from the mainland.
“Well,” said the head of the hospital, “such a bastard...” He was little embarrassed in the presence of ladies.
“We’ll see based on the results of the meeting,” said Pyotr Ivanovich conciliatoryly.
Rausch anesthesia is a short-acting stunning ether anesthesia. The patient falls asleep for fifteen to twenty minutes, and during this time the surgeon must have time to set a dislocation, amputate a finger, or open some painful abscess.
The authorities, dressed in white coats, surrounded the operating table in the dressing room, where the obedient, half-bent Merzlyakov was placed. The orderlies took hold of the canvas tapes that are usually used to tie patients to the operating table.
- No need, no need! - Pyotr Ivanovich shouted, running up. - There’s no need for ribbons.
Merzlyakov's face was turned upside down. The surgeon put an anesthesia mask on him and took a bottle of ether in his hand.
- Start, Seryozha!
The ether began to drip.
- Breathe deeper, deeper, Merzlyakov! Count out loud!
“Twenty-six, twenty-seven,” Merzlyakov counted in a lazy voice, and, suddenly stopping the count, he spoke something that was not immediately understandable, fragmentary, sprinkled with obscene language.
Pyotr Ivanovich held Merzlyakov’s left hand in his hand. After a few minutes, the hand weakened. Pyotr Ivanovich released her. The hand fell softly and dead on the edge of the table. Pyotr Ivanovich slowly and solemnly straightened Merzlyakov’s body. Everyone gasped.
“Now tie him up,” Pyotr Ivanovich said to the orderlies.
Merzlyakov opened his eyes and saw the hairy fist of the head of the hospital.
“Well, you bastard,” the boss wheezed. - Now you will go to court.
- Well done, Pyotr Ivanovich, well done! - the chairman of the commission repeated, clapping the neurologist on the shoulder. “But yesterday I was just about to give this gorilla his freedom!”
- Untie him! - Pyotr Ivanovich commanded. - Get off the table!
Merzlyakov has not yet fully woken up. There was a pounding in my temples, and there was a sickening, sweet taste of ether in my mouth. Merzlyakov still did not understand whether this was a dream or reality, and perhaps he had seen such dreams more than once before.
- Come on, all of you to your mother! – he suddenly shouted and bent over as before.
Broad-shouldered, bony, his long, thick fingers almost touching the floor, with a dull look and tousled hair, really looking like a gorilla, Merzlyakov came out of the dressing room. Pyotr Ivanovich was informed that the sick Merzlyakov was lying on his bed in his usual position. The doctor ordered him to be brought to his office.
“You’ve been exposed, Merzlyakov,” said the neuropathologist. - But I asked the boss. They won’t put you on trial, they won’t send you to a penal mine, you will simply be discharged from the hospital, and you will return to your mine, to your old job. You, brother, are a hero. He's been fooling us for a whole year.
“I don’t know anything,” said the gorilla, without raising his eyes.
- How you do not know? After all, you just got bent!
- Nobody unbent me.
“Well, my dear,” said the neurologist. - This is completely unnecessary. I wanted to be on good terms with you. And so, look, you yourself will ask to be discharged in a week.
“Well, what else will happen in a week,” Merzlyakov said quietly. How could he explain to the doctor that even an extra week, an extra day, an extra hour spent not at the mine, this is his, Merzlyakov’s, happiness. If the doctor does not understand this himself, how can I explain it to him? Merzlyakov was silent and looked at the floor.
Merzlyakov was taken away, and Pyotr Ivanovich went to the head of the hospital.
“So it’s possible tomorrow, not in a week,” said the boss, after listening to Pyotr Ivanovich’s proposal.
“I promised him a week,” said Pyotr Ivanovich, “the hospital will not become poor.”
“Well, okay,” said the boss. - Maybe in a week. Just call me. Will you tie it?
“You can’t tie him down,” said the neurologist. - Sprains an arm or leg. They will keep it. “And, taking Merzlyakov’s medical history, the neuropathologist wrote “shock therapy” in the prescription column and set the date.
During shock therapy, a dose of camphor oil is injected into the patient’s blood in an amount several times higher than the dose of the same medicine when it is administered by subcutaneous injection to maintain the cardiac activity of seriously ill patients. Its action leads to a sudden attack, similar to an attack of violent madness or an epileptic fit. Under the influence of camphor, all muscular activity and all motor forces of a person sharply increase. The muscles come into unprecedented tension, and the strength of the patient who has lost consciousness increases tenfold. The attack lasts several minutes.
Several days passed, and Merzlyakov did not even think about unbending of his own free will. The morning came, recorded in the medical history, and Merzlyakov was brought to Pyotr Ivanovich. In the North they value all kinds of entertainment - the doctor’s office was full. Eight burly orderlies lined the walls. There was a couch in the middle of the office.
“We’ll do it here,” said Pyotr Ivanovich, getting up from the table. – We won’t go to surgeons. By the way, where is Sergei Fedorovich?
“He won’t come,” said Anna Ivanovna, the nurse on duty. - He said “busy.”
“Busy, busy,” Pyotr Ivanovich repeated. “It would be good for him to see how I do his work for him.”
Merzlyakov's sleeve was rolled up, and the paramedic anointed his hand with iodine. Taking a syringe in his right hand, the paramedic pierced a vein with a needle near the elbow. Dark blood gushed from the needle into the syringe. The paramedic gently pressed the piston with his thumb, and the yellow solution began to flow into the vein.
- Pour it in quickly! - said Pyotr Ivanovich. - And quickly step aside. And you,” he told the orderlies, “hold him.”
Merzlyakov’s huge body jumped and writhed in the hands of the orderlies. Eight people held him. He wheezed, struggled, kicked, but the orderlies held him tightly, and he began to calm down.
“A tiger, you can hold a tiger like that,” Pyotr Ivanovich shouted in delight. – In Transbaikalia they catch tigers with their hands. “Pay attention,” he told the head of the hospital, “how Gogol exaggerates. Remember the end of Taras Bulba? “There were at least thirty people hanging from his arms and legs.” And this gorilla is larger than Bulba. And only eight people.
“Yes, yes,” said the boss. He didn’t remember Gogol, but he really liked the shock therapy.
The next morning, Pyotr Ivanovich, while visiting the sick, lingered at Merzlyakov’s bed.
“Well,” he asked, “what is your decision?”
“Write me out,” said Merzlyakov.
Shalamov V.T. Collected works in four volumes. T.1. - M.: Fiction, Vagrius, 1998. - P. 130 - 139
Name index: Gogol N.V. , Lunin S.M.All rights to distribute and use the works of Varlam Shalamov belong to A.L.. Use of materials is possible only with the consent of the editors of ed@site. The site was created in 2008-2009. funded by the Russian Humanitarian Foundation grant No. 08-03-12112v.