Shalamov single measurement analysis of the story. Varlam Shalamov - at night

SINGLE MEASUREMENT

Camp labor, unequivocally defined by Shalamov as slave labor, is for the writer a form of the same corruption. A prisoner with income is not able to give a percentage rate, so labor becomes torture and slow mortification. Zek Dugaev is gradually weakening, unable to withstand the sixteen-hour working day. He drives, turns, pours, again drives and again turns, and in the evening the caretaker appears and measures Dugaev's work with a tape measure. The mentioned figure - 25 percent - seems to Dugaev to be very large, his calves are aching, his arms, shoulders, head are unbearably sore, he even lost his sense of hunger. A little later, he is called to the investigator, who asks the usual questions: name, surname, article, term. A day later, the soldiers take Dugaev to a remote place, fenced with a high fence with barbed wire, from where the chirring of tractors can be heard at night. Dugaev guesses why he was brought here and that his life is over. And he regrets only that the last day was in vain.

SHERRY BRANDY

The imprisoned 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 dies for a long time. Sometimes some thought comes - for example, that they stole bread from him, which he put under his head, and it is so terrible that he is ready to swear, fight, search ... But he no longer has the strength for this, and the thought of bread too weakens. When a daily ration is put into his hand, he presses the bread to his mouth with all his strength, sucks it, tries to tear and gnaw with scurvy loose teeth. When he dies, two more annas do not write him off, and ingenious neighbors manage to get bread for the dead man as if it were alive: they make him raise his hand like a puppet doll.

SHOCK THERAPY

Prisoner Merzlyakov, a man of large build, finds himself at common work, feels that he is gradually losing. One day he falls, cannot get up immediately and refuses to drag the log. First they beat him, then the guards, they bring him to the camp - he has a broken rib and back pain. And although the pain quickly passed, and the rib grew together, 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 research. He has a chance to be activated, that is, decommissioned due to illness at will. Remembering the mine, aching cold, a bowl of empty soup, which he drank, without even using a spoon, he concentrates all his will so as not to be caught cheating and sent to a penal mine. However, the doctor Pyotr Ivanovich, himself a prisoner in the past, did not miss. The professional replaces the human in him. Most he spends his time precisely on exposing the malingerers. This amuses his vanity: he is an excellent specialist and is proud that he has retained his qualifications, despite the year of general work. He immediately understands that Merzlyakov is a simulator, and anticipates the theatrical effect of a new exposure. First, the doctor gives him raushnarcosis, during which Merzlyakov’s body can be straightened, and a week later, the procedure of the so-called shock therapy, the effect of which is similar to an attack of violent madness or an epileptic seizure. After it, the prisoner himself asks to be discharged.

TYPHOSIS QUARANTINE

Prisoner Andreev, 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 transit, and there, 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 dispatch 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, the queue finally reaches Andreev as well. But now it seems to him that he has won his battle for life, that now the taiga is full, and if there are shipments, then only for nearby, local business trips. However, when a truck with a selected group of prisoners who were unexpectedly given winter uniforms passes the line separating short trips from long ones, he realizes with an internal shudder that fate has cruelly laughed at him.

ANEURYSM OF THE AORTIC

Illness (and the emaciated state of the “goal” prisoners is quite tantamount to a serious illness, although officially it was not considered as such) and the hospital - in the stories of Shalamov indispensable attribute plots. Ekaterina Glovatskaya, a prisoner, is admitted to the hospital. Beauty, she immediately liked the doctor on duty Zaitsev, and although he knows that she is in close relations with his acquaintance, the prisoner Podshivalov, the head of the amateur art circle, (“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 Głowacka, with listening to the heart, but his male interest is quickly replaced by a purely medical concern. He finds an aortic aneurysm in Glovatsky, a disease in which any careless movement can cause death. The authorities, who took it as an unwritten rule to separate lovers, had already once sent Glovatskaya to a penal female mine. And now, after the doctor's report about dangerous disease prisoner, the head of the hospital is sure that this is nothing more than the intrigues of the same Podshivalov, who is trying to detain his mistress. Glovatskaya is discharged, but already when loading into the car, what Dr. Zaitsev warned about happens - she dies.

LAST FIGHT 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, to stand up for themselves, even risking their lives. According to the author, after the war of 1941-1945. prisoners who fought and passed German captivity began to arrive in the northeastern camps. These are people of a different temper, “with courage, the ability to take risks, who believed only in weapons. Commanders and soldiers, pilots and scouts...”. But most importantly, they possessed the instinct of 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 their strength and will. Their “guilt” was that they were surrounded or captured. And it is clear to Major Pugachev, one of those people who have not yet been broken: "they were brought to their death - to replace these living dead" whom they met in Soviet camps. Then the former major gathers just as determined and strong, to match, prisoners who are ready to either die or become free. In their group - pilots, scout, paramedic, tanker. They realized that they were innocently doomed to death and that they had nothing to lose. All winter they are preparing an escape. Pugachev realized that only those who pass through the general works. And the participants in the conspiracy, one by one, advance into the service: someone becomes a cook, someone a cultist, someone who repairs weapons in the security detachment. But spring is coming, and with it the day ahead.

At five o'clock in the morning there was a knock on the watch. The attendant lets in the prisoner's camp cook, who has come, as usual, for the keys to the pantry. A minute later, the duty officer is strangled, and one of the prisoners changes into his uniform. The same thing happens with another, who returned a little later on duty. Then everything goes according to Pugachev's plan. The conspirators break into the premises of the security detachment and, having shot the guard on duty, take possession of the weapon. Keeping the suddenly awakened fighters at gunpoint, they change into military uniform and stock up on provisions. Having gone outside the camp, they stop a truck on the highway, drop off the driver and continue on their way in the car until the gas runs out. After that, they will go to the taiga. At night - the first night at liberty after long months of captivity - Pugachev, waking up, recalls his escape from the German camp in 1944, crossing the front line, interrogation in a special department, accusation of espionage and sentence - twenty-five years in prison. He also recalls the visits to the German camp of the emissaries of General Vlasov, who recruited Russian soldiers, convincing them that for the Soviet authorities all of them, who were captured, are traitors to the Motherland. Pugachev did not believe them until he could see for himself. He lovingly looks over his sleeping comrades who believe in him and stretch out their hands to freedom, he knows that they are “the best, worthy of all *. A little later, a fight breaks out, the last hopeless fight 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 a bear's lair, that he will be found anyway. He doesn't regret what he did. His last shot was at himself.

Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov 1907-1982

Shalamov Varlam Tikhonovich was born in Vologda in a priestly family. After graduating from school and enrolling at Moscow University, Shalamov actively writes poetic works, works in literary circles. For participating in a rally against the leader of the peoples, he was sentenced to three years, after his release he was imprisoned several more times. In total, Shalamov spent seventeen years in prison, about which he creates his collection Kolyma Tales, which is an autobiographical episode of the author's experiences behind barbed wire.

For the show

This story is about a card game played by two thieves. One of them loses and asks to play on credit, which was not obligatory, but Sevochka did not want to deprive the losing blatar of the last chance to win back, and he agrees. There is nothing to stake, but the player who has gone into a rage is no longer able to stop, he selects with a glance one of the convicts who happened to be here by chance, and demands to take off his sweater. The prisoner who fell under the hot hand refuses. Immediately, one of Seva's sixes with an imperceptible movement throws a hand in his direction, and the prisoner falls dead to the side. The sweater goes into the use of the blatar.

At night

After a meager prison dinner, Glebov and Bagretsov went to a rock located behind a distant hill. It was a long walk, and they stopped to rest. Two friends, brought here at the same time on the same ship, went to dig up the corpse of a comrade, buried only this morning.

Throwing aside the stones that covered the dead body, they pull the dead man out of the pit and pull off his shirt. Assessing the quality of the underpants, the friends pull them off as well. Having removed things from the dead man, Glebov hides them under his quilted jacket. After burying the corpse in place, the friends go back. Their rainbow dreams are warmed by anticipation tomorrow when they can exchange something edible for these, or even shag.

Carpenters

There was a severe frost outside, from which saliva froze on the fly.

Potashnikov feels that his strength is running out, and if something does not happen, he will simply die. With all his exhausted body, Potashnikov passionately and hopelessly wishes to meet death in a hospital bed, where he will be given at least a little human attention. He is disgusted by death with the disregard of others, who look at the death of their own kind with complete indifference.

On this day, Potashnikov was fabulously lucky. Some visiting chief demanded from the brigadier people who knew how to carpentry. The foreman understood that with such an article as the convicts of his brigade, there could not be people with such a specialty, and he explained this to the visitor. Then the chief turned to the brigade. Potashnikov stepped forward, followed by another prisoner. Both followed the visitor to their place. new work. On the way, they found out that neither of them had ever held a saw or an ax in their hands.

Having figured out their cunning for the right to survive, the carpenter treated them like a human being, giving the prisoners a couple of days of life. And two days later it was warm.

Single metering

After the end of the working day, the warden warns the prisoner that tomorrow he will work separately from the brigade. Dugaev was surprised only by the reaction of the foreman and his partner, who heard these words.

The next day the overseer showed the place of work, and the man dutifully began to dig. He was even glad that he was alone, and there was no one to push him. By evening, the young prisoner was exhausted to such an extent that he did not even feel hungry. Having made a measurement of the work done by a person, the caretaker said that a quarter of the norm had been done. For Dugaev, this was a huge figure, he was surprised at how much he did.

After work, the investigator called the convict, asked the usual questions, and Dugaev went to rest. The next day, he was digging and rocking with his brigade, and at night the soldiers took the prisoner to where they no longer come from. Finally realizing what was about to happen, Dugaev felt sorry that he had worked and suffered in vain that day.

Berries

A team of people who have worked in the forest descends to the barracks. Each has a log on his shoulder. One of the prisoners falls, for which one of the guards promises to kill him tomorrow. The next day, the prisoners continued to collect everything in the forest that could be used to heat the barracks. Rose hips, bushes of overripe lingonberries and blueberries come across on last year's withered grass.

One of the prisoners collects shriveled berries in a jar, after which he will exchange them for bread from the detachment cook. The day was drawing to a close, and the jar was not yet filled when the prisoners approached the forbidden lane. One of them offered to return, but the comrade had a great desire to get an extra piece of bread, and he stepped into the restricted area, immediately receiving a bullet from the escort. The first prisoner picked up a jar that rolled to the side, he knew who he could get bread from.

The escort regretted that the first one had not crossed the line, so he wanted to send him to the next world.

sherry brandy

A man is dying on the bunk, who was predicted to have a great future on the literary path, he was a talented poet of the twentieth century. He died painfully and for a long time. Various visions flashed through his head, dream and reality were confused. Coming to consciousness, the man believed that people needed his poetry, that it gave mankind an understanding of something new. Until now, poems were born in his head.

The day came when they gave him a ration of bread, which he could no longer chew, but simply procrastinated over his rotting teeth. Then the cellmates began to stop him, urging him to leave the piece for the next time. And then everything became clear to the poet. He died the same day, but the neighbors managed to use his dead body for two more days to get extra rations.

Condensed milk

The writer's cellmate in Butyrskaya prison, engineer Shestakov, worked not at the mine, but in the geological office. One day, he saw how lustfully he looked at the loaves of fresh bread in the grocery store. This allowed him to offer his friend to smoke first, and then go on the run. It immediately became clear to the narrator at what price Shestakov decided to pay for his dust-free position in the office. The prisoner was well aware that none of the convicts could overcome the long distance, but Shestakov promised him to bring condensed milk, and the man agreed.

All night the prisoner thought about the impossible escape, and about cans of canned milk. The whole working day was spent in anticipation of the evening, after waiting for the beep, the writer went to the engineer's barracks. Shestakov was already waiting for him on the porch, he had the promised jars in his pockets. Sitting at the table, the man opened the cans and drank the milk. He looked at Shestakov and said that he had changed his mind. The engineer understood.

The prisoner could not warn his cellmates, and two of them lost their lives a week later, and three received a new term. Shestakov was transferred to another mine.

Shock therapy

Merzlyakov worked at one of the mines. While a person could steal oats from horse feeders, he still somehow supported his body, but when he was transferred to general work, he realized that he could not endure it for a long time, and death frightened him, the person really wanted to live. He began to look for any way to get to the hospital, and when the convict was severely beaten, breaking a rib, he decided that this was his chance. Merzlyakov was lying in a bent state all the time, the hospital did not have the necessary equipment, and he managed to deceive doctors for a whole year.

In the end, the patient was sent to the central hospital, where they could take an x-ray and make a diagnosis. Served as a neuropathologist in the hospital former prisoner, who at one time had the position of associate professor of one of the leading medical institutions. Not being able to help people in the wild, improving his skills, he honed his skills by exposing convicts feigning illness in order to somehow alleviate their plight. The fact that Merzlyakov was a malingerer became clear to Pyotr Ivanovich from the first minute, and the more he wanted to prove it in the presence of high authorities, and experience a sense of superiority.

First, the doctor unbends the bent body with the help of anesthesia, but when the patient continues to insist on his illness, Pyotr Ivanovich uses the method of shock therapy, and after a while the patient himself asks to leave the hospital.

Typhoid Quarantine

Years of work in the mines undermined Andreev's health, and he was sent to typhoid quarantine. With all his might, trying to survive, Andreev tried to stay in quarantine as long as possible, to postpone the day of returning to severe frosts and inhuman labor. Adapting and getting out, he was able to hold out for three months in typhoid barracks. Most of the inmates have already been sent out of quarantine for long-distance transfers. Only a dozen or three people remained, Andreev already thought that he had won, and he would not be sent to the mines, but to the next business trip, where he would spend the rest of his term. Doubts crept in when they were given winter clothes. And when the last close business trips remained in the distance, he realized that fate had outplayed him.

This does not end the cycle of stories of the great Russian writer V. T. Shalamov, on own experience who endured 17 years of hard labor, who managed in the camps not only to remain a man, but also to return to his former life. All the hardships and suffering experienced affected the writer's health, he lost his sight, stopped hearing, could hardly move, but reading his stories, you understand how important the desire for life, to preserve human qualities in oneself.

Pride and dignity, honor and nobility should be an integral feature of a real person.

Picture or drawing Shalamov - Kolyma stories

Other retellings for the reader's diary

• Summary of Sophocles Oedipus Rex

  In the city of Thebes, where King Oedipus was the ruler, a terrible disease appears, from which people and cattle die. To find out the cause of the plague, the ruler turns to the oracle, which explains that this is the punishment of the gods for the murder of their former king - Laius

• Summary of Quentin Dorward by Walter Scott

  The book is about the Middle Ages. The action takes place in France. Monarch Louis XI led the fight against intrigues among the French nobles and barons. Sovereign Louis was the complete opposite of Charles the Bold

• Summary Ostrovsky Profitable place

  Moscow. The years of the reign of Tsar Alexander II. Aristarkh Vladimirovich, whose surname is Vyshnevsky, is an official who, as it turns out, is very important in his business. But he is old, and if he is lucky in business affairs,

• Summary I'm in the Castle King Susan Hill

  The son of the deceased owner of the house comes to the old family estate of Warings. Joseph Hooper is the name of the son of the former owner of the estate. He is a widower and has a son, Edmund, who is 10 years old.

• Summary Cossacks Arcturus - hound dog

  In the summer I lived on the river bank in the doctor's house. One day the doctor was returning home from work and picked up a blind dog. He washed him, fed him, gave him the nickname Arcturus and left him to live. The dog liked to walk with me along the river bank.

Literature lesson in grade 11

"Linguistic and stylistic analysis of V. Shalamov's stories "Berries", "Single metering"

Lesson Objectives:

1. Educational:

* Improving the skill of linguistic and stylistic text analysis;

* formation of the ability to analyze the text artistic style;

* activation of cognitive research activity of students.

2. Developing:

*further development communicative, linguistic and linguistic competence of students;

*development creativity students' personalities and activation of their mental activity through the use of technology elements critical thinking;

*improving the ability to argue and prove one's point of view on a problematic issue;

*development of social competence of students.

3.Educational:

* contribute to the moral development of the personality of students, their definition of true life values.

Technology: critical thinking technology; technology problem learning, workshop of value orientations.

Tasks:

*reveal main idea short stories by V. Shalamov "Berries"

* conduct a linguo-stylistic analysis of the stories "Single Measurement"

* analyze linguistic (expressive) means.

Lesson type:a lesson in the integrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities of students.

Methods:problem-search, problematic

Type of lesson:workshop

Forms of work:frontal, individual.

On the desk:

Everything that was dear was trampled to dust; civilization and culture fly off a person into the very short term, calculated in weeks.

The ovens of Auschwitz and the disgrace of Kolyma proved that art and literature are zero...

V.Shalamov

On the board: (concepts are written during the lesson)

Totalitarianism

suppression

Destruction of personality

Grain of sand

state machine

Camp

Society Model

At the end of the lesson, make sentences with these words - conclusions.

On the left wing:

Story

Composition

Means of artistic expression

During the classes:

1. Teacher's words

At home, you got acquainted with the stories of V. Shalamov. Have you read this author's work before?

Today we will discover the world of Shalamov's prose, the world is cruel and merciless and truthful to the limit. To understand the motives for writing such works, you need to get acquainted with short biography author.

2. Presentationprepared by a student - biography of V. Shalamov

3. Conversation

What is striking in the biography of the writer?

He spent 20 years in camps in Kolyma, was a political prisoner. Consequently, everything he wrote about was experienced and felt by the author himself. "Kolyma stories" - personal experience.

What do we know about those times, the camps?

4. A student's message about the system of punishments in the camps.

So what stories have you read?

- "Single metering", "Berries".

What theme unites these stories?

main topic- the existence of a person in the camp.

Where is the action taking place?

In the north. Kolyma, the most severe camps.

Who is at the center of the story?

Zeks (thieves, political prisoners), overseers.

What is the tone of the story?

The intonation is impassive, ordinary, without emotions. Such intonation gives the stories a note of doom.

As a rule, in any prose work of art there are all types of speech: narration, description, reasoning. What is in the stories of V. Shalamov? Prove it.

There is a story and a description.

Why is there no reasoning in the stories of V. Shalamov?

Zeke can't reason. He is a cog, "nobody", "camp dust".

In what episodes does the description occur?

These episodes are related to the description of food. This is a strong emotion in conditions of constant hunger. There is a clear parallel: food = life, man = animal.

Is there a story?

Yes, that's the basis of the stories. The life of a convict consists of a series of actions aimed at preserving and maintaining own life: exhausting, meaningless work, the fight against constant hunger and cold, actions to get food.

What is the theme of stories?

1. The problem of confrontation between man and the totalitarian machine of the state. 2. The problem of change (deformation) of the value orientations of a person in the camp.

3. The problem of the price of human life.

5. Analysis of the story "Single measurement"

The genre is declared by V Shalamov in the title of the collection - “Kolyma stories”

What is a story? Let's turn to the dictionary.

A story is a small epic genre, a prose work of a small volume, in which, as a rule, one or more events of the hero's life are depicted.

What is the classic composition of the story?

The plot, the development of the action, the climax, the denouement.

Do V. Shalamov's stories correspond to the classical form?

No. There is no introduction, the climax is shifted towards the end of the work.

This is a deliberate departure from the literary canons. Shalamov was convinced that literature was dead (the one that "teaches" - the literature of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy).

narration about last day the hero of the story is ordinary, without emotions. Dugaev's death is a statistic.

Why is there no introduction and conclusion in the story?

V. Shalamov needs to show the essence, without burdening it with the background of the hero. In the conditions of the camp, it does not matter who the person was before. Shalamov writes about a man who stands at the line separating life and death.

Surroundings are indifferent to the fate of a comrade. (Read 1 paragraph of the story, analyze the behavior of a partner and foreman)

What does Dugaev feel in the camp?

The main feeling is hunger. It is he who determines the train of thought of the hero (read an excerpt). The second is indifference (read an excerpt).

In the camp, a person becomes dumb, turns into an animal. Dugaev does not know how to steal (and this is the “main northern virtue” in the camp), so he is quickly weakening. He tries to fulfill the norm (“None of the comrades will grumble that he does not fulfill the norm”). When Dugaev learns that he has completed only 25%, he is surprised because "the work was so hard." He was so tired that even "the feeling of hunger had long since left him."

Find the climax of the story and its denouement.

The climax and denouement are combined in the last paragraph (read out). When Dugaev realized why he was being led to a high fence with barbed wire, he "regretted that he had worked in vain, that last day had been tormented in vain."

6. Analysis of the story “Berries”

What do the stories “Single Size” and “Berries” have in common?

In the story "Berries" Shalamov draws camp everyday life, as in "Solitary Measurement". The hero, on whose behalf the story is told, like Dugaev, clings to life, although he understands that his life and the lives of his comrades are worthless.

1. In the camp, every man is for himself.

2. Hunger - a painful acute sensation that pushes a person to take risks and rash acts.

3. All moral qualities of a person have given way to physiological needs - to eat, sleep, be warm.

Why did Rybakov, the narrator's friend, pick up berries in a jar?

If Rybakov picks up a full can, the cook of the security detachment will give him bread. Rybakov's enterprise immediately became important matter“Getting food is the most important thing in the camp.

Why didn't Rybakov ask for help picking berries?

He would have to share bread, and "camp ethics" does not involve such human actions. Consequently, Shalamov's idea is once again confirmed that in the camp it is every man for himself.

Which episode stands out in terms of intonation and content from the general narrative?

Episode description of berries. it real poetry. The narrator with the intonation of a gourmet and connoisseur draws berries. Nothing in the life of a convict causes such strong emotions. Only food.

Analyze the episode that tells about the death of Rybakov.

Rybakov was shot dead by the guard Seroshapka because the convict violated the boundaries of the designated zone. Gray Hat did it casually, without regret. The guard knew that Rybakov would not run away, but he killed the convict with the first shot. The author draws the reader's attention to the fact that Rybakov was killed by the first shot, which should be a warning. The second was made formally - it is supposed to fire two shots. Neither the guard Seroshapka nor the convicts thought about observing the law, because the camp is a territory of lawlessness, and "the price of camp dust is zero"

The death of a friend is an ordinary event. There is no feeling of loss, trouble. Man is nothing. A jar of berries is a value, as it can be exchanged for bread.

Read the words of V. Shalamov about civilization and culture again. After reading the stories, did it become clear why the author adheres to this point of view? In your answer, use the key words written on the board during the lesson.

V. Shalamov thinks so, because the camp proved that the physical and spiritual forces of a person in a collision with the machine of a totalitarian state are limited. The forces of evil break and destroy a person, because the possibilities of a person are finite, and evil can be unlimited. The artist was not afraid to show the terrible in a person. Having shown the “dehumanization” of the world, Shalamov turned out to be a prophet: cruelty is growing everywhere, while he never aestheticized inhumanity. He wanted the reader to see and appreciate what it is in real life. Everything is permitted - the terrible reality of the history of mankind, which must be resisted - the author leads the reader to such a conviction. Kolyma stories»

Homework: review on the story of V. Shalamov "Condensed milk"

In the evening, winding up the tape measure, the caretaker said that Dugaev would receive the next day single measurement. The foreman, who was standing nearby and asking the caretaker to lend "a dozen cubes until the day after tomorrow," suddenly fell silent and began to look at the evening star twinkling behind the crest of the hill. Baranov, Dugaev's partner, who helped the caretaker measure the work done, took a shovel and began to clean up the long-cleaned face.

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 the instrument, and returned to the barracks in the prisoner's uneven formation. The hard day was over. In the dining room, without sitting down, Dugaev drank a portion of thin cold cereal soup over the side of the bowl. Bread was given out in the morning for the whole day and was eaten long ago. I wanted to smoke. He looked around, wondering who to beg for a cigarette butt. On the windowsill, Baranov collected shag grains from an inside-out pouch into a piece of paper. Having carefully collected them, Baranov rolled up a thin cigarette and handed it to Dugaev.

“Kuri, leave it to me,” he suggested.

Dugaev was surprised - he and Baranov were not friendly. However, with hunger, cold and insomnia, no friendship is struck up, and Dugaev, despite his youth, understood the falsity of the saying about friendship, tested by misfortune and misfortune. In order for friendship to be friendship, it is necessary that its strong foundation be laid when conditions, life have not yet reached the last boundary, beyond which there is nothing human in a person, but only mistrust, anger and lies. Dugaev well remembered the northern proverb, the three commandments of the prisoner: 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.

“Weakening,” he said. Baranov said nothing.

Dugaev returned to the barracks, lay down and closed his eyes. Lately he hadn't slept well, hunger didn't let him sleep well. Dreams were especially painful - loaves of bread, steaming fatty soups ... Forgetfulness did not come soon, but still, half an hour before getting up, Dugaev had already opened his eyes.

The team came to work. Everyone dispersed to their destinations.

“And you wait,” said the foreman to Dugaev. - The caretaker will put you in.

Dugaev sat down on the ground. He had already managed to get tired enough to treat with complete indifference any change in his fate.

The first wheelbarrows rumbled on the ladder, shovels screeched against stone.

“Come here,” the caretaker said to Dugaev. - Here's your place. - He measured out the cubature of the face and put a mark - a piece of quartz. “This way,” he said. - The trapper will get you a board to the main ladder. Carry where and everything. Here's a shovel, a pick, a crowbar, a wheelbarrow - take it.

Dugaev dutifully began work.

Even better, he thought. None of the comrades will grumble that he does not work well. Former grain growers are not required to understand and know that Dugaev is a beginner, that immediately after school he began to study at the university, and exchanged the university bench for this slaughter. Every man for himself. They are not obliged, they should not understand that he has been 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, from the bread of a comrade to the issuance of thousands of bonuses to the authorities for non-existent, non-former achievements. No one cares that Dugaev cannot endure a sixteen-hour working day.

Dugaev drove, fired, poured, drove again and again fired and poured.

After the lunch break, the caretaker came, looked at what Dugaev had done, and silently left ... Dugaev again fired and poured. It was still very far from the quartz mark.

In the evening the caretaker came again and unwound the tape measure. - He measured what Dugaev did.

“Twenty-five percent,” he said, and looked at Dugaev. - Twenty-five percent. Do you hear?

- I hear, - said Dugaev. This number surprised him. The work was so hard, so little stone was picked up with a shovel, it was so hard to pick. The figure - twenty-five percent of the norm - seemed to Dugaev very large. Calves ached, from the emphasis on the wheelbarrow, my arms, shoulders, head hurt unbearably. The feeling of hunger had long since left him.

Dugaev ate because he saw how others were eating, something told him: you need to eat. But he didn't want to eat.

“Well, well,” said the caretaker, leaving. - I wish you well.

In the evening, Dugaev was summoned to the investigator. He answered four questions: name, surname, article, term. Four questions that are asked thirty times a day to a prisoner. 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, soldiers led him behind the conbase, and led him along a forest path to a place where, almost blocking a small gorge, there was a high fence with barbed wire stretched on top, and from where at night the distant chirring of tractors could be heard. And, realizing what was the matter, Dugaev regretted that he had worked in vain, that this last day had been tormented in vain.

The plot of V. Shalamov's stories is a painful description of the prison and camp life of the prisoners of the Soviet Gulag, their tragic destinies similar to one another, in which chance, merciless or merciful, helper or murderer, arbitrariness of bosses and thieves dominate. Hunger and its convulsive satiety, exhaustion, painful dying, a slow and almost equally painful recovery, moral humiliation and moral degradation - this is what is constantly in the center of the writer's attention.

FUNERAL WORD The author remembers by name his comrades in the camps. Calling to mind a mournful martyrology, he tells who died and how, who suffered and how, who hoped for what, who and how behaved in this Auschwitz without stoves, as Shalamov called the Kolyma camps. Few managed to survive, few managed to survive and remain morally unbroken. LIFE OF ENGINEER KIPREYEV Having never betrayed or sold anyone, the author says that he has developed for himself a formula for actively protecting his existence: a person can only consider himself a person 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 not known what you will be like at a decisive moment, whether you just have enough physical strength, and not just mental. Arrested in 1938, the engineer-physicist Kipreev not only withstood the beating during interrogation, but even rushed at the investigator, after which he was put in a punishment cell. However, they still try to get him to sign false testimony, intimidating 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, as all prisoners are. Thanks to his talent (he invented a way to restore burnt out electric light bulbs, repaired an X-ray machine), he manages to avoid the most heavy work, however, not always. He miraculously survives, but the moral shock remains in him forever.

FOR THE PRESENTATION The corruption of the camp, Shalamov testifies, affected everyone to a greater or lesser extent and took place in the most different forms. Two thieves are playing cards. One of them is played down and asks to play for a "representation", that is, in debt. At some point, irritated by the game, he unexpectedly orders an ordinary intellectual prisoner, who happened to be among the spectators of their game, to hand over a woolen sweater. He refuses, and then one of the thieves “finishes” him, and the thieves still get the sweater.

NIGHT Two prisoners sneak to the grave where the body of their deceased comrade was buried in the morning, and take off the dead man's linen to sell or exchange for bread or tobacco the next day. The initial squeamishness about the removed clothes is replaced by a pleasant thought that tomorrow they might be able to eat a little more and even smoke.

SINGLE MEASUREMENT Camp labor, unambiguously defined by Shalamov as slave labor, is for the writer a form of the same corruption. A short-handed prisoner is not able to give a percentage rate, so labor becomes torture and slow death. Zek Dugaev is gradually weakening, unable to withstand the sixteen-hour working day. He drives, turns, pours, again drives and again turns, and in the evening the caretaker appears and measures Dugaev's work with a tape measure. The mentioned figure - 25 percent - seems to Dugaev to be very large, his calves are aching, his arms, shoulders, head are unbearably sore, he even lost his sense of hunger. A little later, he is called to the investigator, who asks the usual questions: name, surname, article, term. A day later, the soldiers take Dugaev to a remote place, fenced with a high fence with barbed wire, from where the chirring of tractors can be heard at night. Dugaev guesses why he was brought here and that his life is over. And he regrets only that the last day was in vain.

SHERRY BRANDY An imprisoned poet who has been 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 dies for a long time. Sometimes a thought comes - for example, that they stole bread from him, which he put under his head, and it is so terrible 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 a daily ration is put into his hand, he presses the bread to his mouth with all his strength, sucks it, tries to tear and gnaw with scurvy loose teeth. When he dies, two more annas do not write him off, and inventive neighbors manage to get bread for the dead man as if they were alive: they make him raise his hand like a puppet doll. SHOCK THERAPY Prisoner Merzlyakov, a man of large build, finds himself at the general work, feels that he is gradually losing. One day he falls, cannot get up immediately and refuses to drag the log. First they beat him, then the guards, they bring him to the camp - he has a broken rib and back pain. And although the pain quickly passed, and the rib grew together, 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 research. He has a chance to be activated, that is, decommissioned due to illness at will. Remembering the mine, aching cold, a bowl of empty soup, which he drank, without even using a spoon, he concentrates all his will so as not to be caught cheating and sent to a penal mine. However, the doctor Pyotr Ivanovich, himself a prisoner in the past, did not miss. The professional replaces the human in him. He spends most of his time exposing the fakers. This amuses his vanity: he is an excellent specialist and is proud that he has retained his qualifications, despite the year of general work. He immediately understands that Merzlyakov is a simulator, and anticipates the theatrical effect of a new exposure. First, the doctor gives him a round anesthesia, during which Merzlyakov's body can be straightened, and a week later, the procedure of the so-called shock therapy, the effect of which is similar to an attack of violent madness or an epileptic seizure. After it, the prisoner himself asks to be discharged.

TYPHOSIS QUARANTINE Prisoner Andreev, 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 transit, and there, 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 dispatch 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, the queue finally reaches Andreev as well. But now it seems to him that he has won his battle for life, that now the taiga is full, and if there are shipments, then only for nearby, local business trips. However, when a truck with a selected group of prisoners who were unexpectedly given winter uniforms passes the line separating short trips from long ones, he realizes with an internal shudder that fate has cruelly laughed at him.

ANEURYSM OF THE AORTIC Illness (and the emaciated state of the prisoners-"goal" is quite tantamount to a serious illness, although officially it was not considered as such) and the hospital - in the stories of Shalamov, an indispensable attribute of the plot. Ekaterina Glovatskaya, a prisoner, is admitted to the hospital. Beauty, she immediately liked the doctor on duty Zaitsev, and although he knows that she is in close relations with his acquaintance, the prisoner Podshivalov, the head of the amateur art circle, (“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 Głowacka, with listening to the heart, but his male interest is quickly replaced by a purely medical concern. He finds an aortic aneurysm in Glovatsky, a disease in which any careless movement can cause death. The authorities, who took it as an unwritten rule to separate lovers, had already once sent Glovatskaya to a penal female 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, who is trying to detain his mistress. Glovatskaya is discharged, but already when loading into the car, what Dr. Zaitsev warned about happens - she dies.

THE LAST FIGHT OF MAYOR 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, to stand up for themselves, even risking their lives. According to the author, after the war of 1941-1945. prisoners who fought and passed German captivity began to arrive in the northeastern camps. These are people of a different temper, “with courage, the ability to take risks, who believed only in weapons. Commanders and soldiers, pilots and scouts...”. But most importantly, they possessed the instinct of 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 their strength and will. Their “guilt” was that they were surrounded or captured. It is clear to Imayor Pugachev, one of these people who have not yet been broken: “they were brought to their deaths - to replace these living dead,” whom they met in Soviet camps. Then the former major gathers just as determined and strong, to match, prisoners who are ready to either die or become free. In their group - pilots, scout, paramedic, tanker. They realized that they were innocently doomed to death and that they had nothing to lose. All winter they are preparing an escape. Pugachev realized that only those who bypassed the general work could survive the winter and then run away. And the participants in the conspiracy, one by one, advance into the service: someone becomes a cook, someone a cultist who repairs weapons in the security detachment. But spring is coming, and with it the day ahead.

At five o'clock in the morning there was a knock on the watch. The attendant lets in the prisoner camp cook, who has come, as usual, for the keys to the pantry. A minute later, the duty officer is strangled, and one of the prisoners changes into his uniform. The same thing happens with another, who returned a little later on duty. Then everything goes according to Pugachev's plan. The conspirators break into the premises of the security detachment and, having shot the guard on duty, take possession of the weapon. Keeping the suddenly awakened fighters at gunpoint, they change into military uniforms and stock up on provisions. Having gone outside the camp, they stop a truck on the highway, drop off the driver and continue on their way in the car until the gas runs out. After that, they will go to the taiga. At night - the first night at liberty after long months of captivity - Pugachev, waking up, recalls his escape from the German camp in 1944, crossing the front line, interrogation in a special department, accusation of espionage and sentence - twenty-five years in prison. He also recalls the visits to the German camp of the emissaries of General Vlasov, who recruited Russian soldiers, convincing them that for the Soviet authorities all of them, who were captured, are traitors to the Motherland. Pugachev did not believe them until he could see for himself. He lovingly looks over his sleeping comrades who believe in him and stretch out their hands to freedom, he knows that they are “the best, worthy of all *. A little later, a fight breaks out, the last hopeless fight 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 a bear's lair, that he will be found anyway. He doesn't regret what he did. His last shot was at himself.

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