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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, slow and almost equally painful recovery, moral humiliation and moral degradation - this is what is constantly in the center of the writer's attention.
For the show
Camp corruption, Shalamov testifies, affected everyone to a greater or lesser extent and took place in a variety of 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 give a woolen sweater. He refuses, and then one of the thieves "finishes" him, and the sweater still goes to the thieves.
Single metering
Camp labor, unequivocally defined by Shalamov as slave labor, is for the writer a form of the same corruption. A goner-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.
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. He is beaten first by his own people, then by the escorts, 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 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, written off due to illness at will. Remembering the mine, aching cold, a bowl of empty soup that he drank without even using a spoon, he concentrates all his will so as not to be convicted of deceit and sent to a penal mine. However, the doctor Pyotr Ivanovich, himself a prisoner in the past, was not a blunder. 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 looks forward to the theatrical effect of a new exposure. First, the doctor gives him roush 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 for an extract.
Major Pugachev's last fight
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 these people who have not yet been broken: “they were brought to their death - to change these living dead,” whom they met in Soviet camps. Then the former major gathers prisoners who are just as determined and strong, to match, 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 camp cook-prisoner, who, as usual, has come 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. Leaving the camp, they stop the truck on the highway, drop off the driver and continue on their way in the car until the gas runs out. After that, they 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 the sleeping comrades who believe in him and stretch out their hands to freedom, he knows that they are "the best, worthy of all." And a little later, a fight ensues, 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 a bear's lair, that he will be found anyway. He doesn't regret what he did. His last shot was at himself.
Year of publication of the collection: 1966
« Kolyma stories» Shalamov were written on the basis of personal experience writer, he spent thirteen years in Kolyma. Varlam Shalamov created the collection for quite a long time from 1954 to 1962. First « Kolyma Tales" could be read in the New York magazine " New magazine" in Russian. Although the author did not want to publish his stories abroad.
Collection "Kolyma stories" summary
Through the snow
The collection of Varlam Shalamov "Kolyma Tales" begins with a question: do you want to know how they tread the road through the virgin snow? The man, swearing and sweating, goes ahead, leaving behind him black holes in the loose snow. A windless day is chosen so that the air is almost still and the wind does not sweep away all human labors. Five or six more people follow the first one, they go in a row and step near the footprints of the first one.
The first is always harder than the rest, and when he gets tired, he is replaced by one of the people walking in the row. It is important that each of the "pioneers" set foot on a piece of virgin land, and not on someone else's trail. And readers ride horses and tractors, not writers.
For the show
The men were playing cards at Naumov's horse racing. The guards usually did not go into the barracks of the Konogons, so every night the thieves gathered there to hold card fights. In the corner of the hut, blankets were spread out on the lower beds, on which lay a pillow - a "table" for card games. On the pillow lay a recently made deck of cards, cut from a volume of V. Hugo. To make a deck, paper, an indelible pencil, a slice of bread (used for gluing thin paper) and a knife were needed. One of the players tapped the pillow with his fingers, the little fingernail was incredibly long - Blatarian chic. This man had a very suitable appearance for a thief, you look at his face and you no longer remember his features. It was Sevochka, they said that he "perfectly performs", shows the dexterity of a card sharper. The thieves' game was a game of deceit, played only by two. Sevochka's opponent was Naumov, who was a railway thief, although outwardly he looked like a monk. A cross hung around his neck, such was the fashion of thieves in the forties.
Next, the players had to argue and swear in order to set the bet. Naumov lost his costume and wanted to play for a performance, that is, on credit. Konogon called the main character to him and Garkunov demanded to take off his quilted jackets. Garkunov had a sweater under his quilted jacket, a gift from his wife, with which he never parted. The man refused to take off his sweater, and then the others jumped on him. Sashka, who had recently been pouring soup for them, pulled out a knife from the top of his boot and held out his hand to Garkunov, who sobbed and fell. The game was over.
At night
Dinner is over. Glebov licked the bowl, the bread melted in his mouth. Bagretsov kept looking into Glebov's mouth, not having enough strength to look away. It was time to go, they went to a small ledge, the stones burned their feet with cold. And even walking did not warm.
The men stopped to rest, there was still a long way to go. They lay down on the ground and began to scatter stones. Bagretsov swore, he cut his finger and the blood did not stop. Glebov was a doctor in the past, although now, that time seemed like a dream. Friends were removing stones, and then Bagretsov noticed a human finger. They pulled out the corpse, took off his shirt and underpants. When they finished, the men threw stones at the grave. They were going to trade the clothes for the biggest treasures in the camp. As in it was bread and maybe even tobacco.
Carpenters
The next content in the collection "Kolyma stories" contains the story "Carpenters". He talks about how fog stood on the street for days, so thick that it was not possible to see a person two steps away. The temperature had been below minus fifty-five degrees for two weeks now. Potashnikov woke up with the hope that the frost had fallen, but this did not happen. The food that the workers were fed gave energy for a maximum of one hour, and then they wanted to lie down and die. Potashnikov slept on the upper bunk, where it was warmer, but his hair froze to the pillow during the night.
The man grew weaker every day, he was not afraid of death, but did not want to die in a barracks, where the cold froze not only human bones, but also souls. Having finished breakfast, Potashnikov reached the place of work, where he saw a man in a deer hat who needed carpenters. He and another man from his team introduced themselves as carpenters, although they were not. The men were brought to the workshop, but since they did not know carpentry, they were sent back.
Single metering
In the evening, Dugaev was informed that the next day he would receive single measurement. Dugaev was twenty-three and everything that happened here greatly surprised him. After a meager dinner, Baranov offered Dugaev a cigarette, although they were not friends.
In the morning, the caretaker measured out to the man the segment on which he should work. Working alone was even better for Dugaev, no one will grumble that he does not work well. In the evening the caretaker came to evaluate the work. The guy completed twenty-five percent, and this number seemed huge to him. The next day he worked together with everyone, and at night he was taken to the horse base, where there was a high fence with barbed wire. Dugaev regretted one thing, that he suffered and worked that day. Last day.
The man was on duty to receive the parcel. His wife sent him a few handfuls of prunes and a cloak, which they would not be able to wear anyway, because it was not proper for ordinary workers to wear such expensive shoes. But the mountain ranger, Andrei Boyko, offered him to sell these cloaks for a hundred rubles. With the proceeds main character bought a kilo of butter and a kilo of bread. But all the food was taken away and the brew with prunes was knocked over.
Rain
The men had been working at the site for three days, each in his own pit, but no one had gone deeper than half a meter. They were forbidden to leave the pits, to talk among themselves. The protagonist of this story wanted to break his leg by dropping a stone on it, but nothing came of this venture, only a couple of abrasions and bruises remained. It was raining all the time, the escorts thought that this would make the men work faster, but the workers only began to hate their work even more.
On the third day, the hero's neighbor, Rozovsky, shouted from his pit that he realized something - there is no meaning to life. But the man managed to save Rozovsky from the escorts, although he still threw himself under the trolley after some time, but did not die. Rozovsky was tried for a suicide attempt and the hero never saw him again.
Kant
The hero says that his favorite northern tree is cedar, elfin. From the dwarf one could find out the weather, if you lie down on the ground, then it will be snowy and cold and vice versa. The man was just transferred to a new job to collect elfin, which was then sent to the factory to make unusually nasty vitamins against scurvy.
They worked in pairs to assemble the elfin. One chopped, the other pinched. On that day, they did not manage to collect the norm, and in order to correct the situation, the partner of the protagonist put a large stone in a bag with branches, they still did not check there.
Dry rations
In this "Kolyma story" four men from the stone faces are sent to cut trees on the Duskanya spring. Their ten-day rations were negligible, and they were afraid to think that this meal would have to be divided into thirty portions. The workers decided to dump all their food together. They all lived in an old hunting hut, buried their clothes in the ground at night, leaving a small edge outside so that all the lice crawled out, then they burned the insects. They worked from sun to sun. The foreman checked the work done and left then the men worked more relaxed, did not quarrel, but rested more, looked at nature. Every evening they gathered at the stove and talked, discussed their hard life in the camp. It was impossible to refuse to go to work, because there was no pea coat or mittens, in the act they wrote “dressed for the season”, so as not to list everything that is not there.
Not everyone returned to the camp the next day. Ivan Ivanovich hanged himself that night, and Savelyev cut off his fingers. Upon returning to the camp, Fedya wrote a letter to his mother that he was living well and was dressed according to the season.
Injector
This story is Kudinov's report to the head of the mine, where the worker reports a broken injector, which does not allow the entire team to work. And people have to stand for several hours in the cold at temperatures below minus fifty. The man informed the chief engineer, but no action was taken. In response, the head of the mine suggests replacing the injector with a civilian one. And call the injector to responsibility.
Apostle Paul
The hero dislocated his leg and was transferred to the assistant carpenter Frisorger, who, in his past life was a pastor in some German village. They became good friends and often talked about religious topics.
Frizorger told the man about his only daughter, and this conversation was accidentally overheard by their boss, Paramonov, and offered to write a statement on the wanted list. Six months later, a letter arrived stating that Frisorger's daughter was disowning him. But the hero noticed this letter first and burned it, and then another one. Subsequently, he often remembered his camp friend, as long as he had the strength to remember.
Berries
The protagonist lies on the ground without strength, two guards approach him and threaten him. One of them, Seroshapka, says that tomorrow he will shoot the worker. The next day, the team went to the forest to work, where blueberries, wild roses and lingonberries grew. The workers ate them during smoke breaks, but Rybakov had a task: he picked berries in a jar, so that later they could be exchanged for bread. The protagonist, along with Rybakov, came too close to the forbidden territory, and Rybakov crossed the line.
The escort fired twice, the first warning, and after the second shot Rybakov lay on the ground. The hero decided not to waste time and picked up a jar of berries, intending to exchange them for bread.
Bitch Tamara
Moses was a blacksmith, he worked wonderfully, each of his products was endowed with grace, and his superiors appreciated him for this. And once Kuznetsov met a dog, he began to run away from it, thinking that it was a wolf. But the dog was friendly and remained in the camp - she was given the nickname Tamara. Soon she whelped, a kennel was built for six puppies. At this time, a detachment of "operatives" arrived in the camp, they were looking for fugitives - prisoners. Tamara hated one escort, Nazarov. It was clear that the dog had already met him. When it was time for the guards to leave, Nazarov shot Tamara. And after going down the slope on skis, he ran into a stump and died. The skin from Tamara was torn off and used for mittens.
sherry brandy
The poet was dying, his thoughts were confused, life flowed out of him. But she appeared again, he opened his eyes, moved his fingers swollen from hunger. The man thought from life, he deserved creative immortality, he was called the first poet of the twentieth century. Although he had not written down his poems for a long time, the poet put them together in his head. He was dying slowly. In the morning they brought bread, the man grabbed it with his bad teeth, but the neighbors stopped him. In the evening he died. But the death was recorded two days later, the poet's neighbors received the dead man's bread.
baby pictures
That day they got an easy job - sawing firewood. After finishing work, the team noticed a pile of garbage near the fence. The men even managed to find socks, which was a rarity in the north. And one of them managed to find a notebook filled with children's drawings. The boy painted soldiers with machine guns, painted the nature of the North, in bright and pure colors, because it was so. northern city consisted of yellow houses, sheep dogs, soldiers and blue skies. A man from the detachment looked into the notebook, felt the sheets, and then crumpled it up and threw it away.
Condensed milk
Once after work, Shestakov suggested that the main character escape, they were in prison together, but were not friends. The man agreed, but asked for canned milk. At night he slept badly, and did not remember the working day at all.
Having received condensed milk from Shestakov, he changed his mind about running away. I wanted to warn the others, but I didn't know anyone. Five fugitives, together with Shestakov, were caught very soon, two were killed, three were tried a month later. Shestakov himself was transferred to another mine, he was full and shaved, but did not greet the main character.
Bread
In the morning, herring and bread were brought to the barracks. The herring was given out every other day, and each prisoner dreamed of a ponytail. Yes, the head was more fun, but there was more meat in the tail. Bread was given out once a day, but everyone ate it at once, there was not enough patience. After breakfast, it became warm and did not want to go anywhere.
This team was in typhoid quarantine, but they still worked. Today they were taken to the bakery, where the master chose only two out of twenty, stronger and not prone to escape: the Hero and his neighbor, a guy with freckles. They were fed with bread and jam. Men had to carry broken bricks, but this work was too hard for them. They often took breaks, and soon the master sent them back and gave them a loaf of bread. In the camp, bread was shared with neighbors.
snake charmer
This story is dedicated to Andrei Platonov, who was a friend of the author and wanted to write this story himself, even the name came up with "The Snake Charmer", but died. Platonov spent a year on the Dzhanhar. On the first day, he noticed that there are people who do not work - thieves. And Fedechka was their leader, at first he was rude to Platonov, but when he found out that he could squeeze novels, he immediately softened. Andrei retold "The Jacks of Hearts Club" until dawn. Fedya was very pleased.
In the morning, when Platonov was going to work, some guy pushed him. But he immediately whispered something in his ear. Then this guy approached Platonov and asked him not to say anything to Fedya, Andrei agreed.
Tatar mullah and clean air
It was very hot in the prison cell. The prisoners joked that first they would be subjected to evaporation torture, and then freezing torture. The Tatar mule, a strong man of sixty, was talking about his life. He hoped to live in a cell for another twenty years, and in the open air for at least ten, he knew what fresh air».
It took twenty to thirty days for a person to turn into a goner in the camp. The prisoners tried to escape from the prison to the camp, thinking that the prison was the worst thing that could happen to them. All the prisoners' illusions about the camp were very quickly destroyed. People lived in unheated barracks, where ice froze in all the cracks in winter. Parcels arrived after six months, if at all. There is nothing to talk about money at all, they were never paid, not a penny. An incredible amount of disease in the camp left the workers with no way out. Given all the hopelessness and depression, clean air was much more dangerous for a person than a prison.
First death
The hero saw many deaths, but he remembered the first one he saw best. His crew worked the night shift. Returning to the barracks, their foreman Andreev suddenly turned in the other direction and ran, the workers followed him. In front of them stood a man in military uniform, a woman lying at his feet. The hero knew her, it was Anna Pavlovna, the secretary of the head of the mine. The brigade loved her, and now Anna Pavlovna was dead, strangled. The man who killed her, Shtemenko, was the warden who had smashed all of the prisoners' homemade cauldrons a few months earlier. He was quickly tied up and taken to the head of the mine.
Part of the brigade hurried to the barracks to have lunch, Andreev was taken to testify. And when he returned, he ordered the prisoners to go to work. Shtemenko was soon convicted of murder out of jealousy for ten years. After the verdict, the chief was taken away. Former bosses are kept in separate camps.
Aunt Polya
Aunt Polya died of a terrible disease - stomach cancer. Nobody knew her surname, not even the wife of the boss, to whom Aunt Polya was a servant or “orderly”. The woman was not engaged in any dark deeds, she only helped to arrange her fellow Ukrainians for easy work. When she fell ill, visitors came to her hospital every day. And everything that the chief's wife passed on, Aunt Polya gave to the nurses.
One day Father Peter came to the hospital to confess the sick woman. A few days later she died, soon Father Peter appeared again and ordered to put a cross on her grave, and they did so. Timoshenko Polina Ivanovna was first written on the cross, but it seemed that her name was Praskovya Ilyinichna. The inscription was corrected under the supervision of Peter.
Tie
In this story by Varlam Shalamov "Kolyma Tales" you can read about a girl named Marusya Kryukova, who came to Russia from Japan and was arrested in Vladivostok. During the investigation, Masha's leg was broken, the bone healed incorrectly, and the girl was limping. Kryukova was a wonderful needlewoman, and she was sent to the “house of the directorate” to embroider. Such houses stood near the road, and the chiefs spent the night there two or three times a year, the houses were beautifully decorated, paintings and embroidered canvases hung. In addition to Marusya, two more girls, needlewomen, worked in the house, a woman looked after them, giving out threads and fabric to the workers. For fulfilling the norm and good behavior, the girls were allowed to go to the cinema for prisoners. The films were shown in parts, and once, after the first part, the first part was again staged. This is because the deputy head of the hospital, Dolmatov, came, he was late, and the film was shown first.
Marusya ended up in the hospital, in the women's department to see a surgeon. She really wanted to give the doctors who cured her ties. And the overseer allowed it. However, Masha failed to fulfill her plan, because Dolmatov took them away from the craftswoman. Soon, at an amateur concert, the doctor managed to examine the boss's tie, such a gray, patterned, high-quality one.
Taiga golden
The zone is of two types: small, that is, transfer, and large - camp. On the territory of the small zone there is one square hut, in which there are about five hundred places, bunks on four floors. The main character lies on the bottom, the top ones are for thieves only. On the very first night, the hero is called to be sent to the camp, but the zone worker sends him back to the barracks.
Soon, artists are brought to the barracks, one of them, a Harbin singer, Valyusha, a thug, asks him to sing. The singer sang a song about the golden taiga. The hero fell into a dream, he woke up from a whisper on the upper bunk and the smell of shag. When the contractor wakes him up in the morning, the hero asks to go to the hospital. Three days later, a paramedic comes to the barracks and examines the man.
Vaska Denisov, pig thief
Vaska Denisov could not arouse suspicion only by carrying firewood on his shoulder. He carried the log to Ivan Petrovich, the men sawed it together, and then Vaska chopped all the wood. Ivan Petrovich said that now he had nothing to feed the worker, but gave him three rubles. Vaska was sick of hunger. He walked through the village, wandered into the first house he came across, in the closet he saw the frozen carcass of a pig. Vaska grabbed her and ran to the state house, the department of vitamin business trips. The chase was close. Then he ran into the red corner, locked the door and began to gnaw on a pig, damp and frozen. When Vaska was found, he had already gnawed off half of it.
Seraphim
Seraphim had a letter on the table, he was afraid to open it. The man worked in the North in a chemical laboratory for a year, but he could not forget his wife. Seraphim worked with two more engineers, prisoners, with whom he hardly spoke. Every six months, the lab technician received a 10 percent pay raise. And Seraphim decided to go to the neighboring village, to unwind. But the guards decided that the man had run away from somewhere and put him in a barracks, six days later the head of the laboratory came for Seraphim and took him away. Although the escorts did not return the money.
Returning, Seraphim saw a letter, his wife wrote about a divorce. When Seraphim was left alone in the laboratory, he opened the manager's cabinet, took out a pinch of the powder, dissolved it in water and drank it. Started to burn in the throat, and nothing more. Then Seraphim cut open his vein, but the blood flowed too weakly. Desperate, the man ran to the river and tried to drown himself. He woke up in the hospital. The doctor injected a glucose solution, and then unclenched Seraphim's teeth with a spatula. The operation was done, but too late. The acid corroded the esophagus and the walls of the stomach. Seraphim calculated everything correctly the first time.
Day off
A man was praying in the meadow. The hero knew him, it was the priest from his barracks, Zamyatin. Prayers helped him to live like a hero of poetry, which is still preserved in his memory. The only thing that was not supplanted by the humiliation of eternal hunger, fatigue and cold. Returning to the barracks, the man heard a noise in the instrumental room, which was closed on weekends, but today the lock did not hang. He went inside, two thieves were playing with a puppy. One of them, Semyon, pulled out an ax and lowered it on the puppy's head.
In the evening, no one slept from the smell of meat soup. The Blatari didn't eat all the soup because there weren't many of them in the barracks. They offered the rest to the hero, but he refused. Zamyatin entered the barracks, and the blatari offered him soup, saying that it was made from lamb. He agreed and five minutes later returned a clean bowler hat. Then Semyon told the priest that the soup was from a dog, Nord. The priest silently went out into the street, he vomited. Later, he confessed to the hero that the meat tasted no worse than lamb.
Dominoes
The man is in the hospital, his height is one hundred and eighty centimeters, and his weight is forty-eight kilograms. The doctor took his temperature, thirty-four degrees. The patient was placed closer to the stove, he ate, but the food did not warm him. The man will stay in the hospital until spring, two months, so the doctor said. At night, a week later, the patient was awakened by an orderly and said that Andrei Mikhailovich, the doctor who treated him, was calling him. Andrei Mikhailovich suggested that the hero play dominoes. The patient agreed, although he hated this game. During the game they talked a lot, Andrei Mikhailovich lost.
Several years passed when the patient in the small area heard the name of Andrei Mikhailovich. After some time, they still managed to meet. The doctor told him his story, Andrei Mikhailovich was ill with tuberculosis, but he was not allowed to be treated, someone reported that his illness was a false “bullshit”. And Andrei Mikhailovich has come a long way through the frost. After successful treatment, he began to work as an intern in the surgical department. On his recommendation, the main character graduated from paramedic courses and began working as a nurse. Once they finished cleaning, the orderlies played dominoes. “A foolish game,” Andrei Mikhailovich admitted, he, like the hero of the story, played dominoes only once.
Hercules
For a silver wedding, the head of the hospital, Sudarin, was presented with a rooster. All the guests were delighted with such a gift, even the guest of honor Cherpakov appreciated the cockerel. Cherpakov was about forty, he was the head of dignity. department. And when the guest of honor got drunk, he decided to show everyone his strength and began to lift chairs, then armchairs. And later he said that he could tear off the rooster's head with his hands. And tore it off. The young doctors were impressed. Dancing began, everyone danced because Cherpakov did not like it when someone refused.
Shock therapy
Merzlyakov came to the conclusion that it was easiest for the undersized to survive in the camp. Since the amount of food given out is not calculated by the weight of people. Once, at a general work, Merzlyakov, carrying a log, fell and could not go further. For this, he was beaten by the guards, and the foreman, and even comrades. The worker was sent to the hospital, he no longer had any pain, but he delayed the moment of returning to the camp with any lie.
At the central hospital, Merzlyakov was transferred to the nervous department. All thoughts of the prisoner were only about one thing: not to unbend. During the examination by Pyotr Ivanovich, the “patient” answered at random, and the doctor did not have to guess that Merzlyakov was lying. Pyotr Ivanovich was already looking forward to a new exposure. The doctor decided to start with raush anesthesia, and if that does not help, then shock therapy. Under anesthesia, the doctors managed to unbend Merzlyakov, but as soon as the man woke up, he immediately bent back. The neuropathologist warned the patient that in a week he himself would ask him to be discharged. After the shock therapy procedure, Merzlyakov asked to be discharged from the hospital.
Stlanik
In autumn, when it is already time for snow, the clouds hang low, and there is a smell of snow right in the air, but the cedar tree does not creep, then there will be no snow. And when the weather is still autumn, there are no clouds, but the dwarf lay on the ground, and in a few days it snows. Cedar not only predicts the weather, but also gives hope, being the only evergreen tree North. But the dwarf is quite gullible, if you make a fire near a tree in winter, then it will immediately rise from under the snow. The author considers dwarf the most poetic Russian tree.
Red Cross
In the camp, the only person who can help a prisoner is a doctor. Doctors determine the "labor category", sometimes they even release them, make certificates of disability and release them from work. The camp doctor has great power, and the blatari understood this very quickly, they respectfully treated medical workers. If the doctor was a civilian, then they gave him gifts, if not, then most often they threatened or intimidated him. Many doctors were killed by thieves.
In exchange for good relationship doctors had to put the blatars in the hospital, send them on vouchers, cover the malingerers. The atrocities of the thieves in the camp are incalculable, every minute in the camp is poisoned. After returning from there, people cannot live as before, they are cowardly, selfish, lazy and crushed.
Conspiracy of lawyers
Further our collection "Kolyma stories" summary will tell about Andreev, a former student of the Law University. He, like the main character, ended up in the camp. The man worked in the Shmelev team, where human slag was sent, they worked on the night shift. One night the worker was asked to stay because Romanov called him to him. Together with Romanov, the hero went to the office in Khatynny. True, the hero had to ride in the back of a sixty-degree frost for two hours. After the worker was taken to the authorized Smertin, who, as before, Romanov asked Andreev whether he was a lawyer. At night, the man was left in the cell, where there were already several prisoners. The next day, Andreev sets off on a journey with escorts, as a result of which he freezes his fingers.
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 his eyes 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 job. 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 works, realized that he could not endure for a long time, and death frightened him, the man 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 time. 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 sufferings experienced affected the writer’s health, he lost his sight, stopped hearing, almost could not 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.
Consider Shalamov's collection, on which he worked from 1954 to 1962. Let's describe its brief content. "Kolyma Tales" is a collection, the plot of which is a description of the camp and prison life of the Gulag prisoners, their tragic destinies, similar to one another, in which chance rules. The author constantly focuses on hunger and satiety, painful dying and recovery, exhaustion, moral humiliation and degradation. You will learn more about the issues raised by Shalamov by reading the summary. "Kolyma stories" is a collection that is a reflection of what the author experienced and saw over the 17 years he spent in prison (1929-1931) and Kolyma (from 1937 to 1951). The photo of the author is presented below.
Gravestone
The author recalls his comrades from the camps. We will not list their names, as we are compiling a summary. "Kolyma stories" is a collection in which artistry and documentary are intertwined. However, all the murderers are given real names in the stories.
Continuing the story, the author describes how the prisoners died, what torments they experienced, talks about their hopes and behavior in "Auschwitz without ovens", as Shalamov called the Kolyma camps. Few managed to survive, but few survived and did not break morally.
"The Life of Engineer Kipreev"
Let us dwell on the following curious story, which we could not help but describe, making up a summary. "Kolyma Tales" is a collection in which the author, who has not sold or betrayed anyone, says that he has worked out 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 not known what you will become at a decisive moment, whether you will have enough not only mental strength but also physical.
Kipreev, an engineer-physicist arrested in 1938, not only was able to withstand the interrogation with a beating, but even attacked the investigator, as a result of which he was put in a punishment cell. But all the same, they are trying to get him to give false testimony, threatening to arrest his wife. Nevertheless, Kipreev continues to prove to everyone that he is not a slave, like all prisoners, but a man. Thanks to his talent (he fixed the broken one and found a way to restore burnt out light bulbs), this hero manages to avoid the most heavy work, but not always. It is only by a miracle that he survives, but the moral shock does not let him go.
"For the show"
Shalamov, who wrote the Kolyma Tales, a summary of which interests us, testifies that the camp corruption affected everyone to one degree or another. It was carried out in various forms. Let us describe in a few words one more work from the collection "Kolyma stories" - "On the show". A summary of his story is as follows.
Two thieves play cards. One loses and asks to play on credit. Exasperated at some point, he orders an unexpectedly imprisoned intellectual, who happened to be among the spectators, to hand over his sweater. He refuses. One of the thieves "finishes" him, and the thieves get the sweater anyway.
"At night"
We turn to the description of another work from the collection "Kolyma stories" - "At night". A brief summary of it, in our opinion, will also be interesting to the reader.
Two prisoners sneak to 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 tomorrow for tobacco or bread, 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". "Carpenters", the summary of which we have omitted, follows the story "Night". We invite you to familiarize yourself with it. The product is small in size. The format of one article, unfortunately, does not allow describing all the stories. Also, a very small work from the collection "Kolyma stories" - "Berries". A summary of the main and most interesting, in our opinion, stories is presented in this article.
"Single freeze"
Defined by the author as slave camp labor - another form of corruption. The prisoner, exhausted by him, cannot work out the norm, labor turns into torture and leads to slow death. Dugaev, the convict, is getting weaker and weaker because of the 16-hour working day. He pours, kaylit, carries. In the evening, the caretaker measures what he has done. The figure of 25%, named by the caretaker, seems very large to Dugaev. His hands, head, aching calves are unbearable. The prisoner does not even feel hunger anymore. Later, he is called to the investigator. He asks: "Name, surname, term, article." The soldiers take the prisoner every other day to a remote place surrounded by a fence with barbed wire. At night, the sound of tractors can be heard from here. Dugaev guesses why he was brought here, and understands that life is over. He regrets only that he suffered in vain for an extra day.
"Rain"
You can talk for a very long time about such a collection as Kolyma Tales. A summary of the chapters of the works is for informational purposes only. We bring to your attention the following story - "Rain".
"Sherri Brandy"
The poet-prisoner, who was considered the first poet of the 20th century in our country, dies. He lies on the bunk, in the depths of their bottom row. The poet dies for a long time. 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 seek, fight, swear... However, he no longer has the strength to do so. When a daily ration is put into his hand, he presses the bread to his mouth with all his strength, sucks it, tries to gnaw and tear with loose scurvy 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 it were alive. They arrange for him to raise his hand like a puppet.
"Shock therapy"
Merzlyakov, one of the heroes of the collection "Kolmysk Stories", a summary of which we are considering, a convict of large build, understands that he is failing at general work. He falls, cannot get up and refuses to take the log. First, he is beaten by his own, then by the escorts. He is brought to the camp with lower back pain and a broken rib. After recovering, Merzlyakov does not stop complaining and pretends that he cannot straighten up. He does this in order to delay the discharge. He is sent to the surgical department of the central hospital, and then to the nervous one for research. Merzlyakov has a chance to be written off due to illness. He tries his best not to be exposed. But Pyotr Ivanovich, a doctor, himself a former convict, exposes him. Everything human in him replaces the professional. He spends the bulk of his time precisely exposing those who feign. Pyotr Ivanovich is looking forward to the effect that the case with Merzlyakov will produce. The doctor first makes him anesthetized, during which he manages to unbend Merzlyakov's body. A week later, the patient is prescribed shock therapy, after which he asks for an extract himself.
"Typhoid Quarantine"
Andreev enters quarantine, having contracted typhus. The position of the patient compared to the work in the mines gives him a chance to survive, which he hardly hoped 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 death, beatings, hunger. Andreev does not respond to the roll call before sending the recovered to work. He manages to hide in this way for quite a long time. The transit line is gradually emptying, and finally Andreev's turn comes. But now it seems to him that he has won the battle for life, and if now there will be dispatches, then only for local, close business trips. But when a truck with a group of prisoners who were unexpectedly given winter uniforms crosses the line separating long-distance and short-range business trips, Andreev realizes that fate has laughed at him.
In the photo below - on the house in Vologda, where Shalamov lived.
"Aortic Aneurysm"
In Shalamov's stories, illness and hospital - indispensable attribute plot. Ekaterina Glovatskaya, a prisoner, is taken to the hospital. This beauty immediately attracted Zaitsev, the doctor on duty. He knows that she is in a relationship with the convict Podshivalov, his acquaintance, who leads the local amateur art circle, the doctor still decides to try his luck. As usual, he begins with a medical examination of the patient, with auscultation of the heart. However, male interest is replaced by medical concern. In Glovatsky, he discovers This is a disease in which every careless movement can provoke death. The authorities, who made it a rule to separate lovers, once sent the girl to a penal female mine. The head of the hospital, after the doctor's report about her illness, is sure that these are the machinations of Podshivalov, who wants to detain his mistress. The girl is discharged, but she dies during loading, which Zaitsev warned about.
"Major Pugachev's last fight"
The author testifies that after the Great Patriotic War prisoners began to arrive in the camps, who fought and went through captivity. These people are of a different temper: able to take risks, courageous. 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 "guilt" 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, to match himself, prisoners who are ready to die or become free. Escape is prepared all winter. Pugachev realized that after surviving the winter, only those who managed to bypass the common work could escape. One by one, the participants in the conspiracy are moving into service. One of them becomes a cook, the other becomes a cult trader, the third repairs weapons for the guards.
One spring day, at 5 am, they knocked on the watch. The attendant admits the prisoner-cook, who, as usual, came for the keys to the pantry. The cook strangles him, and another prisoner changes into his uniform. The same thing happens with other attendants who returned a little later. Then everything happens according to Pugachev's plan. The conspirators burst into the security room and take possession of the weapon, shooting the guard on duty. They stock up on provisions and put on military uniform, holding suddenly awakened fighters at gunpoint. Leaving the territory of the camp, they stop the truck on the highway, drop the driver off and drive until the gas runs out. Then they go to 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, who recruited Russians, convincing them that the captured soldiers for the Soviet regime were traitors to the Motherland. Then Pugachev did not believe them, but soon he himself was convinced of this. He looks lovingly at his comrades sleeping beside him. A little later, a hopeless battle ensues with the soldiers who surrounded the fugitives. Almost all of the prisoners die, except for one, who is cured after a severe wound in order to be shot. Only Pugachev manages to escape. He is hiding in a bear den, but he knows that they will find him too. He does not regret what he did. His last shot is to himself.
So, we examined the main stories from the collection, authored by Varlam Shalamov ("Kolyma stories"). The 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 Tales", a summary of which you now know, appeared on the pages of the New York edition of "New Journal".
In New York in 1966, only 4 stories were published. The following year, 1967, 26 stories by this author, mostly from the collection we are interested in, were translated into German in the city of Cologne. During his lifetime, Shalamov never published the collection "Kolyma Tales" in the USSR. The summary of all 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 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 in the face, since he was a geological engineer, and he was taken to 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 not feasible (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 path, it was necessary to eat) bribed him. Going to Shestakov's, he ate two cans of this delicacy. And then suddenly he said 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, artistic merits can only be appreciated by getting acquainted 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 to get acquainted with him.
In the evening, winding up the tape measure, the caretaker said that Dugaev would receive a single measurement the next day. The brigadier, 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 distrust, 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 convoy, 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.
