Consider the collection of Shalamov, on which he worked from 1954 to 1962. Let us describe its summary. âKolyma Talesâ - a collection whose plot of stories is a description of the camp and prison life of the Gulag prisoners, their tragic fates, similar to one another, in which the case rules. The author is constantly focused on hunger and satiety, painful dying and healing, exhaustion, moral humiliation and degradation. You will learn more about the problems raised by Shalamov by reading a brief summary. "Kolyma Tales" is a collection that is a comprehension of what the author experienced and saw during the 17 years he spent in custody (1929-1931) and Kolyma (from 1937 to 1951). A photo of the author is presented below.
Tombstone
The author recalls his comrades from the camps. We will not list their surnames, as we are compiling a summary. "Kolyma Tales" is a collection in which artistry and documentary are intertwined. However, all killers are given a real surname in the stories.
Continuing the story, the author describes how the prisoners died, what torment they experienced, talks about their hopes and behavior in Auschwitz without stoves, as Shalamov called the Kolyma camps. Only a few managed to survive, and only a few survived and did not break morally.
"The Life of Engineer Kipreev"
Let us dwell on the following curious story, which we could not describe, making up a brief summary. Kolyma Tales is a collection in which the author, who has not sold or betrayed anyone, says that he has developed a formula for protecting his own existence. It consists in the fact that a person can survive, if he is ready at any moment for death, can commit suicide. But later he realizes that he only built a convenient shelter for himself, since it is not known what you will become at the decisive moment, whether you will have enough not only mental strength, but also physical strength.
Kipreev, a physical engineer arrested in 1938, not only was able to withstand the beatings, 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 evidence by 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 repaired a broken X-ray machine, found a way to restore burnt out bulbs) this hero manages to avoid the most difficult work, but not always. Only by a miracle does he survive, but a moral shock does not let him go.
"Introducing"
Shalamov, who wrote The Kolyma Tales, a summary of which we are interested in, 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 another work from the collection "Kolyma Tales" - "On Presentation". A summary of his plot is as follows.
Two thieves play cards. One loses and asks to play a loan. Frustrated at some point, he orders an unexpectedly detained intellectual who happened to be among the spectators to give a sweater. He refuses. One of the thieves "finishes" him, and the blater gets the sweater anyway.
"At night"
We turn to the description of another work from the collection "Kolyma Tales" - "At Night". A summary of it, in our opinion, will also be of interest to the reader.
Two prisoners creep to the grave. The body of their friend was buried here in the morning. They take off the clothes from the dead man in order to change for tobacco or bread tomorrow or sell. Disgust for the clothes of the deceased gives way to the thought that perhaps they will be able to smoke tomorrow or eat a little more.
A lot of works in the collection "Kolyma Tales". The Carpenters, a summary of which we have omitted, follows the story Night. We offer you to familiarize yourself with it. The product by volume is small. The format of one article, unfortunately, does not allow us to describe all the stories. Also a very small work from the collection "Kolyma Tales" - "Berries". A summary of the main and most interesting, in our opinion, stories is presented in this article.
"Single metering"
Defined by the author as slave camp labor is another form of corruption. The prisoner, exhausted by him, cannot work out the norm; labor turns into torture and leads to slow killing. Dugaev, a convict, is increasingly weakening due to a 16-hour working day. He rolls, kylit, carries. In the evening, the caretaker measures what he has done. The 25% figure, called the caretaker, seems very large to Dugaev. His shoulders, arms, head, and calves ache unbearably painful. The prisoner does not even feel hunger. He is later called to the investigator. He asks: "Name, surname, term, article." A day later, the soldiers lead the prisoner to a remote place, surrounded by a fence with barbed wire. At night, the noise of tractors comes from here. Dugaev realizes why he was brought here, and understands that life is over. He only regrets 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 guidance only. We bring to your attention the following story - "Rain."
Let's get acquainted with the camp life of Rozovsky working in a pit, the hero who was created by Shalamov ("Kolyma Tales"). A summary of the work Rain dedicated to him is as follows. Despite the threatening gesture made by the escort, Rozovsky calls out to the narrator who works nearby to share his revelation. Rozovsky realized that there was no point in life. But before he, whose life has lost all value, manages to pounce on the escorts, the narrator runs up to him and saves him from a fatal and reckless act, telling the guards that Rozovsky was ill. The prisoner later tries to commit suicide by throwing himself under the trolley. After the trial, he is sent to another place to work.
Sherry Brandy
The prisoner poet, who was considered the first poet of the 20th century in our country, is dying. It lies on the bunks, in the depths of their lower row. The poet dies for a long time. Sometimes a soap 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, there is no more strength for this. When a daily ration is put in his hand, he presses the bread with all his strength to his mouth, sucks it, tries to gnaw and tear it with staggering scurvy teeth. When a poet dies, he is not written off for another 2 days. The neighbors, when distributing, manage to get bread on it as if it were alive. They arrange so that he raises his hand, like a puppet doll.
"Shock therapy"
Merzlyakov, one of the heroes of the Kolmyskie Tales collection, whose brief content we are considering, a convict of large build, in general works understands what he is giving up. He falls, cannot stand up and refuses to take the log. First they beat him, then the guards. He is taken to a camp with lower back pain and a broken rib. After recovering, Merzlyakov does not stop complaining and pretends that he cannot straighten. 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 for research. Merzlyakov has a chance to be written off as a sick disease. He is trying his best not to be exposed. But Pyotr Ivanovich, a doctor himself a former convict himself, exposes him. Everything human in him is superseded by the professional. He spends most of his time exposing those who pretend to be. Pyotr Ivanovich is looking forward to the effect that the case of Merzlyakov will produce. The doctor first makes him anesthetized, during which he manages to straighten Merzlyakovâs body. After a week, the patient is prescribed shock therapy, after which he asks for discharge himself.
"Typhoid quarantine"
Andreev is quarantined with typhoid. The position of the patient in comparison with 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 faces where death, beatings, hunger. Andreev does not respond to roll call before sending recovered to work. He manages to hide in this way for quite some time. Transit is gradually emptying, and the queue finally reaches Andreev. But it now seems to him that he won the battle for life, and if now there will be shipments, then only on local, nearby business trips. But when a truck with a group of prisoners who were given unexpectedly winter uniforms crosses the line separating long and short trips, Andreev realizes that fate laughed at him.
In the photo below - a plaque on the house in Vologda, where Shalamov lived.
"Aortic Aneurysm"
In Shalamov's stories, illness and the hospital are an indispensable attribute of the plot. Ekaterina Glovatskaya, a prisoner, goes to the hospital. This beauty immediately attracted Zaitsev, the doctor on duty. He knows that she is in a relationship with the prisoner 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 listening to the heart. However, male interest is replaced by medical concern. In Glowack, he discovers an aortic aneurysm. This is a disease in which every careless movement can provoke death. The authorities, who made it a rule to separate lovers, once sent a girl to a penal female mine. The head of the hospital after the doctorâs report about her illness is sure that this is the machinations of Podshivalov, who wants to detain his mistress. The girl is discharged, but when she dies, she dies, as Zaitsev warned.
"The last battle of Major Pugachev"
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 different tempering: risky, brave. They only believe in weapons. Camp slavery has not corrupted them, they have not yet been exhausted to the loss of will and strength. Their "fault" was that these prisoners were held captive or surrounded. It was clear to one of them, Major Pugachev, that they had been brought here to death. Then he collects the strong and decisive, to match himself, prisoners who are ready to die or become free. An escape is prepared all winter. Pugachev realized that only those who could pass common work could escape after they survived the winter. One by one, conspirators are advancing to the service staff. One of them becomes a cook, the other - a cult cult, the third mends weapons for protection.
One spring day, at 5 in the morning, we knocked on watch. The attendant admits the prisoner-cook, who, as usual, came for the keys to the pantry. A cook strangles him, and another prisoner disguises himself in his uniform. With the other attendants, who returned a little later, the same thing happens. Further, everything happens according to the plan of Pugachev. The conspirators burst into the premises of the guard and take possession of the weapons, shooting the duty officer. They stock up on food and put on a military uniform, holding suddenly awakened fighters at gunpoint. Having left the camp, they stop the truck on the highway, drop off the driver 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 charged with espionage and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He also recalls how the emissaries of General Vlasov came to the German camp, who recruited Russians, convincing that the captured soldiers for the Soviet regime were traitors to the Motherland. Then Pugachev did not believe them, but he soon became convinced of this. He looks around with love to his comrades sleeping nearby. A little later, a hopeless battle ensues with the soldiers who surrounded the fugitives. Inmates die almost all but one, who is cured after being seriously wounded in order to be shot. Only Pugachev manages to escape. He lurks in a bear den, but knows that they will find him too. He does not regret what he has done. His last shot is at himself.
So, we examined the main stories from the collection, the author of which is Varlam Shalamov ("Kolyma Tales"). 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. The Kolyma Tales, a summary of which you now know, appeared on the pages of the New York edition of the New Journal.
In New York in 1966, only 4 stories were published. In the following, 1967, 26 stories by this author, mainly from the collection of interest to us, were translated into German in the city of Cologne. During his lifetime, the collection "Kolyma Tales" by Shalamov never published 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 you about another work from the collection "Kolyma Tales" - "Condensed Milk". A summary of it is as follows.
Shestakov, the acquaintance of the storyteller, did not work in the mine in the mine because 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 surrender all those who will participate in this. But the promised condensed milk (to overcome the path, you should have a meal) bribed him. Having visited Shestakov, he ate two cans of this delicacy. And then he suddenly announced that he had changed his mind. A week later, other workers fled. Two of them were killed, three were tried in a month. And Shestakov was transferred to another mine.
We recommend reading the original and other works. Very talented wrote Shalamov "Kolyma Tales". The summary (âBerriesâ, âRainâ and âBaby picturesâ we also recommend reading in the original) conveys only the plot. The authorâs syllable, artistic merit can be appreciated only by getting acquainted with the work itself.
Not included in the collection "Kolyma Tales" "Maxim". We did not describe the summary of this story for this reason. However, this work is one of the most mysterious in the work of Shalamov. Fans of his talent will be interested to get to know him.