How do they build a road through virgin snow? First, a man walks in calm weather, leaving his mark on the untouched snow. 3 others follow him, but without stepping on his tracks. After reaching the end of the path, they turn back to make the road wide and suitable for transport. Everyone who follows the trail must step on at least a small piece of virgin soil. Only readers ride tractors and horses, writers pave the way.
To the show
Gathering at Naumov's horse-driver was the safest place. The guards on duty never looked there. That is why card fights between thieves took place here every night. That evening the cards were made from a volume by V. Hugo. Every criminal should be able to draw them. This distinguished those gathered from the rest of the prisoners. Sevochka had all the qualities of a thief.
His face was forgettable, his hands were white and non-working. The nail of the little finger seemed longer than all the others. He was a cheater. His opponent in the game was Naumov. Naumov’s side put a suit on the line, Sevochka’s side put up a thousand rubles and several worn jumpers. The narrator and Garkunov, who were sawing wood for the Naumov barracks, watched the game. Naumov lost his suit, but was not going to give up. They put a blanket on the line.
Having lost all his things, Naumov offered to play in debt. Having examined those sitting in the barracks, he beckoned the narrator to him, but, not finding valuable things on him, he sat him down. Garkunov was wearing a wool sweater, which the players liked. The partner’s resistance was quickly suppressed. The players, satisfied, dispersed. The narrator now had to look for a new partner to cut wood.
After dinner, Glebov and Bagretsov went to the mountain where the deceased had recently been buried. While throwing stones, Bagretsov injured himself, and Glebov suddenly remembered that he had once been a doctor. But that didn't matter now. Having taken off the deceased’s clothes, Glebov felt uncomfortable. Tomorrow they will be able to use the proceeds from the sale of linen to buy bread and some tobacco.
Carpenters
It had been -50 degrees below zero for two weeks now. Potashnikov could no longer endure this cold. While working, he could not warm up. A meager lunch and dinner did not help restore strength. Yesterday his neighbor died - he just didn’t wake up. Potashnikov realized that something needed to be done. But he couldn’t think in the cold. It seemed that my soul was frozen.
Now he tried to simply survive these cold days. He had a chance to become a foreman, but he did not take advantage of it: he did not want to destroy his comrades. The team was offered to work as carpenters, and only Potashnikov and Grigoriev agreed. It turned out that neither of them knew how to do carpentry. But they didn’t care, the main thing was that they would spend at least two days in the warmth. Carpenter Arnstrem, having seen how the arriving prisoners worked, allowed them to warm themselves by the stove for two days. After the expiration of the period, the frost dropped to thirty degrees. Winter 3 was coming to an end.
Single metering
In the evening, the caretaker said that tomorrow twenty-three-year-old Dugaev would receive a single measurement. This news alarmed the foreman. After dinner, Dugaev wanted to smoke. Suddenly his partner Baranov handed him a cigarette. Dugaev knew that no one could be trusted here. The next morning the caretaker himself put Dugaev on workplace. By evening he had completed only twenty-five percent of the necessary work. He was sent for questioning to an investigator.
After answering four standard questions: first name, last name, article, term, he went to the barracks and fell asleep. The next day, Bugaev again worked with his brigade, and in the evening he was taken under escort into the forest. Walking along the path, he suddenly realized that he had wasted his energy working on his last day.
Parcels are received on duty. Standing in line, the narrator dreamed that he would now receive sugar and shag, but his wife sent him unnecessary burkas and some prunes. Warden Boyko immediately offered to buy burkas for a hundred rubles. There was no other choice, so he sold. I decided to buy butter and bread with the money I received. He ran to the store manager, and then to Semyon Sheinin, Kirov’s former assistant. He ran for boiling water, but then the narrator was hit on the head and the food was taken away.
He returned to the barracks and began to cook the remaining prunes. Next to him, Sintsov and Gubarev were each cooking soup in their own pot. Suddenly the military burst in and scattered their dishes. The prisoners could only eat the remaining food from the floor. After some time, they brought Efremov, beaten half to death for stealing firewood.
“It has been raining for the third day. The authorities hoped that because of him the prisoners would work faster. They stood waist-deep in the ground and drilled rocks. Looking at the dying horses, the narrator realized that man became human because he was physically stronger than all other animals. He tested his viability recently, in the same pit. And I realized that I was not capable of self-harm. He had to wait until the end of the working day. And while he waited, he remembered the woman who passed them along the path yesterday. “Pointing to the sky, she said: “Soon, guys, soon.” Her support amazed the prisoner. At this time, a cry was heard from Rozovsky, who realized that there was no meaning to life. After some time, he was accused of attempted suicide and transferred to another place.
In Siberia, spring is always short. During this time, many plants have time to bloom. The prisoners went to collect dwarf wood. This plant was considered a useful cure for scurvy, although after some time it was proven that it did not benefit the body. For collecting elfin wood, there was a kanth - a short rest. The narrator’s partner has been going to the elfin wood gathering for a long time. He understood that with a narrator who was not accustomed to this work, he would not be able to fulfill the quota. The partner helped the narrator and urged him on. Having placed a stone in the bag for added weight, the prisoners hurried to dinner. They barely had time to get soup and tea.
Dry rations
Four prisoners were sent on a business trip to the Duskanya key to clear a clearing in the forest. The rations given to them were frighteningly small, but still they were glad to escape from the stuffy barracks into nature, where there was no convoy. All of them were exhausted by long years of imprisonment. Lack of food and frost affected their health. Ivan Ivanovich was once one of best workers, but now weakened. He was happy to go on this business trip, because in the colony he had no authority, anyone could humiliate and beat him.
Fedya Shchapov, the youngest of the four, was sentenced to ten years for illegal slaughter of livestock. His natural love for work distinguished him from all other prisoners. Savelyev once studied at the Moscow Institute of Communications. He was sentenced to ten years for writing a letter to the leader about the horrors from the Butyrek prison, where he ended up on a trivial matter. prison life. The narrator loved to talk with him about Moscow. After working all day, they completed only ten percent of the quota. The foremen did not like this. The prisoners realized that they would now be sent back to the camp.
At night, Ivan Ivanovich hanged himself. Savelyev refused to take the dead man's things. He took an ax and, in front of the foreman, cut off four of his fingers. When they returned to the camp, a case was opened against Savelyev for premeditated self-harm. The narrator and Fedya continued their lives in the same tent from which they had gone on a forest business trip some time ago.
Injector
Report to the head of the mine, Comrade. A.S. Queen. On November 12th there was six hours of idle work for the fourth brigade. This was due to low temperatures reaching minus fifty degrees. As a result, the injector broke down. Having considered this report, Korolev decided to arrest the convict Inzhektor and bring him to legal responsibility. Instead, he suggested installing a civilian worker.
Apostle Paul
The narrator sprained his foot while going down the slippery stairs in the pit. He was sent to help carpenter Adam Frisorger, who had formerly been a pastor in a German village near Markstadt on the Volga. They already knew each other: they were sent together to coal exploration as servants. The narrator liked Frizorger for his peaceful nature. They never fought.
Once, during one of the conversations, the narrator corrected Adam, who called Paul an apostle. Frizorger sincerely repented of his mistake. He began to trust the narrator and even showed him a photograph of his only daughter. She did not write to him, and the boss offered to help find her. After some time, a statement came in which the daughter refused her father due to the fact that he was an enemy of the people. The narrator burned the statement, and then the letter that arrived later. He was soon transferred to another location and never heard from Adam again.
The detachment had been waiting for the narrator for a long time: he fell under the weight of a log and could not get up. Only after the guard Seroshapka threatened to shoot him did the narrator stand up. The next day, Sero Hat took the prisoners out to collect fallen timber. He marked the territory beyond which it was forbidden to go. Rybakov, the narrator’s friend, was collecting rose hips. They promised to give him bread for this. Seeing that the jar is not completely filled, he enters forbidden territory. A shot is fired and Rybakov falls. When the detachment was built, Gray hat, looking at the narrator, said that he wanted to kill him, but he did not give a reason.
Bitch Tamara
She was brought from the taiga by the blacksmith Moisey Moiseevich Kuznetsov. He ended up in the camp following a denunciation from his own young wife. The authorities appreciated his skill and for this forgave him a lot. The dog immediately won over the entire camp. She only took food from her hands and never stole. Soon the bitch gave birth. When a group of operatives searching for escaped prisoners arrived at the camp, Tamara rushed at them and bit through the felt boots of the head of the task force, Nazarov. She was tied to a tree. It was clear from her behavior that this was not the first time she had encountered escorts. When the operatives were leaving, Nazarov, hearing the dog growl, fired a burst of machine gun at it and disappeared into the forest. Nothing passes without a trace: Nazarov ran into a stump in the forest and died. The dog was skinned. Soon a forester bought it to sew “dog shoes.”
Sherry brandy
The poet was dying. He did not have the strength to argue with those who stole his bread. The mittens were also stolen by someone. He lay there and thought that man could be immortal. He himself gained creative immortality: his poems will live on after him. He thought that all life was created to inspire the poet. He compared the whole world to poetry.
Once in childhood, a Chinese man predicted a happy life for him, now he remembered this man without malice. He wanted to eat, but there was nothing. When the daily ration was distributed, he grabbed the bread with his loose teeth and greedily ate it. Everyone told him not to rush, that he could finish eating later. The poet suddenly asked himself: when then? In the evening he died. The neighbors received bread for the dead man for another two days.
Baby pictures
Prisoners were taken to work in groups of five. Today they were sawing wood. Having finished their work, the prisoners began to dig through the pile of garbage. They found torn socks, frozen bread and cutlets there. The narrator was especially jealous of his socks. He was lucky to find only a children's notebook. Looking at the drawings, he remembered the legend about the boy-god who created the taiga.
The child, judging by the drawings from the notebook, had seen very little in his life. All his drawings were dedicated to prison barriers and soldiers. The partner, having felt the sheets of the notebook, threw it back into the trash and advised him to look for a newspaper from which he could make cigarettes.
Condensed milk
Shestakov was the luckiest. He was the only one in the camp who got a job in his specialty. One day, when the narrator could not take his eyes off the loaves of bread in the store, Shestakov suggested that he run away. The narrator realized that this was a trap, that he would definitely deceive him, but he agreed, but first he needed to refresh himself.
He received two cans of condensed milk from Shestakov. Having immediately eaten them, he refused to participate in the escape. Those five whom Shestakov persuaded were soon either killed or their sentences were extended. The conspirator himself was transferred to another place, and when the narrator met him again, Shestakov did not greet him because of those two cans of condensed milk.
Today was distribution day. They gave out herring. Usually they got either heads or tails. Today were the last ones. Everyone waited their turn with bated breath, hoping for luck. What if he gets a piece ten grams more than the others? After eating the herring, the prisoners begin to eat bread. When everything is eaten, you need to get dressed and go to work.
Now everyone is in typhus quarantine, but even here they are forced to work. Every time prisoners are assigned to work, everyone tries to get to where they sort vegetables or some other food. In this lottery, some are lucky and others are not. When the detachment passed by the bakery, two were taken into the workshop. Everyone else could only envy their luck. The master fed both prisoners hot, freshly baked bread and led them to work. In the evening they were given a loaf of bread, and they went back to camp. The day ended well.
Snake charmer
Andrei Fedorovich Platonov told how he retold “Javkhara” to the thieves at the mine. Dumas, Conan Doyle, Wallace. He dreamed of writing the story “The Snake Charmer,” but three weeks after the conversation he died. The narrator decided to write this work for him himself. In The Snake Charmer, Platonov, having found himself in Dzhanhara, experienced the full power of the thieves. When he agreed to retell the novels to them, he found himself under their protection. Thanks to them, he ate well, slept well, and worked little. No one touched him, fearing reprisals from the thieves.
Tatar mullah and clean air
It was hot in the prison. The Tatar mullah, the investigative prisoner in the “Big Tatary” case, said that if he was not shot, he would live another ten years in the “clean air” in a camp or twenty in prison. The narrator knew that in the camp you could become exhausted after twenty to thirty days of working in “clean air.”
Many considered arrest and prison the most terrible event of their lives. They rushed to the camp, thinking that it would be easier there. They were taken further north, where the country air gave way to the smell of fumes from the swamps and was overcome by the ubiquitous mosquitoes. The northern air was too heavy for the cores. No one moved here at a run, except perhaps the youngest. Reality has destroyed all illusions.
The only connection with the mainland was through parcels. Everyone knew that what was sent had to be used immediately, otherwise the thieves would take it away. No money was paid for the work. Sometimes the teams themselves decided who to give the overfulfilled percentage so that at least someone would receive a bonus. Having tasted camp life, the prisoners recalled the cell of the remand prison as something bright and the best thing that happened to them. If you count all the misfortunes and difficulties that overtake you in the camp, then you can no longer talk about beneficial properties"clean air".
First death
The prisoners who were sent to clear the road from snow drifts were heavily guarded by a convoy. They could not get warm until the working day was over. Six hours later, no longer feeling anything, the prisoners think only about one thing: how not to freeze completely. The end of the day always comes unexpectedly, and everyone is so happy that they even find the strength to talk.
Kolya Andreev was a foreman. He always walked ahead of the squad, paving the way. That evening he led the brigade along the top of the snow-covered rampart. Suddenly he began to go down. There, mine investigator Shtemenko stood near the woman’s body. The mine manager's secretary, Anna Pavlovna, turned out to be killed. Shtemenko was sentenced to ten years for murder out of jealousy, but served his sentence elsewhere.
Aunt Polya
Aunt Polya died of stomach cancer. She was an orderly for the boss's wife. Aunt Polya was a great cook, for which she was highly valued. The woman helped her fellow Ukrainians, but only gave advice to the rest of the prisoners. Her bosses really liked her integrity. They patronized her and worked for her release. But Aunt Polya fell ill.
From the day she was admitted to the hospital, bosses began to come to her. One day Father Peter came to confess her. Everyone called him Petka Abramov, and it was unusual for them to see him in the role of a priest. When Aunt Polya died, Peter demanded to put a cross on the grave and write the real name of the deceased: Praskovya Ilyinichna Timoshenko.
Marusya Kryukova came to Moscow from Japan. When she was arrested and sentenced to twenty-five years, her leg was broken. In Kolyma, the authorities immediately saw her talent for embroidery, but never paid her for her work. Soon Marusya was sent to Dalstroy to embroider curtains. Two other girls worked there with her. A woman was assigned to watch them, who believed that at any second the girls could steal something. But they didn't steal. All three were arrested and sent to a camp under Article 58.
When Marusya was admitted to the hospital, she was diagnosed with osteomyelitis. Soon she was discharged, and she promised to embroider ties for the doctors. While Marusya was embroidering, Dolmatov came in and took away the ties. She was very upset, but she could not do anything. Dolmatov came to the next film show wearing one of the ties, and Marusya, gesticulating, showed the doctor that it was supposed to be his gift.
Taiga golden
In the small zone, prisoners are waiting to be sent further to work. The narrator, knowing this system, deceives the contractor who came for the people: he pretends to be sick and unable to work, although there was no need to pretend in the camp. Remaining in the small zone, he hears how singers are brought to the thieves for entertainment, but he no longer cares. He tries to sleep as much as possible.
In the evening, the contractor angrily asks where he wants to go to work. The narrator doesn't want to go anywhere. He says he is sick and needs to go to the hospital. Three days later, a doctor comes and examines him, but does not send him to the hospital.
Vaska Denisov, pig thief
To go to the village, Vaska borrowed a newer pea coat from his friend. He understood that in his dirty clothes he would be too noticeable for the freestyle girls.
Prisoners had to walk around the village under escort or with firewood on their backs. Vaska found the hidden log and knocked on the door. They opened the door for him and let him into the house. Having chopped wood, he began to wait until he was fed, but the owner gave him only three rubles. Hungry, he walked through the entire village and climbed into a house. There he found a raw, frozen pig in the pantry and was about to leave, when suddenly people began to come out of the rooms. He started to run. Hid in the house of the vitamin business trips management. Having barricaded himself in the room, he began to eat the pig. When the door was broken down, he managed to eat half of it.
Seraphim worked as a laboratory assistant in a chemical laboratory in the North. He left because of a “family disagreement,” believing distance to be the best cure for grief. After working for a year, he felt that love for his wife still lived in his heart. All this time, Seraphim hardly spoke to anyone, he only exchanged a few words with the head of the laboratory, Presnyakov.
One day he decided to go to another village to buy the necessary things. Arriving there, he discovered that he had forgotten his documents. The guards immediately grabbed him and sent him to the isolation ward. He sat there for five long days. When they finally released him, beaten and hungry, Seraphim decided to commit suicide. A letter from his wife, in which she demanded a divorce, became the last straw. He drank acid, but without feeling the effect, he tore the veins in his left arm. Not satisfied with this, he ran to the river and threw himself into the icy water. He was pulled out and sent to the hospital. There Seraphim underwent surgery on his stomach, but the acid had already done its work and he died.
Day off
Everyone relaxes in their own way at the camp. While walking in the forest, the narrator saw Zamyatin praying. He had no rank, but still often repeated the Sunday service so as not to forget. Returning to the barracks, the author heard noise in the instrumental room. Going inside, he saw two thieves holding a puppy. They killed the animal with an ax and cooked soup from it in the evening. They offered the remains to the narrator, but he refused. Then they gave the soup to Zamyatin. When he ate it, the thugs revealed to him the secret of what the broth was made from. Zamyatin ran out of the barracks. He vomited. Later he admitted to the narrator that the meat seemed to him to taste no worse than lamb.
When the narrator was admitted to the hospital, his weight was forty-eight kilograms. The attending physician, Andrei Mikhailovich, allowed him to stay in the hospital for two months. One evening he called the patient into his room and invited him to play dominoes. The narrator did not like this game, but out of gratitude he agreed. The game was played slowly. They talked more. A few years later the narrator found himself in a small zone. He sought to be sent to the hospital. Having heard the name of Andrei Mikhailovich from the paramedic, he asked to give him a note. After waiting several weeks, he began to despair, but then he was called to the dentist. Andrei Mikhailovich was waiting for him in the corridor. During the time they did not see each other, he fell ill with tuberculosis. The doctor was already sailing to the mainland, when suddenly, following a denunciation, he was removed from the ship. When he recovered, he began working as a surgical resident. Thanks to Andrei Mikhailovich, the narrator managed to return to the mainland. He first worked for him as an orderly, then trained as a paramedic. One day in a conversation, the narrator finds out that Andrei Mikhailovich also does not like dominoes: for the first time he picked up dominoes. “I wanted to do something nice for you,” the doctor admits. Their term was supposed to end in one year, but Andrei Mikhailovich died earlier.
Hercules
Andrei Ivanovich Dudar was a little late for the silver wedding of the head of the hospital Sudarin. Having given the couple a rooster, he sat down at the table. After drinking a little, the guest of honor Cherpakov began to demonstrate his physical abilities: he lifted chairs and let them touch his biceps. After some time, he came up with another trick: taking a rooster, the guest of honor tore off its head. Admiring women rushed to wipe the blood from his trousers and shirt. When everyone went to dance, Andrei Ivanovich stepped on the corpse of his favorite rooster. He pushed it deeper under the table and went to dance.
Shock therapy
Merzlyakov often wondered why, when compiling rations for prisoners, no one looks at a person’s weight: a tall and large prisoner receives the same amount of bread as a thin and short one. He knew that the frail intellectual would live in the camp longer than any giant. He himself was tall and suffered greatly from lack of food.
When he was appointed groom, he began to steal oats and grind them. This is how he thought he would survive the winter. But soon the head of the horse farm was replaced by another senior groom, who reported to his superiors about the theft of oats. Merzlyakov was sent to general work. Having lost the rest of his strength, he fell under the weight of the log, thereby delaying the return of the brigade to the barracks. He was severely beaten and sent to the hospital.
Merzlyakov decided to pretend to be sick to the last, but one of the doctors, Pyotr Ivanovich, loved to expose the malingerers. He undertook to expose Merzlyakov. First, the doctor used Rausch anesthesia, under which it turned out that the patient was faking it. But Merzlyakov was not ready to give up. Then Pyotr Ivanovich used shock therapy. It was as follows: a large dose of camphor oil is injected into the patient’s blood, which leads to an attack. After the procedure, Merzlyakov agreed to leave the hospital.
Dwarf dwarf is the only evergreen plant in the North. This is a tree of hope. It doesn't like winter as much as the prisoners do. When the elfin wood rises from under the snow, it means the end of the cold weather has come. Even the warmth of a fire can cause a tree to awaken from its sleep. This is the most poetic wood, and it produces more warmth than other firewoods.
Red Cross
In the zone, only a doctor can really help a prisoner. He cares about people’s lives, protects them from the arbitrariness of their superiors, can send them to the hospital, apply for disability, and give them rest. But the doctor is also forced to survive in the camp conditions. Blatari play big role in prison life. They bribe or intimidate doctors, authorities, and other prisoners. They are devoid of morality, shame, and conscience. They can steal, humiliate, kill.
Their lifestyle affects the fate of other prisoners. Those who end up in the camp are forced to adapt to the wishes of the thieves. By pleasing them, you can count on extending your life. The main argument in the camp is strength. If you are weak, you will suffer. An intellectual loses all his knowledge after a few weeks. He becomes a servant of thieves at the first blow. The opinions and tastes of thieves and murderers affect the entire camp life in Kolyma.
Lawyers' conspiracy
Andreev was transferred to Shmelev’s brigade, which consisted of “human slag” - all those who had visited the gold mines. He did not see the foreman's face, he only knew him hoarse voice. When the brigade was being built, Shmelev sent Andreev to the authorized Romanov. Arriving at the appointed time, Andreev knocked on the door. A plump man smelling of perfume let him in. He asked Andreev about his specialty. It turned out that he studied at Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. Romanov took him to another city, where senior commissioner Smertin was waiting for them. Andreev was put in a prison cell for the night. In the morning he was taken away by guards. Romanov gave him bread, two herrings and shag. Andreev was taken further. When the car approached the Serpentine investigative prison, he thought that his end had come, but the car moved on. The next stop was in the village of Yagodny. Andreev stayed there for two days. During the next trip, the convoy stopped at a road canteen. Andreev was placed on the floor next to another prisoner who was being taken to Magadan to be shot. After some time, they were put in the back of a car and again taken to an unknown destination. When they reached Sporny, the prisoners were numb from the cold. They were placed in an unheated isolation ward, where Andreev froze all ten of his toes. When they arrived in Magadan, the hero was sent to the regional department. There he was received by Captain Rebrov, who began to ask if he knew Parfentyev and Vinogradov. The first was once Andreev’s foreman, but he did not know the second. After interrogation, Andreev was sent to “Vaskov’s house” - a Magadan prison. After some time, it was announced that Rebrov had been arrested and all those convicted on his warrants were being released.
Typhoid quarantine
Andreev was sent to typhoid quarantine. There he felt that he was still able to respect himself and fight for life. He realized that he needed to avoid being seen by the contractor who was recruiting people for the gold mines for as long as possible. Andreev no longer wanted to return there. More than a thousand people were in quarantine. There was the same peace there as in the camp.
The thieves took places closer to the stove and ate more than everyone else. Andreev managed to deceive his superiors and was sent to do light work. Sometimes he was able to work alone, which was much preferable. When about thirty people remained in quarantine, Andreev was sent on a local business trip. But, to the surprise of the prisoners, they were given winter clothes. When they were put in the car, everyone realized that they were being sent north again, further than the Apple Ridge.
Kolyma stories by Shalamov. Summary
5 (100%) 2 votesLiterature lesson in 11th grade
“Linguostylistic analysis of V. Shalamov’s stories “Berry”, “Single Measurement””
Lesson objectives:
1. Educational:
*improving the skill of linguistic and stylistic text analysis;
*developing the ability to analyze text artistic style;
*intensification of students’ cognitive and research activities.
2. Developmental:
*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 your point of view on a problematic issue;
*development of social competence of students.
3. Educational:
*contribute moral development the personality of students, their determination of true life values.
Technology: technology of critical thinking; technology problem-based learning, workshop of value orientations.
Tasks:
*identify main idea stories by V. Shalamov “Berry”
*story linguistic and stylistic analysis of the stories “Single Measurement”
*analyze linguistic (expressive) means.
Lesson type:a lesson in the integrated application of students' knowledge, skills and abilities.
Methods:problem-search, problematic
Lesson type:workshop
Forms of work:frontal, individual.
On the desk:
Everything that was dear was trampled into dust; civilization and culture disappear from a person in the shortest possible time, measured in weeks.
The ovens of Auschwitz and the shame of Kolyma proved that art and literature are zero...
V. Shalamov
On the sideboard: (concepts are written down during the lesson)
Totalitarianism
Suppression
Destruction of personality
Grain of sand
State machine
Camp
Model of society
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 became acquainted with the stories of V. Shalamov. Have you read works by this author before?
Today we will discover the world of Shalamov’s prose, a world that is cruel and merciless and truthful to the extreme. To understand the motives for writing such works, it is necessary to get acquainted with short biography author.
2. Presentation, prepared by a student - biography of V. Shalamov
3. Conversation
What's amazing about a writer's biography?
He spent 20 years in camps in Kolyma and was a political prisoner. Consequently, everything he wrote about was experienced and felt by the author himself. “Kolyma Tales” - personal experience.
What do we know about those times and camps?
4. Student’s message about the punishment system in the camps.
So what stories have you read?
- “Single measurement”, “Berries”.
What theme unites these stories?
main topic- human existence in the camp.
Where does the action take place?
In the north. Kolyma, the harshest camps.
Who is at the center of the story?
Convicts (thieves, political prisoners), overseers.
What is the tone of the story?
The intonation is dispassionate, ordinary, without emotion. This 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 V. Shalamov’s stories? Prove it.
There is narration and description.
Why is there no reasoning in V. Shalamov’s stories?
The convict cannot reason. He is a cog, a “nobody,” “camp dust.”
In which episodes does the description appear?
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 narrative?
Yes, this is the basis of stories. The life of a prisoner consists of a series of actions aimed at preserving and maintaining own life: exhausting, meaningless work, struggle with constant hunger and cold, actions to obtain food.
What is the problem with the stories?
1. The problem of confrontation between man and the totalitarian machine of the state. 2. The problem of change (deformation) of a person’s value orientations in the camp.
3. Price problem human life.
5.Analysis of the story “Single measurement”
The genre is stated by Shalamov in the title of the collection - “Kolyma Stories”
What is a story? Let's turn to the dictionary.
Short story epic genre, prose work a small volume in which, as a rule, one or several events in the hero’s life are depicted.
What is the classic composition of a story?
Commencement, development of action, climax, denouement.
Do V. Shalamov's stories correspond to the classical form?
No. There is no introduction, the climax is shifted to the end of the work.
This is a deliberate departure from literary canons. Shalamov was convinced that literature was dead (the one that “teaches” - the literature of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy).
The story about the last day of the hero of the story is ordinary, without emotion. Dugaev's death is a statistic.
Why is there no introduction or conclusion to the story?
V. Shalamov needs to show the essence without burdening it with the hero’s backstory. In a camp, it doesn’t matter who a person was before. Shalamov writes about a man who stands at the line separating life and death.
Those around you are indifferent to the fate of your comrade. (Read 1 paragraph of the story, analyze the behavior of the partner and the foreman)
How does Dugaev feel in the camp?
The main feeling is hunger. It is he who determines the character’s train of thought (read the passage). The second is indifference (read the passage).
In the camp, a person becomes dull and 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 quota (“None of his comrades will grumble that he didn’t fulfill the quota”). When Dugaev learns that he has only completed 25%, he is surprised because “the work was so hard.” He was so tired that even “the feeling of hunger left him long ago.”
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 he had suffered this last day in vain.”
6.Analysis of the story “Berry”
What do the stories “Single Size” and “Berry” have in common?
In the story “Berry,” Shalamov depicts everyday life in the camp, as in “Single 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 it’s every man for himself.
2.Hunger is painful acute sensation, pushing a person to take risks and act rashly.
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 berries into a jar?
If Rybakov takes a full jar, 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 in picking berries?
He would have to share his bread, and “camp ethics” does not imply such human actions. Consequently, Shalamov’s idea that in the camp is every man for himself is once again confirmed.
Which episode stands out from the overall narrative intonationally and meaningfully?
Episode describing berries. This is real poetry. The narrator draws berries with the intonation of a gourmet and connoisseur. Nothing in a prisoner's life evokes such strong emotions. Only food.
Analyze the episode telling about the death of Rybakov.
Rybakov was shot by guard Seroshapka because the prisoner violated the boundaries of the designated zone. Grayshap did it casually, without regret. The guard knew that Rybakov would not escape, but killed the prisoner with the first shot. The author focuses the reader’s attention on the fact that Rybakov was killed by the first shot, which should be a warning shot. The second was fired formally - two shots were supposed to be fired. Neither the guard Seroshapka nor the prisoners 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 or trouble. Man is nothing. A jar of berries is valuable because it can be exchanged for bread.
Read V. Shalamov’s words 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 supporting words written on the board during the lesson.
V. Shalamov thinks so, because the camp proved that the physical and spiritual strength of a person in a collision with a car totalitarian state limited. The forces of evil break and destroy personality, because man's capabilities are finite, but evil can be limitless. The artist was not afraid to show the terrible in man. Having shown the “dehumanization” of the world, Shalamov turned out to be a prophet: cruelty is growing everywhere, while never aestheticizing inhumanity. He strove for the reader to see and appreciate what it is like in real life. Everything is permitted - a terrible reality of human history that must be resisted - the author leads the reader to this conviction “ Kolyma stories»
Homework: review of V. Shalamov’s story “Condensed Milk”
The plot of V. Shalamov’s stories is a painful description of the prison and camp life of prisoners of the Soviet Gulag, their similar tragic destinies, in which chance, merciless or kind, rules -stivy, assistant or murderer, arbitrariness of bosses and thieves. Hunger and its convulsive satiation, exhaustion, painful dying, slow and almost equally painful recovery, moral humiliation and moral degradation - that’s what we find constantly in the center of the writer's attention.
Funeral word
The author remembers the names of his comrades in the camps. Evoking the mournful martyrology in his memory, he tells who died and how, who suffered and how, who hoped for what, who and how behaved in this Auschwitz without ovens, as Shalamov called Kolym -skie camps. Few managed to survive, few managed to survive and remain morally unbroken.
Life of engineer Kipreev
Having not betrayed or sold out to anyone, the author says that he has developed for himself a formula for the active defense of his existence: a person can only consider himself a human being and survive if at any moment he is ready to commit suicide, ready to death. However, later he realizes that he only built himself a comfortable shelter, because it is unknown what you will be like at the decisive moment, whether you simply have enough physical strength, and not just mental strength. Engineer-physicist Kipreev, who was arrested in 1938, not only withstood a beating during interrogation, but even rushed at the investigator, after which he was put in a punishment cell. However, they still force him to sign for false testimony, threatening him with the arrest of his wife. Nevertheless, Kipreev continued to prove to himself and others that he was a man and not a slave, as all prisoners are. Thanks to his talent (he invented a method for restoring over-burnt light bulbs, repaired an X-ray machine), he manages to avoid the most difficult work, but far not always. He miraculously survives, but moral shock remains in him forever.
For pre-bet
Camp molestation, Shalamov testifies, affected everyone to a greater or lesser extent and occurred in the most different forms. Two thieves are playing cards. One of them loses like crazy and asks to play for a “pre-bet”, that is, on credit. At some point, infuriated by the game, he unexpectedly orders an ordinary prisoner of intellectuals, 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.
At night
Two prisoners sneak to the grave where the body of their dead comrade was buried in the morning, and remove the dead man’s underwear to sell or exchange for bread or tobacco the next day. The initial disdain for removing clothes is replaced by the pleasant thought that tomorrow they may be able to eat a little more and even smoke.
Single metering
Camp labor, unambiguously defined by Shalamov as slave labor, for the writer is a form of the same corruption. The income-earning prisoner is not able to give the percentage rate, so labor becomes torture and slow death. Zek Dugaev is gradually weakening, unable to withstand six-ten-hour working days. He drives, picks, pours, carries again and picks again, and in the evening the supervisor appears and measures with a tape measure what Dugaev has done. The mentioned figure - 25 percent - seems very large to Dugaev, his calves ache, his arms, shoulders, head hurt unbearably, he even lost the feeling of hunger. A little later, he is summoned to the investigator, who asks the usual questions: name, surname, article, term. And a day later, the soldiers take Dugaev to a remote place, fenced with a high fence with barbed wire, from where the whirring of tractors can be heard at night. Dugaev guesses why he was brought here and that his life is over. And he only regrets that he suffered the last day in vain.
Rain
Rozovsky, working in the pit, suddenly, despite the threatening gesture of the guard, calls out to the narrator working nearby to share his soul. - with a revealing revelation: “Listen, listen! I've been thinking! And I realized that there is no meaning to life... No..." But before Rozovsky, for whom life has now lost its value, manages to rush at the guards, the narrator manages to run up to him and, saving him from a reckless and disastrous act, tell the approaching guards that he was sick. A little later, Rozovsky attempts suicide by throwing himself under a trolley. He is tried and sent to another place.
Sherry Brandy
A prisoner-poet, who was called the first Russian poet of the twentieth century, dies. It lies in the dark depths of the bottom row of solid two-story bunks. It takes a long time for him to die. Sometimes some thought comes - for example, that the bread he put under his head was stolen, and it’s so scary that he’s ready to swear, fight, search... But he no longer has the strength for this, and the thought of bread also weakens. When the daily ration is placed in his hand, he presses the bread to his mouth with all his might, sucks it, tries to tear and gnaw with his scurvy, wobbly teeth. When he dies, they don’t write him off for another two days, and the resourceful neighbors manage to distribute bread for the dead man as if he were alive: they make him look like a Marie-o doll. -No, raises her hand.
Shock therapy
Prisoner Merz-lyakov, a man of large build, found himself on general works, feels that he is gradually giving up. One day he falls, cannot get up immediately and refuses to drag the log. He is beaten first by his own people, then by his guards, and they bring him to the camp - he has a broken rib and pain in his lower back. And although the pain quickly passed and the rib has healed, Merzlyakov continues to complain and pretends that he cannot straighten up, trying to delay his release 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 and released into freedom. Remembering the mine, the pinching cold, the bowl of empty soup that he drank without even using a spoon, he concentrates all his will so as not to be caught in deception and sent to a penal mine. However, the doctor Pyotr Ivanovich, himself a former prisoner, was not a mistake. The professional displaces the human in him. He spends most of his time precisely on unraveling the simulators. This pleases his pride: he is an excellent specialist and is proud that he has retained his qualifications, despite a year of general work. He immediately understands that Merz-lyakov is a malingerer, and anticipates the theatrical effect of the new revelation. First, the doctor gives him raush anesthesia, during which Merz-la-kov’s body can be unbent, and a week later the so-called procedure shock therapy, the effect of which is similar to an attack of violent madness or an epileptic seizure. After this, the prisoner himself asks to be released.
Typhoid quarantine
Prisoner Andreev, having fallen ill with typhus, ends up in quarantine. Compared to general work in the mines, the patient’s position provides a chance to survive, which the hero almost no longer hoped for. And then he decides, by hook or by crook, to stay here in transit for as long as possible, and then, perhaps, he will no longer be sent to the gold mines, where there is hunger, beatings and death. At the roll call before the next sending to work of those who are considered recovered, Andreev did not respond, and thus he managed to hide for quite a long time. The transit is gradually emptying, and Andreev’s turn finally reaches. But now it seems to him that he has won his battle for life, that now the taiga has become saturated and if there are any dispatches, it will be only to nearby, local command posts. However, when the truck with a selected group of prisoners, who were unexpectedly given winter uniforms, passes the line separating the near command posts from the distant ones, he, with an internal shudder, He understands that fate has cruelly laughed at him.
Aortic aneurysm
Illness (and the exhausted state of the prisoners, the “goons”, is quite equivalent to a serious illness, although officially it was not considered such) and the hospital are an indispensable attribute of the plot in Shalamov’s stories. tics. Prisoner Ekaterina Glovatskaya ends up in the hospital. A beauty, the doctor on duty Zaitsev immediately liked her, and although he knows that she is in close relations with his acquaintance, the prisoner Podshi-valov, the head of the department. The head of the circle of artistic self-activity, (“the serf theater,” as the head of the hospital jokes), nothing prevents him, in turn, from trying his luck. He begins, as usual, with a medical examination of Glowacka, with listening to the heart, but his male curiosity quickly gives way to purely medical concern -chen-no-stu. He finds Glowacka has an aortic aneurysm - a disease in which any careless movement can cause death. The authorities, who have made it an unwritten rule to separate lovers, have already sent Glovatskaya to a penal women's mine once. 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 Podshi-va-lov, 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 battle of Major Pugachev
Among the heroes of Shalamov’s prose there are those who not only strive to survive at any cost, but are also able to intervene in the course of circumstances, stand up for themselves, even risking their lives. According to the author, after the war of 1941–1945. Prisoners who had fought and passed away began to arrive in the northeastern camps. German captivity. These are people of a different temperament, “with courage, the ability to take risks, who believed only in weapons. Commanders and soldiers, pilots and intelligence officers...” But most importantly, they had an instinct for freedom, which the war awakened in them. They shed their blood, sacrificed their lives, saw death face to face. They were not corrupted by camp slavery and were not yet exhausted to the point of loss of strength and will. Their “guilt” was that they were surrounded or in captivity. And it is clear to Major Pugachev, one of these not yet broken people: “they were brought to death - to replace these living dead” whom they met in Soviet camps. Then the former major gathers equally determined and strong prisoners to match himself, ready to either die or become free. Their group included pilots, a scout, a paramedic, and a tankman. They realized that they were innocently doomed to death and that they had nothing to lose. They've been preparing their escape all winter. Pugachev realized that only those who avoid general work could survive the winter and then escape. And the participants in the conspiracy, one after another, are promoted to servants: someone becomes a cook, someone is a cult merchant, someone repairs weapons in the security detachment. But then spring comes, and with it the planned day.
At five o'clock in the morning there was a knock on the watch. The duty officer lets in the camp cook-prisoner, who has come, as usual, to get the keys to the pantry. A minute later, the duty officer finds himself strangled, and one of the prisoners changes into his uniform. The same thing happens with the other duty officer who returned a little later. Then everything goes according to Pugachev’s plan. The conspirators break into the premises of the security detachment and, having shot the duty officer, take possession of weapons. Holding the suddenly awakened soldiers at gunpoint, they change into military uniforms and stock up on provisions. Having left the camp, they stop the truck on the highway, drop off the driver and continue the journey in the car until the gas runs out. After that they go into the taiga. At night - the first night of freedom after long months of captivity - Pugachev, waking up, remembers his escape from a German camp in 1944, crossing the front line, interrogation in a special department, being accused of being a spy. And the sentence is twenty-five years in prison. He also remembers the visits of General Vlasov’s emissaries to the German camp, recruiting Russian soldiers, convincing them that for the Soviet government, all of them who were captured were traitors to the Motherland. Pugachev did not believe them until he could see for himself. He looks lovingly at his sleeping comrades who believed in him and stretched out their hands to freedom; he knows that they are “the best, the most worthy of all.” And a little later, a battle breaks out, the last hopeless battle between the fugitives and the soldiers around them. Almost all of the fugitives die, except for one, seriously wounded, who is treated and then shot. Only Major Pugachev manages to escape, but he knows, hiding in the bear’s den, that they will find him anyway. He doesn't regret what he did. His last shot was at himself.
Varlam Shalamov
Single metering
In the evening, while winding up the tape measure, the caretaker said that Dugaev would receive a single measurement the next day. The foreman, who was standing nearby and asked the caretaker to lend him “a dozen cubes until the day after tomorrow,” suddenly fell silent and began to look at the evening star flickering behind the crest of the hill. Baranov, Dugaev’s partner, who was helping the caretaker measure the work done, took a shovel and began to clean up the face that had been cleaned long ago.
Dugaev was twenty-three years old, and everything he saw and heard here surprised him more than frightened him.
The brigade gathered for roll call, handed over their tools and returned to the barracks in uneven prison formation. The difficult day was over. Without sitting down, Dugaev drank a portion of liquid cold cereal soup over the side of the bowl. The bread was given in the morning for the whole day and was eaten long ago. I wanted to smoke. He looked around, wondering who he could ask for a cigarette butt. On the windowsill, Baranov collected shag grains from an inside out pouch into a piece of paper. Having collected them carefully, Baranov rolled up a thin cigarette and handed it to Dugaev.
“You can smoke it for me,” he suggested. Dugaev was surprised - he and Baranov were not friends. However, with hunger, cold and insomnia, no friendship can be formed, and Dugaev, despite his youth, understood the falsity of the saying about friendship being tested by misfortune and misfortune. In order for friendship to be friendship, it is necessary that its strong foundation be laid when conditions and everyday life have not yet reached the final limit, beyond which there is nothing human in a person, but only mistrust, anger and lies. Dugaev remembered well the northern proverb, the three prison commandments: do not believe, do not be afraid and do not ask...
Dugaev greedily sucked in the sweet tobacco smoke, and his head began to spin.
“I’m getting weaker,” he said.
Baranov remained silent.
Dugaev returned to the barracks, lay down and closed his eyes. Lately he slept poorly, hunger did not allow him to sleep well. The dreams were especially painful - loaves of bread, steaming fatty soups... Oblivion did not come soon, but still, half an hour before getting up, Dugaev had already opened his eyes.
The crew came to work. Everyone went to their own slaughterhouses.
“Wait,” the foreman said to Dugaev. - The caretaker will put you in charge.
Dugaev sat down on the ground. He had already become so tired that he was completely indifferent to any change in his fate.
The first wheelbarrows rattled on the ramp, shovels scraped against the stone.
“Come here,” the caretaker told Dugaev. - Here's your place. “He measured the cubic capacity of the face and put a mark - a piece of quartz. “This way,” he said. - The ladder operator will carry the board for you to the main ladder. Take it where everyone else goes. Here's a shovel, a pick, a crowbar, a wheelbarrow - take it.
Dugaev obediently began work.
“Even better,” he thought. None of his comrades will grumble that he is working poorly. Former grain farmers are not required to understand and know that Dugaev is a newcomer, that immediately after school he began studying at the university, and exchanged his university bench for this slaughter. Every man for himself. They are not obliged, should not understand that he is exhausted and hungry for a long time, that he does not know how to steal: the ability to steal is the main northern virtue in all its forms, starting from the bread of a comrade and ending with issuing thousands of bonuses to his superiors for non-existent, non-existent achievements. Nobody cares that Dugaev cannot stand a sixteen-hour working day.
Dugaev drove, twisted, poured, drove again and again picked and poured.
After the lunch break, the caretaker came, looked at what Dugaev had done and silently left... Dugaev again kicked and poured. The quartz mark was still very far away.
In the evening the caretaker appeared again and unwound the tape measure. He measured what Dugaev did.
“Twenty-five percent,” he said and looked at Dugaev. - Twenty-five percent. Can you hear?
“I hear,” said Dugaev. He was surprised by this figure. The work was so hard, so little stone could be picked up with a shovel, it was so difficult to pick. The figure - twenty-five percent of the norm - seemed very large to Dugaev. My calves ached, my arms, shoulders, and head ached unbearably from leaning on the wheelbarrow. The feeling of hunger had long since left him.
Dugaev ate because he saw others eating, something told him: he had to eat. But he didn't want to eat.
“Well, well,” said the caretaker, leaving. - I wish you good health.
In the evening, Dugaev was summoned to the investigator. He answered four questions: first name, last name, article, term. Four questions that are asked to a prisoner thirty times a day. Then Dugaev went to bed. The next day he again worked with the brigade, with Baranov, and on the night of the day after tomorrow the soldiers took him behind the conbase and led him along a forest path to the place where, almost blocking a small gorge, stood high fence with barbed wire strung across the top, and from where the distant whirring of tractors could be heard at night. And, realizing what was going on, Dugaev regretted that he had worked in vain, that he had suffered this last day in vain.
Year of publication of the collection: 1966
Shalamov's "Kolyma Tales" were written based on personal experience writer, he spent thirteen years in Kolyma. Varlam Shalamov created the collection quite for a long time from 1954 to 1962. First « Kolyma stories" 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
In the snow
Varlam Shalamov’s collection “Kolyma Stories” begins with a question: do you want to know how they trample the road through the virgin snow? The man, cursing and sweating, walks ahead, leaving black holes in the loose snow behind him. They choose a windless day, so that the air is almost still and the wind does not sweep away all human labor. The first is followed by five or six more people, they walk in a row and step near the tracks of the first.
The first one always has it harder than everyone else, 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” steps on a piece of virgin soil, and not on someone else’s footprint. And it is readers, not writers, who ride horses and tractors.
To the show
The men played cards at Naumov's, a horse-driver. The guards usually did not enter the barracks of the horsemen, so every night the thieves gathered there for card fights. In the corner of the barracks, on the lower beds, blankets were spread, 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 you needed paper, a crayon, a loaf of bread (used for gluing thin paper) and a knife. One of the players tapped the pillow with his fingers, the nail of his little finger was incredibly long - criminal chic. This man had an appearance very suitable for a thief; you look at his face and no longer remember his features. It was Sevochka, they said that he performed “excellently” and showed the dexterity of a sharper. The thief's game was a game of deception, played only by two people. Sevochka's opponent was Naumov, who was a railway thief, although 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 to set the bet. Naumov lost his suit and wanted to play for the show, that is, as a loan. Konogon called the main character to him and Garkunov demanded to take off his padded jacket. Garkunov had a sweater under his padded jacket, a gift from his wife, which he never parted with. The man refused to take off his sweater, and then the others attacked him. Sashka, who had recently poured soup for them, took a knife from the top of his boot and extended 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 walked onto a small ledge, the stones burned their feet with cold. And even walking didn’t warm me up.
The men stopped to rest; they still had a long way to go. They lay down on the ground and began to throw stones. Bagretsov swore, he cut his finger and the bleeding did not stop. Glebov was a doctor in the past, although now that time seemed like a dream. The friends were removing stones, and Bagretsov noticed a human finger. They pulled out the corpse, took off his shirt and underpants. Having finished, the men threw stones at the grave. They were going to exchange clothes for the most valuable things in the camp. Like this there was bread and perhaps even tobacco.
Carpenters
The next content in the collection “Kolyma Stories” contains the story “Carpenters”. He talks about how there was fog on the street for days, so thick that you couldn’t see a person two steps away. For two weeks the temperature had remained below minus fifty-five degrees. Potashnikov woke up with the hope that the frost had fallen, but this never happened. The food that the workers were fed gave energy for a maximum of one hour, and then I wanted to lie down and die. Potashnikov slept on the upper bunks, where it was warmer, but his hair froze to the pillow overnight.
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. After finishing breakfast, Potashnikov walked to the place of work, where he saw a man in a reindeer 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 a single measurement. Dugaev was twenty-three and everything that happened here greatly surprised him. After a meager lunch, Baranov offered Dugaev a cigarette, although they were not friends.
In the morning, the caretaker measured out the length of time for the man to work. Working alone was even better for Dugaev; no one would grumble that he was doing a bad job. 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 behind the 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 watch to receive a package. His wife sent him several handfuls of prunes and a burka, which they still could not wear, 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 money raised main character I bought a kilogram of butter and a kilogram 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 or talk to each other. The main character of this story wanted to break his leg by dropping a stone on it, but nothing came of this idea, only a couple of abrasions and bruises remained. It rained all the time, the guards 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 was no meaning in life. But the man managed to save Rozovsky from the guards, although he still threw himself under the trolley after some time, but did not die. Rozovsky was tried for attempted suicide and more hero never saw him.
Kant
The hero says that his favorite northern tree is cedar, dwarf. You could tell the weather by looking at the dwarf tree; if you lie down on the ground, it means it will be snowy and cold and vice versa. The man was just transferred to new job to collect elfin wood, which was then sent to the factory to make unusually nasty anti-scurvy vitamins.
They worked in pairs while assembling dwarf wood. One chopped, the other pinched. That day they failed to collect the quota, and in order to correct the situation, the main character’s partner stuffed a large stone into a bag of branches; they still didn’t check it.
Dry rations
In this “Kolyma Tale”, four men from the stone quarries are sent to cut down trees on the Duskanya spring. Their ten-day rations were negligible, and they were afraid to think that this food would have to be divided into thirty parts. The workers decided to dump all their food together. They all lived in an old hunting hut, at night they buried their clothes in the ground, leaving a small edge outside so that all the lice would crawl out, then they scorched 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 and looked at nature. Every evening they gathered around the stove and talked, discussing their difficult life in the camp. It was impossible to refuse to go to work, because there was no pea coat or mittens; the document wrote “dressed for the season” so as not to list everything that was missing.
The next day, not everyone returned to camp. Ivan Ivanovich hanged himself that night, and Savelyev cut off his fingers. Upon returning to the camp, Fedya wrote a letter to his mother saying that he was living well and dressed for the season.
Injector
This story is Kudinov’s report to the head of the mine, where a worker reports a broken injector that does not allow the entire team to work. And people have to stand in the cold for several hours at temperatures below minus fifty. The man informed the chief engineer, but no action was taken. In response, the head of the mine offers to replace the injector with a civilian one. And the injector should be held accountable.
Apostle Paul
The hero sprained his leg and was transferred to 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 their boss, Paramonov, accidentally overheard this conversation and offered to write a wanted report. Six months later, a letter arrived saying that Frisorger’s daughter was renouncing 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 main character 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, rose hips and lingonberries grew. The workers ate them during smoke breaks, but Rybakov had a task: he collected the berries in a jar and then exchanged them for bread. The main character, together with Rybakov, came too close to the prohibited territory, and Rybakov crossed the line.
The guard 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 one day 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 gave birth, and a kennel was built for the six puppies. At this time, a detachment of “operatives” arrived at the camp, they were looking for fugitives - prisoners. Tamara hated one guard, Nazarov. It was clear that the dog had already met him. When the time came for the guards to leave, Nazarov shot Tamara. And then, while skiing down the slope, he ran into a stump and died. Tamara's skin was torn off and used for mittens.
Sherry-brandy
The poet was dying, his thoughts were confused, life flowed out of him. But it appeared again, he opened his eyes, moved his fingers, swollen from hunger. The man reflected on 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 easy job- sawing wood. Having finished working, the squad noticed a pile of garbage near the fence. The men even managed to find socks, which was very rare in the north. And one of them managed to find a notebook filled with children's drawings. The boy drew soldiers with machine guns, painted the nature of the North, with bright and pure colors, because that’s how it was. The northern city consisted of yellow houses, shepherd dogs, soldiers and blue skies. A man from the detachment looked into the notebook, felt the pages, and then crumpled it and threw it away.
Condensed milk
One day 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 poorly 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 others, but I didn’t know anyone. Five fugitives, along with Shestakov, were caught very quickly, two were killed, three were tried a month later. Shestakov himself was transferred to another mine, he was well-fed and shaven, but did not greet the main character.
Bread
In the morning they brought herring and bread to the barracks. Herring was given out every other day, and every prisoner dreamed of a tail. 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 I didn’t want to go anywhere.
This team was in typhoid quarantine, but they still worked. Today they were taken to a bakery, where the master, out of twenty, chose only two, stronger and not inclined to escape: the Hero and his neighbor, a guy with freckles. They were fed bread and jam. The men had to carry broken bricks, but this work turned out to be 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 we shared bread with our neighbors.
Snake charmer
This story is dedicated to Andrei Platonov, who was a friend of the author and himself wanted to write this story, even came up with the name “Snake Charmer,” but died. Platonov spent a year on the Dzhankhar. On the first day, he noticed that there are people who don’t 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 they immediately whispered something in his ear. Then this guy approached Platonov and asked 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 tortured by evaporation, and then torture by freezing out. The Tatar mula, a strong man of sixty years old, was talking about his life. He hoped to live in the cell for another twenty years, and in clean air for at least ten, he knew what “clean air” was.
It took twenty to thirty days for a person to become a goner in the camp. The prisoners tried to escape from prison to the camp, thinking that 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 in winter ice froze in all the cracks. Parcels arrived within six months, if they arrived at all. There is nothing to talk about money at all, they were never paid, not a penny. The incredible number of diseases in the camp left the workers no choice. Given all the hopelessness and depression, clean air was much more dangerous for a person than prison.
First death
The hero saw many deaths, but he remembered the first one he saw best. His team 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 lay 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 boss who several months ago broke all the prisoners' homemade pots. 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 give evidence. And when he returned, he ordered the prisoners to go to work. Soon Shtemenko was sentenced to ten years for murder out of jealousy. After the verdict, the chief was taken away. Former bosses kept in separate camps.
Aunt Polya
Aunt Polya died from terrible disease- stomach cancer. No one knew her last name, not even the wife of the boss, for whom Aunt Polya was a servant or “orderly.” The woman was not involved in any shady affairs, she only helped to arrange for her fellow Ukrainians to live light work. When she became ill, visitors came to her hospital every day. And everything that the boss’s wife gave, Aunt Polya gave to the nurses.
One day Father Peter came to the hospital to confess to the patient. A few days later she died, and soon Father Peter appeared again and ordered a cross to be placed on her grave, and they did so. On the cross they first wrote Timoshenko Polina Ivanovna, 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 did not heal properly, and the girl was limping. Kryukova was a wonderful needlewoman, and she was sent to the “directorate’s house” to embroider. Such houses stood near the road, and the leaders 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 needlewomen worked in the house; they were looked after by a woman who gave the workers threads and fabric. 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 one day, after the first part, they showed the first again. 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 ward, to see a surgeon. She really wanted to give ties to the doctors who cured her. And the woman overseer gave permission. However, Masha was unable to fulfill her plans, because Dolmatov took them away from the craftswoman. Soon, at an amateur concert, the doctor managed to see the boss’s tie, so gray, patterned, and of high quality.
Taiga golden
There are two types of zone: small, that is, transfer, and large - camp. On the territory of the small zone there is one square barracks, with about five hundred seats, bunks on four floors. The main character lies on the bottom, the top ones are only for thieves. On the very first night, the hero is called to be sent to the camp, but the zone foreman sends him back to the barracks.
Soon the artists are brought into the barracks, one of them is a Harbin singer, Valyusha, a criminal, and asks him to sing. The singer sang a song about the golden taiga. The hero fell asleep; he woke up from a whisper on the upper bunk and the smell of shag. When his work assistant 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 only avoid arousing suspicion 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 from hunger. He walked through the village, wandered into the first house he came across, and in the closet he saw the frozen carcass of a pig. Vaska grabbed her and ran to the government house, the department of vitamin business trips. The chase was already close. Then he ran into the red corner, locked the door and began to gnaw on the pig, raw and frozen. When Vaska was found, he had already chewed half of it.
Seraphim
There was a letter on Seraphim’s table; he was afraid to open it. The man had been working in the North in a chemical laboratory for a year, but he could not forget his wife. Seraphim had two other prison engineers working with him, with whom he hardly spoke. Every six months the laboratory assistant received a ten percent salary increase. And Seraphim decided to go to a neighboring village to unwind. But the guards decided that the man had escaped 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 guards did not return the money.
Returning, Seraphim saw a letter; his wife wrote about divorce. When Seraphim was left alone in the laboratory, he opened the director’s closet, took out a pinch of powder, dissolved it in water and drank it. It started to burn in my throat, and nothing else. Then Seraphim cut his vein, but the blood flowed too weakly. Desperate, the man ran to the river and tried to drown himself. He woke up already in the hospital. The doctor injected a glucose solution, and then unclenched Seraphim’s teeth with a spatula. The operation was performed, but it was too late. The acid eroded the esophagus and the walls of the stomach. Seraphim calculated everything correctly the first time.
Day off
A man was praying in a clearing. The hero knew him, it was the priest from his barracks, Zamyatin. Prayers helped him live like a hero, poems that are 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 noise in the instrumental room, which was closed on weekends, but today the lock was not hanging. He went inside, two thieves were playing with the 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 did not eat all the soup, because there were few of them in the barracks. They offered the remains to the hero, but he refused. Zamyatin entered the barracks, and the thugs offered him soup, saying that it was made from lamb. He agreed and five minutes later returned a clean pot. Then Semyon told the priest that the soup was from the dog, Nord. The priest silently went outside, vomiting. Later he admitted to the hero that the meat tasted no worse than lamb.
Domino
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, that’s what the doctor said. At night a week later, the patient was woken up by an orderly and told that Andrei Mikhailovich, the doctor who treated him, was calling him. Andrei Mikhailovich invited the hero to play dominoes. The patient agreed, although he hated the game. They talked a lot during the game, Andrei Mikhailovich lost.
Several years passed when a patient in a small zone heard the name of Andrei Mikhailovich. After some time, they finally managed to meet. The doctor told him his story, Andrei Mikhailovich was sick with tuberculosis, but he was not allowed to be treated, someone reported that his illness was false “bullshit.” And Andrei Mikhailovich traveled a long way in the cold. After successful treatment, he began working as a resident in the surgical department. On his recommendation, the main character completed paramedic courses and began working as an orderly. Once they finished cleaning, the orderlies played dominoes. “It’s a stupid game,” Andrei Mikhailovich admitted, he, like the hero of the story, played dominoes only once.
Hercules
For his silver wedding, the head of the hospital, Sudarin, was given 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 the rank. 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 he tore it off. The young doctors were impressed. The 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 short people to survive in the camp. Since the amount of food given out is not calculated according to the weight of people. One day, while doing general work, Merzlyakov, carrying a log, fell and was unable to go further. For this he was beaten by the guards, the foreman, and even his comrades. The worker was sent to the hospital, he was no longer in pain, but with any lie he delayed the moment of returning to the camp.
At the central hospital, Merzlyakov was transferred to the nervous department. All the prisoner’s thoughts were about only one thing: not to unbend. During the examination by Pyotr Ivanovich, the “patient” answered at random and it didn’t cost the doctor anything to guess that Merzlyakov was lying. Pyotr Ivanovich was already anticipating a new revelation. The doctor decided to start with raush anesthesia, and if that did not help, then shock therapy. Under anesthesia, the doctors managed to straighten Merzlyakov, but as soon as the man woke up, he immediately bent back. The neurologist warned the patient that in a week he would ask to be discharged. After the shock therapy procedure, Merzlyakov asked to be discharged from the hospital.
Stlanik
In autumn, when it’s time for snow, the clouds hang low, and there’s a smell of snow in the air, but if the cedar trees don’t spread, there won’t be snow. And when the weather is still autumn, there are no clouds, but the elfin forest lies on the ground, and after a few days it snows. The cedar tree not only predicts the weather, but also gives hope, being the only evergreen tree in the North. But the dwarf tree is quite gullible; if you light a fire near a tree in winter, it will immediately rise from under the snow. The author considers dwarf dwarf to be the most poetic Russian tree.
Red Cross
In the camp only person The person we can help the prisoner is a doctor. Doctors determine " labor category“, sometimes they are even released, given certificates of disability and released from work. The camp doctor has great power, and the thugs realized this very quickly; they respected medical workers. If the doctor was a civilian employee, they gave him gifts; if not, then most often they threatened or intimidated him. Many doctors were killed by thieves.
In exchange for good attitude doctors had to put them in the hospital, send them on vouchers, and cover up for malingerers. The atrocities of thieves in the camp are innumerable, every minute in the camp is poisoned. Having returned from there, people cannot live as before, they are cowardly, selfish, lazy and crushed.
Lawyers' conspiracy
Next is our collection “Kolyma Stories” summary will talk about Andreev, a former law student. He, like the main character, ended up in the camp. The man worked in Shmelev’s brigade, where human waste was sent; they worked on the night shift. One night the worker was asked to stay because Romanov had called him to his place. Together with Romanov, the hero went to the department in Khatynny. True, the hero had to ride in the back in sixty-degree frost for two hours. Afterwards, the worker was taken to the authorized Smertin, who, as before Romanov, asked Andreev whether he was a lawyer. The man was left overnight in a cell where there were already several prisoners. The next day, Andreev sets off with his guards on a journey, as a result of which his fingers freeze.
