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A collection of short stories based on Shalamov's experiences during, and survival of, seventeen years in the Soviet Union's forced-labor camps of Kolyma
287 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1981
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About the author
Varlam Shalamov
83 books223 followersVarlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (Russian: Варлам Тихонович Шаламов; June 18, 1907–January 17, 1982), baptized as Varlaam, was a Russian writer, journalist and poet.
Alternate spellings of his name:
Варлам Шаламов
Varlam Chalamov
Warłam Szałamow
Warlam Schalamow
V. T. Shalamov
Varlam Șalamov
Alternate spellings of his name:
Варлам Шаламов
Varlam Chalamov
Warłam Szałamow
Warlam Schalamow
V. T. Shalamov
Varlam Șalamov
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 10, 2018
It would be interesting to compare the far more famous Alexander Solzhenitsyn to Varlam Shalamov. Apparently, Solzhenitsyn had a great respect for Shalamov, for enduring the worst parts of the gulag for almost 20 years. This respect was apparently not mutual, for reasons that aren't quite clear. Unlike Solzhenitsyn, it seems that Shalamov was far more affected psychologically by his years in the camps. After rehabilitation, he mostly kept his head down, working as a low level translator and poet for the Soviet regime who then died impoverished, obscure and alone in 1982. His only act of rebellion was writing and quietly distributing via samizdat the short stories that became “Kolyma Tales” and “Graphite”.
The tales here are also pretty distant from Solzhenitsyn's style. They perhaps could be described as arching across the themes of Dostoevsky in the detached method of Chekhov with a very subtle twist of Gogolian irony. Unlike Dostoevsky, there is no God or light within to redeem those damned to work and die in Arctic mines, unlike Chekhov, the detachment is not some sort of cultivated aesthetic comment on the subject matter, but a necessary way of coping with the horror witnessed, and unlike Gogol, there is never any humor in the absurdity and irony.
Detachment. It was probably the only way one could process a place where death was omnipresent for countless reasons and the strong lorded over the weak. What's interesting is that there is one story in which the mask of detachment slips just a little bit, and one sees the raw anguish of having lost so many friends and compatriots over the years expressed just one bit before the deadened expression sets in again.
These stories are pretty bleak and difficult to read. It's almost like a survivor's journal, written not so much from the position of a historical witness to a great injustice, as Solzhenitsyn did, but as a way of personally processing a psychic trauma that could never be healed, and the people and places that were burned into his brain along the way.
Sadly, the Glad translation is a bit weak and poorly edited. There's lots of misspellings and questionable transliterations of names, and I think more work could have gone into the creating a stronger feel in English for the argot Russian criminals use, considering how much of a point is made in the difference between the political prisoners and the criminal prisoners (Basically imagine educated university graduates being forced to live with hard-core violent recidivist sociopaths, and you'll see what sort of social dynamic the camps had on the inside. One gets the feeling that there was more to fear from other prisoners than from the guards).
Still, this is a great book about a terrible place and time from a writer that has found posthumous fame in post-Soviet Russia but remains, sadly, relatively unknown in the West.
Four out of Five stars.
The tales here are also pretty distant from Solzhenitsyn's style. They perhaps could be described as arching across the themes of Dostoevsky in the detached method of Chekhov with a very subtle twist of Gogolian irony. Unlike Dostoevsky, there is no God or light within to redeem those damned to work and die in Arctic mines, unlike Chekhov, the detachment is not some sort of cultivated aesthetic comment on the subject matter, but a necessary way of coping with the horror witnessed, and unlike Gogol, there is never any humor in the absurdity and irony.
Detachment. It was probably the only way one could process a place where death was omnipresent for countless reasons and the strong lorded over the weak. What's interesting is that there is one story in which the mask of detachment slips just a little bit, and one sees the raw anguish of having lost so many friends and compatriots over the years expressed just one bit before the deadened expression sets in again.
These stories are pretty bleak and difficult to read. It's almost like a survivor's journal, written not so much from the position of a historical witness to a great injustice, as Solzhenitsyn did, but as a way of personally processing a psychic trauma that could never be healed, and the people and places that were burned into his brain along the way.
Sadly, the Glad translation is a bit weak and poorly edited. There's lots of misspellings and questionable transliterations of names, and I think more work could have gone into the creating a stronger feel in English for the argot Russian criminals use, considering how much of a point is made in the difference between the political prisoners and the criminal prisoners (Basically imagine educated university graduates being forced to live with hard-core violent recidivist sociopaths, and you'll see what sort of social dynamic the camps had on the inside. One gets the feeling that there was more to fear from other prisoners than from the guards).
Still, this is a great book about a terrible place and time from a writer that has found posthumous fame in post-Soviet Russia but remains, sadly, relatively unknown in the West.
Four out of Five stars.
June 17, 2024
Poignant, poetic, tragic.
Additional stories from Kolyma Tales with some overlap. The translation is rough in places and some typos remain, but the spirit of the book shines through.
Additional stories from Kolyma Tales with some overlap. The translation is rough in places and some typos remain, but the spirit of the book shines through.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews