Varvara

“If bones could freeze, then the brain could also be dulled and the soul could freeze over. And the soul shuddered and froze- perhaps to remain frozen forever.”
― Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales

“We realized that life, even the worst life, consists of an alternation of joys and sorrows, successes and failures, and there was no need to fear the failures more than the successes.”
― Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales

“We’ve got to have forbidden fruit, Or Eden’s joys for us are moot.”
― Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin

“Cold, hunger, and sleeplessness rendered any friendship impossible, and Dugaev – despite his youth – understood the falseness of the belief that friendship could be tempered by misery and tragedy. For friendship to be friendship, its foundation had to be laid before living conditions reached that last border beyond which no human emotion was left to a man – only mistrust, rage, and lies. Dugaev remembered well the northern proverb that listed the three commandments of prison life: ‘Don’t believe, don’t fear, don’t ask.”
― Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales