Writing Life. Varlam Shalamov. Biography and Poetics

In the camp, Varlam Shalamov was reduced to the level of human material, which was managed by others, and whose destruction was taken into account in advance.

Having survived both in life and in creativity, he resisted anyone encroaching on his «I». To freely manage his life and fully retain the highest right to interpret his fate in words was to him as much a treasure as the authenticity of feeling from which every written word was born. His poems and prose were based on what he himself saw and learned. 

Speaking about his creativity, he once said: «I am a chronicler of my own soul. No more.» In all his texts, he closely intertwined his own life with modern Russian history. His strategy of remembering requires historical knowledge. It is aimed at a reader who is willing to continually question their own thoughts and actions.