Shalamov

The main thing in a biography is historical accuracy. To this, the author aspired, understanding that the tragedy of the life and literary fate of the outstanding Russian writer Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov can only be truly grasped in the context of time. Shalamov's entire path was 'interwoven,' as he wrote, 'with the history of our [country].' This includes pre-revolutionary Russian culture, the revolution, and the 1920s, during which the writer developed as a person, the Stalin era, which plunged him into the depths of Kolyma, and all the subsequent years when fate was also not kind to him. How did Shalamov manage to endure such heavy trials and express himself with such powerful and magnificent artistic force that shocked millions of people around the world? The book can provide only part of the answers to these questions — for everything else, the reader must reflect, relying on many new or little-known facts about the writer's biography.