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What I've seen and learned at Kolyma camps

1.The extraordinary fragility of human nature, of civilization. A human turns into a beast in three weeks of hard work, cold, starvation and beating.

2.The main means of soul corruption is cold; people must have endured longer in the camps in Central Asia— it was warmer there.

3.I've learned that friendship, solidarity never arise in difficult, I mean really hard conditions — when life is at stake. Friendship arises in difficult but bearable conditions (in the hospital, not in the mine).

4.Learned that spite is the last human emotion to survive. Only spite lets the starving man's flesh hold out — and he is indifferent to the rest.

5.Learned the difference between prison strengthening one's nature, and work camp corrupting his soul.

6.Learned that Stalin's «triumphs» were possible because he slew innocent people: any organization, maybe one-tenth in the number but united, would have swept Stalin away in two days.

7.Learned that a human is human because he is physically stronger, tougher than any animal — no horse endures work in the Far North.

8.I've seen that the only group that stayed at least somewhat human while being starved and abused — were the religious, the sectarians, almost all of them — and the majority of the priests.

9.The easiest, the first victims of moral corruption are party and military men.

10.Seen what a forcible argument a simple slap could be for an intellectual.

11.That people distinguish between camp chiefs according to the power of their punches, to their beating enthusiasm.

12.Beating is almost irresistible as an argument («Method number three»).

13.Learned the truth about the way mysterious trials were prepared from the masters of the craft.

14.Learned why you learn about political news (arrests etc.) sooner in prison than at large.

15.Learned that prison (and camp) close-stool is never a close stool.

16.Learned that one can live on spite alone.

17.Learned that one can live on indifference.

18.Learned why a man keeps on living neither out of hope — there are no hopes at all, nor by will — will is nothing, but only out of the instinct of self-preservation, same as a tree, a rock, an animal.

19.I'm proud that at the very beginning, back in 1937, I decided to never become a foreman if my decision could lead to another man's death, if my will would be forced to serve the authorities oppressing other people, prisoners like myself.

20.My body and spirit proved to be stronger in this great trial than I thought, and I am proud to have betrayed no one, to have sent no one to death nor to the camp, to have denounced no one.

21.Proud to have made no requests until 1955 [1].

22.Seen the so called «Beria amnesty» there and then — it was worth seeing.

23.Seen that women are more honest and selfless than men — there was not a single husband at Kolyma who came after his wife. But wives did come; many did (Faina Rabinovitch, Krivoshey's wife). [2].

24.Seen the amazing northerner families (civilians, former prisoners) with their letters to their «lawful husbands and wives» etc.

25.Seen «the first Soviet Rockefellers», underground millionaires, and heard their confessions.

26.Seen the hard laborers, and also the large E and B contingents, the Berlag camp.

27.Learned that one can achieve a lot (a hospital, a work transfer), but at the risk of life — that means at the cost of beating and the isolation cell cold.

28.Seen an isolation cell carved out in rock, and spent one night in it myself.

29.The lust for power, for unpunished murder is great — from big shots down to regular police operatives with rifles (Seroshapka [3] and his ilk).

30.Learned the unrestrained Russian lust to denounce, to complain.

31.Learned that world should be divided not into good and bad people but into cowards and non-cowards. 95% of cowards are capable of any meanness, lethal meanness, after light threatening.

32.I am convinced: the Kolyma camp is a negative experience — entirely. If one spent but an hour there — it would be an hour of moral corruption. Kolyma has never given anything to anyone — and never could. Kolyma corrupts both prisoners and civilians.

33.In every region there was a work camp, there was one at every major construction. Millions, tens of millions of prisoners.

34.Repressions touched not only the ruling elite but all levels of society — in every village, at every plant, in every family either relatives or friends were repressed.

35.I consider the best time of my life to be the months spent in the cell of Butyrki prison, where I managed to strengthen the spirit of those who were weak and where everyone talked free.

36.Learned to «plan» one day ahead, not further.

37.Learned that jailbirds are not human.

38.That there are no criminals at the camp, there are your today (and tomorrow) neighbors caught behind the line of the law and not those who crossed it.

39.Learned how terrible the ego of a boy, of a youth is: better steal than ask. This and their boasting throws youth to the bottom.

40.Women didn't play a big role in my life — Kolyma is the reason.

41.The discernment of character is useless — I am unable to change my ways for any scum that comes along.

42.The last in the row which are hated by everyone — guards and mates both — those dropping behind, the sick, the weak, those incapable of running in the cold.

43.I've learned what power is and what a man with a gun means.

44.That the scale is shifted, and this is what is most typical in a work camp.

45.That passing from a prisoner condition to civilian is very hard, and nearly impossible without a long adaptation period.

46.That a writer must be a stranger — in the subjects he describes. And if he knows the matter well — he will write in such a way that no one would understand him.

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