4. I learned that spite is the last human emotion to survive. A starving man has only enough flesh to feel spite — he is indifferent to everything else.
8. I saw that the only group that retained a bit of their humanity, despite the starvation and abuse, were the #religious, the #sectarians, almost all of them — and the majority of the #priests.
9. The first ones to be corrupted, the most susceptible, are the #partymembers and #militarymen.
10. I saw what a forcible argument a simple slap could be for an #intellectual.
16. I learned that one can live on spite alone.
17. I learned that one can live on indifference.
18. I learned why a man lives neither on hope — there are no hopes at all, nor on will — what will?, but only on the instinct of self-preservation, the same as a tree, a rock, an animal.
23. I saw 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)[
31. I 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.
40. Women didn't play a big role in my life — camp is the reason.
43. I learned what #power is and what #amanwithagun means.
Translated by Dmitry Subbotin and Robert Denis.
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