WHAT I SAW AND LEARNED IN THE CAMPS (VARLAM SHALAMOV, 1961)

1. The extraordinary fragility of human nature, of civilization. A human being would turn into a beast after three weeks of hard work, cold, starvation and beatings. 

 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. <1961>