The Short Story Collection Everyone Should Read

Totalitarianism is terrifying

A photograph of Varlam Shalamov, 1937 (Wikimedia Commons — image resized by Author)

The history of totalitarianism is wrought with bloodshed. If you want to understand just how terrifying these regimes can be, a read through Varlam Shalamov’s Kolyma Tales is a good place to start.

The book is a collection of short stories based upon the author's experiences as a Gulag prisoner during the infamous regime of Joseph Stalin. Though the stories are not for the fainthearted, they are a powerful reminder of what can happen when radicals gain power.

The Chill

During the Stalin era (1929–1953), there were hundreds of labor camps throughout the Soviet Union and some were more bearable than others. Shalamov didn’t get off lightly. He, along with thousands of other citizens, was arrested during the Great Purge and taken to Kolyma in 1937.

Located in the far east of Russia, the temperatures in Kolyma are well below freezing. Working in such conditions was a horrific experience and the Gulag inmates dreaded their hours of labor:

“In winter we lined up inside the barracks, and even now it is agonizing to recall those last minutes before you left for an icy twelve-hour night shift.” — Kolyma Tales, Shalamov