Shalamov's Cruelty

“A beating is almost irresistible as an argument (Shalamov Kolyma).” Varlam Shalamov spent seventeen years in the Gulag (TEEB). Of all the lessons Shalamov recorded of his time in there, one theme stands out: The necessity of total subordination. The cruelty in the hands of the guards and even prisoners reflects the controlling expectations that their superiors have of them. //The drive for control was an elixir combating the desperation of camp life.// Shalamov’s short stories reflect a lust for control in the lives of those who feel they have none for themselves.
The guards grasp for extra authority in order to elevate themselves in the eyes of the prisoners. Shalamov states that in the camp you are defined by the power you exert over others,

The guards may have had perks, such as building a fire for warmth (Shalamov Berries), but their lives were a lockstep of patrols, cold marches, and orders from above dictating what was and was not permitted (ibid). In short, the guards are little more than prisoners themselves. Shalamov could sense this when he fell in the snow under the weight of firewood. He felt irritation from both the prisoners and the guards - both groups were cold, hungry and tired (ibid): same rights, different roles. Shalamov likewise spoke to the similarity in the obedience of Seroshapka in Berries: Seroshapka wanted to kill Shalamov but could not unless he crossed the line (ibid). Fear of consequence or a perverted sense of restraint had stopped Seroshapka from breaking his orders, not unlike the actions of the prisoners under authority. For example, after Rybakov is shot, Shalamov freezes in place at Seroshapka’s order (ibid). Consequences for disobedience among prisoners were instant, and Shalamov knew better than to test them. In Soviet Russia, every man had a superior, and the shared conditions and pressures of the prisoners and guards show that both parties had little control over themselves; both were conditioned to be