Szpital w Opowiadaniach kołymskich Warłama Szałamowa
The Hospital in the Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov

Summary/Abstract: In the present article an attempt of defining the meaning of the labour camp hospital has been carried out. In The Kolyma Tales the hospital is presented as an island of good in the Soviet labour camps archipelago of evil. This image has been conditioned, above all, by the moral attitude of the medical staff, which the author described aiming at, so characteristic of him, objectivism of the image. Therefore, in Shalamov’s short stories, apart from the doctors who remained human, one may encounter also the doctors-executioners. The image of the hospital always goes hand in hand with the problem of human pain caused by the Kolyma’s severe climate, chronic undernourishment and hard work. The hospital was the sole shelter from the gruelling camp conditions. The moments of rest in the hospital were perceived by the prisoners as a synonym of the heart and home. The Soviet labour camp hospital represents a paradox: an institution whose aim was to save lives existed in the Soviet death machine.

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