I want light and peace...

Shalamov's prose, a merciless and precise testimony about the GULAG, occupies one of the most significant pages in the history of Russian literature of the 20th century. Meanwhile, Shalamov himself considered himself more of a poet than a prose writer. Remaining in the shadow of camp stories, Shalamov's poetic works constitute a substantial part of his creative legacy. By the author's admission, poetry was for him a "salvific amulet" and a source of strength in the inhuman conditions of camp life, his "guiding star". Immersing himself in world culture and history, turning his gaze to nature, Shalamov writes his "lyrical diary", poems that are simultaneously "clear and incomprehensible". This edition includes the poetic works that make up the cycle "Kolyma Notebooks" (1949–1953), created in the Far North, as well as selected poems written in various years after returning from the camp.