Хранить вечно

By Aleksandr Konstantinovich Sokolenko

In the freezing nights of a labor camp, fifty prisoners "settle in like herring in a barrel, tightly nuzzled next to each other, and someone among them would cover the rest with clothing". And then the night-time storyteller begins his tale.

Aleksandr Sokolenko's four true stories of life in the Soviet camps detail a world of baffling catch-22s, but also of intense community. From farm work to timber-driving, wrestling marmots to runaway brides, the daily reality captivates.

Vivid characters fill the pages: the aged merchant Semyonov's rich life history and wry acceptance ("At least here, they can't arrest you"); the thief-king who tries to break free from his followers; the high-society orphan who turns barbering into an art; and the inept, vicious Captain Ivanov. Stepping back to narrate their stories as well as his own, Sokolenko offers us a broader picture of the USSR and its history, as lived by his fellow inmates.

The human suffering is blunt and clear - scurvy, starvations, injustice, drownings - but what lingers is a sense of humans' capacity for kindness and boundless talents.

Keep Forever, they stamped on his prison files, and Keep Forever is what we must do with these stories.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1475246897
• ISBN13: 9781475246896
• Release Date: December 2012
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.2" x 8.0"