Kraft fur das Leben und den Tod. Varlam Salamov und die Mandel'stams

In: Osteuropa, Band 57, Heft 6, S. 229-237

Abstract

For Varlam Shalamov, Osip Mandel'shtam was an admired fellow writer & comrade in misfortune. The poet's death on the way to Kolyma is treated by Shalamov in the story "Cherry Brandy." He dedicated another story, "The Sentence," to Mandel'shtam's widow, Nadezhda. While the first story propels the reader towards death & bristles with apathy & resignation, a grain of hope & life is planted in the second. This is no coincidence, for Shalamov saw in Nadezhda Mandel'shtam's memoirs a document which erected a powerful, inspiring memorial to the Russian intelligentsia, a signal to return to life. The mutual admiration for the work of the other found expression in an intensive correspondence from 1965 to 1967 & survived their personal strife. Adapted from the source document.