Objectives: Educational: to show the unusual life experience of V. Shalamov, which forms the basis of “Kolyma Stories”

Plan open class in the discipline "Literature"

Teacher Matveeva N.A.

05/24/2018, room. 218, group L-17-1

Lesson topic: “The theme of honor and human dignity in V. Shalamov’s story “The Snake Charmer”

Target: Study and analyze V. Shalamov’s story “The Snake Charmer.”

Tasks:

Educational :

To develop educational work skills: understanding the task, production
washing the progress of its implementation;

Provide control of knowledge and skills on the topic;

Learn to reason on a given topic, argue your point of view;

Educational:

Develop the ability to correctly formulate and express your thoughts;

Develop the ability to analyze literary text;

Develop the ability to accept and respect another person's point of view;

Develop public speaking skills

Educational:

Cultivate love for Russian classical literature, promote students’ awareness of its value for every person;

Foster a sense of justice and the desire to achieve it when necessary;

Cultivate responsibility for your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Type of lesson: combined

Methodical techniques: discussion, dramatization, reflection

Equipment: Projector, computer, notebooks, text of the work

Interdisciplinary connections: Russian language, psychology, history

Lesson content:

Organizational moment

Teacher's readiness for lesson

Students' readiness for the lesson

Checking Absences

Acquaintance with facts from the biography of V. Shalamov

Analysis of new information

Correlating facts from the writer’s life with modern life

Analysis of a lyric work

Expressive reading of the poem “I am poor, lonely and naked”

Analysis of the poem

Studying the story "The Snake Charmer"

Listening to the beginning of the story (audio recording)

Viewing a dramatization prepared by students

Analysis of the characters in the story

Lexical work (drawing up a verbal portrait of the main character of Platonov’s story)

Analysis of the images of Fedechka and Masha

Discussion

Dividing the group into 2 teams, each of which proves a certain point of view

Written assignment

- written answer to a question

Reflection

Continue the sentence

Homework

Reading and analysis of A. Vampilov’s play “The Eldest Son”

Literature:

Esipov V.V. Varlam Shalamov and his contemporaries. - Vologda: Book Heritage, 2007. - 270 p. ISBN 978-5-86402-213-9

Shklovsky E. A. Varlam Shalamov. - M.: Knowledge, 1991. - 64 p. ISBN 5-07-002084-6

http://www.aif.ru/culture/person/zhizn_v_lageryah_za_chto_sazhali_varlama_shalamova

Abstract open lesson in the discipline "Literature" on the topic:

Hello, please sit down.

Mark those who are absent.

Today we will get acquainted with the life and work of a man who became a writer and poet by the will of fate; life, one might say, forced him to tell his country the truth about one of the most terrible places a person can find himself in.

For what reasons or articles of the criminal code do you think people now end up in prison? (murder, theft, drugs, causing physical harm to health)

Today we will find out for what reasons Varlam Shalamov served his sentence.

But first

2 words Varlam Shalamov was born on June 5 (June 18), 1907 in Vologda in the family of priest Tikhon Nikolaevich Shalamov. Varlam Shalamov's mother, Nadezhda Aleksandrovna, was a housewife.

3 words In 1914 he entered the gymnasium, but completed his secondary education after the revolution. In 1924, after graduating from the Vologda second-level school, he came to Moscow and worked for two years as a tanner at a tannery in Kuntsevo.

4 words From 1926 to 1928 he studied at the Faculty of Soviet Law of Moscow State University.

Tell me, for what reasons are people expelled from higher and secondary special education now? educational institutions? (for omissions, tails, inappropriate behavior)

And Varlam Shalamov was expelled “for concealing his social origin” (he indicated that his father was disabled, without indicating that he was a priest). And, as you understand, in Soviet era it was a "terrible crime."

Thus, Varlam Shalamov was unable to receive an education in a country in which freedom, equality and fraternity supposedly flourished.

Please note the choice of specialty - "Soviet Law".

What does this mean? (the man was not indifferent to the fate of his country, his people, he wanted to study science designed to protect the rights of his citizens and fight injustice).

In his autobiographical story about his childhood and youth, “The Fourth Vologda,” Shalamov told how his beliefs developed, how his thirst for justice and his determination to fight for it strengthened. The Narodnaya Volya became his youthful ideal - the sacrifice of their feat, the heroism of resistance to the full might of the autocratic state. Already in childhood, the boy’s artistic talent is evident - he passionately reads and “plays” for himself all the books - from Dumas to Kant.

5 words First arrest (3 years)

On February 19, 1929, Shalamov was arrested for participation in an underground Trotskyist group and for distributing an addition to Lenin's Testament. Out of court, as a “socially harmful element,” he was sentenced to three years in forced labor camps.On February 19, 1929, Shalamov was arrested for the first time. He was not at all surprised by his arrest - he understood why. He was among those who actively disseminated Lenin’s testament, his famous “Letter to the Congress.”In this letter, Lenin pointed out the danger of concentration of power in the hands of Stalin - due to his human qualities. However, Ilyich “did not favor” other comrades in the letter either. However, this letter was kept silent at that time. After his arrest, Shalamov was sent to Butyrka prison, and then exiled to the Vishera camps for three years. Due to his youth, Shalamov reacted philosophically to his arrest. He perceived what was happening to him as a school of life that every writer needs to go through.

What role did the writer play in society in those distant times? (This was a person who was read, listened to, believed in, this was the voice of the people).Tell me, what kind of people in our time are “listened to” and respected? (bloggers, rappers, comedians). The difference is that now you can say anything and you don’t necessarily have to have any knowledge or talents. And even more so, not everyone knows and has experienced what they are talking about.

6 words Second arrest (5 years)

Returning in 1932, Shalamov seemed to have calmed down. He worked in magazines, wrote essays and stories. “The camp is a negative school from first to last day for anyone,” he wrote. It seemed that the cruel lesson had been learned. But Shalamov was not going to reconcile. After five years of “free floating,” in January 1937, the writer was again convicted of counter-revolutionary Trotskyist activities. The result is arrest andfive years of camps . He spent his second term in Kolyma. This test was especially difficult for him. He was repeatedly on the brink of death, and every now and then he found himself in a hospital bed, but he never gave up his beliefs. “From the first minute in prison, it was clear to me that there were no mistakes in the arrests, that there was a systematic extermination of an entire “social” group - everyone who remembered from Russian history of recent years something that should not have been remembered,” he recalled.

Do you think Shalamov did the right thing by continuing his activities? Wouldn’t it be more correct to think about your life, find a family and build your life according to a different, happy scenario?

7 words Third arrest

On June 22, 1943, he was again sentenced to ten years for anti-Soviet agitation, which, according to the writer himself, consisted of calling Bunin a Russian classic: “... I was sentenced to war for declaring that Bunin is a Russian classic.”

He was released when the war began. Shalamov understood that, despite the difficult military situation in the country, the authorities would not simply abandon him. Turned out to be right. Less than a year later he was sentenced for the third time - already to 10 years. The pretext was ridiculous: Shalamov publicly called Bunin a Russian classic. The authorities saw anti-Soviet propaganda in this statement and no longer stood on ceremony with the writer.Apparently, for insurance purposes, according to the accusations of E. B. Krivitsky and I. P. Zaslavsky, false witnesses in several other trials, of “praising Hitler’s weapons.”

Ivan Bunin did not support the revolution and was forced to leave the country to avoid repression.

Tell me, did Shalamov realize the danger of his statement? (Hardly. After all, he assessed the Writer’s work, which was far from politics, and not his views on the state structure). But again, his honesty and thirst for justice did not give him a choice.

8 words In 1951, Shalamov was released from the camp, but at first he could not return to Moscow. Since 1946, having completed an eight-month paramedic course, he began working at the Central Hospital for Prisoners on the left bank of the Kolyma in the village of Debin and on a forest “business trip” for lumberjacks until 1953. It saved his life. Shalamov owes his career as a paramedic to the doctor A. M. Pantyukhov, who personally recommended Shalamov for paramedic courses.

9 words Upon his release, Shalamov immersed himself in literature. Naturally, his works were based on the experience he gained in the camps.“I don’t know if I would have succeeded as a writer if it weren’t for those years of endless horror and humiliation I spent in the camps,” he said.

Now let's listen to contemporaries and people who knew Varlam Shalamov personally (video, 5 min.)

10 words

I'm poor, lonely and naked

I'm poor, lonely and naked
Devoid of fire.
Lilac polar darkness
Around me.

I trust the pale darkness
My poems.
She's barely on her mind
My sins.

And my bronchi are torn by frost
And his mouth tightens.
And, like stones, drops of tears
And frozen sweat.

I speak my poems
I scream them.
The trees are bare and deaf,
A little scary.

And only echoes from distant mountains
Sounds in my ears
And with full breasts it’s easy for me
Breathe again.

11 words - The last three years of Shalamov’s life were, in fact, also prison years. Being a seriously ill person suffering from dementia, he was placed in a Home for the Elderly and Disabled. He was deprived of the right not only to a dignified life, but also to a dignified death. On January 17, 1982, Shalamov died of pneumonia. About 150 people came to see him off on his final journey.

12 words V was openasteroid main belt and named3408 Shalamov in honor , Russian prose writer and poet, creator of a series of literary cycles about . Perhaps space is the only place where justice reigns and real stars, though not recognized on Earth, shine.

Remember, the most important thing: camp is a negative school from the first to the last day for anyone. The person - neither the boss nor the prisoner - needs to see him. But if you saw him, you must tell the truth, no matter how terrible it may be. For my part, I decided long ago that I would devote the rest of my life to this truth.

Perhaps the main work in the work of Varlam Shalamov was “Kolyma Stories,” which he wrote from 1954 to 1973. They were published as a separate publication in London in 1978. In the USSR they were mainly published only in 1988-1990.

Break

Audio recording (fragment of a story)

re-enactment

Drawing up a verbal portrait of Platonov

Let's select epithets for the hero of the story, Platonov. Name and write down adjectives that characterize this hero. How does he appear to us?

Was Platonov an enlightener or the same as Mashka? Why? (Entertained local authorities and served them). But you can entertain in different ways: by singing obscene ditties, for example. He instilled in them culture, introduced them to great literature. Or not?

Could Platonov refuse to read?

Analysis of the image of Masha.

? How do you assess Masha's behavior?

Why is he acting this way?

Did he have the opportunity to behave differently under these conditions?

Characteristics of Fedechka's image.

? Who is Fedechka?

Why did Fedechka smile almost ingratiatingly when he found out that Platonov could read novels, because 5 minutes ago he had threatened him?

Why didn’t he order to read, because he had power over everyone present. (Platonov was the only source of knowledge, and for thieves - entertainment. He was, one might say, the Internet, if translated into modern life).

Discussion.

And now I will ask you to divide into 2 teams.

Your task is to prove or disprove the statement, which can be called a proverb.“A hungry man can be forgiven a lot, a lot"

These are the words of the main character. (hand out papers). One argument at a time.

Thanks for your opinions.

Serving a sentence in prison is a difficult ordeal in itself, but Kolyma is a place where you had to survive, overcoming yourself every day, working almost 24 hours in the terrible cold.

Let's turn to the text of the story.

The end of work is not the end of work at all. After the beep, you still have to collect the instrument, take it to the storeroom, hand it in, line up, go through two of the ten daily roll calls under the obscene abuse of the convoy, under the merciless screams and insults of your own comrades, for now even stronger than you, comrades who are also tired and They rush home and get angry about any delay. We still need to go through roll call, line up and go five kilometers into the forest for firewood - the nearby forest has long been all cut down and burned. A team of lumberjacks prepares firewood, and pit workers carry a log each. No one knows how heavy logs that even two people cannot lift are delivered.

Tell me, what is the hardiest creature on earth? Maybe a horse? Car engine power is measured in horsepower.

Cars are never sent for firewood, and the horses are all in the stable due to illness. After all, a horse weakens much more quickly than a person, although the difference between its former life and its present one is, of course, immeasurably smaller than that of people. It often seems, and this is probably what it actually is, that man rose from the animal kingdom and became a man, that is, a creature who could come up with such things as our islands with all the improbability of their life, because he was physically tougher than any animal. It was not the hand that humanized the monkey, not the embryo of the brain, not the soul - there are dogs and bears that act smarter and more moral than man. And not by subjugating the power of fire - all this happened after the main condition of transformation was fulfilled. All other things being equal, at one time a person turned out to be much stronger and more resilient physically, only physically. He was as resilient as a cat - this saying is not true. It would be more correct to say about a cat - this creature is tenacious, like a person. The horse cannot stand a month of winter life here in a cold room with many hours of hard work in the cold. If it's not a Yakut horse. But they don’t work on Yakut horses. They, however, are not fed. They, like deer in winter, paw through the snow and pull out last year’s dry grass. But the man lives. Maybe he lives with hopes? But he has no hopes. If he is not a fool, he cannot live in hopes. That's why there are so many suicides.

But the sense of self-preservation, tenacity to life, physical tenacity, to which consciousness is also subject, saves him. He lives in the same way that a stone, a tree, a bird, a dog lives. But he clings to life more tightly than they do. And he is tougher than any animal.

So when people say, “I can’t stand this,” it’s not true.

As the hero of one famous Soviet film said: “Every person is capable of much, but not everyone knows WHAT he is capable of.” Remember this when you start to feel sorry for yourself and think that you are the worst in the world and you will not survive this.

Written answer to the question:

? What did I think about after studying the biography of Varlam Shalamov and the story “The Snake Charmer”?

Reflection

Continue the sentence:

- I realized that...

- I was thinking about...

- I understood how...

- I was able...

- I realized that...

- I concluded that I...

- I was interested...

- It was difficult for me...

- I wanted...

- I had a desire...

Homework.

I would like to end our lesson with wordsSoviet engineer, doctor of technical sciences, professorYuri Shneider about Shalamov: “He never wrote anything against his conscience.”

I want to wish you never anything in your lifedon't do against conscience.

"Shock therapy"

Lesson on “Kolyma Tales” by V. Shalamov

Lesson objectives: arouse interest in the personality and work of V.T. Shalamov, who became a symbol of openness, will and Russian directness; show "unusual" vital material", taken as a basis " Kolyma stories”, and captivate students by reading the text of the stories, leading students to comprehend the tragic fate of a person in a totalitarian state.

Epigraph:
Where there is violence, there is grief and bloodshed.

V. Grossman

And I saw hell on earth

Sasha Cherny.
The camp is a negative experience, a negative school, corruption for everyone - for commanders and prisoners, guards and spectators, passers-by and readers of fiction.

"Kolyma stories"».

“Kolyma Tales” is the fate of martyrs who were not former, who did not survive and who did not become heroes.

V.T. Shalamov

1. 
   Teacher's word.

“Damn you, Kolyma,

What is called the Black Planet,

You will inevitably go crazy

There is no turning back from there"
In this cry there is also the voice of the writer V. Shalamov. It is about this planet, the people, by the will of fate, who inhabit it that we are talking about in “Kolyma Stories.”

Varlam Shalamov entered our society and literary consciousness unnoticed, but firmly. Long published as a poet, he gained fame with his Kolyma Tales, written between 1954-1973.

But these stories began to be published here only in recent years. The theme of “arrests, prisons and camps” is not new, but Shalamov presented it in his own way.

“Kolyma stories” - there are many of them. Each of them has its own name, but they are all united in “Kolyma”, and this is not only a general name indicating the place of action, but also “a passionate narrative about the destruction of man”, about “the corruption of the mind and heart, when the vast majority understands the day Every day it becomes easier and easier; it turns out to be living without meat, without sugar, without clothes, without shoes, and also without honor, without conscience, without love, without debt.” It turns out to the majority, but is this discovery accepted by everyone as the norm?

We know about the time of repression, the policy of hopeless lies, mockery and mockery of people from the stories: “The Golden Cloud Spent the Night” by A. Pristavkin, “Black Stones” by A. Zhigulin.

But Shalamov’s stories show another side of this policy: in the camps there was a whole system of extermination, physical and moral destruction of a person convicted under Article 58.

For millions of people, the state machine “turned around the destinies of the best that ever happened.”

“Kolyma Stories” is a report from its time, from that time when the current generation of grandfathers and fathers serenely sang textbook words and official music “I don’t know another country like this, where people breathe so freely.” And only a very few survivors could say how they really breathed behind the barbed wire of the Kolyma camps.

The meaning of the story lies in the last phrase: “Tomorrow they will sell their linen, exchange it for bread, maybe even get a little tobacco...”

So they will live another day. Feelings and morality are suppressed by cold and hunger, but the night brings hope.
In the story "Two Meetings" Brigadier Kotur disappears. He did not have time to get out of the wheelbarrow when the boss approached. Here we read how 1938. The authorities decided to send the convoys on foot from Magadan to the mines of the North. From a column of 500 people five hundred kilometers away, 30-40 remained alive.

“The rest settled on the way - frostbitten, hungry, shot dead...”

The steamer "Kim" entered with a human cargo..." "three thousand prisoners."

On the way, the prisoners rebelled and the authorities decided to fill all the holds with water. All this was done at 40 degrees below zero. Front-line surgeon Kubantsev is shocked by the sight of corpses, surviving people, terrible wounds that Kubantsev had never known in his life and had never dreamed of.
“Of course, there were no gas chambers in Kolyma. Here they preferred to freeze it out - the result was the most comforting,” we read in the story "Lessons of Love"
3. The teacher's word. How did V. Shalamov work on these stories?
The truth of life became the aesthetic credo of V. Shalamov. Every single one of his stories meets this high criterion. It is difficult for us to imagine what enormous emotional stress his stories cost the writer.

This is how he describes his creative process: “Every story, every phrase of it is pre-read in an empty room - I always talk to myself when I write. I scream, I threaten, I cry. And I can’t stop the tears. Only then, finishing a story or part of a story, do I wipe away my tears.”

His work can be called an “encyclopedia of Kolyma life.” You can find everything in them. Description of the land, history, population, capital of the Kolyma region; you will learn everything about the bosses, about production standards, about the method of making prison bunks; about why prisoners eat the gruel first and take the bread with them; about how they go crazy from hunger and how they cut off their fingers. You can learn a lot from this “encyclopedia” that you could not imagine.

In a letter to Pasternak, Shalamov lists real incidents from Kolyma life that became the plot of the stories:

“A fugitive who was caught in the taiga and shot by “operatives.” They cut off both his hands so as not to carry the corpse several miles away, otherwise the fingers would have to be printed. And the fugitive got up and trudged to our hut in the morning. Then he was finally shot.”

“The sweater is wool, homemade, often lies on the bench and moves - there are so many lice in it.”

“There is a line, in a row people are linked with their elbows, there are tin numbers on their backs (instead of the ace of diamonds), a convoy, dogs in large numbers, every 10 minutes - Get down! They lay for a long time in the snow, without raising their heads, waiting for the command.”

“Someone was seen with a piece of paper in their hands, probably given by the investigator for denunciations. Sixteen hour work day. They sleep leaning on a shovel - you can’t sit down or lie down, they’ll shoot you right away.”

“Those who cannot go to work are tied to drags, and a horse drags them along the road for 2-3 kilometers.”

“The gate is at the opening of the adit. A log with which the gate is turned and seven exhausted ragamuffins walk in a circle instead of a horse. And there is a guard at the fire. Why not Egypt?

“There is nothing lower in the world than the intention to forget these crimes. Forgive me for writing you all these sad things, I would like you to get some kind of correct impression of what is significant and significant, which is a huge almost 20-year period - five-year plans, large construction projects, the exact name of “daring” and “ achievements." After all, not a single construction project of any kind took place without prisoners, whose life was a powerless chain of humiliation. Time has successfully made man forget that he is a man..."
4. We think and reflect on the stories we read.

• 
  What is the tragedy of “Kolyma Tales”?

Before us are stories about Kolyma goners clinging to life by all means.

Discussion of the stories “Day off” and “Vaska Denisov, the pig thief.”

Story "Day off"

Teacher's word.

Man and nature are one. Man is a child of nature. But a person deprived of normal conditions begins to perceive it as something alien, hostile. A person cannot dissolve in nature or accept it into himself, feel his unity with it - this also requires spiritual strength, an intact soul is needed.

• 
  What is unique about our story?

• 
  What was hidden behind the silver larches?

• 
  Find in the text how he does this?

Warmth emanates from this lonely man, fervently whispering words of prayer.”

“There was an amazing expression on his face - the same thing that happens on the faces of people remembering their childhood or something equally dear”)

• 
  And then there is a completely contrasting scene. Which? Read it.

• 
  What thoughts does this scene make you think of?

• 
  What saves a person in this inhuman life?

This “very last” could be different - the desire to return to relatives, to family, love for children, faith in God.)

• 
  Why is Vaska sneaking into the village?
• 
  Why were Vaska’s efforts in vain?
• 
  When was the rifle squad called in?
• 
  “He walked swaying from weakness, but not home...”, where?

Corruption is one of the main words in Shalamov’s verdict on the camp.
Discussion of the story “The Snake Charmer”.

Teacher's word.

Many of Shalamov’s stories talk about the power of “thieves” in the camp over “enemies of the people.” The state entrusted the “friends” of the people with the “re-education” of those who ended up in Kolyma under Article 58.

Let us mentally imagine Platonov’s habitat and his day before appearing in the dark barracks, while we will try to rely as much as possible on the words of the writer;

Permafrost. Here even the trees “can barely hold on to the uncomfortable ground, and the storm gently uproots them and knocks them to the ground”;

Platonov is a pit worker. But after work, work awaits him again:

• 
  What kind of work awaits him?

• 
  Why do you think the author gives such a detailed list of actions?

But it's a long way from rest. There is still a five-kilometer journey back, but with a heavy log, because they don’t provide cars, and the horses can’t cope: “a horse is much weaker than a person, a horse cannot stand a month of winter life here in a cold room and with long hours of work - hard work in the cold "

• 
  Platonov reflects on the nature of human endurance: trees and animals die, “but man lives.” Why?

And here Platonov and I are together in the barracks. Finally, it seems he can rest. “Shoulders ached, knees ached, muscles trembled,” but “a push in the back woke up Platonov”...he was “pushed into the light”

Fedechka is a thief, the “thug” is the master of the situation, a person’s life is in his power. “Do you think about living?” he asks Platonov. He asks “quietly”, explains “affectionately”, but behind this is the behavior of a predatory animal. Because the quiet, insinuating words are followed by a “strong blow right in the face,” which knocks Platonov off his feet.

Fedechka calls Platonov Ivan Ivanovich, for him everyone is like Platonov - Ivan Ivanovich, he somehow depersonalizes, denames people, for him he is a creature. When Platonov, who has not yet lost his human dignity, answers that he is not Ivan Ivanovich, Fedechka mutters: “You can’t answer that way. Ivan Ivanovich, was this how you were taught to answer at the institute? " He points Platonov to his place and warns: “Go, creature... Go and lie down by the bucket. Your place will be there. If you scream, we’ll strangle you.”

Platonov experiences moral humiliation and mockery.

The scary thing is that Fedechka is bored. The "lesson" he teaches Platonov is a short diversion. “It’s boring, brothers,” said Fedya, yawning, “at least someone scratched his heels, or something...” And so they obsequiously take off his dirty torn socks, and, smiling obsequiously, scratch his heels. Fedechka doesn’t like the way the young crow does this. Here, he recalls, there was an engineer at the Kosoy mine, he was scratching. And this memory suggests that wherever Fedya is, he always feels like a master, a ruler. And so they bring up Platonov again, and then again, because Fedechka can’t sleep, she’s bored again: “If only someone would press the novel.”

It’s amazing how many of the thieves are lackeys who are willing to humiliate and humiliate for Fedechka’s sake, and if the owner demands it, even kill. The mine was made up of nothing but thieves. The fate of the only literate of them, Platonov, is terrible. He was fed and clothed for reciting Dumas, Conan Doyle, and Wallace. This is also humiliation for the sake of the bowl of “soup” that Fedya bestows on him; He doesn't eat slop.

• 
  Does the author condemn Platonov for this? Why?

But when Platonov asks: “Is this a condemnation?” - the narrator replies: “Not at all... - A hungry man can be forgiven a lot, a lot.”

• 
  Shalamov will repeat twice that he loves Platonov. For what? Do we also perceive a story written for him as a sign of love, as last bow to a comrade who, having survived the terrible “Dzhankhara”, still died, as many died, waved his pick, swayed and fell face down on his knees
• 
  Shalamov uses the title invented by Platonov for his story: “The Snake Charmer.” Why did the writer like it, do you think?

Teacher's word.

“Everyone died”... - this is how the story “Funeral Word” begins.

In every story you read on your own, there is death. The “Gulag Archipelago” appears as a terrible, insatiable monster.

In the story “Two Meetings” we read how in 1938, the authorities decided to send convoys on foot from Magadan to the mines of the North. From a column of 500 people, five hundred kilometers away, 30-40 remained alive. “The rest settled on the way - frostbitten, hungry, shot”...

And here is the “Funeral Word”. "Everyone Died"

Who, why, how?

“Nikolai Kazimirovich Barbe, a comrade who helped me pull a large stone out of a narrow pit, a foreman, was shot for failure to comply with the site plan”...

“Ioska Ryutin died. He worked in tandem with me. But the hard workers didn’t want to work with me. And Ioska worked”...

“Ivan Yakovlevich Fedyanin died. He was a philosopher. Volokolamsk peasant, organizer of the first collective farm in Russia. For organizing the first collective farm, he received a five-year prison sentence."

“Fritz David has died. It was a Dutch communist, a worker of the Comintern, accused of espionage. Fritz David went crazy and was taken somewhere.”

And more death, and more, and more...

But it amazes us final scene this story, which gives a better idea of ​​the prisoners and their characters.

On a winter Christmas evening, several prisoners are warming themselves near a red-hot iron stove. And they talk about what they will do, what they will do when they return home. Former director Ural Trust, Pyotr Ivanovich Timofeev, became emotional:

“- I would return home, to my wife, to Agnia Mikhailovna. I would buy a loaf of rye bread! I would cook porridge from magar - a bucket! Soup, dumplings - also a bucket! And I would eat it all. For the first time in my life I would eat my fill of this goodness, and force Agnia Mikhailovna to eat the leftovers.

And you? - Glebov’s hand touched our orderly’s knee.

The first thing I would do would be to go to the district party committee. There, I remember, there were a lot of cigarette butts on the floor...

Don't joke...

I'm not kidding.

Suddenly I saw that there was only one person left to answer. And this man was Volodya Dobrovoltsev. He raised his head without waiting for the question. The light of glowing coals from the open stove door fell into his eyes; his eyes were alive and deep.

5. Let's summarize our lesson.

• 
  Who is to blame for the tragedy of thousands of people?
• 
  Why does Shalamov’s prose have such a strong impact on our souls and hearts?

He showed what people deprived of human living conditions can turn into: how the system kills some, and turns others into moral monsters, criminals and murderers.

A person should not know, should not even hear about it. No person becomes better or stronger after camp. Everything suffered in the hell of Soviet Auschwitz was reflected in “Kolyma Tales”. The experience of Kolyma includes death, humiliation, hunger, resurrection, execution, transformation into animals, revaluation of values, the collapse of habitual ideas about the world, about man, about his capabilities.

Shalamov didn’t have to invent anything.

The author of “Kolyma Tales” wanted to achieve maximum persuasiveness in his prose. For him, first of all, it was important to “resurrect feelings” - the feeling that a person experienced in the inhuman conditions of the camp. “The feeling must return,” defeating the control of time, the change in assessments, only under this condition is it possible to resurrect life.

1. 
   Orpheus descending into the underworld; or
2. 
   Pluto rising from hell.

(Search information: who is Orpheus? Who is Pluto?)

1. Fiction – literary prose

3. Blatari – criminal elements.

4. Article 58 – “enemy of the people.”

5. Liturgy - Christian worship

6. Epitrachelion - part of the priest’s vestment, a cover embroidered with patterns, worn around the neck and worn under the robe.

Literature.

1. 
   Russian language and literature. 1991. No. 8.
2. 
   Light. 1989 No. 22
3. 
   Shklovsky E.A. Varlam Shalamov. - M.: Knowledge, 1991.
4. 
   Top secret. Makeev S. The interview that never happened. No. 6, 2007.

Municipal educational institution

Platoshin secondary school

Perm district of Perm region

Literature lesson notes

in 11th grade

Tragic fate people in a totalitarian state

prepared

teacher of Russian language and literature

Petrova Elena Ivanovna

Platoshino, 2014

Lesson topic:

… the fate of man in a totalitarian state

(based on the book by V.T. Shalamov “Kolyma Tales”)

using the example of stories by V.T. Shalamov to find out what is the fate of a person in a totalitarian state; try to find the answer to the question: “Can a person survive in extreme conditions and remain human?”

Board design:

V. Shalamov - B. Pasternak

Figure: Figure:

(These words will appear on the board

at the end of the lesson, when they are

conclusions have been drawn)

Lesson topic message.

Name the keywords in the title of the lesson topic.

(Students name the words “state”, “person”).

We find out what is included in the concepts: “state”, “ totalitarian state"(the words appear on the board: repression, totalitarianism). We come to the conclusion that the state is power, man is a piece people.

How these relationships are built (state - people), how they influence a person’s fate, let’s look at the example of the stories of V.T. Shalamov.

Student's message about the fate of V.T. Shalamov. (When preparing the message, the book by E.A. Shklovsky “Varlam Shalamov” was used).

Teacher's word:

Before us is the tragedy of a distorted life, the fate of one of the martyrs not of the enemy, but of their own concentration camps, and at the same time the one and onlyfate writer. Here is an excerpt from one of V. Shalamov’s letters famous writer and the poet B. Pasternak. (Pay attention to the epigraph). Thisthe real truth the writer conveyed to us in his short stories. He lived to tell us what he and many millions of people had to experience.

The works of V. Shalamov can be called “an encyclopedia of Kolyma life.” Each has a name, but all are united in the cycle “Kolyma Stories”. This is not only a general name indicating the place of action, but also, according to the author, “a passionate narrative about the destruction of man,” about “the corruption of the mind and heart, when the vast majority becomes clearer day by day that it is possible, it turns out, to live without meat, no sugar, no clothes, no shoes, and also without honor, without conscience, without love, without debt.”

It turns out to be the majority, but was this discovery perceived as the norm?

GULAG is the main administration of the camps. State within a state. A whole system of physical and moral destruction of people was created in the camp.

In his book, V. Shalamov writes: “The worst thing was the cold. After all, only frost above 55 degrees was activated. We caught this 56 degrees Celsius, which was determined by the spit that got cold on the fly. Hunger is the second force that destroys man; in 2 weeks the person “arrived”. The third force is the absence of force. They are not allowed to sleep, the working day is 14 hours (order in 1938). Beating is the fourth force. Everyone beats the goner: the convoy, the orderly, the brigadier, the thug, the company commander. You become a stalwart when you become weak due to backbreaking labor, no sleep, hard work in 50-degree weather.”

(Students are explained the meaning of the word “blatar”, often used in Shalamov’s stories).

The idea of ​​life in Kolyma is based on real cases:

“A fugitive who was caught in the taiga and shot by “operatives.” They cut off both hands so as not to transport the corpse several miles away to print. And the fugitive got up and trudged to our hut.”

“The gate of the adit opening. The log with which the gate is turned, and the seven exhausted people walk in a circle instead of a horse. And there’s a guard at the fire.”

The most difficult fate befell the people convicted under Article 58 (political prisoner, “enemy of the people”).

Statement of the problem:

Can a person withstand extreme conditions and remain human? – Here main question, to which we will try to find an answer.

Analysis of the story “To the Show” (1956)

Let's find out the meaning of the story's title.

What artistic means does the author use to show us the life of prisoners?

Description of the barracks : “In the right corner of the barracks, on the lower bunks, multi-colored cotton blankets were spread out. In the corner post there is a burning “stick” fastened with wire - a homemade light bulb powered by gasoline steam.” “There was a dirty down pillow on top of the blankets.”.

V. Shalamov talks in detail about the production of prison cards. This is a whole science!

Let's compare portrait characteristics playing cards:

Sevochka– “a dirty hand with thin, white, non-working fingers. The nail of the little finger was of supernatural size - also a criminal chic.”, "sticky and dirty blonde hair", “low forehead without a single wrinkle, yellow bushy eyebrows, bow-shaped mouth” – all this gave his physiognomy an important quality of a thief’s appearance—invisibility.”. Sharpie.

Naumov– “a black-haired fellow with a pained expression of black, deeply sunken eyes”, railway thief.

We come to the conclusion that Sevochka is the “master” of the situation. This is evidenced by author's characteristics character lines:

Sevochka:“... muttered through his teeth... with endless contempt...”

"...said firmly"

“...said vividly”

Naumov:"...there was a loud, verbose swearing..."

“... Naumov said hoarsely”

“... Naumov shouted”

“..said ingratiatingly...”

What “thought flashed in Naumov’s brain”?

Naumov decided to play on the things of Garkunov, a textile engineer who was sent to Kolyma under Article 58 as an enemy of the people. His words sound cynical: “Come on, take it off.”

How can one explain Naumov’s behavior: he just humiliatingly fawned over Sevochka, and now he is humiliating Garkunov?

What does a sweater mean to him?

(This is a thread connecting him with his former life, giving him hope to survive).

The thread turned out to be thin, like a defenseless human life, a toy in the hands of non-humans. In one paragraph - the fate of a person, his past, present and future. This is the skill of Shalamov, the writer.)

Which lines particularly shocked you?

(“Sashka stretched the dead man’s arms, tore his undershirt and pulled the sweater over his head. The sweater was red, and the blood on it was barely noticeable. Sevochka carefully, so as not to stain his fingers, folded the sweater into a plywood suitcase.” The attitude towards a person is shocking. Death is perceived as a common occurrence that has lost its tragedy).

Garkunov was killed. Will the killer be punished?

Let's look at the beginning of the story: “We played cards at Naumov’s horse-driver’s. The guards on duty never looked into the barracks of the horsemen, rightly believing that their main service was monitoring those convicted under the fifty-eighth article. Horses, as a rule, were not trusted by counter-revolutionaries.”

What did this story make you think about?

Teacher's word:

The next story is also about the power of “thieves” over “enemies of the people.”

Reference: “the thieves, a work refuser, the eternal enemy of any state, suddenly turns into a friend of the state, into an object of reforging”(“Kolyma Tales”). For a high percentage of output, these prisoners (thieves, murderers...) were released from prison. It turned out that “friends of the people,” which are repeat offenders, officially fulfill the 300% norm and are subject to early release. And 300% is someone else's blood. Anyone convicted of a domestic crime knew that his crime was not at all considered a crime in the camp. On the contrary, the imprisoned murderer feels the support of the state - after all, he is a “domestic worker” and not an enemy of the people.

The state entrusted the “friends” of the people with the re-education of those who ended up in Kolyma under Article 58.

Analysis of the story “The Snake Charmer” (1954)

What is this story about?

Based on the writer’s word, let’s imagine one day in the life of prisoner Platonov.

“The end of work is not the end of work at all. After the beep, it was necessary to collect the tool, take it to the storeroom, hand it over, line up and go five kilometers into the forest for firewood.” The impression of hopelessness is created, it seems that there will never be rest for the tired body. Platonov reflects on human endurance: “A horse cannot stand living here for a month in a cold room with long hours of work in the cold... But a person lives...”.

Why?

We find the answer to this question in Platonov’s thoughts: "...he is clinging to life."

Why doesn’t Platonov manage to relax in the barracks after a hard day?

Read Platonov’s conversation with Fedechka. What's amazing?

As in the previous story, Fedechka is a thief, the master of the situation.

Fedechka calls Platonov Ivan Ivanovich, for him people like Platonov are Ivan Ivanovichs, by this he depersonalizes people, for him they are creatures: “Go, creature. Go, lie down by the bucket. Your place will be there. If you scream, we’ll strangle you...” This is what is amazing.

Shalamov uses a diminutive suffix in his name. This is the author's irony.

What feeling does Platonov have?

Does he have a way out?

The fate of the only literate person at the mine is terrible. He is forced to retell Dumas and Conan Doyle to the thieves... For this they feed him and clothe him. This is also humiliation for the sake of a bowl of “soup” that Fedechka will give him, because he doesn’t eat soup.

“A hungry man can be forgiven a lot, a lot.”

What about you guys?

What is the meaning of the story's title? Was Platonov successful in his role as a snake charmer?

Teacher's word:

The Gulag archipelago appears as a terrible, insatiable monster. Almost every story by V. Shalamov involves death.

The story became such a resounding slap in the face "Tombstone word".

Expressive reading by a student of a fragment of a story.

- What moved you about this story?

The lines are especially striking:

“And I,” and his (Volodya Dobrovoltsev’s) voice was calm and unhurried, “I would like to be a stump. A human stump, you know, without arms, without legs. Then I would find the strength to spit in their faces for everything they do to us...”

Against the background of music, the student reads a poem by V. Shalamov:

List of used literature

1. From “Kolyma notebooks”, (1937-1956): Poems // Banner. 1993. No. 1.

2. “Conversations about the most important things...”: Correspondence between B. L. Pasternak and V. T. Shalamov / Publ., intro. word and comment. I. Sirotinskaya // Youth. 1988. No. 10.

3. Shalamov V.T. Kolyma stories / Publ. I. Sirotinskaya // Youth. 1988. No. 10.

4. Shklovsky E.A. "Varlam Shalamov." - M.: Knowledge, 1991

Varlam Shalamov

Snake charmer

We sat on a huge larch fallen by the storm. Trees in the edge of permafrost barely cling to the uncomfortable ground, and a storm easily uproots them and knocks them to the ground. Platonov told me the story of his life here - our second life in this world. I frowned at the mention of the Dzhanhara mine. I myself have visited bad and difficult places, but the terrible glory of “Janhara” thundered everywhere.

- How long were you on the Dzhanhar?

“A year,” Platonov said quietly. His eyes narrowed, the wrinkles became more pronounced - in front of me was another Platonov, ten years older than the first.

“However, it was only difficult for the first time, two or three months. There are only thieves there. I was the only... literate person there. I told them, “squeezed novels,” as they say in thieves’ jargon, I told them about Dumas, Conan Doyle, and Wallace in the evenings. For this they fed me, clothed me, and I worked little. You probably also used this one advantage of literacy here at one time?

“No,” I said, “no.” It always seemed to me like the final humiliation, the end. I never told a novel for soup. But I know what it is. I heard "novelists".

– Is this a condemnation? - said Platonov.

“Not at all,” I answered. – A hungry man can be forgiven a lot, a lot.

“If I stay alive,” Platonov said the sacred phrase that began all thoughts about time beyond tomorrow, “I will write a story about it.” I’ve already come up with a name: “Snake Charmer.” Good?

- Good. We just have to survive. That's the main thing.

Andrei Fedorovich Platonov, a film screenwriter in his first life, died three weeks after this conversation, he died the way many died - he swung his pick, swayed and fell face down on the stones. Intravenous glucose and strong cardiac drugs could have brought him back to life - he wheezed for another hour and a half, but had already calmed down when a stretcher from the hospital arrived and the orderlies carried this small corpse to the morgue - a light load of bones and skin.

I loved Platonov because he did not lose interest in that life beyond the blue seas, behind the high mountains, from which we were separated by so many miles and years and in the existence of which we almost no longer believed, or, rather, we believed as schoolchildren believe in the existence of some America. Platonov, from God knows where, also had books, and when it was not very cold, for example in July, he avoided conversations on topics that lived the entire population - what kind of soup there would be or was for lunch, whether they would give bread three times a day or immediately in the morning, whether tomorrow it will rain or clear weather.

I loved Platonov, and now I will try to write his story “The Snake Charmer.”

The end of work is not the end of work at all. After the beep, you still have to collect the instrument, take it to the storeroom, hand it in, line up, go through two of the ten daily roll calls under the obscene abuse of the convoy, under the merciless screams and insults of your own comrades, for now even stronger than you, comrades who are also tired and They rush home and get angry about any delay. We still need to go through roll call, line up and go five kilometers into the forest for firewood - the nearby forest has long been all cut down and burned. A team of lumberjacks prepares firewood, and pit workers carry a log each. No one knows how heavy logs that even two people cannot lift are delivered. Cars are never sent for firewood, and the horses are all in the stable due to illness. After all, a horse weakens much more quickly than a person, although the difference between its former life and its present one is, of course, immeasurably smaller than that of people. It often seems, and this is probably what it actually is, that man rose from the animal kingdom and became a man, that is, a creature who could come up with such things as our islands with all the improbability of their life, because he was physically tougher than any animal. It was not the hand that humanized the monkey, not the embryo of the brain, not the soul - there are dogs and bears that act smarter and more morally than humans. And not by subjugating the power of fire - all this happened after the main condition of transformation was fulfilled. All other things being equal, at one time a person turned out to be much stronger and more resilient physically, only physically. He was as resilient as a cat - this saying is not true. It would be more correct to say about a cat - this creature is tenacious, like a person. The horse cannot stand a month of winter life here in a cold room with many hours of hard work in the cold. If it's not a Yakut horse. But they don’t work on Yakut horses. They, however, are not fed. They, like deer in winter, paw through the snow and pull out last year’s dry grass. But the man lives. Maybe he lives with hopes? But he has no hopes. If he is not a fool, he cannot live in hopes. That's why there are so many suicides.

Varlam Shalamov

Snake charmer

We sat on a huge larch fallen by the storm. Trees in the edge of permafrost barely cling to the uncomfortable ground, and a storm easily uproots them and knocks them to the ground. Platonov told me the story of his life here - our second life in this world. I frowned at the mention of the Dzhanhara mine. I myself have visited bad and difficult places, but the terrible glory of “Janhara” thundered everywhere.

- How long were you on the Dzhanhar?

“A year,” Platonov said quietly. His eyes narrowed, the wrinkles became more pronounced - in front of me was another Platonov, ten years older than the first.

“However, it was only difficult for the first time, two or three months. There are only thieves there. I was the only... literate person there. I told them, “squeezed novels,” as they say in thieves’ jargon, I told them about Dumas, Conan Doyle, and Wallace in the evenings. For this they fed me, clothed me, and I worked little. You probably also used this one advantage of literacy here at one time?

“No,” I said, “no.” It always seemed to me like the final humiliation, the end. I never told a novel for soup. But I know what it is. I heard "novelists".

– Is this a condemnation? - said Platonov.

“Not at all,” I answered. – A hungry man can be forgiven a lot, a lot.

“If I stay alive,” Platonov said the sacred phrase that began all thoughts about time beyond tomorrow, “I will write a story about it.” I’ve already come up with a name: “Snake Charmer.” Good?

- Good. We just have to survive. That's the main thing.

Andrei Fedorovich Platonov, a film screenwriter in his first life, died three weeks after this conversation, he died the way many died - he swung his pick, swayed and fell face down on the stones. Intravenous glucose and strong cardiac drugs could have brought him back to life - he wheezed for another hour and a half, but had already calmed down when a stretcher from the hospital arrived and the orderlies carried this small corpse to the morgue - a light load of bones and skin.

I loved Platonov because he did not lose interest in that life beyond the blue seas, behind the high mountains, from which we were separated by so many miles and years and in the existence of which we almost no longer believed, or, rather, we believed as schoolchildren believe in the existence of some America. Platonov, from God knows where, also had books, and when it was not very cold, for example in July, he avoided conversations on topics that lived the entire population - what kind of soup there would be or was for lunch, whether they would give bread three times a day or immediately in the morning, whether tomorrow it will rain or clear weather.

I loved Platonov, and now I will try to write his story “The Snake Charmer.”

The end of work is not the end of work at all. After the beep, you still have to collect the instrument, take it to the storeroom, hand it in, line up, go through two of the ten daily roll calls under the obscene abuse of the convoy, under the merciless screams and insults of your own comrades, for now even stronger than you, comrades who are also tired and They rush home and get angry about any delay. We still need to go through roll call, line up and go five kilometers into the forest for firewood - the nearby forest has long been all cut down and burned. A team of lumberjacks prepares firewood, and pit workers carry a log each. No one knows how heavy logs that even two people cannot lift are delivered. Cars are never sent for firewood, and the horses are all in the stable due to illness. After all, a horse weakens much more quickly than a person, although the difference between its former life and its present one is, of course, immeasurably smaller than that of people. It often seems, and this is probably what it actually is, that man rose from the animal kingdom and became a man, that is, a creature who could come up with such things as our islands with all the improbability of their life, because he was physically tougher than any animal. It was not the hand that humanized the monkey, not the embryo of the brain, not the soul - there are dogs and bears that act smarter and more morally than humans. And not by subjugating the power of fire - all this happened after the main condition of transformation was fulfilled. All other things being equal, at one time a person turned out to be much stronger and more resilient physically, only physically. He was as resilient as a cat - this saying is not true. It would be more correct to say about a cat - this creature is tenacious, like a person. The horse cannot stand a month of winter life here in a cold room with many hours of hard work in the cold. If it's not a Yakut horse. But they don’t work on Yakut horses. They, however, are not fed. They, like deer in winter, paw through the snow and pull out last year’s dry grass. But the man lives. Maybe he lives with hopes? But he has no hopes. If he is not a fool, he cannot live in hopes. That's why there are so many suicides.

But the sense of self-preservation, tenacity to life, physical tenacity, to which consciousness is also subject, saves him. He lives in the same way that a stone, a tree, a bird, a dog lives. But he clings to life more tightly than they do. And he is tougher than any animal.

Platonov was thinking about all this, standing at the entrance gate with a log on his shoulder and waiting for a new roll call. The firewood was brought, stacked, and people, crowding, hurrying and cursing, entered the dark log barracks.

When his eyes got used to the darkness, Platonov saw that not all the workers went to work. In the far right corner on the upper bunks, having dragged the only lamp, a gasoline smokehouse without glass, to themselves, seven or eight people were sitting around two people, who, crossing their legs in Tatar style and putting a greasy pillow between them, were playing cards. The smoking smokehouse trembled, the fire lengthened and shook the shadows.

Platonov sat down on the edge of the bunk. My shoulders and knees ached, my muscles trembled. Platonov was brought to Dzhanhara only in the morning, and he worked for the first day. There were no free places on the bunks.

“Everyone will disperse,” Platonov thought, “and I’ll go to bed.” He dozed off.

The game above is over. A black-haired man with a mustache and a large nail on his left little finger rolled over to the edge of the bunk.

“Come on, call this Ivan Ivanovich,” he said.

A push in the back woke up Platonov.

– You... Your name is.

- Well, where is he, this Ivan Ivanovich? - they called from the upper bunks.

“I’m not Ivan Ivanovich,” said Platonov, squinting.

- He’s not coming, Fedechka.

- Why doesn’t it work?

Platonov was pushed towards the light.

- Do you think of living? – Fedya asked him quietly, twirling his little finger with a dirty nail polished in front of Platonov’s eyes.

“I think,” Platonov answered.

A strong blow to the face knocked him down. Platonov stood up and wiped the blood with his sleeve.

“You can’t answer like that,” Fedya explained affectionately. – Ivan Ivanovich, was that how you were taught to answer at the institute?

Platonov was silent.

“Go, creature,” said Fedya. - Go and lie down by the bucket. Your place will be there. If you scream, we will strangle you.

This was not an empty threat. Twice before Platonov’s eyes they strangled people with a towel - according to some of their thieves’ accounts. Platonov lay down on the wet, stinking boards.

“Boring, brothers,” said Fedya, yawning, “at least someone would scratch his heels or something...

- Mashka, Mashka, go scratch Fedya’s heels. Mashka, a pale, handsome boy, a little crow of about eighteen, emerged into the streak of light.

He took Fedya’s worn yellow low shoes off his feet, carefully took off his dirty torn socks and began, smiling, to scratch Fedya’s heels. Fedya giggled, shuddering from the tickling.

“Get out,” he suddenly said. – You can’t scratch. You can't.

- Yes, I, Fedechka...

- Get out, they tell you. Scratching, scratching. There is no tenderness.

The people around nodded their heads sympathetically.

“I had a Jew at Kosoy, who was scratching.” That one, my brothers, was scratching. Engineer.

And Fedya plunged into memories of the Jew who was scratching his heels.

“Oh well,” said Fedya. - Can such people scratch? But, by the way, pick him up.

Platonov was brought out into the light.

“Hey, you, Ivan Ivanovich, fill the lamp,” Fedya ordered. - And at night you will put firewood in the stove. And in the morning - a parachute to the street. The orderly will show you where to pour...

Platonov remained silent obediently.

“For this,” Fedya explained, “you will receive a bowl of soup.” I don’t eat yushka anyway. Go to sleep.

Platonov lay down in his old place. Almost all of the workers were sleeping, curled up in twos or threes - it was warmer that way.

“Oh, boredom, the nights are long,” said Fedya. “At least someone would press the novel.” Here I have it on Kosom...

- Fedya, and Fedya, and this new one... Would you like to try?

“And that,” Fedya perked up. - Lift him up.

Platonov was raised.

“Listen,” said Fedya, smiling almost ingratiatingly, “I got a little excited here.”

“Nothing,” Platonov said through clenched teeth.

- Listen, can you squeeze novels?

Fire flashed in Platonov’s dull eyes. Of course he couldn't. The entire cell of the pre-trial prison heard “Count Dracula” in his retelling. But there were people there. And here? To become a jester at the court of the Duke of Milan, a jester who was fed for a good joke and beaten for a bad one? There is, after all, another side to this matter. He will introduce them to real literature. He will be an educator. He will awaken their interest in artistic expression, here, at the bottom of his life, he will do his job, his duty. Out of old habit, Platonov did not want to tell himself that he would simply be fed, that he would receive an extra soup not for taking out the bucket, but for other, more noble work. Is it noble? This is still closer to scratching the dirty heels of a thief than to enlightenment. But hunger, cold, beatings...