Shaposhnikov Boris Mikhailovich

The author's memoirs are preceded by a preface by his son, which indicates the main facts of his father's biography.
During the Civil War, active Komsomol work, in 1921 he was sent by the Gubkomol to study at the Leningrad Medical Institute, where he combined classes with work as the executive secretary of the Komsomol organization. After graduating from the institute in 1928, he studied at the GIDUV graduate school. Since 1931 until 1937, head of the City Health Department, head of the department of science, etc. 1937 - arrest. At the same time, the author's wife, who worked as a doctor at the Bekhterev Institute, was exiled to the Ryazan region, from where in 1953 she left for her husband to the north, to the village of Olchan.
The fictionalized, chapterized memoirs cover the period from the day of the author's arrest to his rehabilitation, shortly after which, in October 1957, he died. In addition to memoirs, there are documents, letters from his wife, her story about the decision to go to her husband, about parting with relatives and friends, and about a trip to Kolyma.
Night call at the door. The appearance in the apartment of the military. bewilderment
the author, who is sure that this is a mistake, because he is a committed communist. Search. The apartment is a trap: they let you in here, but not from here. Selection of "seditious books" (their names). Confiscation of photographs, seizure of archives
district Komsomol organization. Delivery of the arrested person to the Big House by tram. Jail. Fixation in memory of all prison signs: a deep well in the yard, an exciting autumn smell from outside, pigeons, a dimly lit corridor, etc. A description of the humiliating inspection of a prisoner. Solitary confinement with another prisoner. The tightness is such that there is no way to sit on the floor and they stand close to each other. Thorough check of clothes, shoes, seizure of personal belongings, cutting of buttons and hooks, etc. Sorting chamber, “dog lover”. Artists of the Musical Comedy Theater arrested immediately after the tour. Talking to a neighbor about multiple arrests. Confusion on both sides. Meeting in a cell with a well-known director of the largest medical plant. An imaginary conversation between the author and an investigator, who may turn out to be his acquaintance from the Bolshoy Dom, who recently talked with him about Shostakovich's music, an intelligent and well-mannered man who shook hands with him at the end of the conversation, during which he showed himself to be a real Chekist from Dzerzhinsk, convinced that there are enemies all around (with which the author so far agrees), but that the prisoner called for interrogation is not guilty of anything.
New Year's Eve, 1939. Especially the oppressed state of the author's cellmates. Story about some of them.
Stage. Shipping in Chelyabinsk. Bath. A barrack filled with people so that some people are forced to stand for a day. Unbearable suffering from stuffiness. The author's retelling of books to the prisoners, for which he gets a place on the upper bunk, where the criminals are located.
Kolyma camp. Description of the northern edge, its climate, nature. Path to work. Sheepdogs. View from afar of the faces, people working there. Feeling of fear. First day at the slaughter. The author is a "carrier", a detailed description of the features of this work. Summer 1939. Kolyma rainy weather. A barrack with a leaking roof, windows covered with canvas. Work in the face during the flood. Rumors about the heroic work of people to save equipment on the bridge over the Kolyma River. A competition between the best miners (among them the author) to speed up the installation of ventilation in the mine where their comrades worked. Despite the monstrous difficulties, the author works with enthusiasm (he is a "record holder"). Exhausting labor of hungry people during the war. The work of the author as a doctor, at first simultaneously with work in the face. Reading Chekhov, Hegel, books on the history of art. Presentation of the author as an excellent worker for early release.
Construction of a hospital on Indigirka. Work as a prospector at a new mine. The author is "the best washer of the mine of the Directorate." Appointment as chief doctor of the taiga hospital at the Olchan mine. Epidemic of paratyphoid, with which the author also falls ill. Report on typhus (during illness) at the conference of doctors of Indigirka, which was a huge success.
1947 End of term. There are five years of disenfranchisement ahead. The decision to stay at the Olchan mine as the head of the medical unit.
Poetic memoirs about the nature of the north, about the titanic work of the people living there, about the changes in the taiga that have occurred thanks to them. The construction of a new hospital, the initiator and energetic leader of which is the author. Involvement of medical staff and chronically ill patients in this work. The enthusiasm with which he managed to infect all the builders. His sense of pride in the people involved in the common cause.
In 1950, a heart attack. The flood of 1953, during which he traveled 40 kilometers "along the stormy mountain rivers waist-deep in water", fulfilling the duty of a doctor.
This is followed by letters from his wife to the author, in which she shares with him her anxiety about her move from Stavropol to him in Kolyma, and then her memories of how she got to Olchan, how she met her husband 16 years later.
Continuation of the author's memoirs. Frosts, sometimes over 60 degrees. Constant, day and night, calls to patients several kilometers from the hospital. Fatigue. Pride for his wife, who is called Princess Volkonskaya in Indigirka and who enthusiastically got involved in the work of equipping the hospital.
Moving his wife to Nehru, where she could work in her specialty. Permission received by the author for a trip to the village of Nera for a period of 5 days. On the way there was an accident - the car went into a ditch. Severe leg fracture.
September 7, 1954 release from exile. Flight with a cast leg on a transport plane with transfers to Kazan, from there to IL
to Moscow.
Full rehabilitation in July 1955. Heart attack. The author's conviction that he was right in not separating his life from the ideals of his country.
Letter from Z. Kavukchan, quoting a fragment from the 24th song of "Hell" to Dante to support the spirit of his camp friend. The last chapter of the memoirs is a summing up of the life lived: it was harsh, but honest and persistent, and the author, if there was such an opportunity, would repeat it again.
The memoirs are accompanied by a fragment (“About the Valuit family”) from the author’s notes and a poem by Valuit Nora, dedicated to her mother and written in 1940 in the camp where she ended up after her parents were arrested in 1939 and where she died in 1943 3 months before her release.

The annotation was compiled by Zhidkova T.G.

Adamov Vladimir, Andrey Mitrofanovich, Vladimir Petrovich, Vyshinsky Andrey Yanuarievich, Gilbo Grigory Zakharovich, Gilbo Sonya Zakharovna, Gilbo Esther Zakharovna, Demetro, Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich, Dubinin Valentin Vasilievich, Dubinin Vasily Vasilievich, Dubinin Dmitry Vasilievich, Dudka, Egorov Alexander Ilyich, Yezhov Nikolay Ivanovich, Elizaveta Savelyevna D., Zaushitsin Ivan Borisovich, Zakhariev, Zelenkevich, Zyryanov, Ibrahim, Ivanov A.A., Komarov, Krivoplyas, Kropotkin Petr Alekseevich, Kuznetsov Nikolay Mikhailovich, Litvinov Maxim Maksimovich, Matulevich I.O., Moskin, Nikolaenko, Polosin Pavel, Polyakov Yuri, Sidorov, Smorodin Petr Ivanovich, Tandoora, Trifonov Ivan Kuzmich, Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolaevich, Frese Vasily Vasilievich, Chicherin Georgy (Yuri) Vasilievich, Shaposhnikov Boris Mikhailovich, Shpachenko, Epstein Abram Benyaminovich, Yakir Iona Emmanuilovich, Yaroslavsky Emelyan Mikhailovich