Literary scholars and critics assess the "Kolyma Tales" as a documentary historical evidence, depicting the great catastrophe of mankind XX century. This is a panorama of life, suffering and death of people in the camp of the empire in the north-east of the USSR, occupies more than two million square kilometers. In his stories Varlam Shalamov goes beyond a simple description of all the horrors of the Soviet gulag. He is not trying to cause fear in readers. He does not call for fear of the name. But, reading or listening to his work, literally skin feel the horror, the prisoner in them. "Kolyma Tales" shocking, they require not only compassion but also a re-evaluation of his own life, a certain moral conclusion.
