Shalamov — Voronsky — Mandelstam: Literature as a Will to Resist

Abstract

In the 1960–1970s Varlam Shalamov wrote several literary works with the aim of the rehabilitation of Osip Mandelstam and Alexander Voronski,
among others, who were persecuted during the Great Terror and since then their names were passed over in silence. The article analyzes the intersections of literary and revolutionary traditions in the 1920s in Russia and reconstructs their historical context. He discusses the proposes that Shalamov had in view when he has been writing on fi gures from the recent past and stresses the importance of this cultural heritage in the modern world.