Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov was born in Vologda. Son of a priest. He studied at the law faculty of Moscow State University in 1926-1929. He was first arrested for distributing the so-called Testament of Lenin in 1929. Coming out in 1932, he was again arrested in 1937 and spent 17 years in Kolyma. Returning, since 1957 he began to print poetry in "Youth," in "Moscow." In his eyes was a certain absent-minded madwoman of non-presence. Probably, because at that time he wrote his "Kolyma stories" and even continued to remain free there, in Kolyma.