Bibliographical Notes on the Italian reception of “The Kolyma Stories”

Cover of  I racconti di Kolyma, Einaudi, 1999.

Title:
Kolymskie rasskazy [The Kolyma Stories]

Author: Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982)

Years: 1954-1973

Description:
The Kolyma Stories (Kolymskie rasskazy), the masterpiece by Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982), was written between 1954 and 1973 and is one of the greatest examples of Russian Gulag literature and 20^th century prose. After being rejected by the literary journal “Novyi Mir” and the publishing house Sovetskii pisatel’, the work which contains 145 stories, grouped into six collections in the version edited by Irina Sirotinskaia wasn’t published until the end of the 1980s. It had circulated in the samizdat in four typewritten volumes and fragments had appeared in Russian emigration journals in the West, for example in New York in Roman Gul’s “Novyi zhurnal” (between 1966 and 1976) and in Frankfurt in “Posev” (1967) and “Grani” (1970). These publications, however, did not respect the stylistic and compositional unity of the original, and Shalamov, at least formally, dissociated himself from them with a letter, to the editorial board of the “Literaturnaia gazeta” on February 23^rd, 1972 in which he condemned “the abominable practices” of “filthy fascist magazines” (Sinatti 1992: 259).
In Italy, until the seventies, Shalamov was known only to a few specialists, such as Gustaw Herling and Piero Sinatti, who was responsible for the first Italian translation of the Kolyma Stories, published in 1976 by Savelli which included thirty tales. Acclaimed by Vittorio Strada and Herling, the book was criticized by the Italian writer Primo Levi, who did not understand its stylistic originality, denied affinities between the “totalitarian twins”, Hitler and Stalin, and played down the moral stature of Soviet prisoners compared to those fighting Nazism: “men like Salamov still deserve our respect, but their stature is inferior to that of their counterparts who fought Hitler’s terror” (“La Stampa”, 1976).  His comments were considered “pretentious aesthetic considerations to delegitimize a book or an uncomfortable author in its entirety”, by Herling, writing twenty years later in “La Stampa” (1992).
Levi’s opinion was typical of the pro-Soviet intellectual left, which did not grant Shalamov’s work its due during the seventies and eighties, despite new editions (again incomplete and unauthorized) which appeared in London (Overseas, 1978), Paris (in French by Maspero from 1980 to 1982 and in Russian by YMCA press, 1982, 1985), and New York (translated by John Glad, Norton, 1980-81): “There was an almost total silence around Shalamov’s book and the volume was for us one of the most resounding failures”, commented the Savelli editorial director (Battista, “La Stampa”, November 1992). Interest in the Kolyma Stories was kept alive by Strada and Sinatti, by an article written by Pietro Zveteremich after Shalamov’s death in 1982, in “La nuova rivista europea”, and by Guido Ceronetti: “Scialamov, along with Kafka and Céline, more than any other writer interpreted and expressed the horror of the 20th century” (“La Stampa”, 1988).
It was only in the nineties that Shalamov’s work was fully accepted in Italy.  In the new political climate, after the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, new translations appeared, based on the first Russian version: thirteen tales were published by Sellerio with an introduction by the historian Victor Zaslavsky, a collection of ten previously unpublished tales was released by Theoria and, in 1995, a new version, including fifty-five stories, for Adelphi, promoted by Ceronetti came out: “We must shout loudly that Shalamov must be read, discovered, and meditated upon, because it is crucial that we encounter him” (“Tuttolibri”).
In 1999, Einaudi published the world’s first complete translation of the Kolyma Stories, translated by Sergio Rapetti, which was finally able to replace “the meritorious Shalamovian anthologies” that could only represent complete “mosaics with scattered pieces” (Sinatti, “Domenica”). This edition, which is still on sale, was at the centre of a controversy concerning the decision not to publish a preface, written in the form of a dialogue between Herling and Sinatti, which was rejected for“somewhat nebulous” ideological reasons (Malcovati, “L’indice dei Libri del Mese”) and in particular because of Herling’s comparison of Nazi and Soviet concentration camps. It was, however, thanks to the Einaudi edition and the controversy it stirred, that the name of Shalamov became well known in Italy and the stories welcomed, as “splinters of wounded flesh, removed from time: events and images captured in their absolute presence” (Pietro Citati, “Repubblica”).
From the beginning of the 21^st century, new translations of autobiographical works (The Fourth Vologda; Vishera. An Antinovel, both by Adelphi), essays, excerpts from Shalamov’s memoirs, archival documents, and two poetry collections, marked the success of Shalamov’s major work. The Kolyma Stories reached the top of the paperback charts, with high print-runs and several new editions, after an appearance by the Italian writer Roberto Saviano who spoke about the work on the television programme Che Tempo Che Fa on November 11^th 2009.  More recently, the exhibition Varlam Šalamov: Vivere o scrivere. Un viaggio documentario (Varlam Shalamov: Living or writing. A documentary journey), organized by Literaturhaus Berlin and Memorial Italia visited many Italian cities between 2014 and 2015.
After decades of “deafness from the Italian intelligentsia” (Sinatti, “Il Sole 24 Ore”, 2007), Shalamov’s masterpiece has entered the canons of Russian literature studied in Italy and continues to challenge readers who are “open to its authenticity” (Strada, “La Stampa”, 1992).

Giovanni Tommaso Bortoletto, Anna De Ponti
[30th June 2021]

Translation by Giovanni Tommaso Bortoletto and Anna De Ponti

Bibliography

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• Sinatti P., Il centenario di Varlam Shalamov, il condannato, “Il Sole 24 Ore”, 17th June 2007.
• Strada V., Uno scrittore all’inferno. Šalamov, grida dal Gulag, “La Stampa”, 5th December 1992.
• Varlam Šalamov, vivere o scrivere – un viaggio documentario, ed. by G. De Florio, E. F. Piredda, M. C. Ghidini, Memorial Italia e Literaturhaus Berlin, 2015.
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