The use of mass terror was one of the most representative characteristics of the Stalinist regime. The gulag was the embodiment of the Bolsheviks' constant and large-scale use of fear to control the population. Among the many stories about life in the gulag, Tales from Kolyma by Varlam Shalamov and The Head of the Gulag by Fedor Mochulsky stand out for their treatment of the issue. Indeed, Shalamov, a writer who spent 17 years in the gulag, depicts a cold and unforgiving environment that, when not killing you physically, sucks all of humanity out of you until you become a helpless being. soul. Shalamov addresses all aspects of the gulag through his prisoner's point of view, without politicizing his texts. In contrast, Mochulsky's work is written by a former guard after the fall of the USSR. In his book, Mochulsky attempts to explain his past behavior, if not to exonerate himself. Therefore, Kolyma Tales and Gulag Boss provide two valuable accounts of the gulag in the Stalin era from two opposing perspectives and with different objectives. Kolyma Tales and Gulag Boss tell the same events, namely the daily routine of an Arctic gulag. However, these two works approach this subject from two diametrically opposed angles. Indeed, Shalamov was a political prisoner while Mochulsky was a camp guard. Their experiences of the gulag are different in almost every way. First, Shalamov writes about the impossibility of forming a true friendship in the gulag given the living conditions: “Cold, hunger and insomnia made friendship impossible […] friendship could be tempered. by misery and tragedy. On the other hand, Mochulsky talks about the valorization of friendship between guards: "they are also very m...... middle of paper ...... in Era (Studies in the history of Russia and of Eastern Europe). Basingstoke: Palgrave, Lapidus, Gail Warshofky. 1978. Women in Soviet Society. Berkeley: University of California Press Berkeley 94720. Randall, Amy E. Fall 2011. ““Abortion Will Deprive You of Happiness!” »: Soviet reproductive policy in the post-Stalin era. Journal of Women's History 13-38.Sacks, Michael Paul. 1977. “Women in the Industrial Workforce.” In Women in Russia, by Dorothy Atkinson, Alexander Dallin and Gail Warshofsky Lapidus, 189-204. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1920. "American Constitution. Amendment. XIX." Viola, Lynne and Beatrice Farnsworth. 1992. Russian peasant women. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Z. Goldman, Wendy. 1993. Women, the State and the Revolution: Family Politics and Soviet Social Life, 1917-1936. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.