Chołod

A novel by Szczepan Twardoch, inspired by the author’s polar expeditions.

The great journey through the Arctic – ocean, gulags, love and violence.

A native of Upper Silesia, Konrad Widuch is a veteran of the Great War, a communist wholeheartedly committed to the revolution. After the war, he travels to Soviet Russia with Karol Radek and sets about implementing the proletarian order, fighting in the ranks of the Red Cavalry during the 1920 war. The revolution, however, is devouring its own children. During the purges of 1937, Comrade Widuch, as an ‘old Bolshevik’, is arrested, convicted and sent to a gulag, from which, however, he escapes and so begins his journey through snow, ice and tundra.

Fleeing from Soviet justice in the company of a blind thief-in-law and a blatnaya named Lyubov, Widuch eventually arrives at a mysterious settlement known to its inhabitants as Chołod. They live according to the rhythm of the harsh polar nature – herding reindeer, hunting seals and bears, speaking their own language – and they have never heard of Stalin.

Until…

Chołod is a story of disillusionment with ideas. About the fate of an individual thrown into the vortex of history and the moment of respite the protagonist finds outside civilisation. However, this is only a moment, as the Russian Behemoth persistently follows in the footsteps of ex-comrade Widuch.

The description comes from the publisher’s website.