Condensed Milk" is a short story by Russian author Varlam Shalamov, who spent fifteen years of his life in a Gulag, a Russian forced-labor camp. The story is based on his experience at the camp.The main character and narrator is a political prisoner, an "enemy of the people". Even a thief is above him at the camp.
He is starving, ill, and mentally drained. He has no strength in himself to do anything other than survive for the rest of the day:"
Inside there was only an empty scorched sensation, and we were indifferent to everything, making plans no further than the next day.
"However, we notice a change in the narrator's apathy once he is approached by Shestakov. Although Shestakov is also a prisoner, he has an office job, an easier life than the others. Shestakov invites the narrator to escape from the Gulag with him, but the narrator sees right through this amicable façade. Certainly, Shestakov is working with the government. He is simply deceiving other prisoners to get them killed or sentenced to more years.
That is enough for the narrator to find a strange type of strength inside himself. There is not much he can do, though. He cannot kill Shestakov, he cannot warn the others. Those actions would lead to his own death. His revenge comes in the form of a request. He asks for condensed milk - the sweetest, most delicious food he could think of. Shestakov brings him two cans, believing he will agree to escape after drinking them. To his surprise, the narrator reveals he does not wish to go. As he had predicted, the others are trapped once they try to run away, but nothing happens to Shestakov. Notice how the narrator found in himself a bit of energy, an ember of pride, of strength:
"t was, of course, a weak, worthless act of vengeance just like all my feelings.
"It was an act of vengeance nonetheless.
