Typical rugged Kolyma landscape, northwest of Magadan, near Ust-Omchug. I have read Shalamov's "Kolyma Tales" and Solchenitzyn "Gulag Archipello". How different can the same world be? Their hardship of the GULag and me flying over the same place, sipping a glass a wine, listing to Chaikovsky on the radio and the stewardess asking if I want salmon or beef for dinner. "Salmon or Beef?" versus 22 million starving  forced laborers in the GULags, some things the mind can not handle.
The worse GULag of all, Butugychag uranium mine, is in this area.
[Photo: Maurice de Graaf]