Christopher Tarassoff
April 2004
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Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps
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Number of forced labor camps between
1948-1954
Hungary199
Czechoslovakia 124
Bulgaria99
Romania97
Poland47
There were over 450 camps throughout all of Russia, most centralized in the north east
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First established in 1919, but did not fully reach its potential for treachery until the 1930s.
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Siberian Images
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http://www.feht.com/wcp/ws/intro.html
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The Gulags as Portrayed in Art
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http://ieie.nsc.ru:8101/gulag/gulag1.html
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http://www.artukraine.com/paintings/getman.htm
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Timeline
1919: Lenin introduces Soviet detention centers (Checka)
1930s: Stalin deports millions in series of great purges (NKVD)
July 1929 - January 1, 1934:
The number of prisoners incarcerated in labor camps increased 23 fold
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History of Exile in Russia:
“In the 19th century the Russian government deported around 1.2 million prisoners to
Siberia . Most of the revolutionary leaders in
Russia spent time in Siberia . This included
Lenin , Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin ” http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSgulags.htm
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Map of Russia
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The Solovetsk Special Camp
Solzhenitsin -- may be considered as the
"mother of the GULAG".
This camp was neither the biggest nor most brutal, yet it became a model camp where the NKVD developed and tested security measures,
"living conditions", production norms for prisoners, and all possible methods of repression.
http://www.osa.ceu.hu
/gulag/b.htm
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Slave Labor
Serfdom Abolished – 1862
The Gulag System was responsible for the some of the worst human right abuses throughout the 20 th century for a country against its own people http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/gulag.html
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Product of Gulag Labor:
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Other Projects Completed By Gulag Labor:
White Sea – Baltic Sea Canal
Moscow River – Volga River Canal
Dam and power station at Dneprostroi
Industrial center at Magnitka.
The labor from the Gulags was essential in keeping the Five-Year Plans on schedule
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Official Cover Stories
At the same time, the events transpiring at
The camps were hidden from the public
Official publications and periodicals
Represented slavery as a tool of reeducation changing people minds, turning them into dedicated builders of Communism.
These newspapers were only distributed within labor camps
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Necessity of the camps:
Deal with Dissidents
Maintain the Soviet Economy
People were equivalent to natural resources
Shortfalls of the system balanced by exploitation of labor
“Industrial miracles" of the Bolsheviks all around Russia
Interestingly, no shortage of patriotism amongst prisoners.
Although people may have been anti-Soviet, they were not anti-
Russian
Many volunteered for duty in the Great Patriotic War
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