The true horrors of the Gulag system were revealed belatedly: Before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, state archives were sealed. It wasn’t until about 1987 that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the grandson of Gulag victims, officially began the process of completely eliminating the camps. Some were restructured to serve as prisons for criminals, democratic activists and anti-Soviet nationalists during the 1970s and 1980s. Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, was a staunch critic of the camps, the purges and most of Stalin’s policies.īut, the camps didn’t disappear completely. Within days, millions of prisoners were released. The Gulag started to weaken immediately after Stalin’s death in 1953. Between 19, about 150,000 to 500,000 people were released from the Gulag each year. If they worked extremely hard and surpassed their quotas, some prisoners qualified for early release. For example, family members of a suspected traitor would receive a minimum sentence of five to eight years of labor. Prisoners in the Gulag were given sentences, and if they survived the term, they were permitted to leave camp. Historians estimate that at least 10 percent of the total Gulag prison population was killed each year. Many workers died from exhaustion, while others were physically assaulted or shot by camp guards. In desperation, some stole food and other supplies from each other. Violence was common among the camp inmates, who were made up of both hardened criminals and political prisoners. Gulag living conditions were cold, overcrowded and unsanitary. If prisoners didn’t complete their work quotas, they received less food. Food rations were tight, and workdays were long. The work was often so grueling that prisoners would cut their hands with axes or place their arms in a wood stove to avoid work.Ĭamp prisoners often drudged through brutal weather, sometimes facing sub-zero temperatures. Others mined coal or copper, and many had to dig up dirt with their bare hands. Some workers spent their days cutting down trees or digging at frozen ground with handsaws and pickaxes. Prisoners were given crude, simple tools and no safety equipment. Gulag labor crews worked on several massive Soviet endeavors, including the Moscow-Volga Canal, the White Sea-Baltic Canal and the Kolyma Highway. The type of industry depended on the camp’s location and the area’s needs. Prisoners at the Gulag camps were forced to work on large-scale construction, mining and industrial projects. WATCH: Joseph Stalin Life at a Gulag Camp Without notice, some victims were randomly picked up by Stalin’s security police (the NKVD) and hauled to the prisons with no trial or rights to an attorney. Many women faced the threat of rape or assault by male prisoners or guards. Even women and children endured the harsh conditions of the camps. Later, educated people and ordinary citizens-doctors, writers, intellects, students, artists and scientists-were sent into the Gulag system.Īnyone who had ties to disloyal anti-Stalinists could be imprisoned. Opposing members of the Communist Party, military officers and government officials were among the first targeted. When Stalin launched his purges, a wide variety of laborers, known as “political prisoners,” were transported to Gulag camps. Many kulaks were arrested when they revolted against collectivization, a policy enforced by the Soviet government that demanded peasant farmers give up their individual farms and join collective farming. The first group of prisoners at Gulag camps included common criminals and prosperous peasants, known as kulaks. Stalin viewed the camps as an efficient way to boost industrialization in the Soviet Union and access valuable natural resources such as coal, other minerals and timber.Īdditionally, Gulag camps became a destination for victims of Stalin’s Great Purge, a campaign to eliminate dissenting members of the Communist Party and anyone who challenged the leader. But it wasn’t until Stalin’s rule that the prison population reached significant numbers.įrom 1929 until Stalin’s death, the Gulag went through a period of rapid expansion. The Gulag was first established during Lenin’s rule in 1919, and by 1921 the Gulag system had 84 camps. When Lenin died of a stroke in 1924, Joseph Stalin propelled his way to power and became dictator. The word “Gulag” is an acronym for the Russian phrase Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration.Īfter the Russian Revolution of 1917, Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Russian Communist Party, took control of the Soviet Union.
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