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The Soviet Gulag
Cris MartinDavis Center for Russian
and Eurasian StudiesHarvard University
Soviet GULAGGlavnoye Upravleniye Lagerey—Main Camp
Administration
Gulag Statistics
Existed 1918—1987, most active during Stalin’s reign, 1929-1953
476 camp systems, hundreds, thousands of individual camps
Estimated 18 million imprisoned, 6 million exiled (15% of the population)
“A single round number of dead victims would be extremely satisfying, particularly since it would allow us to compare Stalin directly with Hitler or with Mao. Yet, even if we could find one, I’m not sure it would really tell the whole story of suffering either. No official figures, for example, can possibly reflect the mortality of the wives and children and aging parents left behind…”~Anne Appelbaum
Early Soviet History
1921: USSR established under Lenin
1922: Stalin named General Secretary of Communist Party
1924: Lenin dies 1929: Stalin
overcomes rivals to become head of USSR
Communism Political and economic doctrine that
aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society.
In theory, communism would create a classless society of abundance and freedom, in which all people enjoy equal social and economic status.
Stalin’s Goals
Industrialization Collectivization of Agriculture Dekulakization 5 Year Plan
Rationale behind Gulag Remove criminal
elements from Soviet society
Rehabilitation and construction of supreme Soviet utopia
Stalin’s psyche and need for power
Economy
Soviet economy Free labor would benefit Soviet
industrialization Prisoners were too ill, weak,
underfed, untrained to be productive
System became to large and far-reaching
Gulag became financial burden despite attempts to make it more productive in the early 1940s
Belomor Canal 141 miles long,
only 6-12 feet deep Basically useless
for large vessels, barges, passenger ships
Stalin considered it a great success
Over 100,000 prisoners died during its construction
Today, only 10-40 boats per day use canal
Types of prisoners
Criminals Political
Prisoners Article 58
Other
Propaganda and a culture of fear “Nobody knew what
tomorrow would bring. People were afraid to talk to one another or meet, especially families in which the father or mother had already been ‘isolated.’”~Yelena Sidorkina, arrested 1937
I won the Nobel Prize
for Literature,
what did you do?
The Great Terror
1937-38 700,000 shot Kirov’s assassination
led to new decrees and greater power for NKVD
Claimed life of Yagoda, and Yezhov (pictured).
A prisoner’s journey
Arrest/interrogation/prison
Trial?
Transport
Life in the Camps: Work
Work varied by camp location Survival often depended on your job Fulfilling the norm Tufta, or cheating Avoiding work
Life in the Camps: Food
Dictated camp life
What you ate depended on how much of the norm was fulfilled
Victim of the “big ration”
Daily rationsCauldron I: 300 g.
bread, 1 liter thin soup, spoonful of groats, 1 liter soup
Cauldron II: 500 g. bread, 1 liter soup, 2 spoonfuls groats, 1 piece spoiled fish
Cauldron III: 700 g. bread, 1/2liter soup, 2 liters soup, 2 spoonfuls groats, 1 piece spoiled fish
Life in the camps: Weather, Violence
Russian winters
Barracks Threats from
criminals
Aftermath 1953: Stalin died Within 3 weeks, mass amnesty
declared 1956: Khrushchev’s secret
speech Destalinization 1951: A Day in the Life published Restalinization under
Brezhnev
The end of the Gulag
1988: Last camp closed
Today still little discussion of Gulag in Russia
No national monument to victims and survivors
In 2003, Russian citizens were asked, “What role did Stalin play in the history of our country?”
Positive 53%Surely Negative 33%Difficult to say 14%
Themes
Identity
Power
Reconciliation
Why should we care?
“I wrote my book about the Gulag not ‘so that it will not happen again,’ as the cliche has it, but because it probably will happen again. We need to know why--and each story, each memoir, each document is a piece of the puzzle. Without them, we will wake up one day and realize that we do not know who we are.”
~Anne Applebaum