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Главное Управление Лагерей The Gulags

Christopher TarassoffApril 2004

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GULAGSGlavnoye Upravleniye

LAGerejMain Adminisitration of

CampsMain 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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Introduction of the Soviet Gulag:

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 20th 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

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

At the same time, the events transpiring at

The camps were hidden from the public

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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

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

“Industrial miracles" of the Bolsheviks all around Russia

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It is estimated that around 10 million perished in Soviet gulags between 1930 and 1950.