The first forced labor camp in the gulag system. From “labor schools” to the camp-industrial complex. Devaluation of prisoners' lives

"On forced labor camps", which marked the beginning of the creation of the GULAG - the Main Directorate of Forced Labor Camps. In documents of 1919-1920, the basic idea of camp content was formulated - work “to isolate harmful, undesirable elements and introduce them to conscious labor through coercion and re-education.”

In 1934, the Gulag became part of the united NKVD, reporting directly to the head of this department.
As of March 1, 1940, the Gulag system included 53 ITL (including camps engaged in railway construction), 425 correctional labor colonies (ITC), as well as prisons, 50 colonies for minors, 90 “baby homes”.

In 1943, convict departments were organized at the Vorkuta and North-Eastern camps with the establishment of the strictest isolation regime: convicts worked extended working hours and were used for heavy underground work in coal mines, tin and gold mining.

Prisoners also worked on the construction of canals, roads, industrial and other facilities in the Far North, Far East and in other regions. Severe punishments were applied in the camps for the slightest violation of the regime.

Gulag prisoners, which included both criminals and persons convicted under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR “for counter-revolutionary crimes,” as well as members of their families, were required to work without pay. Sick people and prisoners declared unfit for work did not work. Teenagers aged 12 to 18 years were sent to juvenile colonies. The children of imprisoned women were housed in “baby houses.”

The total number of guards in the Gulag camps and colonies in 1954 was over 148 thousand people.

Having emerged as a tool and place for isolating counter-revolutionary and criminal elements in the interests of protecting and strengthening the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” the Gulag, thanks to the system of “correction by forced labor,” quickly turned into a virtually independent branch of the national economy. Provided with cheap labor, this “industry” effectively solved the problems of industrialization of the eastern and northern regions.

Between 1937 and 1950, about 8.8 million people were in the camps. Persons convicted “for counter-revolutionary activities” in 1953 made up 26.9% of the total number of prisoners. In total, for political reasons during the years of Stalinist repression, 3.4-3.7 million people passed through camps, colonies and prisons.

By a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated March 25, 1953, the construction of a number of large facilities carried out with the participation of prisoners was stopped, as not caused by “urgent needs of the national economy.” The list of liquidated construction projects included the Main Turkmen Canal and railways in the north Western Siberia, on the Kola Peninsula, a tunnel under the Tatar Strait, artificial liquid fuel factories, etc. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 27, 1953 on amnesty, about 1.2 million prisoners were released from the camps.

The resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated October 25, 1956 recognized “the continued existence of forced labor camps of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs as inappropriate as they do not ensure the fulfillment of the most important state task - the re-education of prisoners in labor.” The Gulag system existed for several more years and was abolished by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on January 13, 1960.

After the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book “The Gulag Archipelago” (1973), where the writer showed a system of mass repression and arbitrariness, the term “GULAG” became synonymous with the camps and prisons of the NKVD and the totalitarian regime as a whole.
In 2001, the State University was founded in Moscow on Petrovka Street.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources.

Gulag (Main Directorate of forced labor camps, labor settlements and places of detention) in the USSR in 1934-56. a division of the NKVD (MVD) that managed the system of forced labor camps (ITL). Special departments of the Gulag united many ITL in different regions of the country: Karaganda ITL (Karlag), Dalstroy NKVD / Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Solovetsky ITL (USLON), White Sea-Baltic ITL and the NKVD plant, Vorkuta ITL, Norilsk ITL, etc.

In these camps there were the most difficult conditions, basic human rights were not respected, and severe punishments were applied for the slightest violation of the regime. Prisoners worked for free on the construction of canals, roads, industrial and other facilities in the Far North, Far East and other regions. The mortality rate from hunger, disease and backbreaking labor. After the publication of the book by A.I. Solzhenitsyn's "GULAG Archipelago" in 1973, where he showed the system of mass repression and arbitrariness in the Soviet state, the term "GULAG" became synonymous with the camps and prisons of the NKVD, the totalitarian regime as a whole.

In scientific and scientific-journalistic literature, a wide range of opinions has emerged, both about the very nature of the Gulag, and about its place and role in the Soviet state system. The inconsistency of assessments and judgments on the Gulag problem was determined, first of all, by the narrowness and insufficient source base, which consisted mainly of memories of participants in the events and eyewitness accounts, as well as official Soviet materials. Studying the Gulag at a qualitatively new level became possible only at the turn of the 1980s and 90s, when researchers gained access to the necessary archival materials.

All of the above justifies the actual chosen topic.

The purpose of the work is to study and briefly analyze the GULAG: its creation, scale and role.

The work consists of an introduction, 2 chapters, a conclusion and a list of references. The total volume of work is ___ pages.

1. Creation of the Gulag

1.1 Decree “On forced labor camps”

On April 15, 1919, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee signed by Chairman M.I. Kalinin issued a decree “On forced labor camps.” This decree legalized two provisions that accompanied the 18-month existence of the Soviet Republic, namely the establishment of the camp system and the establishment of forced labor.

How widely these provisions were implemented is evident from the fact that the decree provided for the organization of forced labor camps “at the Branches of the Administration of the Provincial Executive Committees,” i.e. This obligated all provincial committees to create camps. The organization and management of the camps was entrusted to Gubchek (Provincial Extraordinary Commissions); camps in the districts were opened with the permission of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

Already in this first decree on the camps it was stipulated that escaping from them “is subject to the most severe punishments.” But the text of the decree of April 15, 1919, apparently, turned out to be insufficient, and on May 17, 1919, signed by the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee V. Avanesov, a new expanded decree “On forced labor camps” was published, developed in great detail and has the following sections:

a) organization of camps and management of camps,

c) guard team,

d) sanitary and medical supervision,

e) about prisoners,

e) premises.

It should be noted that for the first time escaping, the term of imprisonment was increased tenfold, and for the second time the Revolutionary Tribunal had the right to use execution. This decree laid down all the basic provisions of forced labor, which became an integral element of the state life of the Soviet Union and gradually transformed into the current system of slave labor.

Basics of correctional labor policy were included in the new party program at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b) (March 1919). The complete organizational design of the camp network according to Soviet Russia strictly coincided with the first communist subbotniks (April 12 - May 17, 1919): decisions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on forced labor camps took place on April 15 and May 17, 1919. According to them, forced labor camps were created (through the efforts of the GubChK) in every provincial city (if convenient - within the city, or in a monastery or in a nearby estate) and in some counties (not yet in all). The camps were supposed to contain at least three hundred people each (so that the labor of prisoners would pay for both the guards and the administration) and be under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Punitive Departments.

Thus, already at the very beginning of the communist revolution it was open in all provincial (97) and some county towns over 100 forced labor camps for at least 300 people each, that is, a total of 30,000 prisoners.

The exact number of camps and people imprisoned in them during a given period of communist construction is unknown. But in the early fifties, a joint commission of the UN and IVT conducted a survey large quantity people who found themselves in the West during the Second World War, and based on carefully documented testimony, she came to the following conclusion:

"... in the concentration camps of the European and Asian parts of the Soviet Union there are at least 10,000,000 prisoners; this is, however, a minimum figure, calculated with all conceivable caution of statistical rigidity. In reality, the number of prisoners reaches 15,000,000 people."

The figure of 15 million people is mentioned in many sources concerning forced labor in the USSR. Let's say Dr. Von Metnitz says: “Today we know for sure that in some years in the Soviet concentration camps there were up to 15 million prisoners."

But this figure is, of course, arbitrary; it is possible that it is unwittingly exaggerated. Out of caution, we should count not 15, but 10 million prisoners. However, 10 million is a colossal value, exceeding the population of many European countries. (Say, in 1960 the entire population of Austria was 7.0 million people, Belgium - 9.1, Greece - 8.3, Denmark - 4.5, Norway - 3.6, Sweden - 7.5).

Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets on the creation of forced labor camps.

1) Forced labor camps are established under the Management Departments of the Provincial Executive Committees:

A. The initial organization and management of forced labor camps is entrusted to the Provincial Extraordinary Commissions, which transfer them to the Departments of the Administration upon notification from the center.

b. Forced labor camps in counties are opened with the permission of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

2) Those persons and categories of persons in relation to whom decisions have been made by the Departments of Administration, Extraordinary Commissions, Revolutionary Tribunals, People's Courts and other Soviet Bodies, who have been granted this right by decrees and orders, are subject to imprisonment in forced labor camps.

3) All prisoners in the camps are immediately involved in work at the request of Soviet Institutions.

4) Those who escaped from camps or from work are subject to the most severe punishments.

5) To manage all forced labor camps throughout the entire territory of the RSFSR, a Central Camp Administration is established under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, in agreement with the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission.

6) The heads of forced labor camps are elected by local Provincial Executive Committees and approved by the Central Administration of the camps.

7) Loans for equipment and maintenance of camps are issued by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs on an estimated basis through the Provincial Executive Committee.

8) Medical and sanitary supervision of the camps is entrusted to the local Health Departments.

9) Detailed provisions and instructions are proposed to be developed by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs within 2 weeks from the date of publication of this resolution.

1.2 Organizational structure of the Gulag

From the very beginning of existence Soviet power The management of most places of detention was entrusted to the punitive department of the People's Commissariat of Justice, formed in May 1918. The Main Directorate of Compulsory Labor under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs was partially involved in these same issues.

On July 25, 1922, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution to concentrate the management of the main places of detention (except for general prisons) in one department and a little later, in October of the same year, a single body was created in the NKVD system - the Main Directorate of Places of Detention.

In subsequent decades, the structure of government bodies in charge of places of deprivation of liberty changed repeatedly, although fundamental changes did not occur.

On April 24, 1930, by order of the United State Political Administration (OGPU) under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Administration of Camps was formed. The first mention of the GULAG itself (the Main Directorate of OGPU camps) can be found in the OGPU order of February 15, 1931.

On June 10, 1934, according to the Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, during the formation of the new Union-Republican NKVD, the Main Directorate of Forced Labor Camps and Labor Settlements was formed within its composition. In October of the same year, this department was renamed the Main Directorate of Camps, Labor Settlements and Places of Detention.

Subsequently, this department was renamed twice more and in February 1941 received the name Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies of the NKVD of the USSR. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, in connection with the reorganization of the People's Commissariats into ministries, the Main Directorate of Forced Labor Camps and Colonies in March 1946 became part of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The next organizational change in the penitentiary system in the USSR was the creation in October 1956 of the Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Colonies, which in March 1959 was renamed the Main Directorate of Prisons.

The departmental affiliation of the Gulag changed only once after 1934 - in March 1953 the Gulag was transferred to the jurisdiction of the USSR Ministry of Justice, but in January 1954 it was again returned to the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

After October 1917 and until 1934. general prisons were administered by the Republican People's Commissariats of Justice and were part of the system of the Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Institutions. In 1934, general prisons were transferred to the Gulag of the NKVD of the USSR, and in September 1938, an independent Main Prison Directorate was formed within the NKVD.

When the NKVD was divided into two independent people's commissariats - the NKVD and the NKGB - this department was renamed the NKVD Prison Department. In 1954, by decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Prison Department was transformed into the Prison Department of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In March 1959, the Prison Department was reorganized and included in the system of the Main Directorate of Prisons of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The most difficult conditions were established in the camps, basic human rights were not respected, and severe punishments were applied for the slightest violation of the regime. Prisoners worked for free on the construction of canals, roads, industrial and other facilities in the Far North, Far East and other regions. Mortality from hunger, disease and overwork was extremely high.

2. The scale of the GULAG

Since perestroika, the question has constantly arisen about the real number of those repressed during the years of the existence of the Gulag. According to available data, more than forty domestic and foreign authors have studied and are studying the problems of the criminal legal policy of the USSR in the 1920-1950s of the last century.

Book by A.I. Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago", which, despite the fact that it was first published in the West in 1973, was very widely distributed in samizdat. The first volume of "Archipelago" contained a detailed study of everything that preceded the appearance of millions of Soviet people in Stalin's concentration camps: the system of arrests and various types imprisonment, torture investigations, judicial and extrajudicial reprisals, stages and transfers. In the second volume of his book, A. Solzhenitsyn examines the main and fundamental part of the Gulag empire - the “extermination labor camps.” Nothing here escapes the attention of the author. The history of the camps, the economy of forced labor, the management structure, categories of prisoners and the daily life of camp inmates, the situation of women and children, the relationship between ordinary prisoners and “morons”, criminal and political, security, convoy, information service, recruitment of informers, the punishment system and " incentives, work of hospitals and first aid stations, various shapes killings, murders and the simple procedure of burying prisoners - all this is reflected in Solzhenitsyn’s book. The author describes various types of hard labor for prisoners, their starvation rations, he studies not only the camp, but also the immediate surrounding world, the peculiarities of the psychology and behavior of prisoners and their jailers (in Solzhenitsyn’s terminology, “camp workers”). This meticulous artistic research is based on reliable facts.

In the book of Russian politician, former Gulag prisoner I.L. Solonevich “Russia in the concentration camp” noted: “I do not think that the total number of all prisoners in these camps was less than five million people. Probably a little more. But, of course, there can be no talk of any accuracy of calculation."

The American historian and Sovietologist R. Conquest in his book “The Great Terror” cites even more impressive figures: by the end of 1939, the number of prisoners in prisons and camps increased to 9 million people (compared to 5 million in 1933-1935).

Famous publicist A.V. Antonov-Ovseenko (son of the executed Soviet military leader V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko) believes that from January 1935 to June 1941 almost 20 million people were repressed, of which 7 million were shot.

Solzhenitsyn also uses figures of several tens of millions of repressed people, and R.A. adheres to a similar position. Medvedev: “In 1937-1938, according to my calculations, from 5 to 7 million people were repressed: about a million party members and about a million former party members, as a result of party purges of the late 1920s and the first half of the 1930s; the rest "3-5 million people were non-party people, belonging to all segments of the population. Most of those arrested in 1937-1938 ended up in forced labor camps, a dense network of which covered the entire country."

Based on authentic archival documents stored in leading Russian archives, primarily in the State Archive Russian Federation(formerly TsGAOR USSR) and the Russian Center for Socio-Political History (formerly TsPA IML) it can be concluded with a reasonable degree of certainty that between 1930 and 1953, 6.5 million people were in forced labor colonies, of which about 1 was for political reasons. 3 million, through forced labor camps for 1937-1950. About two million people were convicted of political charges.

Objective data about prisoners in the Gulag in 1943-1953.

During 1946, 228.0 thousand repatriates were checked in screening and filtration camps.

Of these, by January 1, 1947, 199.1 thousand were transferred to a special settlement, transferred to industrial cadres (in “work battalions”) and sent to their place of residence. The rest continued to be subject to inspection.

Total number of prisoners in NKVD camps (annual average):

1945 - 697258; 1946 - 700712; 1947 - 1048127.

1945 - 5698; 1946 - 2197; 1947 - 1014.

Special settlers 1953 - 2,753,356, of which 1,224,931 were Germans, including those evicted by government decision - 855,674; mobilized - 48582; repatriated - 208388; local - 111324.

Evicted from the North Caucasus in 1943-1944. - 498452, incl.

Ingush - 83518; Chechens - 316,717; Karachais - 63327; Balkars - 33214; others - 1676.

Those evicted from Crimea in 1944 - 204,698, incl.

Crimean Tatars - 165259; Greeks - 14760; Bulgarians - 12465; Armenians - 8570; others - 3644.

Evicted from the Baltic states in 1945-1946. - 139957.

Those evicted from Georgia in 1944 - 86,663, incl.

Meskhetian Turks - 46,790; Kurds - 8843; Hemshils - 1397.

Evicted in 1943-1944: Kalmyks - 81,475.

Evicted in 1949 from the Black Sea coast - 57,142, incl.

Greeks - 37353; "Dashnaks" - 15486; Meskhetian Turks - 1794; others - 2510.

Those evicted from the Moldavian SSR in 1949 - 35,838.

The eviction of OUN members along with their families took place during 1944-1952. - 175063; Vlasovites - 56746.

As a result, 27,275 were evicted in 1948;

in 1951 - 591.

Kulaks evicted from the Lithuanian SSR in 1951 - 18,104.

Evicted from Georgia in 1951-1952. - 11685.

Jehovah's Witnesses evicted in 1951 - 9,363 (from the Baltic states, Moldova, western regions of Ukraine and Belarus).

Iranians evicted from Georgia to Kazakhstan in 1950 - 4,707.

Kulak families evicted from the BSSR in 1952 - 4431.

Former Basmachi evicted from the Tajik SSR to the Kazakh SSR in 1950 - 2747.

Families of kulaks evicted from the western regions of Ukraine in 1951 - 1445.

Evicted from the Pskov region in 1950 as members of families of bandits, bandits, etc. - 1356.

Former soldiers of the Polish army of Anders, evicted in 1951 along with their families, arrived in the late 40s. for repatriation to the USSR from England - 4520.

Kulaks from the Izmail region evicted in 1948 - 1157.

exiled settlers - 52468;

exiles - 7833;

expelled - 6119.

In 1953, the number of people convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes in camps and prisons was 474,950 people;

Thus, based on the given archival data of the OGPU-NKVD-MVD of the USSR, we can draw an intermediate, but apparently very reliable conclusion: during the years of Stalinism, 3.4-3.7 million people were sent to camps and colonies for political reasons. .

It is known that the archives do not contain ready-made statistical data (or they were destroyed). However, according to various estimates, for the period from 1930 to 1953. about 52 million people were convicted, of whom about 20 million went through the camps. The scale of the victims is not diminished even by the caveat that these figures include those convicted for the second time. A huge number of people were shot - about 1 million people, excluding those who died from torture or committed suicide. At least 6 million people have clicked through the links.

Such numbers make anyone think...

An important aspect of the history of the Gulag is its “economic” side. If in the pre-war years the Gulag contingent was an important means of solving economic problems: the outbreak of war, interrupting the implementation of the “socialist construction program”, subordinated all its activities to the interests of the armed struggle, then in the post-war years Gulag prisoners were used as free labor to raise the destroyed industry, cities and village Given the significant replenishment of the camps, due to repatriated prisoners of war, a huge army of prisoners appeared.

Camp labor contingents were used at that time in all sectors of the national economy, and especially where there was a chronic shortage of hired labor. For example, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, when the Allies began transporting their Lend-Lease caravans along the Northern Sea Route, Nordvikstroy was formed, where some of the prisoners from Norillag were transferred. Nordvikstroy is a major labor front facility, which flourished in 1944. At this time, the Allies bunkered ships here with local coal going with Lend-Lease cargo to Murmansk. Miners cut coal for steamships in Nordvik. Ice-damaged ships were repaired here northern seas, fresh water supplies were replenished. Nordvika had its own salt mine, and at that time salt was worth its weight in gold or even ammunition. Allied ships also stood in Nordvik Bay in anticipation of normal ice conditions in the Velkitsky Strait.

At the Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant, the number of prisoners working at the Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant increased every year, as the plant was developing rapidly at that time. And if in 1941 20.5 thousand prisoners worked there, then in 1943 their number approached 31 thousand, and already in 1944 it amounted to almost 35 thousand. Moreover, in Norillag the scope of use of prisoner labor gradually expanded. For example, in 1941, they built 175 km of railway tracks. Thanks to all this, already in 1941 the plant produced 48 thousand tons of ore and cut 324 thousand tons of coal (compared to 228 thousand tons in 1940). The production and processing of platinoids in Norilsk made it possible to repay the USSR's debt to the allies for deliveries under Lend-Lease.

However, of particular interest is the use of prison labor in the defense industry. And this is just perfectly shown in the monograph of the historian V.N. Shevchenko, who for the first time gained access to archival documents of the Gulag system.

In total, over 60 thousand people were transferred to the defense industry enterprises of the region during the war years, of which 3.5 thousand were in the coal industry; 7.2 thousand worked in the ammunition and weapons industry; in non-ferrous metallurgy - 9.2 thousand people.

After prisoners were assigned to industrial enterprises, they were covered by the food supply system used by civilian workers. This made it possible not only to save the lives of many prisoners, but also to make their contribution to the overall victory of the people real.

Another feature of the Gulag system Shevchenko notes is the following: from the beginning of the war, by orders of the NKVD, certain categories of prisoners were released with the transfer of persons of military age to the Red Army. Some of the prisoners released from custody remained in the camps as civilian workers without the right to leave the work areas until the end of the war. Only completely disabled people, old people and women with children were released - as the most reliable reserve of labor. Former prisoners, for the most part, sought to consolidate the freedom granted to them, because any violation by them of production regimes or self-care from the enterprise could cost them their lives.

Another traditional idea that various types of enterprises in the country needed labor, which the Gulag provided, does not correspond to reality. The connection was just the opposite. The NKVD simply did not know what to do with the incredibly increased number of prisoners, whom they were therefore trying to use in accordance with the tasks of the socialist economy. This explains the mind-boggling number of citizens shot in the prime of their lives and many of the notorious voluntaristic decisions of the party leadership in the field of the national economy (the Dead Road is just one example of many similar ones).

Gradually, with the abandonment of manual labor in favor of machine labor, the Gulag turned out to be unprofitable, because complex and expensive machines, machines, etc. were entrusted. the state could not prisoners. Therefore, in 1956, the Gulag “ceased to exist”... but the camps and prisoners remained, and the government still continued to exploit the forced labor of prisoners.

A special place is occupied by the question of the role of the Gulag.

On the one hand, these are the broken destinies of people, thousands killed and perished from cold, hunger, backbreaking hellish labor in harmful conditions, a kind of nursery for maintaining talents involved in many areas of activity.

On the other hand, the growth of economic and industrial development of the country, the creation of huge industrial enterprises, cities and towns, railways and seaports.

Conclusion

The Main Directorate of the Camps (abbreviated as GULAG) was a typical state-bureaucratic institution in form. It was important integral part Soviet penitentiary system. During the thirty-year period (from 1930 to 1960) of the existence of this head office, its departmental affiliation and full name changed several times. IN different years The Gulag was under the jurisdiction of the OPTU of the USSR, the NKVD of the USSR, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and the Ministry of Justice of the USSR.

The Gulag was actively included in the implementation of projects to restore the national economy and projects related to the development of the country's defense complex. Forced labor became an important element in the mechanism for the Soviet state to build up its military-industrial potential.

To summarize, we note that the creation of an entire system of correctional institutions-camps was one of the most cruel mistakes of Stalinism. It is difficult to accurately define their purpose: to present it as an improvement in the prison system is cynical; as an “innovative” form of punishment - historically ignorant; as an “ideal” system of intimidation, intimidation and maintenance of the cult of Stalin - most likely, at the same time, the Gulag was an inexhaustible source of free labor, as the height of impunity...

List of used literature

1. Balova M.B. The role of the Gulag in the implementation of the strategy of forced industrialization and in the economic development of the European North of Russia in the 30s / M.B. Balova // Russian Journal. June 3, 2005. [ Electronic resource]. Access mode: www.russ.ru/ publishers/20050603.html

2. Dmitrienko V.P. The history of homeland. XX century: A manual for students / V.P. Dmitrienko, V.D. Esakov, V.A. Shestakov. - M., 1999

3. Konovalov L.A. In the Gulag jungle / L.A. Konovalov // Historical and archival almanac. - Novosibirsk, 1997. - No. 3.

4. Solzhenitsyn A.I. GULAG Archipelago: In 6 volumes / A.I. Solzhenitsyn. - M., 1991.

5. Chekmasov A. Number of executed citizens / A. Chekmasov // Russian Journal. June 3, 2005. [Electronic resource]. Access mode: www.russ.ru/ publishers/20050603.html

6. Shakhmatova G.A. V Historical readings: Sat. scientific and practical materials conf. / G. Shakhmatova, S. Gaidin. - Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyar. state University, 2005.

Solzhenitsyn A.I. The GULAG Archipelago: In 6 volumes - M: Inkom NV, 1991.

Kurganov I. A. Women and communism. - New York, 1968.

Signed by: Chairman of the All-Russian Central Committee M. KALININ, Secretary L. Serebryakov. Published in No. 81 of the News of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets dated April 15, 1919.

Konovalov L.A. In the Gulag jungle // Historical and archival almanac. - Novosibirsk, 1997. - No. 3. – P.65.

In fact, GULAG is an acronym consisting of the initial letters of the Soviet institution"Main Directorate of Camps and Prisons". This organization was engaged in maintaining and providing everything necessary for people who once violated Soviet law and suffered severe punishment for this.

Prison camps in Soviet Russia began to be created with 1919 years. They contained those convicted of criminal and political crimes. This institution was directly subordinate to Cheka and was located mostly in the Arkhangelsk region and with 1921 year was called "Northern Special Purpose Camps",abbreviation" Elephant". With the growth of the fifth column (which was actively fueled from abroad, just as in our time), a number of measures were taken in the young Soviet Republic as a result of which it was created in 1930 year "The Main Directorate of Forced Labor Camps". Throughout its relatively short existence in 26 served their sentences in these camps for years 8 million people. A huge number of whom were imprisoned on political charges (although most of them were imprisoned for business).
If we compare the most terrible Stalinist times and modern American democracy, it turns out that there are many more people in American prisons than in the most severe years of repression.However, for some reason no one cares about this.

Prisoners of forced labor camps received Active participation in the construction of bridges, mines, canals, roads, huge industrial enterprises and even entire cities.

The most famous construction projects in which prisoners took part:

Nakhodka city

Vorkuta city

City of Komsomolsk-on-Amur

Tsimlyanskaya HPP

Tunnel to Sakhalin Island (not completed)

Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works

Volga-Don Canal

White Sea-Baltic Canal

Dzhezkazgan city

Ukhta city

Sovetskaya Gavan city

Zhigulevskaya HPP

Volzhskaya HPP (deciphering Hydroelectric power station)

Railway tracks in the north of the USSR

Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant

Moscow Canal

The largest GULAG assemblies

Ukhtizhemlag

Ustvymlag

Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON)

Sevzheldorlag

SVITL

Prorvlag

Perm camps (Usollag, Visheralag, Cherdynlag, Nyroblag, etc.), Pechorlag

Norilsklag (Norilsk ITL)

Kraslag

Kisellag

Intalag

Dmitrovlag (Volgolag)

Dzhezkazganlag

Vyatlag

Belbaltlag

Berlag

Bamlag

ALGERIA (transcript: Akmola camp for wives of traitors to the Motherland)

Khabarlag

Ukhtpechlag

Taezlag

Siblag

Svirlag

Peczheldorlag

Ozerlag

Lokchimlag

Kotlas ITL

Karaganda ITL (Karlag)

Dubravlag

Dzhugjurlag

Dallag

Vorkutlag (Vorkuta ITL)

Bezymyanlag

If you look at Wikipedia, you can read interesting facts there. For example, in the Gulag there was 2000 special commandant's office, 425 colonies 429 camps. Most prisoners were in 1950 year, then he was detained there 2 million 561 thousand people (for comparison in USA V 2011 were in prison for a year 2 million 261 thousand Human). The saddest year GULAG was 1941 when people died in places not so distant 352 thousands of people, which was essentially about a quarter of all convicts. For the first time, the number of prisoners in the Gulag exceeded a million people in 1939 year, which means that in a “terrible” 1937 less than a million people were imprisoned in the year, for comparison, you can take another look at the figures on the number of prisoners in the “Empire of Good” for 2011 year and be a little surprised, and also start asking liberals questions that are uncomfortable for them. The camp system included institutions for minors, where juvenile delinquents could be sent starting from 12 years.

IN 1956 year GULAG was renamed " Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Colonies", and after a short time in 1959 year was once again renamed " Main Directorate of Prisons".

Documentary film about the Gulag

Introduction

1. Creation of the Gulag

2. The scale of the GULAG

Conclusion

Introduction

In these camps there were the most difficult conditions, basic human rights were not respected, and severe punishments were applied for the slightest violation of the regime. Prisoners worked for free on the construction of canals, roads, industrial and other facilities in the Far North, Far East and other regions. Mortality from hunger, disease and overwork was extremely high. After the publication of the book by A.I. Solzhenitsyn's "GULAG Archipelago" in 1973, where he showed the system of mass repression and arbitrariness in the Soviet state, the term "GULAG" became synonymous with the camps and prisons of the NKVD, the totalitarian regime as a whole.

All of the above justifies the actual chosen topic.

The purpose of the work is to study and briefly analyze the GULAG: its creation, scale and role.

The work consists of an introduction, 2 chapters, a conclusion and a list of references. The total volume of work is ___ pages.

1. Creation of the Gulag

1.1 Decree “On forced labor camps”

a) organization of camps and management of camps,

c) guard team,

d) sanitary and medical supervision,

e) about prisoners,

e) premises.

The fundamentals of corrective labor policy were included in the new party program at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b) (March 1919). The full organizational development of the camp network in Soviet Russia strictly coincided with the first communist subbotniks (April 12 - May 17, 1919): decisions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on forced labor camps took place on April 15 and May 17, 1919. According to them, forced labor camps were created (through the efforts of the GubChK) in every provincial city (if convenient - within the city, or in a monastery or in a nearby estate) and in some counties (not yet in all). The camps were supposed to contain at least three hundred people each (so that the labor of prisoners would pay for both the guards and the administration) and be under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Punitive Departments.

Thus, already at the very beginning of the communist revolution, more than 100 forced labor camps were opened in all provincial (97) and some district cities for at least 300 people each, that is, for a total of 30,000 prisoners.

The exact number of camps and people imprisoned in them during a given period of communist construction is unknown. But in the early fifties, a joint commission of the UN and IVT interviewed a large number of people who found themselves in the West during the Second World War, and, based on carefully documented testimony, came to the following conclusion:

The figure of 15 million people is mentioned in many sources concerning forced labor in the USSR. Let's say Dr. von Metnitz says: "Today we know for sure that in some years there were up to 15 million prisoners in Soviet concentration camps."