GULAGGULAG

Leonore Heino HoytLeonore Heino HoytCentennial High SchoolCentennial High School

The Gulag System was first The Gulag System was first implemented by Lenin in 1918 to implemented by Lenin in 1918 to house “enemies of the people” and house “enemies of the people” and contain counter-revolutionaries.contain counter-revolutionaries.

In 1929, Stalin expanded the Gulag In 1929, Stalin expanded the Gulag System in order to help implement System in order to help implement his first 5 year plan.his first 5 year plan.

A mining camp

A guard tower

The term “GULAG” is an acronym used The term “GULAG” is an acronym used to describe 476 camp systems, each to describe 476 camp systems, each made up of hundreds or thousands ofmade up of hundreds or thousands of

individual camps, or lagpunkts.individual camps, or lagpunkts.

Some of these systems were spread out Some of these systems were spread out over thousands of miles of frozen over thousands of miles of frozen tundra.tundra.

Laborers

The first Five Year Plan was an extraordinarily costly attempt, in human lives and natural resources, to force a 20 percent annual increase in the Soviet Union's industrial output and to collectivize agriculture.

The plan led to millions of arrests as peasants were forced off their land and imprisoned if they refused to leave. It also led to an enormous labor shortage.

Suddenly, the Soviet Union found itself in need of coal, gas, and minerals, most of which could be found only in the far north of the country.

The decision was taken: The prisoners should be used to extract the minerals. Here is how Alexei Loginov, former deputy commander of the Norilsk camps, north of the Arctic Circle, justified the use of prisoner labor in a 1992 interview:

“If we had sent civilians, we would first have had to build houses for them to live in. And how could civilians live there? With prisoners it is easy--all you need is a barrack, a stove with a chimney, and they survive.”

But, did they survive?

Between 1929, when the camps first became a mass phenomenon, and 1953, the year of Stalin's death, some 18 million people passed through them.

In addition, a further 6 or 7 million people were deported, not to camps but to exile villages.

In total, that means the number of people with some experience of imprisonment in Stalin's Soviet Union could have run as high as 25 million, about 15 percent of the population.

The camps were not constructed in order to kill people--Stalin preferred to use firing squads to conduct mass executions.

The vast majority of prisoners were peasants and workers, not intellectuals who later wrote memoirs and books.

The camps were fluid, prisoners died, were transferred, released, or even at times were promoted to guards.

A person could be sent to the GULAG A person could be sent to the GULAG for various crimes ranging from for various crimes ranging from political activities, to petty theft.political activities, to petty theft.

Remember, the purpose of the Remember, the purpose of the GULAG system was to build the great GULAG system was to build the great Soviet State under Stalin’s Five Year Soviet State under Stalin’s Five Year Plans.Plans.

Prisoners not only extracted precious Prisoners not only extracted precious materials from Siberian soil, they materials from Siberian soil, they also built factories, railroads, roads, also built factories, railroads, roads, canals, even whole cities.canals, even whole cities.

The White Sea CanalBuilt entirely by GulagPrisoners.

Many of these cities still exist and Many of these cities still exist and are located in cold, inhospitable are located in cold, inhospitable regions.regions.

The government has to spend a The government has to spend a great deal of money to maintain great deal of money to maintain these cities of the GULAG legacy.these cities of the GULAG legacy.

One of the GULAG cities that still exists today is Vorkuta.

Millions of prisoners passed through Vorkuta, one of the two or three most notorious hubs of the Gulag.

With the help of prisoners, the Soviet authorities built a city with shops and schools and later swimming pools. Yet the cost of heating shoddy Soviet apartment blocks for 11 months of the year was astronomical, far more than the value of the coal itself.

The city's infrastructure, built on constantly shifting permafrost, required huge efforts to maintain. Miners could, instead, have been flown in and out on two-week shifts, as they are in Canada or Alaska.

Nevertheless, Vorkuta, now a city of 200,000 people, kept going throughout the 1970s and 1980s and still exists today.

The truth, of course, is that Vorkuta was and still is completely unnecessary. Why build kindergartens and university lecture halls in the tundra? Why build puppet theatres? Vorkuta has three.

Yet in Vorkuta, you cannot ask such questions, even now.

We are going to explore this situation We are going to explore this situation in greater detail.in greater detail.

Russia is currently undergoing a Russia is currently undergoing a population crisis.population crisis.

You will help solve the problem.You will help solve the problem.

Sources:Sources:– Applebaum, Anne. 2004. Applebaum, Anne. 2004. Gulag, A Gulag, A

HistoryHistory..

Bantam. New York.Bantam. New York.

-Hill, Fiona & Gaddy, Clifford. 2003. -Hill, Fiona & Gaddy, Clifford. 2003. The The Siberian Curse: How Communist Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia in the Cold. Planners Left Russia in the Cold. Brookings. Washington, D.C.Brookings. Washington, D.C.