The Impact of Soviet Labor Camps on the Society: A Terrifying Story of the Gulag.

Gulag can be defined as ‘State Camp

Administrative.’

GULAG—the prison camp system that arose in the Soviet Union after 1929.

The aim of this camp was to gain control over the entire population, rather than punish criminal acts

Introduction

Difference between Nazi’s camp and

GULAG.

Nazi Camp’s Nazi camps were used

to exterminate whole groups of people.

The Nazi camps were specifically set up to erode Jewish population of Europe.

GULAG GULAG was used as a

weapon of ongoing political control over one country.

The GULAG system did not target any particular group of people: in fact all ethnic groups, nationalities and religions were imprisoned.

Joseph Stalin was born in a tiny Georgian village.

His father constantly abused him both mentally and physically, and then left the family when Stalin was twelve; he also had a deformed left arm.

He became interested in Marxism, leading him to become a member of the Bolshevik party.

It is estimated that during his reign, over 20,000,000 people died, causing him to be known as one of the bloodiest leaders in history. (Excluding GULAG)

Stalin suffered from extreme paranoia and various other mental illnesses, which some say led to his erratic activity, manipulation, and strange choices.

How did this start?JOSEPH STALIN’s RISE TO

POWER

The criminals sentenced to prison camps can be

divided into two categories:

People who committed crimes such as murder, rape, and robbery.

People who committed “crimes” so minor that they would not be punishable in other countries. Example: Unexcused absences from work, or petty theft (taking bread from a restaurant kitchen to feed one’s children.)

WHO WAS SENT TO CAMPS? WHO WAS RELEASED?

There were three main types of prison camps:

Camps where prisoners lived in crowded barracks.

Stricter camps with barred windows, locked barracks and restricted movement within the camp zone.

Unguarded camps in remote regions of the USSR, where labor was controlled but prisoners had complete freedom of movement.

DIFFERENT TYPE OF CAMPS

Wives of Prisoners:

When married men were sentenced to a labor camp the wives and children they left behind were victimized as well.

One prisoner stated, “I often thought of my wife. She was worse off than me. I was after all in the company of other outcasts whereas she was among free people among whom there might be many who would shun her…”

SOCIAL EFFECT OF CAMPS

Children of prison camps:

If both parents were sent to the prison camps, children were either adopted by family members and raised in other cities or sent to orphanages for children.

Children sometimes went to the prison camp with their parents, where they lived in special barracks for juveniles.

SOCIAL EFFECT OF CAMPS

The GULAG participated in mining, highway and

rail construction, arms and chemical factories, electricity plants, fish canning, airport construction, apartment construction and sewage systems.

The GULAG played a central role in the Soviet economy, mining one-third of all the Soviet Union’s gold, and much of its coal and timber.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY OF THE CAMPS

Stalin and his planners were obsessed with

the construction of enormous projects. Some of these projects included activities like:

Canal linking the Moscow River to the Volga River.

Railway between Lake Baikal and the Amur River.

Construction of hydroelectric dams

MAJOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

Laborers working on ‘White sea

canal’

The Soviet economy did gain from prison labor.

Example, the gold mined in Siberia exceeded expectations and helped boost the financial status of the Soviet Union.

However sufficient food, supplies and clothing

were not given to prisoners causing them to be weak and sick, and unable to work.

Upon Stalin’s death, Beria began closing camps and releasing prisoners.

CAMPS AS ECONOMIC FAILURE

Starvation

The gulag prisoners were not well fed. Their ration, was dependent upon how much work they performed.

Nikolai Yezhov, laments the conditions of these men, stating:

“Among the prisoners there are some so ragged and lice ridden that they pose a sanitary danger to the rest. These prisoners have deteriorated to the point of losing any resemblance to human beings. Lacking food they collect [garbage] and, according to some prisoners, eat rats and dogs.”

Effect of the GULAG on society

The Death Toll Records were destroyed or falsified to the point

where all we really have are the wildly varying estimates of historians.

It was estimated that 50 million people had been held in gulags.

Soviet data seems to indicate 1,053,829 people died in the gulags between 1934 and 1953.

Effect of the GULAG on society

CONCLUSION