Journey
Source: Art of the Gulag, 2014
The Camps
"Prisoners could write no letters, make no telephone calls, and make no other sort of contact with their friends or family." -Thomas Streissguth, author
At the height of the Great Terror, approximately 8 million people worked in the Gulag, government labor camps which did not exhibit desirable living or working accommodations. The prisoners were treated according to the severity of their crime, and political prisoners received the worst treatment which did not adhere to Article 123.
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"In 1938, mortality in the GULAG- overcrowded, chaotic, run by inexperienced and frightened administration-soared to 90,000 or 10% of the inmates. Even so, the camps could not keep up with the mass arrests." -Donald Rayfield, author and professor |
Work
"Article 119
Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to rest and leisure. The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of workers. The institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes and clubs for the accommodation of the working people. " Source: 1936 Constitution of the USSR, 2013
Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to rest and leisure. The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of workers. The institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes and clubs for the accommodation of the working people. " Source: 1936 Constitution of the USSR, 2013
Like Peasants
"Chapter X: Article 118
Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to work, that is, are guaranteed the right to employment and payment for their work in accordance with its quantity and quality." Source: 1936 Constitution of the U.S.S.R., 1996
Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to work, that is, are guaranteed the right to employment and payment for their work in accordance with its quantity and quality." Source: 1936 Constitution of the U.S.S.R., 1996
"The labor of those deprived of liberty who are healthy and capable of working is being used by us on certain commercial and highway tasks...This is profitable for society. This is beneficial for the culprits, for it teaches them how to work and make them useful members of society." -Molotov, a Soviet politician during the Great Terror
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Prisoners completed several government projects, but most of their salaries were withheld by the state. |
"The Soviet government and Stalin act like we are serfs. Just like before, when the peasants worked for landlords, now the Kolkosnik (worker) works until he drops- nobody knows for whom, but he does not get bread." Source: Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler- The Age of Social Catastrophe, 2007
Gulag Resources
Women
Women were often abused, and "gulag officials took babies from their mothers and placed them in special orphanages. Often these mothers were never able to find their children after leaving the camps." Source: Women in the Gulag, 2014
"The night search, the most degrading procedure, was frequently repeated. 'Get up! Get undressed! Hands up! Out into the hall! Line up against the wall.' Naked we were especially frightened. 'Among the blind, the one-eyed is king,' and next to them I was still a hero—for the time being. Our hair was undone. What were they looking for? What more could they take away from us? There was something, however: they pulled out all the ties that had been holding up the nuns' skirts and our underwear.” Source: Women in the Gulag, 2014 |
Death
"Ordinary people during this time... had very few rights. Even the right to life was threatened." - Henry Hale, professor and author, Email Interview
By Nikolai Getman. Source: Art of the Gulag, 2014
"We [the NKVD] took them [prisoners] about 12 kilometers, to a small hill.....We'd shout: 'Get out! Line up!' They'd climb out, and in front of them, there was already a pit dug for them. They'd climb out [and] huddle... We shot them, and if anyone was still moving, we would finish them off and get back into the trucks." - Grigory Niazov, NKVD executioner who worked in eastern Siberia
Attempts of Escape
By Nikolai Getman. Source: Art of the Gulag, 2014
"Letter to the Bolsheviks"
"May he be damned who, after regaining freedom, remains silent." - read a message scrawled in a camp latrine After being released from the Gulag, many former prisoners attempted to speak out about the mistreatment and foul conditions to the authorities, but they were dismissed. |