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During the period of July 1929 - January 1, 1934, the
number of prisoners incarcerated in labor camps increased 23 fold [Sistema
ispravitel’no-trudovyjkh lagerei v SSSR. 1923-1960, p.35]
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Letter from Ordzhonikidze to Stalin, March 20, 1936 [Revelations from the Russian Archives, p.162 ]
Realm
of camp life: a prisoner’s workbook, 1952. The book belonged to Kaia, Lev
Isaakovich, managing engineer from the carbide plant in Grozny, arrested in
1942 (Article58), accused of anti-revolutionary sabotage and collaboration
with the German secret service. Sentenced to 10 years. Rehabilitated in
1957. |
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Belomor-Kanal White Sea – Baltic Sea Canal was one of the first "great construction projects of Communism", which relied exclusively on the labour of prisoners.
At Stalin's instructions work should be fast and inexpensive. Over 100,000 prisoners equipped with pick-axes, wheelbarrows and hatchets - dug a 227-kilometre long canal linking the Baltic and the White Sea in 20 months between 1931 and 1933. Tens of thousands died in the process. Sailing on the steamship Anokhin for the inauguration of the canal, Stalin concluded to his disappointment that the canal was too narrow and not deep enough for his liking and ordered a bigger one to be built. The blueprints were ready by 1936 but the project was never implemented. Ice-bound for half the year and too small for maritime vessels, the White Sea Canal never served any significant economic or strategic function. |
Photo by Tomasz Kizny |
Published in 1934, destroyed in 1937, reprinted in 1998, this book was
ordered by the OGPU to praise the success of "corrective labor" practices
during the construction of the Canal. It was edited by Maxim Gorky and
written by well-known soviet writers ot the time. The book constitutes
stories written after multiple field trips, written at the time, when
construction was under way. It is symbolic, that many of the heroes of the
book and its authors alike did not survive the purges of 1937-1938. |
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