history
The Soviet Union officially Union of Soviet Socialist Republics also known as USSR was the Russian state after the end of the Tsarist Period and the world's first single-party Marxist–Leninist state from 1922 until 1991. It was the first country to declare itself socialist and build towards a communist society.
The history of the Gulag
The creation of a system of concentration and correctional labor camps began in the Soviet Union in 1919 but “blossomed” during Stalin’s reign of terror. The word Gulag is an acronym (used from 1930) for (Glavnoye Upravleniye LAGerey), or Main Camp Administration, which was a special division of the secret police and the Soviet Ministry of the Interior overseeing the use of the physical labor of prisoners. Alongside criminals and recidivists, the majority of Gulag prisoners were completely innocent people locked up for a broad variety of political reasons – on the basis of trumped-up charges or ethnicity, or even without apparent cause.
These political prisoners suffered the most because, on top of the brutal hard labor conditions and the despotism of guards, they were terrorized by criminal prisoners. Historians estimate the total number of Gulag prisoners at 20 million, of whom about 2 million did not survive their incarceration. The victims of the Soviet Gulag were not only from the nations of the USSR but were also citizens of other countries – Czechoslovaks, Poles, Hungarians, Frenchmen, Americans, and others.
The vast network of camps dotted around the entire territory of the USSR consisted of almost 500 camp administrations running dozens or even hundreds of individual camps (estimates of the total number are as high as 30,000). The prisoners’ slave labour was used in timber production and mining and on gigantic construction projects (the White Sea Canal, dams, motorways, and railways). After Stalin’s death in 1953, the number of prisoners declined considerably and the Gulag was officially done away with in 1960. Nevertheless, a number of labour colonies continued to exist and were used to inter political prisoners and Soviet dissidents, though not in such atrocious conditions or numbers as under Stalin.
The first group of prisoners at Gulag camps included common criminals and prosperous peasants, known as kulaks. Many kulaks were arrested when they revolted against collectivization, a policy enforced by the Soviet government that demanded peasant farmers give up their individual farms and join collective farming.
When Stalin launched his purges, a wide variety of laborers, known as “political prisoners,” were transported to Gulag camps. Opposing members of the Communist Party, military officers and government officials were among the first targeted. Later, educated people and ordinary citizens—doctors, writers, intellects, students, artists and scientists—were sent into the Gulag system.
Anyone who had ties to disloyal anti-Stalinists could be imprisoned.
Even women and children endured the harsh conditions of the camps. Many women faced the threat of rape or assault by male prisoners or guards.
Without notice, some victims were randomly picked up by Stalin’s security police (the NKVD) and hauled to the prisons with no trial or rights to an attorney. all of the prisoners portrayed in gulag girls were arrested under Article 58: Citizens of the USSR have the right to lodge a complaint against the actions of officials, state bodies and public bodies. Complaints shall be examined according to the procedure and within the time-limit established by law.
Gulag living conditions were cold, overcrowded and unsanitary. Violence was common among the camp inmates, who were made up of both hardened criminals and political prisoners. In desperation, some stole food and other supplies from each other.
Many workers died from exhaustion, while others were physically assaulted or shot by camp guards. Historians estimate that at least 10 percent of the total Gulag prison population was killed each year.