The history of the Gulag is closely intertwined with all Soviet era, but especially with its Stalinist period. The network of camps stretched across the country. They were visited by various groups of the population accused under the famous 58th article. The GULAG was not only a system of punishment, but also a layer of the Soviet economy. The prisoners carried out the most ambitious projects
The origin of the gulag
The future system of the Gulag began to take shape immediately after the Bolsheviks came to power. During the Civil War, she began to isolate her class and ideological enemies in special concentration camps. Then they did not shy away from this term, since it received a truly monstrous assessment during the atrocities of the Third Reich.
At first, the camps were run by Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin. The mass terror against the "counter-revolution" included the general arrests of the wealthy bourgeoisie, manufacturers, landowners, merchants, church leaders, etc. Soon the camps were given over to the Cheka, chaired by Felix Dzerzhinsky. They organized forced labor. It was also necessary in order to raise the ruined economy.
If in 1919 there were only 21 camps on the territory of the RSFSR, then by the end of the Civil War there were already 122. In Moscow alone, there were seven such institutions, where prisoners from all over the country were transported. In 1919 there were more than three thousand of them in the capital. This was not yet the Gulag system, but only its prototype. Even then, there was a tradition according to which all activities in the OGPU were subject only to intradepartmental acts, and not to general Soviet legislation.
The first in the GULAG system existed in an emergency mode. Civil War, led to lawlessness and violation of prisoners' rights.
Solovki
In 1919, the Cheka established several labor camps in the north of Russia, more precisely, in the Arkhangelsk province. Soon this network was named the ELEPHANT. The abbreviation stands for "Northern Special Purpose Camps". The GULAG system in the USSR appeared even in the most remote regions of a large country.
In 1923, the Cheka was transformed into the GPU. The new department distinguished itself with several initiatives. One of them was a proposal to establish a new forced camp on the Solovetsky archipelago, which was not far from those same Northern camps. Before that, there was an ancient Orthodox monastery on the islands in the White Sea. It was closed as part of the struggle against the Church and the "priests".
This is how one of the key symbols of the GULAG appeared. It was the Solovetsky special purpose camp. His project was proposed by Joseph Unshlikht, one of the then leaders of the VChK-GPU. His fate is significant. This man contributed to the development of the repressive system, of which he eventually became a victim. In 1938 he was shot at the famous Kommunarka training ground. This place was the dacha of Genrikh Yagoda, the People's Commissar of the NKVD in the 30s. He was also shot.
Solovki became one of the main camps in the Gulag of the 1920s. According to the order of the OGPU, it was supposed to contain criminal and political prisoners. A few years after the emergence of the Solovki, they expanded, they had branches on the mainland, including in the Republic of Karelia. The GULAG system was constantly expanding with new prisoners.
In 1927, 12 thousand people were kept in the Solovetsky camp. The harsh climate and unbearable conditions led to regular deaths. Over the entire existence of the camp, more than 7 thousand people have been buried in it. Moreover, about half of them died in 1933, when famine raged across the country.
Solovki were known throughout the country. They tried not to let out information about problems inside the camp. In 1929, Maxim Gorky, at that time the main Soviet writer, came to the archipelago. He wanted to check the conditions of detention in the camp. The writer's reputation was impeccable: his books were published in huge editions, he was known as a revolutionary of the old school. Therefore, many prisoners pinned the hope on him that he would publicize everything that was happening within the walls of the former monastery.
Before Gorky ended up on the island, the camp went through a total cleanup and was put in a decent look. The bullying of prisoners stopped. At the same time, the prisoners were threatened that if they let Gorky talk about their lives, they would face severe punishment. The writer, having visited Solovki, was delighted with how prisoners are being re-educated, taught to work and returned to society. However, at one of these meetings, in a children's colony, a boy approached Gorky. He told the famous guest about the bullying of the jailers: torture in the snow, overtime work, standing in the cold, etc. Gorky left the barrack in tears. When he sailed to the mainland, the boy was shot. The Gulag system brutally cracked down on any disaffected prisoners.
Stalin's gulag
In 1930, the GULAG system was finally formed under Stalin. She was subordinate to the NKVD and was one of the five main directorates in this People's Commissariat. Also in 1934, all correctional institutions that had previously belonged to the People's Commissariat of Justice moved to the GULAG. Labor in the camps was legally approved in the Correctional Labor Code of the RSFSR. Now numerous prisoners had to implement the most dangerous and ambitious economic and infrastructure projects: construction projects, digging canals, etc.
The authorities did everything to make the GULAG system in the USSR seem to be the norm for free citizens. For this, regular ideological campaigns were launched. In 1931, the construction of the famous Belomorkanal began. This was one of the most significant projects of the first Stalinist five-year plan. The GULAG system is also one of the economic mechanisms of the Soviet state.
In order for the layman to learn in detail about the construction of the White Sea Canal in positive tones, the Communist Party instructed famous writers to prepare a book of praise. This is how the work "The Stalin Channel" appeared. A whole group of authors worked on it: Tolstoy, Gorky, Pogodin and Shklovsky. Particularly interesting is the fact that the book spoke positively about bandits and thieves, whose work was also used. The GULAG occupied an important place in the system of the Soviet economy. Cheap forced labor made it possible to implement the tasks of the five-year plans at an accelerated pace.
Political and criminals
The Gulag camp system was divided into two parts. It was the world of politicians and criminals. The last of them were recognized by the state as “socially close”. This term was popular in Soviet propaganda. Some criminals tried to cooperate with the camp administration in order to facilitate their existence. At the same time, the authorities demanded from them loyalty and spying on political ones.
Numerous "enemies of the people", as well as those convicted of alleged espionage and anti-Soviet propaganda, had no opportunity to defend their rights. Most often they resorted to hunger strikes. With their help, political prisoners tried to draw the attention of the administration to the difficult living conditions, abuse and humiliation of the jailers.
Solitary hunger strikes did not lead to anything. Sometimes the NKVD officers could only increase the suffering of the convict. For this, plates with delicious food and scarce foods were placed in front of the starving.
Fighting protest
The camp administration could pay attention to the hunger strike only if it was massive. Any concerted action of the prisoners led to the fact that they were looking for instigators among them, with whom they were then dealt with with particular cruelty.
For example, in Ukhtpechlag in 1937, a group of those convicted of Trotskyism went on a hunger strike. Any organized protest was viewed as counter-revolutionary activity and a threat to the state. This led to an atmosphere of denunciations and distrust of prisoners to each other reigned in the camps. However, in some cases, the organizers of the hunger strikes, on the contrary, openly announced their initiative because of the simple despair in which they found themselves. In Ukhtpechlag, the founders were arrested. They refused to testify. Then the NKVD troika sentenced the activists to death.
While the form of political protest in the Gulag was rare, riots were common. Moreover, their founders were, as a rule, criminals. Convicted persons often became victims of criminals who followed orders from their superiors. Representatives of the underworld received release from work or occupied an inconspicuous position in the camp apparatus.
Skilled labor in the camp
This practice was also associated with the fact that the GULAG system suffered from a shortage of professional personnel. The NKVD officers sometimes had no education at all. The camp authorities often had no choice but to put the convicts themselves in the economic and administrative-technical positions.
Moreover, among the political prisoners there were a lot of people of various specialties. Especially in demand was the "technical intelligentsia" - engineers, etc. In the early 1930s, these were people who had received their education in tsarist Russia and remained specialists and professionals. In successful cases, such prisoners could even establish a relationship of trust with the administration in the camp. Some of them, when released, remained in the system at the administrative level.
However, in the mid-1930s, the regime tightened, which also affected highly qualified convicts. The situation of the specialists who were in the inner-camp world was completely different. The well-being of such people depended entirely on the character and degree of depravity of a particular boss. The Soviet system created the GULAG system also in order to completely demoralize its opponents, real or imaginary. Therefore, there could be no liberalism in relation to prisoners.
Sharashki
Those specialists and scientists who got into the so-called sharashka were more fortunate. These were scientific institutions closed typewhere they worked on secret projects. Many famous scientists ended up in camps for their freethinking. For example, such was Sergei Korolev, a man who became a symbol of Soviet space exploration. Designers, engineers, people associated with the military industry got into the sharashka.
Such establishments are reflected in the culture. The writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who visited the sharashka, wrote the novel In the First Circle many years later, in which he described in detail the life of such prisoners. This author is best known for his other book, The Gulag Archipelago.
By the beginning of World War II, colonies and camp complexes had become an important element of many industrial sectors. The Gulag system, in short, existed wherever prisoner slave labor could be used. It was especially in demand in the mining and metallurgical, fuel and timber industries. Capital construction was also an important area. Almost all large structures of the Stalin era were erected by convicts. They were mobile and cheap labor.
After the end of the war, the role of the camp economy became even more important. The scope of forced labor has expanded due to the implementation of the atomic project and many other military tasks. In 1949, about 10% of the country's production was created in camps.
Unprofitable camps
Even before the war, in order not to undermine the economic efficiency of the camps, Stalin canceled parole in the camps. At one of the discussions about the fate of the peasants who ended up in the camps after dispossession, he said that it was necessary to come up with a new system of incentives for productivity in work, etc. Often, parole awaited a person who either distinguished himself by exemplary behavior, or became another Stakhanovite.
After Stalin's remarks, the system of counting working days was canceled. According to it, the prisoners reduced their term, going to production. The NKVD did not want to do this, since the refusal of credits deprived the convicts of the motivation to work diligently. This, in turn, led to a drop in the profitability of any camp. Nevertheless, the tests were canceled.
It was the unprofitableness of enterprises within the GULAG (among some other reasons) that forced the Soviet leadership to reorganize the entire system that had previously existed outside the legal framework, being under the exclusive jurisdiction of the NKVD.
The low efficiency of prisoners' labor was also associated with the fact that many of them had health problems. This was facilitated by a poor diet, difficult living conditions, bullying by the administration and many other adversities. In 1934, 16% of the prisoners were unemployed and 10% were sick.
Liquidation of the Gulag
The abandonment of the Gulag took place gradually. The impetus for the beginning of this process was the death of Stalin in 1953. The liquidation of the GULAG system was started just a few months after that.
First of all, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on a mass amnesty. Thus, more than half of the prisoners were released. As a rule, these were people whose term was less than five years.
At the same time, most of the political prisoners remained behind bars. The death of Stalin and the change of power instilled in many convicts the confidence that something would soon change. In addition, the prisoners began to openly resist the oppression and abuse of the camp authorities. So, there were several riots (in Vorkuta, Kengir and Norilsk).
Another important event for the GULAG was the 20th Congress of the CPSU. It was addressed by Nikita Khrushchev, who shortly before that had won the internal apparatus struggle for power. From the rostrum, he condemned the numerous atrocities of his era.
At the same time, special commissions appeared in the camps, which began to review the cases of political prisoners. In 1956, their number was three times less. The liquidation of the GULAG system coincided with its transfer to a new department - the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1960, the last head of the GUITK (Main Directorate of Forced Labor Camps) Mikhail Kholodkov was dismissed.
V.N. Zemskov *
Gulag
(Historical and sociological aspect)
The purpose of this article is to show the true statistics of the GULAG prisoners, a significant part of which has already been cited in the articles of A.N.Dugin, V.F.Nekrasov, as well as in our publication in the weekly "Argumenty i Fakty".
Despite the presence of these publications, in which the corresponding to the truth and documented number of GULAG prisoners is named, the Soviet and foreign public for the most part is still under the influence of far-fetched statistical calculations that do not correspond to the historical truth, contained in the works of foreign authors (R. Conquest , S. Cohen, etc.), and in the publications of a number of Soviet researchers (R.A. Medvedev, V.A. Chalikov, etc.). Moreover, in the works of all these authors, the discrepancy with the true statistics never goes in the direction of understatement, but only in the direction of multiple exaggeration. One gets the impression that they are competing with each other in order to amaze readers with numbers, so to speak, more astronomical.
Here is what, for example, S. Cohen writes (referring to R. Conquest's book The Great Terror, published in 1968 in the USA): “... By the end of 1939, the number of prisoners in prisons and separate concentration camps had grown to 9 million people (compared with 30 thousand in 1928 and 5 million in 1933-1935) ". In reality, in January 1940, 1,334,408 prisoners were held in the gulag camps, 315,584 in the gulag colonies, and 190,266 in prisons. In total, there were 1,850,258 prisoners in camps, colonies and prisons at that time, i.e. the statistical data given by R. Conquest and S. Cohen are exaggerated by almost five times.
R. Conquest and S. Cohen are echoed by the Soviet researcher VA Chalikova, who writes: "Based on various data, the calculations show that in 1937-1950 there were 8-12 million people in the camps, which occupied vast spaces." VA Chalikova names the maximum figure - 12 million prisoners of the GULAG (apparently, it includes colonies in the concept of "camp") for a certain date, but in reality for the period 1934-1953. the maximum number of prisoners in the Gulag on January 1, 1950 was 2,561,351 (see Table 1). Consequently, V.A. Chalikova, following R. Conquest and S. Cohen, exaggerates about five times the actual number of prisoners in the Gulag.
N.S. Khrushchev also contributed to the confusion of the question of the statistics of the Gulag prisoners, who, apparently with the aim of presenting his own role as the liberator of the victims of Stalinist repressions, wrote in his memoirs: "... When Stalin died, there were up to 10 million people ". In reality, on January 1, 1953, 2,468,524 prisoners were held in the GULAG: 1,727,970 in camps and 740,554 in colonies. The TsGAOR of the USSR keeps copies of the memoranda of the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR addressed to N.S. Khrushev with an indication of the exact number of prisoners, including at the time of J.V. Stalin's death. Consequently, N.S. Khrushchev was well informed about the true number of Gulag prisoners and deliberately exaggerated it four times.
Table 1
The number of prisoners in the GULAG
| Years | In forced labor camps (ITL) | Of these, convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes | The same percentage | In corrective labor colonies (ITK) | Total |
| 1934 | 510307 | 135190 | 26,5 | 510307 | |
| 1935 | 725483 | 118256 | 16,3 | 240259 | 965742 |
| 1936 | 839406 | 105849 | 12,6 | 457088 | 1296494 |
| 1937 | 820881 | 104826 | 12,8 | 375488 | 1196369 |
| 1938 | 996367 | 185324 | 18,6 | 885203 | 1881570 |
| 1939 | 1317195 | 454432 | 34,5 | 355243 | 1672438 |
| 1940 | 1344408 | 444999 | 33,1 | 315584 | 1659992 |
| 1941 | 1500524 | 420293 | 28.7 | 429205 | 1929729 |
| 1942 | 1415596 | 407988 | 29,6 | 361447 | 1777043 |
| 1943 | 983974 | 345397 | 35,6 | 500208 | 1484182 |
| 1944 | 663594 | 268861 | 40,7 | 516225 | 1179819 |
| 1945 | 715505 | 289351 | 41,2 | 745171 | 1460677 |
| 1946 | 746871 | 333883 | 59,2 | 956224 | 1703095 |
| 1947 | 808839 | 427653 | 54,3 | 912704 | 1721543 |
| 1948 | 1108057 | 416156 | 38,0 | 1091478 | 2199535 |
| 1949 | 1216361 | 420696 | 34,9 | 1140324 | 2356685 |
| 1950 | 1416300 | 578912* | 22,7 | 1145051 | 2561351 |
| 1951 | 1533767 | 475976 | 31,0 | 994379 | 2528146 |
| 1952 | 1711202 | 480766 | 28,1 | 793312 | 2504514 |
| 1953 | 1727970 | 465256 | 26,9 | 740554 | 2468524 |
* In camps and colonies.
table 2
The number of prisoners in the prisons of the USSR
(data for the middle of each month)
| Years | January | March | May | July | September | December |
| 1939 | 350538 | 281891 | 225242 | 185514 | 178258 | 186278 |
| 1940 | 190266 | 195582 | 196028 | 217819 | 401146 | 434871 |
| 1941 | 487739 | 437492 | 332936 | 216223 | 229217 | 247404 |
| 1942 | 277992 | 298081 | 262464 | 217327 | 201547 | 221669 |
| 1943 | 235313 | 237246 | 248778 | 196119 | 170767 | 171708 |
| 1944 | 155213 | 177657 | 191309 | 218245 | 267885 | 272486 |
| 1945 | 279969 | 272113 | 269526 | 263819 | 191930 | 235092 |
| 1946 | 261500 | 278666 | 268117 | 253757 | 259078 | 290984 |
| 1947 | 306163 | 323492 | 326369 | 360878 | 349035 | 284642 |
| 1948 | 275850 | 256771 | 239612 | 228031 | 228258 | 230614 |
Table 3
Gulag camp population movement
| 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | |
| Availability on January 1 | 510307 | 725483 | 839406 | 820881 | 996367 | 1317195 | 1344408 | 1500524 | 1415596 | 983974 | 663594 | 715506 | 600897 | 808839 |
| Total arrived including: | 593702 | 524328 | 626069 | 884811 | 1036165 | 749647 | 1158402 | 1343663 | 806047 | 477175 | 379589 | 432917 | 636188 | 748620 |
| from the NKVD camps | 100389 | 67265 | 157355 | 211486 | 202721 | 348417 | 498399 | 488964 | 246273 | 114152 | 48428 | 59707 | 172844 | 121633 |
| from other places of detention | 445187 | 409663 | 431442 | 636749 | 803007 | 383994 | 644927 | 840712 | 544583 | 355728 | 326928 | 361121 | 461562 | 624345 |
| out of the run | 46752 | 45988 | 35891 | 35460 | 22679 | 9838 | 8839 | 6528 | 4984 | 3074 | 1839 | 953 | 1203 | 1599 |
| others | 1374 | 1412 | 1381 | 1116 | 7758 | 7398 | 6237 | 7459 | 10207 | 4221 | 2394 | 2136 | 579 | 1043 |
| Total loss * including: | 378526 | 410405 | 644594 | 709325 | 715337 | 722434 | 1002286 | 1428591 | 1221905 | 797555 | 327677 | 555524 | 428246 | 449402 |
| to the NKVD camps | 103002 | 72190 | 170484 | 214607 | 240466 | 347444 | 563338 | 540205 | 252174 | 140756 | 64119 | 96438 | 182647 | 153899 |
| to other places of detention | 17169 | 28976 | 23826 | 43916 | 55790 | 74882 | 57213 | 135537 | 186577 | 140093 | 39303 | 70187 | 99332 | 58782 |
| released | 147272 | 211035 | 369544 | 364437 | 279966 | 223622 | 316825 | 624276 | 509538 | 336153 | 152131 | 336750 | 115700 | 194886 |
| died | 26295 | 28328 | 20595 | 25376 | 90546 | 50502 | 46665 | 100997 | 248877 | 166967 | 60948 | 43848 | 18154 | 35668 |
| was running | 83490 | 67493 | 58313 | 58264 | 32033 | 12333 | 11813 | 10592 | 11822 | 6242 | 3586 | 2196 | 2642 | 3779 |
| other decline | 1298 | 2383 | 1832 | 2725 | 16536 | 13651 | 6432 | 16984 | 12917 | 7344 | 7590 | 6105 | 9771 | 2388 |
| Availability on December 31st | 725483 | 839406 | 820881 | 996367 | 1317195 | 1344408 | 1500524 | 1415596 | 983974 | 663594 | 715506 | 600897 | 808839 | 1108057 |
Table 4
Correlation between convicted NKVD bodies, courts and tribunals among GULAG camp prisoners (as of January 1 of each year)
| Condemned | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941* |
| The organs of the NKVD: number of persons % of the total |
215489 42,2 |
299337 41,3 | 282712 33,7 | 253652 30,9 | 496191 49,8 |
782414 59,4 | 732702 54,5 | 566309 38,7 |
| including: A special meeting of the NKVD: number of persons % of the total |
36865 3,7 | 109327 8,3 | 126374 9,4 | 120148 8,2 | ||||
| "Special Troops": number of persons % of the total |
306906 23,3 | 341479 25,4 | 252678 17,2 | |||||
| Courts and tribunals: number of persons % of the total |
294818 52,8 | 426146 58,7 | 556694 66,3 | 567300 69,1 | 500176 50,2 | 534781 40,6 | 611706 45,5 | 858448 58,6 |
Table 5
The ethnic composition of the camp prisoners of the GULAG in 1939-1941
(as of January 1 of each year)
| Nationality | Years | ||
| 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | |
| Russians | 830491 | 820089 | 884574 |
| Ukrainians | 181905 | 196283 | 189146 |
| Belarusians | 44785 | 49743 | 52064 |
| Georgians | 11723 | 12099 | 11109 |
| Armenians | 11064 | 10755 | 11302 |
| Azerbaijanis | no information | 10800 | 9996 |
| Kazakhs | 17123 | 20166 | 19185 |
| Turkmens | 9352 | 9411 | 9689 |
| Uzbeks | 24499 | 26888 | 23154 |
| Tajiks | 4347 | 5377 | 4805 |
| Kyrgyz | 2503 | 2688 | 2726 |
| Tatars | 24894 | 28232 | 28542 |
| Bashkirs | 4874 | 5380 | 5560 |
| Buryats | 1581 | 2700 | 1937 |
| Jews | 19758 | 21510 | 31132 |
| Germans | 18572 | 18822 | 19120 |
| Poles | 16860 | 16133 | 29457 |
| Finns | 2371 | 2750 | 2614 |
| Latvians | 4742 | 5400 | 4870 |
| Lithuanians | 1050 | 1344 | 1245 |
| Estonians | 2371 | 2720 | 278 |
| Romanians | 395 | 270 | 329 |
| Iranians | no information | 134 | 1107 |
| Afghans | 263 | 280 | 310 |
| Mongols | 35 | 70 | 58 |
| Chinese | 3161 | 4033 | 3025 |
| Japanese | 50 | 80 | 119 |
| Koreans | 2371 | 2800 | 2108 |
| Others * | 76055 | 67451 | 148460 |
| TOTAL: | 1317195 | 1344408 | 1500524 |
Table 6
The educational level of the camp prisoners of the GULAG in 1934-1941
(as of January 1 of each year)
| Education | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941* |
| Higher: number of persons % of the total |
3572 0,7 |
4936 0,7 |
6799 0,8 |
8619 1,0 |
10960 1,1 |
22395 1,7 |
24199 1,8 |
30721 2,1 |
| Average: number of persons % of the total |
28577 5,6 | 47025 6,5 | 62284 7,4 | 72648 8,9 | 82698 8,3 | 119864 9,1 | 133096 9,9 | 156585 10,7 |
| Lower: number of persons % of the total |
199530 39,1 | 316779 43,7 | 388813 46,3 | 404776 49,3 | 500176 50,2 | 661232 50,2 | 666826 49,6 | 758077 51,8 |
| Uneducated: number of persons % of the total |
217390 42,6 | 271830 37,5 | 300675 35,8 | 266704 32,4 | 316844 31,8 | 400744 30,5 | 407355 30,3 | 413122 28,3 |
| Illiterate: number of persons % of the total |
61238 12,0 | 84913 11,6 | 80835 9,7 | 68134 8,4 | 85689 8,6 | 112960 8,5 | 112932 8,4 | 104872 7,1 |
Table 7
The presence of prisoners in the prisons of the USSR
(as of December 1, 1940)
| Categories of prisoners | Number |
| Total | 461683 |
| including: | |
| Under investigation | 108240 |
| of them: | |
| for the organs of the GUGB NKVD | 61011 |
| for the bodies of the RK police | 47229 |
| Enrolled in the prosecutor's office | 32717 |
| Number of ships | 43382 |
| Convicted | 271117 |
| of them: | |
| by Decree of June 26, 1940 No. | 83223 |
| by Decree of August 10, 1940 | 49733 |
| other convicts | 138161 |
| (of which cassation) | 81912 |
| Transit and transit | 6227 |
| Convicts were taken to camps and colonies from November 20 to December 1, 1940. | 59493 |
| of them: | |
| convicted under the Decrees of June 26 and August 10, 1940 | 29160 |
| other | 30333 |
Table 8
Share of labor groups in the total composition of the GULAG prisoners,%
During the war, with a decrease in nutritional rates, production rates increased simultaneously. A significant increase in the level of intensification of labor of prisoners is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that in 1941 in the Gulag the output per man-day worked was 9 rubles. 50 kopecks, and in 1944 - 21 rubles. [Ibid]. In the first period of the war, 27 camps and 210 gulag colonies with a total number of prisoners of 750 thousand were evacuated from areas threatened by fascist occupation. The evacuated prisoners entered the already overcrowded camps and colonies located in the eastern regions of the country, which led to a terrible overcrowding ... In 1942, the average living space per prisoner was less than 1 m 2 (by the end of the war it was brought to 1.8 m 2) [Ibid.]. The war led to a significant change in the ratio of men and women in the composition of the Gulag prisoners. By the beginning of the war, men accounted for 93%, women - 7%, and by July 1944, respectively, 74% and 26%. During the war, the number of adolescents under the age of 17 among prisoners of the ITL increased: in 1942 - 3112, in 1943 - 4 147, in 1944 - 6 988, in 1945 - 6 433 (data on January 1 of each year). By January 1, 1946, the number of adolescents in the GULAG camps had dropped to 2,035 [Ibid.]. During the war, the Gulag abolished the previous practice of the courts applying conditional release of prisoners on the basis of offsets in the term of the served sentence of working days in which prisoners met or exceeded the established production standards. The order of full serving of the sentence was established. And only in relation to individual prisoners, excellent workers in production, who gave high performance indicators for a long period of stay in places of imprisonment, a special meeting under the NKVD of the USSR sometimes applied conditional release or a reduction in the sentence [Ibid]. During the war in the Gulag, the number of those convicted of counter-revolutionary and other especially dangerous crimes increased by more than 1.5 times. From the first day of the war, the release of those convicted of treason, espionage, terror, sabotage was stopped; Trotskyists and Rightists; for banditry and other especially grave crimes of the state. The total number of those detained with release before December 1, 1944 was about 26 thousand people. In addition, about 60 thousand people who had ended their term of imprisonment were forcibly detained in the camps on "free hiring" [Ibid.].Table 9
Gender composition of the Gulag camp prisoners
(as of January 1 of each year)
| Years | Men | Women | ||
| absolute data | absolute data | |||
| 1934 | 480199 | 94,1 | 30108 | 5,9 |
| 1935 | 680503 | 93,8 | 44980 | 6,2 |
| 1936 | 788286 | 93,9 | 51120 | 6,1 |
| 1937 | 770561 | 93,9 | 50320 | 6,1 |
| 1938 | 927618 | 93,1 | 68749 | 6,9 |
| 1939 | 1207209 | 91,6 | 109986 | 8.4 |
| 1940 | 1235510 | 91,9 | 108898 | 8,1 |
| 1941 | 1352542 | 92,4 | 110835 | 7,6 |
| 1942 | 1231696 | 90,8 | 124155 | 9,2 |
| 1943 | 828719 | 86,9 | 125184 | 13,1 |
| 1944 | 525368 | 81,2 | 121981 | 18,8 |
| 1945 | 534187 | 76,0 | 168634 | 24,0 |
| 1946 | 501772 | 85,5 | 85198 | 14,5 |
| 1947 | 667367 | 84,0 | 127224 | 16,0 |
| 1948 | 888225 | 81,0 | 208324 | 19,0 |
Table 10
Sex composition of the prisoners of the GULAG colonies
(as of January 1 of each year)
As of January 1, 1943, there was no information on the gender composition of 30,543 prisoners in the Gulag colonies, as of January 1, 1944 - 61,292, as of January 1, 1945 - 94,516, as of January 1, 1946 - 486,465. The leadership of the GULAG (1944) wrote: "Particular attention is paid to the issue of strict isolation of those convicted of counter-revolutionary and other especially dangerous crimes. For this purpose, the NKVD of the USSR concentrates the most dangerous state criminals convicted of participation in Trotskyist revolutionary organizations, treason, espionage, sabotage, terror, and the leaders of contracted organizations and anti-Soviet political parties - in special prisons, as well as in forced labor camps located in the Far North and the Far East (the region of the Kolyma River, the Arctic), where increased security and regime have been established, combined with heavy physical work in the extraction of coal, oil, iron ores and forestry "[Ibid.]. Numerous requests of political prisoners to send them to the front, with extremely rare exceptions, were not satisfied. In 1942-1944. The NKVD of the USSR carried out several mobilizations of Soviet citizens (Germans, Finns, Romanians, Hungarians, Italians) in the so-called workers' columns, organized in accordance with the decree of the State Defense Committee l1123ss of January 10, 1942. In total, over 400 thousand people were mobilized into these columns. people, which also included about 20 thousand representatives of other nationalities (Chinese, Koreans, Bulgarians, Greeks, Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars). 220 thousand mobilized in working columns were used in construction and in the camps of the NKVD and 180 thousand - at the facilities of other people's commissariats. The deployment of these contingents was carried out in the GULAG system in separate camp points, surrounded by a wire fence and provided with security [Ibid.]. In 1943 convicts appeared in the USSR. In accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 22, 1943 "On measures of punishment for traitors to the Motherland and traitors and on the introduction of hard labor for these persons as a measure of punishment", the NKVD of the USSR organized hard labor departments in the Vorkuta and North-Eastern camps with the establishment of a special regime that ensured the fulfillment of the requirements of the Decree on the most strict isolation of convicts to hard labor: an extended working day was introduced with the use of convicts in heavy underground work in coal mines, in the extraction of gold and tin. By July 1944 5,200 convicts were kept in the labor camp (by September 1947 their number had increased to 60,021 people) [Ibid.]. During the first three years of the war, 148296 people were prosecuted in the camps and colonies of the GULAG (in the second half of 1941 - 26924, in 1942 - 57,040, in 1943 - 47,244, in January-May 1944 - 17088 ), of which 118,615 prisoners, 8543 mobilized in work columns and 21538 civilians. 10,858 people were sentenced to capital punishment (10,087 prisoners, 526 mobilized into workers' columns and 245 civilians) [Ibid]. The death penalty was carried out primarily on charges of belonging to underground camp organizations and groups. One of the reports of the Gulag says: "During 1941-1944, 603 insurgent organizations and groups were discovered and liquidated in camps and colonies, active participants of which were 4640 people" [Ibid.]. In this case, it is possible that the NKVD organs, in their usual hack-work style, "opened" and "neutralized" a certain number of insurgent organizations and groups, which in reality did not exist, although the fact of the existence of a number of underground camp organizations ("Iron Guard "," The Russian Society of Vengeance to the Bolsheviks, "etc.) is beyond doubt. In accordance with the Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 12 and November 24, 1941 on the early release of some categories of prisoners convicted of truancy, domestic and minor official and economic crimes, with the transfer of persons of conscription age to the Red Army, the GULAG released 420 thousand prisoners. According to special decisions of the State Defense Committee during 1942-1943. in the Gulag, early release was made with the transfer of 157 thousand people to the ranks of the Red Army. In total, from the beginning of the war until June 1944, 975,000 GULAG prisoners (including those released after serving their sentences) were transferred to staff the Red Army. For military exploits displayed on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, former GULAG prisoners Breusov, Efimov, Otstavnov, Sergeant and some others were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union [Ibid]. In addition, in 1941-1942. 43 thousand Polish and about 10 thousand Czechoslovak citizens were released from the gulag camps, most of them sent to the formation of national military units. The question arises: how could it have happened that in the statistics of the national composition of the GULAG prisoners for 1940-1943. the number of Poles is significantly less than they were released from the GULAG camps in 1941-1942? In our opinion, the majority of those deported in 1940-1941. Poles from Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and Lithuania, who ended up in the GULAG camps, were included in the number of "others" (all Czechoslovakians were included), and in the column "Poles" according to camp statistics, mainly Poles - "Easterners" were indicated, i.e. .e. citizens of the USSR within the borders before September 17, 1939, and, possibly, a small part of Poles - "Westernizers". As of January 1 of each year, in 1940 there were 67,455 "others" in the gulag camps, in 1941 - 148,460, in 1942 - 136,898, in 1943 - 79,208 (see table. 5, 11). Such ups and downs in the number of "others" can only be explained by the fact that in 1940 - the first half of 1941. tens of thousands of Poles from the western regions entered the gulag camps, and in the second half of 1941-1942. most of them were released. Another explanation for such an abrupt change in the number of "others" in the gulag camps in 1940-1943. and we do not find any inconsistencies in the number of Poles. During the first three years of the war, more than 2 million GULAG prisoners worked on the construction projects subordinate to the NKVD, including 448 thousand people were transferred to the construction of railways, 310 thousand people were transferred to industrial construction, 320 thousand people were transferred to forest industry camps, and 171 thousand people were transferred to mining and metallurgy camps. , airfield and highway construction - 268 thousand. During the first period of the war, the GULAG transferred 200 thousand prisoners to work on the construction of defensive lines [Ibid.]. In addition, in mid-1944, 225 thousand GULAG prisoners were used at enterprises and construction sites of other people's commissariats, including the arms and ammunition industry - 39 thousand, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy - 40 thousand, aviation and tank industry - 20 thousand. , coal and oil - 15 thousand, power plants and electrical industry - 10 thousand, forestry - 10 thousand, etc. According to the types of work, these prisoners were used: construction works - 34%, directly in production (in shops, mainly in ancillary work) - 25%, mining operations - 11% and others (logging, loading and unloading operations) - 30%. For example, at the Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk metallurgical plants in June 1944, 4.3 thousand prisoners of the GULAG were employed, at the Dzhezkazgan copper smelting plant - 3 thousand, at the construction of the Ufa oil refinery - 2 thousand, the same amount - at the plant. CM. Kirov of the People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry. From the beginning of the war until the end of 1944, the NKVD of the USSR transferred about 3 billion rubles to the state income, received from other people's commissariats for the labor force provided to them [Ibid]. In the reports of the Gulag on the mood of the prisoners, it was noted that only a small part of them hoped to be released with the help of the Nazis. The majority, however, were dominated by patriotic sentiments. Even in the terrifying conditions of the Gulag life, people were still worried about the fate of the Motherland. Deprived of the opportunity to defend it with weapons in hand, they tried to make their own contribution to the victory over the fascist aggressor, increasing, as far as their strength, labor productivity and output of products, materials and raw materials allowed them. In 1944, labor competition covered 95% of the working prisoners of the Gulag, the number of "refuseniks" from work decreased five times compared to 1940 and amounted to only 0.25% of the total number of able-bodied prisoners [Ibid]. Table 11
The ethnic composition of the camp prisoners of the GULAG in 1942-1947
(as of January 1 of each year)
| Nationality | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 |
| Russians | 833814 | 600146 | 403851 | 441723 | 303132 | 412509 |
| Ukrainians | 180148 | 114467 | 73832 | 85584 | 107550 | 180294 |
| Belarusians | 45320 | 25461 | 15264 | 15479 | 24249 | 32242 |
| Georgians | 11171 | 6960 | 5517 | 5446 | 4544 | 4609 |
| Armenians | 10307 | 9300 | 6835 | 6903 | 5477 | 5728 |
| Azerbaijanis | 8170 | 4584 | 2924 | 4338 | 3163 | 1495 |
| Kazakhs | 19703 | 14888 | 11453 | 12321 | 7822 | 8115 |
| Turkmens | 8548 | 6078 | 3113 | 2681 | 2007 | 2397 |
| Uzbeks | 26978 | 20129 | 8380 | 8426 | 5570 | 4777 |
| Tajiks | 4896 | 3841 | 2194 | 1872 | 1335 | 1460 |
| Kyrgyz | 3537 | 2706 | 1437 | 1142 | 1034 | 894 |
| Tatars | 29116 | 17915 | 11933 | 14568 | 9049 | 11045 |
| Bashkirs | 4669 | 2414 | 1406 | 1579 | 905 | 1093 |
| Jews | 23164 | 20230 | 15317 | 14433 | 10839 | 9530 |
| Germans | 19258 | 18486 | 19773 | 22478 | 18155 | 18738 |
| Poles | 14982 | 11339 | 8765 | 8306 | 13356 | 16137 |
| Finns and Karelians | 3547 | 2781 | 2220 | 1929 | 1758 | 2245 |
| Latvians | 7204 | 5008 | 3856 | 3444 | 12302 | 11266 |
| Lithuanians | 3074 | 3125 | 2048 | 1805 | 11361 | 15328 |
| Estonians | 6581 | 4556 | 2933 | 2880 | 9017 | 10241 |
| Romanians | 1550 | 1040 | 857 | 815 | 840 | 978 |
| Iranians | 1825 | 1176 | 772 | 678 | 501 | 558 |
| Afghans | 256 | 170 | 89 | 65 | 59 | 48 |
| Mongols | 64 | 37 | 22 | 49 | 20 | 49 |
| Chinese | 5182 | 3848 | 2792 | 2879 | 2614 | 1888 |
| Japanese | 133 | 119 | 116 | 23 | 578 | 660 |
| Koreans | 2403 | 1806 | 1257 | 1397 | 909 | 959 |
| Greeks | 2610 | 1859 | 1344 | 1382 | 1240 | 1247 |
| Turks | 488 | 297 | 226 | 281 | 264 | 186 |
| Other | 136898 | 79208 | 53068 | 50599 | 41247 | 29725 |
| TOTAL: | 1415596 | 983974 | 663594 | 715505 | 600897 | 786441 |
End # 6 of the magazine, Beginning # 7
By the beginning of the war, the number of prisoners in the camps and colonies of the GULAG was 2.3 million. On June 1, 1944, their number dropped to 1.2 million. During the three years of the war (until June 1, 1944), 2.9 million departed from the camps and colonies of the Gulag, and again 1.8 million convicts entered. One of the certificates, dated January 12, 1945, indicated that between the beginning of the war and December 1944, 3400 thousand prisoners left and 2550 thousand arrived. By the end of 1944, the pre-war structure of the GULAG was restored. As of December 1, 1944, there were 53 ITLs in the GULAG system with a total of 667 camp departments and 475 ITKs. This number included 17 camps with a high security regime and 5 camps for the maintenance of convicts [ibid.]. In the first years of the war, the number of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Moldovans, and Poles in the Gulag sharply decreased. This, of course, does not in any way mean that the fascist occupation was a boon for these peoples, for the policy of the conquerors was predominantly repressive. As the occupiers were expelled from the territory of the USSR, more and more residents of the Western republics and regions were sent to places of imprisonment, mainly on charges of treasonous activity (these charges were usually fair), as well as for various criminal offenses. From 1944 to 1947 the number of Ukrainians in labor camps increased 2.4 times, Belarusians - 2.1 times, Lithuanians - 7.5 times, Latvians - 2.9, Estonians - 3.5 times, Poles - 1.8 times. During the same period, the proportion of representatives of these nationalities also increased significantly in the composition of the GULAG prisoners: Ukrainians - from 11.1 to 22.9%, Belarusians - from 2.3 to 4.1%, Lithuanians - from 0.3 to 1.9 %, Latvians - from 0.6 to 1.4%, Estonians - from 0.4 to 1.3%, Poles - from 1.3 to 2.1%. During the same period, the number of representatives of some other nationalities (for example, Russians, Karelians, Finns) increased in the ITL, but their share in the total composition of prisoners decreased due to the fact that the number of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Poles grew at a faster pace. Therefore, despite a slight increase in the number, the proportion of Russians in 1944-1947. in the composition of prisoners in ITL decreased from 60.9 to 52.2%, Karelians and Finns - from 0.33 to 0.29% [ibid.]. As for the camp prisoners of the GULAG of such nationalities as Jews, Tatars, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Armenians, Georgians, etc., their number has slightly decreased in these years. This led to a significant decrease in their share. In the composition of the prisoners of the labor camp, the proportion of Jews in the specified period decreased from 2.31 to 1.21%, Tatars - from 1.8 to 1.4%, Kazakhs - from 1.73 to 1.03%, Uzbeks - from 1, 26 to 0.61%, Armenians - from 1.03 to 0.73%, Georgians - from 0.83 to 0.59% [ibid.]. According to camp statistics, it turns out that in 1944 the number of Azerbaijanis was 1.9 times less than the number of Georgians and 2.3 times less than the number of Armenians, and in 1947 - 3.1 and 3.8 times, respectively. In fact, the number of Azerbaijanis was much higher. Doubts are also raised by the data on the number of Turks. Apparently, some of the prisoners of Azerbaijani and Turkish nationalities, for some reason, were counted under other nationalities. In our opinion, the clue lies in the fact that some "Turks" are mentioned in the list of nationalities, and Azerbaijanis and Turks are Turkic-speaking peoples, and the Gulag extras, apparently, included a significant part of the prisoners of these two nationalities among them. A similar picture with the ethnic composition of prisoners was observed in the gulag colonies. As of January 1, 1944, among the 454,675 prisoners of the ITK (there was no information on 61,550 people) there were 310,670 Russians, 31,832 Ukrainians, 16,958 Tatars, 11480 Uzbeks, 9450 Germans, 8352 Jews, 6668 Kazakhs, 5635 Belarusians, 5202 Armenians, 5187 Georgians, 5050 Azerbaijanis, 3244 Kyrgyz, 3057 Poles, 2758 Turkmens, 2616 Bashkirs, 1547 Tajiks, 1390 Moldovans, 1117 Estonians, 947 Latvians, 922 Karelians and Finns, 567 Koreans, 365 Chinese, 364 Greeks, 359 Lithuanians and 18938 others. Note that in peacetime Belarusians have always been in third place in terms of numbers, after Russians and Ukrainians, but in 1944 this place was occupied by Tatars, surpassing Belarusians in numbers by 3 times. The Ukrainians, although they remained in second place, were almost 10 times smaller than the Russians. As of January 1, 1944, 4789 foreign subjects were serving their sentences in the ITL, including Romania - 1470, China - 944, Hungary - 542, Iran - 375, Greece - 337, Germany - 194, Afghanistan - 46, Finland - 37 , Turkey - 29, Bulgaria - 17, Slovakia - 16, Japan - 10, France - 5, USA - 4, Great Britain - 1, other states - 762 people. In addition, as of the indicated date, 258 foreign citizens were kept in the ITK [ibid.]. The above statistics of the GULAG does not include the so-called special contingent of the NKVD. During the war, the meaning of the term "NKVD special contingent" changed: it meant persons who were checked and filtered in the NKVD special camps, renamed in February 1945. to the testing and filtration camps of the NKVD [PFL NKVD]. They were led by the Department of special camps of the NKVD of the USSR, since February 1945 - by the Department of testing and filtration camps of the NKVD of the USSR (OPFL of the NKVD of the USSR). The special contingent, which was tested and filtered in special camps (PFL), was divided into three registration groups: 1st - prisoners of war and encircled people; 2nd — rank-and-file police officers, village heads and other civilians suspected of treasonous activities; 3rd - civilians (men) of military age who lived in the territory occupied by the enemy. From the moment the NKVD special camps were organized at the end of 1941 and until October 1, 1944, 421,199 people passed through them, including 354592 in the 1st registration group, 40062 in the 2nd and 26545 in the 3rd; of them, 319239, 3061, and 13187 people, respectively, have departed for the same period [ibid.]. In a document titled "Information on the progress of the verification of second-hand encircled persons and second-hand prisoners of war as of October 1, 1944" it was listed (we quote the entire text verbatim):
- To check the former Red Army servicemen who are in captivity or surrounded by the enemy, by decision of the GKO 1069ss of 27. XII - 41, special camps of the NKVD were created.
| a) to the Red Army | 249416 | people |
| including: | ||
| to military units through military registration and enlistment offices | 231034 | -"- |
| of them - officers | 27042 | -"- |
| on the formation of assault battalions | 18382 | -"- |
| of them - officers | 16163 | -"- |
| b) to industry according to the GKOK regulations | 30749 | -"- |
| including officers | 29 | -"- |
| c) on the formation of escort troops and the protection of special camps | 5924 | -"- |
| 3. Arrested by SMERSH authorities | 11556 | -"- |
| of them agents of intelligence and counterintelligence of the enemy | 2083 | -"- |
| of them - officers (for various crimes) | 1284 | -"- |
| 4. Lost for various reasons for all the time - in hospitals, infirmaries and died | 5347 | -"- |
| 5. Are in the special camps of the NKVD of the USSR in check | 51601 | -"- |
| including officers | 5657 | -"- |
From the number of officers remaining in the camps of the NKVD of the USSR, 4 assault battalions of 920 people each were formed in October. "[Ibid.] As of January 1, 1945, 71398 people were checked in special camps of the NKVD, of which 32483 prisoners of war (1375 officers and 31108 privates and sergeants), 15289 who served in the German and other enemy armies, 9796 policemen, 6078 civilians in the 3rd registration group, 3590 elders, 2863 who served in the punitive and administrative bodies of the enemy, 2589 legionnaires, 65 Vlasovites and 20 burgomasters. , there were 25019 people in respect of whom the check was completed.Consequently, then in total there were 96417 people in the special camps of the NKVD (96282 men and 135 women), of whom 53,225 went through the 1st registration group, 35322 - through the 2nd and 7840 - on the 3rd (by the end of the war, the 3rd registration group ceased to exist). Of the number of those who were in special camps on January 1, 1945, 31,585 people were repatriates, of which 28518 prisoners of war and 3067 civilians them [ibid.]. On May 10, 1945, 160,969 people of the special contingent were in the PFL, who were used in work on the people's commissariats: the coal industry - 90,900 people, construction - 2,650, defense - 800, weapons - 5,000, ammunition - 6,600, mortar weapons - 2,300. nonferrous metallurgy - 5,000 , chemical industry - 3900, power plants - 12600, heavy machine building - 955, medium machine building - 2000, light industry - 710, ferrous metallurgy - 950, textile industry - 130, pulp and paper - 359, machine tool industry - 400, railways - 1 100 , NKVD - 18200, NKGB - 570, electrical industry - 490, food industry - 265, oil industry - 280, military fleet - 1000 and other departments - 3800 people [ibid.]. The circle of people sent to special camps (PFL) was very extensive, up to the Soviet intelligence officers who were in the enemy rear. So, in the clarification sent on August 21, 1945 by the "HF" deputy. Head of the "F" department of the NKVD of the USSR Zapevalin addressed to the head of the NKVD troop directorate for the protection of the rear of the Northern Group of Soviet Forces Rogatin, it was indicated that the repatriates were "former operational workers of our bodies, agents and residents abandoned behind enemy lines by the Intelligence Departments of the Red Army, and members of underground organizations in the enemy's rear, they should be sent to the NKVD testing and filtration camps "[ibid.].
Table 1
The number of prisoners in the prisons of the USSR (as of May 10, 1945)
| Categories of prisoners | Number |
| Total | 269526 |
| including: | |
| Under investigation | 77827 |
| Of them: | |
| a) for the organs of the NKVD | 57283 |
| b) for the bodies of the NKGB | 18438 |
| c) for counterintelligence "SMERSH" | 2106 |
| Enrolled in the prosecutor's office | 46229 |
| Number of ships | 26553 |
| Numbered for the Special Meeting of the NKVD | 6421 |
| Convicted (without those sentenced to death) | 105701 |
| Sentenced to capital punishment | 1835 |
| Transit and transit | 4960 |
| Exported to camps and colonies from May 1 to May 10, 1945. | 21139 |
| Released and dropped out for other reasons from 1 to 10 May 1945. | 6243 |
In the directive of the NKVD of the USSR of August 1, 1945, it was said: "In testing and filtration camps for disabled, activated invalids, patients with an incurable disease, pregnant women, women with young children and the elderly should be allocated to special groups, which should be checked promptly within 20 days. absence of materials on specific crimes - to send the indicated persons to places of permanent residence "[ibid.]. On August 11, 1945, a new directive of the NKVD of the USSR was issued, which said: "To release from the testing and filtration camps all disabled people, sick with an incurable illness, the elderly, pregnant women and women with children - from the special contingent of 1 and 2 registration groups ... send them to the place of residence in compliance with the regime restrictions, issue them certificates for exchange at the place of residence for passports "[ibid.]. On September 26, 1945, the provisions of the directive of August 11, 1945 were extended to the special contingent held in the camps and colonies of the GULAG [ibid.]. In November 1945, this directive was also extended to seriously ill and crippled ordinary police officers, Vlasovites and others who served in enemy armies or traitorous formations, but did not participate in punitive expeditions and executions. They were sent from the PFL to their place of residence [ibid.]. In January 1946, the OPFL of the NKVD of the USSR was liquidated, and the camps under its jurisdiction joined the GULAG system. During 1946, 228 thousand repatriates were checked in the PFL. Of these, by January 1, 1947, they were transferred to a special settlement, transferred to the cadres of industry (in "workers' battalions") and sent to their place of residence, 199.1 thousand. The remaining 28.9 thousand repatriates continued to be checked (in addition to the PFL, some of them were and in the ITL). As of September 1, 1947, there were 4,727 repatriates in the Gulag who were undergoing state checks [ibid.]. For the number of prisoners in prisons as of May 10, 1945, see table. 1. At the time of the publication of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 7, 1945, "06 amnesty in connection with the victory over Nazi Germany", there were 263,819 prisoners in the USSR prisons, including 110,555 convicts. As a result of the release of some of the prisoners under the amnesty, the filling of prisons on September 1, 1945 decreased to 188,699 people (of which 70,125 were convicted). From September 1, 1945 to January 10, 1946, the capacity of prisons increased by 65830 prisoners, including 19129 persons under investigation and 46701 convicts. From September 1, 1945 to January 10, 1946, 234,368 convicts were transferred from prisons to camps and colonies. In July 1946, there were 514 prisons in the USSR, of which 504 were general, two internal prisons of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, three special-purpose prisons and five prison hospitals [ibid.]. The average annual number of inmates in prisons was several times higher than the monthly average. For example, on January 20, 1947, there were 304386 prisoners in prisons, and on December 15 of the same year - 288912; in total, in 1947, 1,761,938 people passed through the prisons. For 1939-1951. (there was no information for 1945) 86582 prisoners died in prisons, including 7036 in 1939; 1940 - 3277; 1941 - 7468; 1942 - 29788; 1943 - 20792; 1944 - 8252; 1946 - 2271; 1947 - 4142; 1948 - 1442; 1949 - 982; 1950 - 668 and in 1951 - 424 people [ibid.]. Among the reasons that led to the fact that at the turn of 1949/1950. was the maximum number of prisoners in the entire history of the Gulag, it should be noted such as the abolition of the death penalty in the USSR in 1947. The contingents, who previously would have certainly been sentenced to death for their actions, now entered the Gulag. In 1950, the death penalty was restored, which was one of the reasons for the decline in the number (albeit very insignificant) of prisoners in 1951-1953. In the second half of the 40s - early 50s, the labor of prisoners in "counterparty" jobs was increasingly used. As of November 1, 1947, 353,723 GULAG prisoners were employed there, including 22,634 at the enterprises of Glavneftegazstroy, at construction: heavy industry enterprises - 51678, ferrous metallurgy - 12122, nonferrous - 16301, power plants - 21907, military and naval enterprises - 22,596, fuel enterprises - 15343; in the coal industry of the eastern regions - 6846, in the coal industry of the western regions - 9822, forestry - 22078, chemical - 5637, automobile - 7615, aviation - 12947, food - 9945, textile - 5175, light industry - 2358, building materials industry - 10874, Ministry of Railways - 13237, agricultural engineering - 7147, transport engineering - 7876, civil construction - 6161, in the system of other ministries and departments - 63,424 people [ibid.]. On September 1, 1948, 2,258,957 prisoners were held in the GULAG, of which (without Dalstroy) 182,925 people belonged to the 1st category of labor, 662574 - to the 2nd, 763,292 - to the 3rd, 246975 - to the 3rd category of individual labor and 194299 - to the 4th category of labor. The number of labor force provided by the GULAG to other ministries and departments was 1,218,897 people, of which 499,994 were employed in "counterparty" jobs. In addition, 262,068 prisoners were employed in the General Directorate of Forestry Camps (GDLLP). 195792 - General Directorate of the camps for the mining and metallurgical industry (GULGMP). 149685 - Glavpromstroy Ministry of Internal Affairs, 255885 - Main Directorate of Railway Construction Camps (GULZhDS). 39989 - Glavspetstsvetmet of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (gold mining without Dalstroy), 19282 - Glavgidrostroy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 117359 - Dalstroy (gold mining) [ibid.]. The data on the ethnic composition of the GULAG prisoners as of January 1, 1951, both as a whole and separately for the camps of the 1st colonies, are presented in the article. The share of Russians in the total number of Gulag prisoners was 55.59%, Ukrainians - 20.02%, Belarusians - 3.82%, Tatars - 2.25%, Lithuanians - 1.70%, Germans - 1.28%. Uzbeks - 1.19%, Latvians - 1.13%, Armenians - 1.06%, Kazakhs - 1.03%, Jews - 1.01%. Estonians - 0.97%, Azerbaijanis - 0.94%. Georgians - 0.93%, Poles - 0.93%, Moldovans - 0.90%. Representatives of these sixteen nationalities made up almost 95% of the Gulag prisoners in total. The rest, over 5%, belonged to dozens of other nationalities.
table 2
National composition of the GULAG prisoners
| Nationality | Total | Including | |
| in the camps | in colonies | ||
| Russians | 1405511 | 805995 | 599516 |
| Ukrainians | 506221 | 362643 | 143578 |
| Belarusians | 96471 | 63863 | 32608 |
| Azerbaijanis | 23704 | 6703 | 17001 |
| Georgians | 23583 | 6968 | 16615 |
| Armenians | 26764 | 12029 | 14735 |
| Turkmens | 5343 | 2257 | 3086 |
| Uzbeks | 30029 | 14137 | 15892 |
| Tajiks | 5726 | 2884 | 2842 |
| Kazakhs | 25906 | 12554 | 13352 |
| Kyrgyz | 6424 | 3628 | 2796 |
| Finns and Karelians | 4294 | 2369 | 1925 |
| Moldovans | 22725 | 16008 | 6717 |
| Lithuanians | 43016 | 35773 | 7243 |
| Latvians | 28520 | 21689 | 6831 |
| Estonians | 24618 | 18185 | 6433 |
| Tatars | 56928 | 28532 | 28396 |
| Bashkirs | 7847 | 3619 | 4228 |
| Udmurts | 5465 | 2993 | 2472 |
| Jews | 25425 | 14374 | 11051 |
| Germans | 32269 | 21096 | 11173 |
| Poles | 23527 | 19184 | 4343 |
| Romanians | 1639 | 1318 | 321 |
| Iranians | 606 | 262 | 344 |
| Afghans | 131 | 100 | 31 |
| Mongols | 83 | 70 | 13 |
| Chinese | 2039 | 1781 | 258 |
| Japanese | 1102 | 852 | 250 |
| Koreans | 2512 | 1692 | 820 |
| Greeks | 2326 | 1558 | 768 |
| Turks | 362 | 300 | 62 |
| Others, of which: | 87030 | 48351 | 38679 |
| indigenous nationalities of the USSR | 78832 | 41688 | 37144 |
| non-indigenous nationalities | 8198 | 6663 | 1535 |
| TOTAL: | 2528146 | 1533767 | 994379 |
In 1951, 60.7% of the GULAG prisoners were held in the camps, and 39.3% in the colonies. As for nationalities, there was a wide variation in this ratio. The following pattern was seen: prisoners of those nationalities whose territories were subjected to fascist occupation, in the overwhelming majority were in camps. This is understandable: it was from the western regions that the main stream of those accused of complicity or bourgeois-nationalist activities came from, for whom, due to the severity of the charges brought against them, the prison camps, of course, became. In 1951, out of the total number of Lithuanians held in the GULAG, 83.2% were in a labor camp, Poles - 81.5%, Latvians - 76.0%, Estonians - 73.9%, Ukrainians - 71.6%, Moldovans - 70.4%, Belarusians - 66.2%. If, on average, across all nationalities, there were 1.5 times more prisoners in the ITL than in the ITK, the Lithuanians - 4.9 times, the Poles - 4.4 times, the Latvians - 3.2 times, the Estonians - 2 times. 8, Ukrainians - 2.5 times, Moldovans - 2.4 times, Belarusians - 2 times. At the same time, among a number of prisoners of those nationalities whose territories during the war were not subjected to enemy occupation, on the contrary, there was a significant predominance of their numbers in the colonies compared to the camps. For example, in 1951 there were 2.5 times more Azerbaijanis in the ITK than in the ITL, and the Georgians - 2.4 times. Of the total number of Azerbaijanis held in 1951 in the Gulag, only 28.3% of them were in camps (the rest in colonies), Georgians - 29.5%, Turkmen - 42.2%, Armenians - 44.9%. Bashkirs - 46.1%, Uzbeks - 47.1%, Kazakhs - 48.5%. Prisoners - Tatars and Tajiks - had approximately equal distribution between the ITL and ITK. In the camps there were more than half, but less than the average ratio between the presence of prisoners in ITL and ITK for all nationalities, prisoners - Russians (57.3%), Jews (56.5%). Kyrgyz (56.5%), Udmurts (54.8%). From the data on the ethnic composition of the prisoners of the camps and colonies of the GULAG on January 1, 1951, another pattern follows. Prisoners who, on a national basis, belonged to the deported peoples or to non-indigenous peoples of the USSR, as well as foreign nationals, were kept, as a rule, in camps, and only a much smaller part of them - in colonies. For example, the Chinese in the ITL were 6.9 times more than in the ITC, the Mongols - 5.4, the Turks - 4.8, the Romanians - 4.1, the Japanese - 3.4, the Afghans - 3.2. , Koreans - 2.1 times, Greeks - 2.0 times, Germans - 1.9 times. January 1, 1951 , among the prisoners in the camps and colonies of the GULAG, there were 12085 foreign subjects, including 3949 - Germany, 1623 - Hungary, 1109 - China, 997 - Poland, 752 - Iran, 652 - Japan, 531 - Romania, 227 - Czechoslovakia, 161 - Greece , 93 - Bulgaria, 84 - Yugoslavia 68 - Finland, 67 - Turkey, 41 - Afghanistan, 34 - France, 10 - Italy, 8 - USA, 2 - Albania, 1 - Great Britain and 1676 - other countries [ibid.]. The article provides a detailed breakdown of prisoners by the nature of their crimes, both in the Gulag as a whole, and separately by ITL and ITK, and in - similar data on the terms of punishment. Of the total number of those convicted of counterrevolutionary crimes, 82.1% were held in camps and 17.9% in colonies; for criminal offenses - 54.3% and 45.7%, respectively. In the total composition of those convicted of counterrevolutionary crimes, 57.7% served their sentences on charges of treason, 17.1% - anti-Soviet agitation, 8.0% - participation in anti-Soviet conspiracies, anti-Soviet organizations and groups, 6.4% - counterrevolutionary sabotage, 3.2% - espionage, 2.2% - insurgency and political banditry, 1.7% - terror and terrorist intentions, 0.8% - sabotage and sabotage activities, 0.6% - family members of traitors to the Motherland. The remaining 2.3% of "counterrevolutionaries" were serving their sentences in labor camps and penitentiaries on a number of other political charges. As for those who served a sentence for criminal offenses, the fact is that the majority (60%) were convicted not on the basis of articles of the Criminal Code, but on the basis of bylaws (according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on responsibility for unauthorized withdrawal from enterprises and institutions, for escapes from places of compulsory settlement, etc.). In 1947, there were 14630 children of female prisoners and 6779 pregnant women in the camps and colonies of the GULAG, in 1948 - 10217 and 4588, respectively, in 1949 - 22815 and 9310, in 1950 - 19260 and 11950, in 1951 . - 14713 and 6888, in 1952, - 28219 and 11096, in 1953 - 35505 and 6286 (data as of January 1 of each year). For every thousand children, the mortality rate in infant homes in the GULAG was 409 in 1947, 309 in 1948, 200 in 1949, 159 in 1950, 109 in 1951, 1952 - 81, in 1953 - 46 children [ibid.].
Table 3
The composition of the GULAG prisoners by the nature of the crimes
(as of January 1, 1951)
| Crimes | Total | including | |
| in the camps | in colonies | ||
| Counter-revolutionary crimes | |||
| Treason to the Motherland (Article 58-1a, b) | 334538 | 285288 | 49250 |
| Espionage (art. 58-1a, b, 6; art. 193-24) | 18337 | 17786 | 591 |
| Terror (v. 58-8) | 7515 | 7099 | 416 |
| Terrorist intentions | 2329 | 2135 | 194 |
| Sabotage (Article 58-9) | 3250 | 3185 | 65 |
| Subversion (Art. 58-7) | 1165 | 1074 | 91 |
| Counter-revolutionary sabotage (except for those convicted of refusing to work in camps and escaping) (arts. 58-14) | 4494 | 3523 | 971 |
| Counter-revolutionary sabotage (for refusing to work in the camp) (Articles 58-14) | 10160 | 8724 | 1436 |
| Counter-revolutionary sabotage (for escapes from places of detention) (Article 58-14) | 22687 | 19708 | 2979 |
| Participation in anti-Soviet conspiracies, anti-Soviet organizations and groups (Article 58, paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 5, 11) | 46582 | 39266 | 7316 |
| Anti-Soviet agitation (Articles 58-10, 59-7) | 99401 | 61670 | 37731 |
| Insurgency and political banditry (Article 58, item 2; 59, items 2, 3, 3b) | 12947 | 12515 | 432 |
| Family members of traitors to the Motherland (Art. 58-1c) | 3256 | 2824 | 432 |
| Socially dangerous element | 2846 | 2756 | 90 |
| Other counter-revolutionary crimes | 10371 | 8423 | 1948 |
| Total convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes | 579918 | 475976 | 103942 |
| Criminal offenses | |||
| Theft of social property (Decree of August 7, 1932) | 72293 | 42342 | 29951 |
| By the Decree of June 4, 1947 "06 strengthening the protection of personal property of citizens" | 394241 | 242688 | 151553 |
| 637055 | 371390 | 265665 | |
| Speculation | 73205 | 31916 | 41289 |
| Banditry and armed robbery (Articles 59-3, 167), not committed in places of detention | 65816 | 53522 | 12294 |
| Banditry and armed robbery (Articles 59-3, 167), committed while serving a sentence | 12047 | 11026 | 1021 |
| Intentional murders (Articles 136, 137, 138), not committed in places of detention | 37808 | 22950 | 14858 |
| Intentional murders (Articles 136, 137, 138) committed in places of detention | 3635 | 3041 | 594 |
| Illegal border crossing (Articles 59-10, 84) | 1920 | 1089 | 901 |
| Smuggling activity (Articles 59-9, 83) | 368 | 207 | 161 |
| Animal stealing (Article 166) | 15112 | 8438 | 6674 |
| Thieves-repeat offenders (Article 162-c) | 6911 | 3883 | 3028 |
| Property crimes (Articles 162-178) | 61194 | 35464 | 25730 |
| Hooliganism (Article 74 and Decree of August 10, 1940) | 93477 | 32718 | 60759 |
| Violation of the law on passportisation (Article 192-a) | 40599 | 7484 | 33115 |
| For escapes from places of detention, exile and deportation (Article 82) | 22074 | 12969 | 9105 |
| For unauthorized departure (escape) from places of compulsory settlement (Decree of November 26, 1948) | 3328 | 1504 | 1824 |
| For harboring evicted people who fled from places of compulsory settlement, or aiding | 1021 | 989 | 32 |
| Socially harmful element | 416 | 343 | 73 |
| Desertion (Article 193-7) | 39129 | 29457 | 9672 |
| Self-harm (Article 193-12) | 2131 | 1527 | 604 |
| Looting (Articles 193-27) | 512 | 429 | 83 |
| Other military crimes (Article 193, except for paragraphs 7, 12, 17, 24, 27) | 19648 | 13033 | 6615 |
| Illegal possession of weapons (Article 182) | 12932 | 6221 | 6711 |
| Official and economic crimes (Articles 59-3v, 109-121, 193, clauses 17, 18) | 128618 | 47630 | 80988 |
| By the Decree of June 26, 1940 (unauthorized departure from enterprises and institutions and truancy) | 26485 | 881 | 25604 |
| By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (except for those listed above) | 35518 | 11921 | 23597 |
| Other criminal offenses | 140665 | 62729 | 77936 |
| Total convicted of criminal offenses | 1948228 | 1057791 | 890437 |
| TOTAL: | 2528146 | 1533767 | 994379 |
In the 40s, the Gulag administration succeeded in organizing an agent and information network among prisoners. This network grew from 1% in 1940 to 8% in 1947. In other words, if in 1940 there were 10 "snitches" for every thousand prisoners, then in 1947 there were already 80. In July 1947, undercover -Information network numbered 138,992 GULAG prisoners, of which 9,958 were residents, 3904 agents, 64,905 informers and 60,225 - "anti-escape network" [ibid.]. The imprisoned specialists and skilled workers were mostly employed in jobs in a direct or related specialty. As of January 1, 1947, 74.5% of such prisoners were employed in the GULAG "by specialty". Above this average level were the corresponding indicators for builders (88.7%), woodworkers (87.7%), miners (83.2%). This indicator was also high among prisoners - engineers (86.9%), technicians (77.8%), foremen (84.4%), medical workers (88.2%) and veterinary staff (80%). Slightly below the average level were the corresponding indicators for metalworkers (73.8%), operators of power plants (72%), fishermen (70.5%), forestry specialists (73.8%). In the specific conditions of the Gulag industrial life, it was more difficult to use prisoners in a direct or close specialty - transport workers, signalmen, radio operators, as well as agricultural specialists (agronomists, etc.). Among prisoners - water transport workers, this indicator was 49.1%, among motor transport workers - 57.1%, among railway workers - 58.2%, among agricultural specialists - 61.4%, among electro-radio communications workers - 66.6%. Some of the prisoners were subjected to unconvoy, but such were a significant minority. As of August 1, 1947, there were 191,016 re-escorted prisoners in the Gulag, or 10.8% of the total [ibid.]. In accordance with the decrees of the Council of Ministers of the USSR ь4293-1703ss of November 20, 1948 and ь1065-376ss of March 13, 1950, prisoners in all ITLs and ITCs received wages for their labor, calculated on the basis of reduced (up to 30%) tariff rates and official salaries, using the piece-rate progressive and bonus wage systems established for workers, engineers and employees in the relevant sectors of the national economy [ibid.]. In order to increase labor productivity and the interest of prisoners employed in works of defense significance, in gold mining, in the construction of power plants and oil industry facilities, in railway construction, in the timber and coal industries, a system of offsets of working days was applied to them, which, when the production norm was exceeded were deducted from the term of imprisonment. By April 1954, this system operated in camps and colonies with a total of 737,800 prisoners (54.2% of the total prison population) [ibid.].
Table 4
Composition of Gulag prisoners by sentence
(as of January 1, 1951)
| Timing | Total | In the camps | In the colonies | |||
| absolute data, people | absolute data, people | absolute data, people | ||||
| Up to 1 year | 72759 | 2,9 | 3585 | 0,2 | 69174 | 7,0 |
| 1 to 3 years old | 222359 | 8,8 | 57605 | 3,8 | 164754 | 16,6 |
| 3-5 years old | 412662 | 16,3 | 218519 | 14,2 | 194143 | 19,5 |
| 5 to 10 years old | 1362709 | 53,9 | 902333 | 58,8 | 460376 | 46,3 |
| 10 to 15 years old | 233583 | 9,2 | 165643 | 10,8 | 67940 | 6,8 |
| 15 to 20 years old | 102644 | 4,1 | 82793 | 5,4 | 19851 | 2,0 |
| Over 20 years | 121430 | 4,8 | 103289 | 6,8 | 8141 | 1,8 |
| TOTAL | 2528146 | 100,0 | 1533767 | 100,0 | 994379 | 100,0 |
As of March 1, 1940, in the Gulag, on average, there was one guard for every 16 prisoners, and on April 1, 1954, there was already one guard for an average of 9 prisoners. On April 1, 1954, the total number of guards in the camps and colonies of the Gulag amounted to 148,049 people, including 98,863 - rank and file, 37688 - sergeant and 11498 - officer [ibid.]. The presence of such an impressive guard helped to reduce the number of prisoners escaping, to strengthen discipline and order in the camps and colonies. However, as practice has shown, the guards were not always able to protect those prisoners whom other prisoners secretly sentenced to death. Only in January-March 1954 in the ITL and ITK on the basis of revenge, settling personal accounts, etc. there were 129 murders [ibid.]. During 1953 and the first quarter of 1954, 589366 new prisoners entered the camps and colonies of the GULAG, and 1,701,310 people left during the same period, of which 1,201,738 were released ahead of schedule in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 27, 1953. "On amnesty", adopted on the initiative of LP Beria. As of April 1, 1954, 1,360,303 prisoners were held in the GULAG (897051 in camps and 463252 in colonies), including 448344 for counter-revolutionary crimes, 190301 for banditry, robbery and premeditated murder, 490503 for robbery, theft , embezzlement and other especially dangerous criminal offenses, 95425 - for hooliganism, 135,730 - for official, economic and other crimes. Among the prisoners held on April 1, 1954 in the GULAG, there were 1,182,759 men (87%) and 177,544 women (13%); there were 383,243 young people under the age of 25 [ibid.]. At the beginning of 1954, the average living space per prisoner was 2 square meters. However, in some places (in the camps of Dalstroy, Norilsk and Vorkuto-Pechora combines, forest camps of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), due to the insufficient number of premises, the average provision of living space was 1-1.5 m 2 [ibid.]. On April 1, 1954, among the prisoners of the GULAG, there were 55.6% fit for physical labor, 32.7% of the disabled and 11.7% of the disabled and elderly. Able-bodied prisoners were employed in the following sectors of the national economy: nonferrous metallurgy - 182 thousand, oil industry - 96 thousand, coal - 95 thousand, construction of power plants - 60 thousand; on the construction of railways - 51 thousand, in the logging camps of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 229 thousand , at the construction of Glavpromstroy and Glavspetsstroy of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs - 93 thousand, in agricultural camps of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 45 thousand, at other industrial and construction sites - 46 thousand people. The labor use of the rest of the prisoners was organized at the place of their detention in colonies and camp subdivisions, which were industrial and agricultural enterprises that carried out the established state plan with the forces of prisoners and were fully self-supporting [ibid.].
Table 5
Labor use of specialist prisoners and skilled labor in the GULAG
(as of January 1, 1947)
| Used at work | Not working for various reasons | Total | |||||
| by direct specialty | in a related specialty | in general jobs (counter-revolutionary crimes) | in general work (domestic crimes) | ||||
| Engineers | 3814 | 1535 | 499 | 187 | 118 | 6153 | |
| Technique | 3480 | 1824 | 881 | 496 | 133 | 6814 | |
| Power plant operators | 4364 | 1325 | 1036 | 1012 | 160 | 7897 | |
| Foremen | 1186 | 319 | 149 | 98 | 31 | 1783 | |
| Miners | 4090 | 446 | 422 | 425 | 67 | 5450 | |
| Woodworkers | 13223 | 1972 | 998 | 750 | 376 | 17319 | |
| Metalworkers | 37994 | 6810 | 6954 | 7762 | 1173 | 60693 | |
| Builders | 32201 | 2847 | 1989 | 1590 | 867 | 39494 | |
| Motor vehicles | 14880 | 6197 | 6531 | 8427 | 864 | 36899 | |
| Water transport | 328 | 326 | 292 | 340 | 44 | 1330 | |
| Railroad workers | 3526 | 1571 | 1449 | 1875 | 325 | 8746 | |
| Fishermen | 993 | 305 | 263 | 240 | 39 | 1840 | |
| Agricultural specialists (agronomists, etc.) | 2744 | 1081 | 1248 | 1003 | 157 | 6233 | |
| Forestry | 346 | 97 | 81 | 54 | 22 | 600 | |
| Veterinary staff | 1013 | 149 | 156 | 113 | 26 | 1457 | |
| Medical staff | 5749 | 459 | 424 | 279 | 124 | 7035 | |
| Electro-radio communication | 5064 | 1125 | 1430 | 1507 | 170 | 9296 | |
| TOTAL | 134995 | 28388 | 24802 | 26158 | 4696 | 219039 | |
| The same in% | 61,6 | 12,9 | 11,3 | 11,9 | 2,3 | 100,0 | |
In the ITL, there are three categories of regime for keeping prisoners: strict, enhanced and general. Convicted of banditry, armed robbery, premeditated murder, escapes from places of detention and incorrigible recidivist criminals were kept in a strict regime. They were heavily guarded and supervised, could not be escorted, were used mainly for heavy physical work, the most severe punishments were applied to them for refusing to work and for violating the camp regime. The reinforced regime contained those convicted of robbery and other dangerous crimes, recidivist thieves. These prisoners were also not subject to unconvoy and were used mainly for general work. The rest of the prisoners in the ITL, as well as all those in the ITK, were kept in general regime. It was allowed to unconvoy them, use them in the lower administrative and economic work in the apparatus of camp divisions and ITKs, as well as involve them in the guard and escort service for the protection of prisoners. By the Decree of March 27, 1953, all the deportees were also released ahead of schedule (the category "deported" ceased to exist) and some of the exiles. At the time of the issuance of this Decree, 13952 exiles and exiles were registered, 8042 of them were released under an amnesty, and 5910 exiles remained under supervision [ibid.]. At the end of the summer and autumn of 1953, it was planned to carry out a large-scale release of the special settlers. In April-May 1953, the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs carried out the corresponding preparatory work, drafts of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the release of special settlers were developed. From the correspondence between the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR S.N. Kruglov and L.P. Beria in April-June 1953, it is clear from the correspondence between the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR S.N. Kruglov and L.P. Beria in April-June 1953 that they intended in August to submit these projects for approval to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. They had no doubts that these decrees and resolutions would be adopted. It was planned by the end of 1953 to release about 1.7 million special settlers and temporarily, for a period of one or two years, to keep 1.1 million people on the register of special settlements, thus facilitating their regime [ibid.]. However, in connection with the arrest of L.P. Beria, there was no large-scale release of the special settlers in 1953. Moreover, such intentions were recognized as sabotage, since their implementation would lead to the resettlement of large masses of people, which would adversely affect the solution of national economic problems. True, later, in 1954-1958, life forced N.S. Khrushchev and his entourage to gradually implement Beria's plan to free the special settlers. In the mid-1950s, the number of political prisoners ("counterrevolutionaries") in the Gulag was rapidly decreasing. By the Decree of March 27, 1953, persons convicted for political reasons for terms of up to 5 years inclusive were released early. Mainly due to this, the number of political prisoners in ITL and ITK decreased from about 580 thousand in 1950-1951. to about 480 thousand in the fall of 1953. Reduction of the number of political prisoners in the Gulag in 1954-1955. went mainly due to their release after serving their sentences and, to a lesser extent, due to early release on the basis of a review of cases and an amnesty. 88278 political prisoners were released from camps and colonies ahead of schedule, of which 32798 - on the basis of a review of cases and 55480 - by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated September 17, 1955 "On the amnesty of Soviet citizens who collaborated with the occupiers during the Great Patriotic War of 1941- 1945 " After the XX Congress of the CPSU (1956), the process of early release of political prisoners on the basis of a review of cases accelerated. If on January 1, 1955, 309,088 convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes were held in camps and colonies, then on January 1, 1956 - 113,735, and on April 1, 1959 - only 11,027 people [ibid.]. During the period from April 1, 1954 to April 1, 1959, the number of political prisoners in the Gulag decreased by 40.7 times, and their share in all prisoners - from 33.0% to 1.2%. The leadership in power in the mid-50s, represented by N.S. Khrushchev, G.M. Malenkov, K.E. Voroshilov, V.M. Molotov and others, was responsible along with the late "leader of the peoples" for the past mass repression, was engaged in a generally unnatural business for itself, releasing massively political prisoners and even rehabilitating some of them (mainly from among those repressed in 1937-1938). This was in no way an act of goodwill or remorse. They proceeded from the following premise: the guarantor of the preservation of the regime and the strength of their own position as the ruling elite in this stage only the policy of liberalization (aka the policy of self-preservation) can serve, which included various measures to improve the moral and psychological climate in the country, the abolition of extrajudicial bodies, rather large steps towards the rule of law, a public renunciation of "Stalinism."
Table 6
Prisoners of camps and colonies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
(as of January 1, 1959)
| The nature of the crimes | Number, number of people | Specific weight,% |
| Counter-revolutionary crimes | 11027 | 1,2 |
| By the Decree of June 4, 1947 "On criminal liability for theft of state and public property" | 211006 | 22,2 |
| By the Decree of January 10, 1955 "On criminal liability for petty embezzlement of state and public property" | 8311 | 0,9 |
| By the Decree of June 4, 1947 "On strengthening the protection of personal property of citizens" | 296138 | 31,3 |
| By the Decree of January 4, 1949 "On the strengthening of criminal liability for rape" | 33160 | 3,5 |
| Banditry | 21384 | 2,3 |
| Intentional murder | 38055 | 4,0 |
| Intentional grievous bodily harm | 31004 | 3,3 |
| Hooliganism | 184023 | 19,4 |
| Violation of the rules for registering passports | 6842 | 0,7 |
| War crimes | 7676 | 0,8 |
| Other crimes | 99821 | 10,5 |
| TOTAL | 948447 | 100,0 |
A necessary component of liberalization (self-preservation of the totalitarian system) was also criticism of the past repressive policy and its confirmation in practice through the mass release and rehabilitation of the repressed. Moreover, the official propaganda managed to process public opinion in the spirit that, they say, mass repressions of innocent people took place only in 1937-1938, while in other periods they were almost non-existent. N.S. Khrushchev and his entourage safely dumped all responsibility for the repressions on the dead in the person of I.V. Stalin, N.I. Ezhov, L.P. Beria. In the process of moving away from repressive politics in the mid-1950s, the personal factor played an auxiliary role, since circumstances were stronger than the will and desires of individuals. We are convinced that if Stalin were alive then, he would have led the liberalization policy. Only in this case, the rehabilitated would not be called "victims of the Stalin personality cult", but, probably, "victims of the enemy of the people Yezhov." The rehabilitated communists, including the few surviving old Bolsheviks with pre-revolutionary experience, were not allowed even close to the lower echelons of the party and state power. The party and the state at all levels were undividedly controlled by people who, to one degree or another, were involved in past politics as direct or indirect executioners, or their "promotions". In the process of posthumous rehabilitation of party and state leaders, military leaders, scientists, etc., strict selectivity took place. Among other criteria was the following: a) only those who were convicted by the internal judicial or extrajudicial bodies of the USSR are subject to rehabilitation; b) those who were also convicted by the Comintern are not subject to rehabilitation. This was done in order not to put the world communist movement in an uncomfortable position. Therefore, the posthumous rehabilitation of persons (first of all, the destroyed closest associates of V. I. Lenin), to whose condemnation the Comintern was involved, was out of the question. The situation was easier with the posthumous rehabilitation of military leaders (M.N. Tukhachevsky, V.K.Blyukher, I.E. Yakir, and others), to whose condemnation the Comintern had nothing to do. Since the mid-1950s, in relation to people caught in "sedition", a kind of condescension began to appear on the part of those in power, which consisted in the fact that, for example, if earlier for an anti-collective farm anecdote or a ditty a person would certainly have received up to 10 years in camps, now he was not even arrested for it. However, this condescension had certain limits, and dissent was still not forgiven. The Gulag became a haven for a new wave of political prisoners - fighters against totalitarianism and for human rights.
TsGAOR USSR. Collection of documents.
Sociological research. 1991, No. 6 pp. 10-27; 1991, No. 7. P.3-16
* ZEMSKOV Viktor Nikolaevich - Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher at the Institute of History of the USSR of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
3.2. How many political prisoners were there in the Gulag?
In the anti-communist milieu, there is a widespread opinion that in the 1930s there were mostly political prisoners in the gulag camps (in 2007, the weekly Argumenty i Fakty published this opinion as beyond doubt), and they numbered in the millions. The total number of political prisoners in the Gulag is usually estimated by anti-communists at several tens of millions of people. So, on October 30, 2006, RTR TV journalist Dmitry Kaystro, on the Vesti program, said about the repressions: "At that time, 52 million sentences were passed in the country for political reasons."
In fact, the number of political prisoners in the Gulag was dozens of times less than the mentioned figures. V.N. Zemskov in 1993 in the magazine "Sotsis" published the following data: in total, from 1921 to February 1, 1954, 3,777,380 people were convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes, including 2,369,220 to detention in camps and prisons for a term of 25 years or less, and 765,180 people to exile and deportation ...
This means that on average, about 72 thousand people became political prisoners annually during this period.
Total number of political prisoners in places of deprivation of liberty in the USSR, broken down by year, is given in Table. 3.3.
Table 3.3. The number of prisoners in places of deprivation of liberty (as of January 1 of each year)
| Years | In the camps (ITL) | Of these, political (% of the total) | In colonies (ITKs) and prisons | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | 510 307 | 135 190 (26,5) | - | 510 307 |
| 1935 | 725 483 | 118 256 (16,3) | 240 259 | 965 742 |
| 1936 | 839 406 | 105 849(12,6) | 457 088 | 1 296 494 |
| 1937 | 820 881 | 104 826(12,8) | 375 488 | 1 196 369 |
| 1938 | 996 367 | 185 324(18,6) | 885 203 | 1 881 570 |
| 1939 | 1 317 195 | 454 432 (34,5) | 687 751 | 2 004 946 |
| 1940 | 1 344 408 | 444 999 (33,1) | 501 862 | 1 846 270 |
| 1941 | 1 500 524 | 420 293 (28,7) | 899 898 | 2 400 422 |
| 1942 | 1 415 596 | 407 988 (29,6) | 629 979 | 2 045 575 |
| 1943 | 983 974 | 345 397 (35,6) | 737 742 | 1 721 716 |
| 1944 | 663 594 | 268 861 (40,7) | 667 521 | 1 331 115 |
| 1945 | 715 505 | 289 351 (41,2) | 1 020 681 | 1 736 186 |
| 1946 | 746 871 | 333 883 (59,2) | 1 201 370 | 1 948 241 |
| 1947 | 808 839 | 427 653 (54,3) | 1 205 839 | 2 014 678 |
| 1948 | 1 108 057 | 416 156(38,0) | 1 371 852 | 2 479 909 |
| 1949 | 1 216 361 | 420 696 (34,9) | 1 371 371 | 2 587 732 |
| 1950 | 1 416 300 | 578 912* (22,7) | 1 343 795 | 2 760 095 |
| 1951 | 1 533 767 | 475 976 (31,0) | 1 159 058 | 2 692 825 |
| 1952 | 1 711 202 | 480 766 (28,1) | 946 126 | 2 657 128 |
| 1953 | 1 727 970 | 465 256 (26,9) | 892 844 | 2 620 814 |
Table data. 3.3. refute the opinion widespread among anti-communists that political prisoners predominated in the Gulag: in the 1930s, their number did not reach even a third of all prisoners. The predominance of political prisoners in places of detention was only in 1946 and 1947, when convicted Vlasovites, Bandera, "forest brothers", policemen and other evil spirits began to enter the camps. But in general in the period 1921-1953. the number of those convicted for political reasons was approximately 25% of the total number of prisoners in the Gulag.
Far from the truth are the assertions of anti-Sovietists that the majority of political prisoners in the USSR were convicted "for nothing." Here is what SN Nikiforov, who served as the prototype for Ruska Doronin in A. Solzhenitsyn's novel In the First Circle, writes about this in his memoirs, published in the journal Nash Sovremennik (No. 11, 2000): “… For eight years of imprisonment, I have not met innocent people. When we met, everyone says, and I said that they were planted for nothing. And you will get to know better, you will find out: either he served in the German army, or studied at a German intelligence school, or was a deserter ... "
The truth of the Stalinist era Litvinenko Vladimir Vasilievich
3.2. How many political prisoners were there in the Gulag?
In the anti-communist milieu, there is a widespread opinion that in the 1930s there were mostly political prisoners in the gulag camps (in 2007, the weekly Argumenty i Fakty published this opinion as beyond doubt), and they numbered in the millions. The total number of political prisoners in the Gulag is usually estimated by anti-communists at several tens of millions of people. So, on October 30, 2006, RTR TV journalist Dmitry Kaystro, on the Vesti program, said about the repressions: "At that time, 52 million sentences were passed in the country for political reasons."
In fact, the number of political prisoners in the Gulag was dozens of times less than the mentioned figures. V.N. Zemskov in 1993 in the magazine "Sotsis" published the following data: in total, from 1921 to February 1, 1954, 3,777,380 people were convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes, including 2,369,220 to detention in camps and prisons for a term of 25 years or less, and 765,180 people to exile and deportation ...
This means that on average, about 72 thousand people became political prisoners annually during this period.
The total number of political prisoners in places of deprivation of liberty in the USSR, broken down by year, is given in Table. 3.3.
Table 3.3. The number of prisoners in places of deprivation of liberty (as of January 1 of each year)
| Years | In the camps (ITL) | Of these, political (% of the total) | In colonies (ITKs) and prisons | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | 510 307 | 135 190 (26,5) | - | 510 307 |
| 1935 | 725 483 | 118 256 (16,3) | 240 259 | 965 742 |
| 1936 | 839 406 | 105 849(12,6) | 457 088 | 1 296 494 |
| 1937 | 820 881 | 104 826(12,8) | 375 488 | 1 196 369 |
| 1938 | 996 367 | 185 324(18,6) | 885 203 | 1 881 570 |
| 1939 | 1 317 195 | 454 432 (34,5) | 687 751 | 2 004 946 |
| 1940 | 1 344 408 | 444 999 (33,1) | 501 862 | 1 846 270 |
| 1941 | 1 500 524 | 420 293 (28,7) | 899 898 | 2 400 422 |
| 1942 | 1 415 596 | 407 988 (29,6) | 629 979 | 2 045 575 |
| 1943 | 983 974 | 345 397 (35,6) | 737 742 | 1 721 716 |
| 1944 | 663 594 | 268 861 (40,7) | 667 521 | 1 331 115 |
| 1945 | 715 505 | 289 351 (41,2) | 1 020 681 | 1 736 186 |
| 1946 | 746 871 | 333 883 (59,2) | 1 201 370 | 1 948 241 |
| 1947 | 808 839 | 427 653 (54,3) | 1 205 839 | 2 014 678 |
| 1948 | 1 108 057 | 416 156(38,0) | 1 371 852 | 2 479 909 |
| 1949 | 1 216 361 | 420 696 (34,9) | 1 371 371 | 2 587 732 |
| 1950 | 1 416 300 | 578 912* (22,7) | 1 343 795 | 2 760 095 |
| 1951 | 1 533 767 | 475 976 (31,0) | 1 159 058 | 2 692 825 |
| 1952 | 1 711 202 | 480 766 (28,1) | 946 126 | 2 657 128 |
| 1953 | 1 727 970 | 465 256 (26,9) | 892 844 | 2 620 814 |
Table data. 3.3. refute the opinion widespread among anti-communists that political prisoners predominated in the Gulag: in the 1930s, their number did not reach even a third of all prisoners. The predominance of political prisoners in places of detention was only in 1946 and 1947, when convicted Vlasovites, Bandera, "forest brothers", policemen and other evil spirits began to enter the camps. But in general in the period 1921-1953. the number of those convicted for political reasons was approximately 25% of the total number of prisoners in the Gulag.
Far from the truth are the assertions of anti-Sovietists that the majority of political prisoners in the USSR were convicted "for nothing." Here is what SN Nikiforov, who served as the prototype for Ruska Doronin in A. Solzhenitsyn's novel In the First Circle, writes about this in his memoirs, published in the journal Nash Sovremennik (No. 11, 2000): “… For eight years of imprisonment, I have not met innocent people. When we met, everyone says, and I said that they were planted for nothing. And you will get to know better, you will find out: either he served in the German army, or studied at a German intelligence school, or was a deserter ... "
And what about political prisoners and innocent convicts in post-Soviet Russia? There are also political prisoners now. There are still few of them, but the introduction of the law "On extremism", I think, will correct this matter over time. There are already reports in the press and on television about extremely zealous advocates of this law, like those law enforcement officials who tried to initiate an absurd criminal case "for the propaganda of Nazi symbols" against the manufacturer of German tank models (with a cross on the tower) during the Great Patriotic War (he made them for use on the filming of war films).
If the number of political prisoners in modern Russia is small, then the same cannot be said about the number of those convicted for crimes that they did not commit. Innocent convicts are reported in the media with frightening consistency. Here are some examples from the Internet:
Dmitry Aprelkov, Chita - sued the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation for 100 thousand rubles for the fact that the police, under torture, forced him to confess to a murder, which he did not commit;
Evgeny Vedenin, Tatarstan - was sentenced to 15 years by mistake for the murder of the head of Tatneft's security;
Oleg Bondarenko, Rostov - innocently convicted in May 1998 to 13 years of imprisonment on charges of murder, for almost 6 years he sought to overturn the sentence;
Dmitry Medkov, Stavropol - innocently convicted of the murder of his sister, 4 years of compulsory treatment in a special mental hospital;
Evgeny Lukin, Novosibirsk - served 5 years for a murder he did not commit;
Radiy Tuchibaev, Agapovka village, South Ural - innocently convicted of murder, which he did not commit, sued the RF Ministry of Finance for 350 thousand rubles;
Sergey Mikhailov, Lipovka village, Arkhangelsk region - innocently convicted of rape and murder of a first grader;
Konstantin Kutuzov, Volgograd - innocently convicted of illegal possession of weapons and ammunition;
Alexander Syusyaev, Nizhny Novgorod - innocently convicted of the murder of three people (22).
The weekly Argumenty i Fakty cites the story of State Duma Deputy Boris Reznik: “I headed the Board of Trustees of Prisons and Camps in the Far East in Khabarovsk. During my trips to colonies and pre-trial detention centers, I was often approached by people who did not understand why they were being imprisoned. For example, a kid with a friend made a tunnel under the stall and stole three packs of cookies - both were terribly hungry ... So the guy spent 2.5 years in the isolation ward awaiting trial! Another guy, Ivan Demuz, was accused of stealing a sack of potatoes, which he didn't actually take. In 10 months in prison, he almost went blind. Father and son Ryzhovs were imprisoned for stealing a woodpile of firewood in a village first-aid post. My father worked as a truck driver, returned home - there is a sick wife, the stove is not heated. Someone else's firewood cost almost two years in jail for the father and 4 months for his son. "
In addition, courts often do not take into account mitigating circumstances and impose excessively high penalties. For example, “... 23-year-old Muscovite Konstantin Yegorychev was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for a bottle of vodka stolen from a store worth 124 rubles. The judges did not take into account that the guy was a disabled person of the 2nd group and his mother was disabled. The fact of voluntary compensation for damage to the owners of the goods was not taken into account either. Valery Klepikovsky, a 29-year-old resident of the Arkhangelsk region, received 3 years of captivity for stealing 22 kg of meat. And again, the court did not notice that the man compensated for the damage and the injured hostess of the meat herself asked to dismiss the case. And that the "villain" is dependent on a non-working wife and a young child ... Arkhangelsk resident Alexei Shiryaev (26 years old) sat down for 3.5 years after he stole 999 rubles worth of good from someone else's apartment. Behind the thief is the traditional "baggage" for such cases: poverty, death of parents, two younger sisters and a dependent child, desperate attempts to feed ... "
It is not surprising that, according to the VTsIOM polls, 56% of Russians do not trust law enforcement agencies, and 49% do not trust the judicial system. "Arguments and Facts" summarize: "The people see: a poor commoner can be sent to jail for a mere trifle, or for nothing at all, and the one who grabbed billions gets away with it." It must also be said that acquittals are very rare in the judicial practice of modern Russia: in 2001, for example, there were 0.5% of them, and in 2002 - 0.77% (23).
In general, according to the chairman of the Committee “For Civil Rights” Andrei Babushkin, now “... about a third of our convicts have been punished either completely unlawfully, or sentenced to more severe punishment than they deserved. First of all, they are victims of miscarriage of justice or abuse. According to my estimates, 1.5-2% of the convicts. The second category is people who are really guilty, but their actions are incorrectly qualified. For example, a person committed a theft - and he is charged with robbery or robbery. There are about 15% of them. And another 15–20% of cases - when, for example, extenuating circumstances are not taken into account ”.
If we assume that only 1.5% are innocently convicted, then from 1995 to the present, from 12 thousand to 18 thousand people are convicted “for nothing” every year, that is, in “democratic Russia, more people are innocently convicted,” than it was in the Stalinist USSR.
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In a contest of liars
They say archival documents
"To the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee
to comrade Khrushchev N. S.
…
General Prosecutor R. Rudenko
Minister of Internal Affairs S. Kruglov
Minister of Justice K. Gorshenin "
Number of prisoners
Prisoner mortality
Special camps
Notes:
6. Ibid. P. 26.
9. Ibid. P. 169
24. Ibid. L.53.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid. D. 1155.L.2.
Repression
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