The True Purpose of the Gulags - Research Paper Example

Introduction The Gulag can be defined as, "the government agency that administered to penal labor camps of the Soviet Union; it is the acronym for - , Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitel'no-Trudovykh Lagerey i koloniy, in English: 'The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies' of the NKVDOver time the term acquired a more general meaning of the whole system of penal labor in the Soviet Union and in some other places (by metonymy)" (Wikipedia 2008, p. 1). The purpose of this paper is to determine to what extent the Gulags were under Stalin Death camps rather than labor Camps. Investigation To what extent were the Gulags Stalin Death camps rather than labor camps Although the Gulags were designed to just be labour camps, or at least it was claimed that they were, they were actually more like death camps. In some instances, they were actually used as death camps by literally working people to death intentionally, while in other cases people simply died because of the heavy demands and harsh conditions. Entire ethnic groups and races, such as Jews and Polish workers, were sent to these harsh labour camps to work until they died or at least wished to themselves that they would die to escape their miserable fate (Britannica Online 2008, Conquest 1991, and Noble 1961). The aim of this investigation is to evaluate the true purpose of the Gulags under the rule of Stalin. The investigation will cover the development of the Gulags, how they were used for different purposes, what work people were made to do in them, who were put in the Gulags, and how many people died. An analysis of these sections should indicate the extent to which these camps were actually death camps rather than labour camps. Much of the research will come from the following sources: Gulag: A History, by Applebaum; The Great Terror, by Conquest; and Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, by Montefiorte. Summary of Evidence 1. Conditions in the Gulags The conditions in the Gulags were horrendous and of slave proportions. People were allowed to wear very little clothing, if any, and it was in terrible shape. Many nude photos of prisoners slaving away in the camps exist today; all one has to do is perform a quick keyword search on the Internet (Applebaum, 2005). The labor that they were subjected to was extremely harsh compared to anything that would be seen today. For example, prisoners were made to lag around large boulders, work in areas where heavy things were likely to fall on them, haul large amounts of lumber, and much more back-breaking work. They were fed very little and their meager meals in combination with the hard labor they were performing led to them being very skinny and unhealthy (Applebaum, 2005). Many times, it became physically impossible for a prisoner to handle the exhaustive physical labor and he simply could not go on. These prisoners were often whipped or beaten to death because it was taken by those who ran the labor camp that the person was refusing to follow orders. Other punishments were dealt out to these individuals as well, including starvation and isolation (Applebaum, 2005). These labor camps appear to be quite similar to Hitler's concentration camps in which many Jews perished. The main difference appears to be that the labor camps were punishment (and death) camps for the unlawful, while the concentration camps were death camps for the Jewish. In both, people were herded to them by the thousands, forced to work beyond what their bodies could handle, and were punished or killed as a result. People were lined up and shot execution style. People were herded into gas chambers. Some were just worked in the harsh weather conditions until they just fell over dead. 2. Development of the Gulags Individual camps were grouped together in what were called camp complexes. It is estimated that at least 476 of these complexes existed. Within the complexes were somewhere between 100 to over 1,000 different camps. Some camps were considered to be worse than others, with the top three on that list being Kolyma, Norilsk and Vorkuta, probably because they were built in extremely cold areas that were located above the frigid and almost intolerable Arctic Circle (Plamper 2002, Werth 1999, Spartacus 2008 and Library of Congress 1998). "The legal base and the guidance for the creation of the system of 'corrective labor camps', the backbone of what is commonly referred to as the 'Gulag', was a secret decree of Sovnarkom of July 11, 1929 about the utilization of penal labor that duplicated the corresponding appendix to the minutes of Politburo meeting of June 27, 1929. As an all-Union institution and a main administration with the OGPU (the Soviet secret police), the GULAG was officially established on April 25, 1930 as the 'ULAG' by the OGPU order 130/63 in accordance with the Sovnarkom order 22 p. 248 dated April 7, 1930, and was renamed into GULAG in November" (Wikipedia 2008, p.1). The locations of the camps were chosen based on how isolated an area was for the prisoners to work in (Applebaum 2005). 3. How They Were Used for Different Purposes "Although Gulag was originally the name of the Soviet government agency responsible for managing the labor camps, the word acquired also the meaning of the system of Soviet prison-based unfree labor, including labor camps, punishment camps, criminal and political camps, women- and children-specific camps and transit camps. Eventually, Gulag has come to mean the Soviet repressive system, the set of procedures usually called meat-grinder by the prisoners and its consequences, such as the arrests, interrogations, transport (usually in unheated cattle cars), forced labor, separation of families, exile, and early deaths" (Wikipedia 2008, p. 1). The conditions at all of the camps were harsh, but some were clearly harsher than others. Shortages of food, improper clothing, overcrowding, extreme temperatures, bad hygiene, and poor healthcare plagued every single one of the camps (Applebaum 2003, Ciszek 1997, Gregory and Lazarev 2003, and Ginzberg 1982 and 2002). 4. What Work People Were Made to Do in Them Most of the work prisoners performed was construction related. The idea was to build large groups of workers in remote areas that would work for cheap or no wages. These prisoners even worked on some projects that are still famous today, such as the Moscow Metro and Moscow State University. The work performed by prisoners in the gulags was very similar to the type of work performed by slaves during the same time period in the United States. It was the Industrial Revolution and manual labor was needed in large amounts. If businesses or the government could get it really cheap or even free, they thought that was even better (Fairfax Digital 2004, Herling-Grudzinkski 1996, and Kizny 2004). 5. Who Were Put in the Gulags Although most prisoners housed in the Gulags were not there for crimes of a political nature, there were quite a few individuals who were. Over half of these people were simply presumed guilty of some crime and sent to live in the camps with no trial whatsoever. There were three types of Gulag inmates: kulaks, osadniks, and ukazniks. Many individuals had either Jewish or Polish backgrounds. More of this is discussed in the review of Applebaum's book below (Rossi 1989, Shumuk 1984, Dolgun and Watson 1975, and Getty and Naumov 1999). 6. How Many People Died It is estimated that approximately 1.76 million people died in these camps between the years of 1930 and 1953 and that somewhere near 30 million people passed through these camps at one point or another, at least taking with them sadness and scars if they were lucky enough to be released because of good behavior or high performance marks. However, even those that did eventually escape were marked for life, and not only emotionally and physically. They had a great deal of trouble finding employment because of their prison camp record that could not be erased. Prisoners whom had been released were extremely limited in the types of jobs that they could take when they finally did reach their long-sought freedom (Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office 2005 and Essortment 2008). There was a peak in the number of death cases between the years of 1934 and 1940. The cultural impact of the Gulag was also enormous, causing mass migration and upheaval. More of this is discussed in the review of Applebaum's book below (Shalamov 1995, George Mason University 2008, and Khlevniuk 2004). Evaluation of Sources The picture below indicates prisoners constructing Belomorkanal. As one can see, the physical requirements of this labor are really taking its toll on their bodies. Furthermore, the conditions appear to be extremely dangerous. In the photo, the prisoners, who don't look very strong at all, are using some sort of crude device in order to move a large rock. If the load shifted, it could cause serious injury or even be fatal to anyone in the photo. From the way that the prisoners are dressed, it appears that they are working in some very harsh conditions (Wikipedia 2008). (Wikipedia 2008) Applebaum, Anne. "Gulag: A History." 2003. Broadway Books "It was the branch of the State Security that operated the penal system of forced labour camps and associated detention and transit camps and prisons. While these camps housed criminals of all types, the Gulag system has become primarily known as a place for political prisoners and as a mechanism for repressing political opposition to the Soviet state. Though it imprisoned millions, the name became familiar in the West only with the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 1973 The Gulag Archipelago, which likened the scattered camps to a chain of islands" (Applebaum 2003, p. 720). Analysis The labor camps in the Soviet Union were in operation for over 60 miserable years. During this unforgettable and painful time period, almost 30 million prisoners were forced through. This demonstrates that a centralized and regulated prison labor system stemmed from the Russian Revolution. Applebaum tells the story of the Gulag drawing from archives, personal interviews with survivors, and artifacts (Applebaum 2003). The Gulag peaked in the 1950's, at which points camps were located throughout the country. Construction, mining, and other heavy industries took a great deal of the slave labor, but did not constitute the entire force. Prisoners also made almost every consumer product imaginable, from lamps to toys. Applebaum also explains how amazing science and engineering breakthroughs stemmed directly from work performed inside the labor camps (Applebaum 2003). Applebaum tells readers all about what it was like for prisoners as they dared to survive the harsh conditions in the camps, such as survival strategies, women and children and what they experienced, marriages, sex, rebellions, escapes, and strikes. The camps significantly contributed to the culture, politics, and economy of Russia (Applebaum 2003). The sad part is that, even though this was a horrible time period filled with harsh labor, disease, and famine, very few people actually know about it. Almost anyone can be asked about the Holocaust and recall a list of facts about it, but the same is not true with the Gulags. Applebaum does a fantastic job of describing just how monstrous, horrifying and tortuous the Gulags were, and her books are among the very small list of literature available on the subject. She covers the time period from its very beginning until it was eliminated by Gorbachev (Applebaum 2003). Conclusion Individuals who were sent to the Gulags experienced extremely harsh conditions. Prisoners did not have adequate food or clothing, which was particularly horrible considering the extremely cold weather that they were exposed to. Not only were they exposed to harsh elements, but many of them were also physically abused by prison guards. There was a high death rate due to disease and pure exhaustion. The number of Gulag camps and prisoners reduced significantly after Stalin died in 1953 and were completely eliminated by Gorbachev. The fact that many prisoners were actually worked to death speaks as evidence that these labor camps were actually more like death camps (Montefiore 2004 and Mitchinson 2003). Bibliography Applebaum, Anne. "Gulag: A History." 2003. Broadway Books. P. 72. Applebaum, Anne. "The Gulag: Lest We Forget." 2005. Hoover Digest. Online. http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3001971.html Applebaum, Anne. "Gulag: Understanding the Magnitude of What Happened." 2003. The Heritage Foundation. Online. http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/HL-800.cfm Ciszek, Walter. "With God in Russia." 1997. Ignatius Press, pp. 1-433. Conquest, Robert. "The Great Terror." 1991. Oxford University Press. Pp. 1-534 Dolgun, Alexander and Patrick Watson. "Alexander Dolgun's Story: An Americal in the Gulag." 1975. Knopf. pp. 1-370 Getty, J. Arch and Oleg V. Naumov. "The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. 1999. Yale University Press. Pp. 1-640. Ginzburg. "Journey Into the Whirlwind." 2002. Harvest/HBJ Books. Pp. 1-432. Ginzburg, "Within the Whirlwind." 1982. Harvest/HBJ Books. Pp. 1-438. Gregory, Paul and Valery Lazarev (eds). "The Economics of Forced Labour: The Soviet Gulag." 2003. Hoover Institution Press. Pp. 1-332. "Gulag." 2008. Britannica Online. Online. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9038473/Gulag "Gulag." Wikipedia. P. 1. 2008. Online. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag "The Gulag." Part 1. 2008. Library of Congress. Online. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/gula.html "The Gulag." Part 2. 2008. Library of Congress. Online. http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/gulag.html "Gulag: Just the Ticket for Russian Tourists." 2004. Fairfax Digital. Online. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/04/1088879370907.html "The Gulag Study." 2005. Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office. Online. http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/sovietunion/gulag_study.htm Herling-Grudzinkski, Gustaw. "A World Apart: Imprisonment in a Soviet Labor Camp During World War II. 1996. Penguin. Pp. 1-284. "History of the Soviet Russian Gulag." 2008. Essortment. Online. http://msms.essortment.com/historyrussiag_rfpb.htm "Introduction: Stalin's Gulag." 2008. George Mason University. Online. http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/ Khlevniuk, Oleg V. "The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror." 2004. Yale University Press. Pp. 1-464. Kizny, Thomas. "Gulag: Life and Death Inside the Soviet Concentration Camps 1917-1990. 2004. Firefly Books. Pp. 1-496. Mitchinson, Paul. "Gulag's Haunting Legacy." 2003. Orwell Today. Online. http://www.orwelltoday.com/gulagbook.shtml Montefiore, Simon Sebag. "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar." 2004. Knopf. pp. 1-848 Noble, John H. "I Was a Slave in Russia." 1961. Cicero Bible Press. Pp. 1-182. Plamper, Jan. "Foucault's Gulog." 2002. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 3(2). Online. http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/kritika/ Rossi, Jacques. "The Gulag Handbook: An Encyclopedia Dictionary of Soviet Penitentiary Institutions and Terms Related to Forced Labour Camps." 1989. Pp. 1-610. Shalamov, Varlam. "Kolyma Tales." 1995. Penguin Books. Pp. 1-528. Shumuk, Danylo. "Life Sentence: Memoirs of a Ukrainian Political Prisoner." 1984.. Institute of Ukranian Study. Pp. 1-401 "Soviet Gulags." 2008. Spartacus. Online. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSgulags.htm Werth, Nicholas. "A State Against Its People: Violence, Repression, and Terror in the Soviet Union," in Stephane Courtois et al., eds., The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. 1999. Harvard University Press. pp. 1-912. Read More