After the death of Joseph Stalin and the subsequent debunking of the personality cult, correctional labor institutions scattered throughout the Soviet Union began to close en masse. What was the fate of the former places of detention?
Short story
The emergence of the camp system began immediately after the Bolsheviks came to power. The fight against the counter-revolution resulted in a large number of prisoners.
When the camps of the young country became completely full, the government transferred them under the control of the Cheka. The head of the department, "Iron Felix" (Dzerzhinsky), used the labor of prisoners in the construction of the destroyed state. Thanks to his efforts, the number of camps increased from 22 to 122. By the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, a system was formed, especially beloved by the “father of nations”, JV Stalin. All major construction projects of the 30-40s were carried out by the hands of the prisoners. During the period of mass repressions in the camps, one could meet both criminals and representatives of the intelligentsia suspected of treason. During the period of the GULAG existence (1930-1956), according to various estimates, from 6 to 30 million people passed through the system.
Road on bones
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The 1600 km long route connecting Magadan and Yakutsk got its name due to the mass deaths of prisoners laying it. Camping points were located every 10-15 km.
Along the entire route there were boardwalks, along which thousands of wheelbarrows with sand and gravel moved from the hills. Columns with prisoners moved around the clock. Since 1932, about 800 thousand people have been involved in the work. The daily death rate reached 25 people a day. In connection with the construction of the federal highway, the old road fell into disrepair, but to this day human remains are found there.
Mine "Dneprovsky"
In 1928, a gold deposit was found in Kolyma. The decision to conduct mining in the harsh territories was made in 1931, when the first prisoners arrived. In the early 40s, geologists discovered a tin deposit in these places.
A six-hour drive from Magadan is a well-preserved camp, consisting of many wooden buildings. The camp got its name from the left tributary of the Nerenga River. "Especially dangerous" war criminals were sent here with terms of 10 years or more. Both criminals and "enemies of the people" worked at the ore sites. In addition to Soviet citizens, the Greeks, Serbs, Hungarians, Finns and Japanese mined tin. The main tools of labor were scrap, pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. The surface of the hill is lined with grooves left by wheelbarrow wheels. The norm was 80 wheelbarrows a day, regardless of the season or weather.
Solovki
A monastery was included in the territory of the Solovetsky special purpose camp, the main symbol of the GULAG of the 1920s. The ancient symbol of mercy (founded in 1429) served as a barrack and saw a lot of human suffering. The bulk of the prisoners were representatives of the old, pre-revolutionary intelligentsia: scientists, writers, financiers, lawyers, etc.
The total number of those who passed the Solovetsky camp was about 70 thousand people. The official number of those killed or died is 7000 people, almost half of whom were carried away by the famine of 1933. The camp was disbanded in 1933, and now only the Transfiguration Monastery remains there.
Perm-36
Former law enforcement officers and political prisoners were sent to a forced labor camp located on the territory of the Kuchino village of the Perm region.
In the 70s, when the institution was assigned the serial number 389/36, the name "Perm 36" appeared. The colony was disbanded in 1988. A few years later, the colony's barracks, towers, signal, communication and warning structures were restored and a Memorial Museum was opened on the site of the former camp.
Salavat construction gulag
Ten camps of the system were located on the territory of Bashkiria. The most terrible of them was located at the foot of Mount Toratau (Sterlitamak region). Three thousand people worked on the extraction and burning of limestone, from whom the shackles were never removed. The mountain waters constantly flooded the barracks, and prisoners died of dampness, hunger and cold. From the "death camp", liquidated in 1953, only remnants of the walls that had grown into the ground remained.
Karlag
In conclusion, I would like to tell you about an institution located on the territory of the modern Republic of Kazakhstan, in the Karaganda region. Several camps of the system were located in Kazakhstan, Karagandinsky became one of the largest and existed from 1930 to 1959. The population, which previously lived in the territory of three districts of the region, was forcibly evicted under the guise of a struggle against collectivization and, accordingly, confiscation of property. The labor of prisoners recognized as unreliable was used at the enterprises of the coal and metallurgical industries.
Karlag was then subordinate to the Main Directorate of Correctional Institutions and was a small state - it consisted of 20 departments, including more than 150 precincts. The Karlag farm had more than 17 thousand heads of cattle, more than 200 thousand sheep, almost 6 thousand horses and about 4 thousand oxen. In addition, 17 garden and arable plots were located on its territory. The industry of Central Kazakhstan was created by the forces of political prisoners: the Dzhezkazgan and Balkhash copper-smelting plants, the Karaganda coal basin. The memory of the grandiose construction is immortalized in the Memorial Museum, located in the village of Dolinka, where the administrative buildings of the camp, which claimed thousands of lives, were previously located.
Olga Borisova