The most famous prisons in the Soviet Union. Prison of the Peoples of the USSR The USSR is not a prison

"Duel" introduced readers to the procedure for keeping prisoners in penitentiary institutions (PIN) in the United States. How prisoners (prisoners) were kept in "Christ-loving" tsarist Russia can be learned from the still available publications of Russian and Soviet classical realists and progressive publicists.

Since the ideological and practical resuscitation of the regime of bourgeois Russia of the presidential-monarchical type and the revival of the old pre-Soviet orders, including in the UIN, is currently underway, it is not difficult to imagine how it was then and already is. Moreover, there are many pictures of today's detention of prisoners. The rest is easy to figure out.

How were criminals kept in the Gulag? There are a lot of fictions and insinuations on this topic, and nothing concrete. There were few people in prisons then, the people did not want to support parasites, and the government of the USSR knew this. All those capable of labor participated in socially useful work, even old people by force of habit and children for the purpose of education. It could not be otherwise: the state and property, except for personal property, were public property.

I will describe the correctional labor camp (ITL) of the general regime, in which I had to live for several years in the 40-50s, while serving my sentence. Before I ended up in it after the trial (all the convicts were eager to get into the ITL as soon as possible), I had to visit several prisons and transit camps. It turned out that all the existing prisons in the USSR for that (Stalinist) period were built under the tsars from Catherine's times (with some improvements in the sanitary and household plan), and the transportation of prisoners by rail was carried out in Stolypin prison cars inherited by the Soviet government from the "great reformer". If you believe the bourgeois ideologists, at that time the entire population of the USSR was divided into two main groups: prisoners and the security-repressive apparatus.

Surprisingly: the population in the country grew, labor camps were built or liquidated, and the NKVD made do with the prisons that were under the tsar, observing the sanitary standards for keeping prisoners (and this with an ever-increasing number of prisoners?). The camp singer from the prisoners, the writer A. Solzhenitsyn could see or hear all this, but "shamefully" is silent about many things in his books, leaning only on the theme of the cruelty of the NKVD and slightly paying tribute to the scoundrels from the inveterate criminals. Yes, the NKVD of the USSR in terms of rudeness and cruelty is no match for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and this is shown almost every day on TV in various reports. And the Soviet policeman even had a pistol in rarity, and no one had heard of batons.

So, the ITL of general regime was designed for 3 thousand prisoners, usually 2.5-2.8 thousand people were kept with a sentence of 1 to 25 years with one or two convictions. They sat from petty thieves and swindlers to unintentional killers and "heroes" of the present day - under Article 58 of the Criminal Code. There were only 5 political people, mainly for anti-Soviet agitation, according to the camp - talkers. They kept apart even among themselves, and they did not like them all - either for selfishness and arrogance, or for being anti-state. The darkest convicts understood the danger of such people for society, for the people as a whole, especially for workers. All the convicts, except for the rapists, who were also few, to the question among themselves, "what are you sitting for?" they answered briskly: "not for x ..." This "not for x ..." pulled a pickpocket for a purse with a salary, a baker for several tons of flour due to "baking", a driver for a car of someone else's forest, grain , cement, etc. The director, accountant or warehouse manager's "cases" were more impressive.

And in ITL, people differed from each other in nature, worldview, attitude to work, and those around them. The regulars of today's television screen and the political scene, all these Chernomyrdins and swans, Pozners and Chernichenkos, Stepashins and Bryntsalovs, no matter what they wear and what words they say, are typical classic images of recidivist criminals. Former workers of trade, public catering, suppliers, purveyors, consumer cooperatives, former "creators" and managers strove to evade their main work by getting a job in the camp service (remember the librarian of the ITK Yu. . It's like "in stagnation": I'll go to the chiefs or watchman - at least for a small salary, but "not dusty."

ITL serviced a state construction site of all-Union significance. He had a residential area and a construction site where three labor camps worked. There was no convoy, they went to work in teams along the corridor, fenced with a fence. In the residential area, in addition to the capital one- and two-story dormitories-barracks, there were: 2 canteens (commercial with a menu, both at liberty and for money, and camp - free); 2 stores with mixed goods (food - butter, margarine, gingerbread, cookies, bagels, white and black bread, sugar and sweets, canned food and food concentrates, tobacco, often boiled sausage and cheese; manufactured goods in the form of clothes, shoes, underwear, haberdashery, everything that men need in everyday life); a bakery, a bathhouse, a laundry, a hospital with its own kitchen, a club (with two amateur orchestras, a choir, dancers and cinema on weekends and holidays), a library, an educational and consulting center of the regional correspondence secondary school with classes and teachers who come from outside, a punishment cell (shizo) where convicts, mostly from thieves, ended up for a gross violation of the camp regime or repeated crimes, which was rare. At the watch (the camp gate and the checkpoint) there were rooms for personal visits for several days with relatives. Of course, not Sochi, but everything is human.

The camp area had its own streets, green spaces, flower beds, benches for sitting, outdoor toilets. Movement on the territory of the ITL is free around the clock, at the exit from the dormitory-barrack, a prison guard was on duty around the clock. They and their assistants stoked stoves, did dry and wet tidying. There were no bedbugs and cockroaches, unlike Moscow hospitals and hotels. The external protection of the ITL was carried out by conscripts from the NKVD VV. The camp administration was made up of fit middle-aged officers and sergeants, many of the front-line soldiers. There were no physical punishments, the guilty convicts were isolated in a shizo.

In the dormitories there are bunk beds of a soldier's type, a standard set of beds (a mattress, a blanket, a pillow, two sheets, a towel), bunk bedside tables with locks (although there was no theft), tables in the aisles and near the walls, shelves for personal belongings and books on free piers. At the entrance to the hut there is a partition - a dryer for shoes and clothes. Each barracks housed 80-100 people or 2-4 brigades. The brigade chose a brigadier from among their midst, with subsequent approval by the administration and a cook-balander (they dined at the facility in a temporary brigade house, the balancer received food for cooking in the kitchen of the camp canteen). All convicts received food according to the established norms (the patients received a diet) and clothing allowances (underwear, a cotton suit, a cotton pea jacket, leather shoes, a hat with earflaps, a peaked cap, footcloths). I do not remember the case that there were interruptions in food or clothing. Depending on the work performed, they received overalls: felt boots, sheepskin coats, raincoats, rubber or tarpaulin boots, canvas or cloth trousers and jackets. Working day 8 hours with weekends and holidays. Occupational health and safety was strictly observed. The food included vegetables, cereals, fish (cod), meat and bones, oddly enough for some, people worked. Reefia pensioners can only envy the GULAG convicts in the USSR. And indeed it is.

For each brigade, a time sheet and orders for the performance of production tasks were kept (in the absence of additional offices and accountants). When the monthly plan was fulfilled by more than 100%, each member of the brigade (in the absence of violation of the regime) received offsets one to three (one to two, etc.), i.e., another 46-52 days of offsets were added to the 30 calendar days of the month (worked 26 days a month - 82 days off the deadline). When paying salaries, after deductions from it for maintenance in the ITL, the convict was given 50% of the remaining money into his hands, the other 50% went to the personal account until release (in special cases, part was transferred to the family).

Change of underwear and bed linen and bath after 10 days. In special cases - more often, catering and bakery workers - a bath every day. (Today, in the best Moscow hospitals, bed linen is changed every 15-20 days). Then all the laws, norms and rules of the state were observed hour by hour from the moment of being taken into custody, exactly according to the verdict of the court. There was no need to play a farce with the participation of convicts in the power elections, because no one was looking for at least formal additional votes and populism. There were no restrictions on postal correspondence.

From time to time, small groups of thieves (thieves, bitches, Makhnovists, Chechens, etc.) gathered in the camp, which existed illegally, since the ITL task force seemed to know their business and from time to time sent members of these groups to different camps . Only the Chechen group existed legally as a national group with all the signs of a "suit". This group once staged a knife fight with thieves in law. During its suppression, the ITL administration did not use weapons.

Next to my bunk was a Lithuanian Ionis Bradis. Officially, he had his first conviction. In reality, he managed to sit in tsarist Russia, in bourgeois Lithuania, with the Nazis during the occupation of Lithuania. Laughing at himself, he said that he managed to deceive all the previous authorities, and only under the Soviet regime was he convicted for the entire volume of thefts (for the fourth time). It seems that Bradis, with all the authorities, was haunted by an irrepressible feeling of the owner.

Another neighbor, a 25-year-old Moscow pickpocket, already then expressed the secret dreams of modern Moscow democrats about the freedom of theft, speculation, fraud, and the freedom of love.

I was already released from another ITL with the same orders as in the previous one. Only the construction object is larger - the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station. I remember one episode. On a summer day, V.M. Molotov, a member of the USSR Government, got acquainted with the course of affairs at the construction of the hydroelectric power station. His visit was fundamentally different from visits of this level in the Khrushchev-Brezhnev era, with their pomposity and crowded retinues. Accompanied by an engineer from Kuibyshevgidrostroy (the head of construction was minding his own business, and it was not customary to organize fawning then), one journalist from Pravda, and two in civilian clothes, apparently from the guards, Molotov freely walked around a huge pit filled with thousands of convicts on cars, bulldozers, cranes, among carpenters with axes, welders, concrete workers - around iron, stones. Where does this confidence come from? There were different people among us, perhaps unfairly convicted, just urks or scoundrels by nature. Today, the figures of the Russian Federation of such a rank, if they are somewhere, are certainly accompanied by hundreds of guards and surrounded by a select audience. The owner of the Moscow or Saratov mess has more guards than the first people of the state then.

First, the Bolsheviks were generally honest and courageous people. They overthrew power from below without their corrupt KGB. To be afraid of the people for whose benefit you work?

Secondly, even then Molotov was a legend on the world political arena, outplaying all the Chamberlains, Churchills, Dulles, and was popular among the people, including among us. Years later, when public students like Gorbachev-Posner, student-athletes like Yeltsin came into politics, the Motherland was doomed.

At that time, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR was Kruglov, who was later removed from work by the Khrushchevites for allegedly poorly delivered educational work in the ITL and sent to a beggarly pension. That this is not so, I know for myself - the reason for the dismissal is far-fetched. And no general-historian like the notorious D. Volkogonov, or V. Nekrasov, at least three times an academician, will convince me that this is so. After Kruglov, ITL became ITK. That's when the decomposition of the prisoners and their educators began.

V.P. Konovalov

Again, in the comments, the question was raised that the word "concentration camp" is supposedly a sign of a fake in scans with concentration camp execution plans:
(see cipher No. 4)

However, after more than a year of reading collections of Soviet documents, I no longer have reason to be surprised at such a word. A concentration camp, or in full - a concentration camp - was the OFFICIAL name for one of the terrorist repressions that the Bolsheviks used against the people, against those who were called their enemies - even without any specific fault. The same hostages, up to children, were sent to concentration camps. And they did not hide their actions at all and published their decisions with these "concentration camps" in the press.

Pay attention to the text of the famous "decree 7/8 on spikelets" - in the post I have a scan of the newspaper in Ukrmov, where these concentration camps are translated as "concentration camps":

doc. No. 160
Decree of the Central Executive Committee and Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the protection of property of state enterprises, collective farms and cooperation and the strengthening of public (socialist) property"
August 7, 1932

Recently, workers and collective farmers complained about the theft (theft) of goods on railway and water transport and theft (theft) of cooperative and collective farm property by hooligan and generally anti-social elements. Complaints about violence and threats of kulak elements against collective farmers who do not want to leave the collective farms and honestly and selflessly work to strengthen the latter have also become more frequent.

The Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR consider that public property (state, collective farm, cooperative) is the basis of the Soviet system, it is sacred and inviolable, and people who encroach on public property should be regarded as enemies of the people, which is why a decisive struggle with plunderers of public property is the first duty of the organs of Soviet power.

Proceeding from these considerations and meeting the demands of the workers and collective farmers. The Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decide:

I
1. To equate the importance of cargo on rail and water transport to state property and to strengthen the protection of these cargoes in every possible way.
2. To apply as a measure of judicial repression for theft of goods on railway and water transport the highest measure of social protection - execution with confiscation of all property and with replacement, under extenuating circumstances, by imprisonment for a term of at least 10 years with confiscation of property.
3. Do not apply amnesty to criminals convicted in cases of theft of goods in transport.

II
1. Equate the value of the property of collective farms and cooperatives (harvest in the fields, public stocks, livestock, cooperative warehouses and shops, etc.) with state property and strengthen the protection of this property from plunder in every possible way.
2. To apply as a measure of judicial repression for theft (theft) of collective farm and cooperative property the highest measure of social protection - execution with confiscation of all property and with replacement, under mitigating circumstances, by imprisonment for a term of at least 10 years with confiscation of all property.
3. Do not apply amnesty to criminals convicted in cases of theft of collective farm and cooperative property.

III
1. To wage a resolute struggle against those anti-social kulak-capitalist elements who use violence and threats or advocate the use of violence and threats against collective farmers in order to force the latter to leave the collective farm, with the aim of forcibly destroying the collective farm. Equate these crimes with state crimes.
2. Apply as a measure of judicial repression in cases of protecting collective farms and collective farmers from violence and threats from kulak and other antisocial elements imprisonment from 5 to 10 years with imprisonment concentration camp.
3. Do not apply amnesty to criminals convicted in these cases.
SZ. 1932. No. 62. Art. 360.

PEASANT UPRISING IN THE TAMBOV PROVINCE IN 1919-1921 (Documents and materials), TAMBOV, 1994
http://www.tstu.ru/win/kultur/other/antonov/titul.htm

http://www.tstu.ru/win/kultur/other/antonov/raz258.htm
N 258
Summary of the head of the special department of the gubchek to the special department of the army on the number and composition of prisoners in concentration camps
July 9, 1921
B-urgent
I inform you that on 9/7/21 there are people arrested in the concentration camp
1605, of which: bandits who voluntarily appeared - 86, bandits captured during operations - 391, deserters who voluntarily appeared - 74, deserters captured - 132, hostages - 796, spies - 18, various - 16, members of the STK - 10 , agitators - 18, vokhra - 5, hiders of bandits 11 and 51 - their crimes have not been established. Departed from the concentration camp to the [restant's] house - a bandit", captured - 2, members of the [s.-r.] - 2 and members of the STK - 2, who arrived on the lists of the [restant's] house OO-2"". concentration camp arrived: bandits who voluntarily appeared - 20, bandits captured during operations - 95, deserters who voluntarily appeared - 5, deserters captured - 21, hostages - 52, members of the STK - 8, agitators - 14, hiders of bandits - 11 and unspecified crimes - 51.
Department Head Minchuk
GATO. F.R.-4049. Op.1. D.31. L.538. Script.
"The figure is illegible.
"" Special department of the 2nd combat unit.

N 259
From the report of the chairman of the authorized "five" at a meeting of the Kirsanovskaya precinct political commission on punitive measures against the rebels
July 10, 1921
The operation to clear the villages of the Kurdyukovskaya volost began on June 27 from the village of Osinovka, which was previously a frequent residence of gangs. The mood of the peasants towards those who arrived for the operation was incredulously expectant: they did not give out gangs, they answered all the questions asked with ignorance.
Up to 40 hostages were taken, the village was declared in a state of siege, cordoned off by Red Army units, orders were issued setting a 2-hour deadline for issuing bandits and weapons with a warning - for failure to comply hostages will be shot.
(...) public execution, furnished with all the formalities, in the presence of all members of the "five", representatives, commanders of units, etc., made an amazing impression on the citizens.
At the end of the execution, the crowd was noisy, there were exclamations: "Because of them, the damned, we are suffering, give out who knows!", "Enough to be silent!" Permission has been granted.
The peasants, divided into 3 groups, went to look for weapons and catch the bandits. On June 28, the population delivered 3 rifles dug out of the ground and 5 bandits, regardless of this, the search for bandits was carried out by the operational unit of the "five" (special department), 7 bandits were caught.
In order to improve the health of the village, the families of the executed hostages, as well as the hiding bandits, were seized and sent to concentration camps.
Active bandits were shot - 9, bandits without weapons - 14 voluntarily appeared, with weapons - 6, families were confiscated - 39, with a total number of members up to 180 people.

Subsequently, the operation was carried out in the village of Kurdyuki, where the population, without waiting for the verdict and orders, on their own initiative began to catch the bandits, and all the families with relatives of the bandits appeared themselves for registration and indicated the period of their stay in the gang. In view of this attitude of the peasants, executions were not carried out. 39 hostages were taken from the families of the missing bandits, who were sent to concentration camp.

A different attitude on the part of the peasants was met in the village of Kareevka, 4 versts from Kurdyukov, where, due to the convenient territorial position, there was a convenient place for the bandits to stay permanently: their headquarters stopped, there was a mobilization department, and even 24 hours before the arrival of the "five" was one of the prominent leaders of the Antonov gang, Ishin, with a group of 25 people.
Taking this into account, the "five" decided to destroy this village - 2nd Kareevka (65 - 70 households), evicting the entire population and confiscating their property, with the exception of the families of the Red Army, who were resettled in the village of Kurdyuki and placed in huts confiscated from gangster families.
Strictly after the seizure of valuable materials - window frames, glass, log cabins, etc. - the village was set on fire. During the fire, whole packs of cartridges were torn and strong explosions similar to bomb explosions were noticed.
Such a measure made a huge impression on the entire region. The rest of the villages adjacent to Kareevka, such as Shabolovka, Kashirka and others, also began to prepare for eviction, representatives came asking for pardon, the representatives were told that their salvation was the extradition of bandits and the surrender of weapons by the latter.
The results of the operation: 80 families with a total number of members of 300 people were evicted in Kurdyuki and Kareevka, 150 bandits appeared voluntarily, 41 of them with weapons. They were whole groups of 15 people, the turnout continues.
The population takes part in the protection of the villages, voluntarily accepts our units for allowance, asks to leave them as long as possible, not to withdraw, they finally recoiled from the gang.

On July 3, an operation began in the village of Bogoslovka. It is rare to see such a closed and well-organized peasantry. When talking with the peasants, from the young to the old man, whitened with gray hair, all as one on the issue of bandits excused themselves with complete ignorance and even answered with inquiring surprise: “We don’t have bandits”, “Once they passed by, but we don’t even know well whether they are bandits or someone else, we live peacefully, we don't bother anyone and we don't know anyone."
The same techniques were repeated as in Osinovka, 58 hostages were taken. On July 4, the first batch of 21 people was shot, on July 5 - 15 people, seized 60 gangster families up to 200 people.
(...)
Chairman of the Plenipotentiary "Five" Uskonin

GATO. F.R.-4049. Op.1. D.1. L.381 about. Certified copy.
http://www.tstu.ru/win/kultur/other/antonov/raz295.htm
N 295
From the minutes of the meeting of the Tambov political commission on the return of property to the families of the participants in the rebellion
N 19
August 16, 1921
...3. Heard: On the return of property to the families of bandits released from concentration camps.
Decided: Due to the fact that in most cases we distributed the confiscated property of the families of bandits sent to concentration camp For honest and poor citizens and with the return of families, it is difficult to collect all the property in general, it is difficult to petition the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the non-return of the confiscated property to the released families of bandits (219).
Chairman of the political commission Smolensky
Secretary Manukhin
GATO. F.R.-4049. Op.1. D.4. L.26 about. Script.

http://www.tstu.ru/win/kultur/other/antonov/pril5.htm
N 2
Synopsis of accusations on the connection of the murdered bandits of the Antonov brothers Alexander and Dmitry, compiled on the basis of undercover data"
After 24 June 1922
Secret
One of these days she must come to the prisoner in concentration camp Katasonov from the Antonov brothers, a woman who should seize literature and documents from Tambov. The Antonovs have no food, they are fed by "good people" like a miller in the village of Shibryai Ivanov. Katasonov said that a connection had arrived from Antonov - a teacher who had just gone to the brick factory at the station of Lyada to her brother and sister.
(...)
Archive of the UFSK RF for the Tambov region. D.4300. L.159. Script.
" The title of the document. Compiled by the head of the criminal-investigative department of the GPU, M.I. Pokalyukhin.

N 3
Resolution in case 788/813/815 on charges of citizens Katasonova N.I., Konovalov S.D., Lomakin I.P., Nemtinov G.G., Ivanov V.V., Kasyanov V.O., Solovieva S. G., Lomakina G.I. in harboring the Antonov brothers and aiding them
September 13, 1922
(...)
Solovieva's last flight was made to Troitsa in the current year at the indicated points. Moreover, on the way back to Tambov, Solovyova received a pack of newspapers for Antonov, which Katasonova confirms in her testimony and which Solovyeva definitely keeps silent about, however, without denying the visit concentration camp in Tambov, as Solovyeva explains, where she ended up in order to transfer food from Katasonova to her imprisoned bandit brother Katasonov.
(...)
Upolband Korenkov
I agree: nachotband Pokalyuhin
I approve: Head of the Tambgubernia Department of the GPU Mosolov
Archive of the UFSK RF for the Tambov region. D.4300. L.90 - 92. Original.
Commissioner for Combating Banditry.
"" So in the text.
""" Provincial Department for Combating Banditry.

N 5
CONCLUSION
1923, February, 21 days, I, authorized by the police department of the KROGPU Mikhail Pokalyuhin, having considered the investigation file N 788/813/815, sent from the Tambov provincial department of the GPU ...
(...)
Ivanov Vasily Vladimirovich, 49 years old, kulak-miller, neighbor of the aforementioned Katasonova and Solovyova, knew about the Antonovs’ stay in the Katasonov’s house and had a meeting with them in his own house, which is confirmed by the testimony of the witness Yegorov (sheet 101 - 102) and his apartment was an appearance was given for a meeting with the Antonovs of the Solovyov Tambov connection (Ivanov was tried by Tam. Gubchek for counter-revolution and was kept in concentration camp).
(...)
Authorized from the gang KRO "Pokalyukhin
I agree: Nachotband KRO GPU [signature illegible]
Archive of the UFSK RF for the Tambov region. D.4300. L.183 rev.
Department for Combating Banditry KRO.

No. 7
The conclusion of the head of the secret department of the OGPU in case No. 147 of 1925 of the administratively exiled Solovieva Sofia Gavrilovna
Earlier March 9, 1928
Solovieva S.G., origin of the Tambov province Borisoglebsky
county, 28 years old, secondary education, member of the AKP. By the decision of the Commission [session] of the NKVD on administrative deportations dated March 9, 1923, under Article 68 of the Criminal Code, it was concluded in concentration camp for two years, after serving the term by the decision of the Special Meeting of the Collegium of the OGPU of February 13, 1925, she was exiled to the Komi region for a period of three years (case 1F 30601 arch.), The term of exile ends on March 9, 1928.
When he was in administrative exile in the Komi region of Solovyov, being his wife
Adm. exiled active member of the AKP Nesmeyanov Valentin Alexandrovich, constantly participated in gatherings with adm. Central Bank of the MPSR Tugarin.
At the end of the term of exile, I would consider a / s Sofia Gavrilovna Solovieva
prohibit free residence "" in the six central provinces of the USSR for three years.
Beginning SO [signature illegible]
I approve: head of the KRO OGPU [signature illegible]
Archive of the UFSK RF for the Tambov region. D.4300. L.231. Script.
http://www.tstu.ru/win/kultur/other/antonov/ok359.htm
N 359
Forensic investigative documents on Petr Ivanovich Storozhev
Extract from the minutes of the meeting of the troika at the OGPU for the Central Chernozemsky District on the sentencing of Storozhev P.I.
March 28, 1931
Heard: Case No. 11209 on charges of Petr Ivanovich Storozhev under Art. 58-8, 58-10 of the Criminal Code.
Decided: Petr Ivanovich Storozhev to be imprisoned in concentration camp term
for five years, counting from December 8, 1930.
File the case.
Troika Secretary [signature illegible]
Archive of the UFSK RF for the Tambov region. D.8727. L.105. Script.
http://www.tstu.ru/win/kultur/other/antonov2/d553.pdf
№ 553
From the minutes of the meeting of the Kirsanov Uyezd Extraordinary Commission for the Control of Cholera - about the situation of children in a concentration camp July 30, 1921
Hearer: Report of the doctor of Berlin on the situation in a concentration camp, in particular, the 2nd infectious barracks.
Resolved: In view of the fact that the situation with children is extremely catastrophic, to recognize the removal of children from the county as the most radical measure. On the spot, take urgent control measures by increasing sanitary supervision and medical personnel, as well as open a bathhouse and a disinfection chamber.
Secretary Zavershinsky
GATO. F.R.4049. Op. 1 D. 1. L. 220. Certified copy.

The second volume of "The Tragedy of the Soviet Village" (November 1929-December 1930)
(maybe there are text recognition errors from the scan):

№40
Memorandum of the Deputy Chairman of the GPU of Ukraine K.M. Karlson to E.G. Evdokimov with a proposal to carry out the eviction of the kulaks in several stages
January 13, 1930
Harkov city
In view of the great political and practical importance of carrying out the measures indicated in your telegram, it is extremely difficult to give categorical and final considerations in such a short time.
It seems to us correct that the mass operation to evict the kulaks should be carried out in several phases.
First of all, it is necessary to evict the anti-Soviet-kulak and counter-revolutionary activists, timed to coincide with the liquidation of such developments, which, although they need further undercover measures, must be liquidated in connection with the operation in order to avoid complications, and investigative work should be carried out on them at an accelerated pace.
In the second place, include the families of those who were shot, imprisoned in concentration camp, administratively deported kulaks and counter-revolutionaries throughout Ukraine, which is inaccurately 4 thousand families.
In the third place, a gradual eviction of the kulak element should be carried out, which, although not active, should be evicted to ensure the success of collectivization and spring sowing.
We consider it necessary to start carrying out activities from the districts that are moving to complete collectivization, in particular: Odessa, Shevchenkovsky, Sumy, Nikolaev, Zinoviev, Krivorozhsky, Kherson, Vinnitsa and Melitopol, as well as from certain areas of other districts that are moving to full collectivization. There are 8 such districts in five districts.
The border districts must also be included: Kamenetsky, Mogilev-Podolsky, Korostensky, Shepetovsky, Proskurovsky, Volynsky and MASSR.
At the same time, preparatory work must be carried out in all other districts of Ukraine, and in accordance with our directives, the districts must begin to put them into practice within the appropriate time frame.
In carrying out all the above measures, it must be taken into account that we will encounter a number of great difficulties, such as: the small number of the peripheral apparatus of the GPU, the absence in a number of places of the necessary armed force, hitches in transport, the absence of the necessary transit points, lack of funds, etc.
Particular care must be taken to provide for the liquidation of households by the evicted on the spot. It should be provided in detail what will be selected, what will be left, what will be allowed for sale.
Appropriate plans must be drawn up in a timely manner, in which the question of using all parts of the GPU apparatus, allocating a cadre of responsible workers for leadership, and sending groups of workers to strengthen the peripheral apparatus should be envisaged.
The districts and villages where the eviction will be carried out must be provided with a sufficient number of party forces at the expense of city organizations for socio-political work.
(c.115)
A plan of transportation and supply of transport must be carefully developed in order to avoid hitches and accumulation of evicted people.
With regard to digital data, as you know, there are no records for these categories.
According to the SDA, 6.5 thousand people are registered in the nine above-mentioned districts, and 8 thousand in the border districts. If from this number we count up to 2 thousand people passing through the development, who cannot be partially included in the operation, then 11.5 thousand people remain.
The information is approximate, it does not include individual areas of continuous collectivization, and the figures are taken from the formulary. They have a certain number of poor and middle peasant groups registered for anti-Soviet manifestations.
We also consider it necessary to give you, for orientation purposes, the number of kulak farms in nine districts of continuous collectivization (Odessa, Shevchenkovsky, and others). In total, in these districts there are 35,000 kulak households taxed individually, that is, experts.
When developing a plan for the practical implementation of measures for the eviction of the kulaks, we ask you to take into account our guidelines on the categories, the sequence of evictions and on the preparatory work.
It is advisable to receive a directive on this matter in a timely manner.
Deputy Chairman of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR Karlson Head of the SOU of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR Leplevsky
CA FSB RF. F. 2 os. Op. 8. D. 35. L. 222-224. Copy.
(c.116)

№ 43
Draft resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, prepared by the subcommittee of I.D. Kabakov
January 23, 1930 Top secret.
In order to destroy the kulaks as a class, to ensure the socialist reconstruction of agriculture, it is necessary to recognize the following measures in relation to the kulak and White Guard elements in the countryside, especially in areas of complete collectivization and in the Western Frontier Strip:
Propose to the OGPU to intensify extrajudicial repression against: a) members of counterrevolutionary organizations and groups; b) masterminds and organizers of terrorist acts, arson and mass demonstrations; c) pests of various kinds, causing all kinds of damage to the property and inventory of state farms and collective farms, applying to these elements the conclusion in concentration camp, exile and capital punishment.
In this regard, grant the OGPU the right to delegate their powers to the PGPU PP with representatives of the regional committee of the CPSU (b) and the prosecutor's office.
With regard to the rest of the kulak elements in the countryside, especially in areas of continuous collectivization and the Western Frontier Strip, apply:
a) deportation to the areas indicated below with confiscation of property and requisition of inventory in excess of the labor norm;
b) internal resettlement within the districts and districts to places where the settlers will be most economically neutralized, with the presentation of the worst land to them, with the confiscation of their property and leaving them only the labor norm of agricultural equipment.
Measures under paragraph 3 to be carried out in accordance with a special law and completed no later than April 1 of this year. city, especially in the SKK, NVK, TsChO, SVK, Ukrainian SSR. At the same time, review the current legislation on land lease and hired labor in agriculture49 towards allowing them on a limited scale on collective farms and completely prohibiting their use on individual farms.
Transfer all confiscated property on favorable credit terms to the appropriate collective farms in an indivisible fund, at fixed prices.
The expulsion of kulak elements should be carried out, first of all, from the following regions: SKK, Ukrainian SSR, NVK, TsChO, SVK, BSSR, Western Region; in the second place: LVO, Ural region, Kazakhstan, DVK, Siberia. Approximately up to 100,000 families are subject to deportation.
The place of deportation should be the districts of the Northern Territory (up to 60,000 families), Siberia (30,000 families), and the Urals (10,000 families).
Lists of those subject to eviction and internal resettlement are determined by the village councils, and approved by the riks, and the regional and district executive committees promptly report the places of expulsion and areas of resettlement.
Consider it possible to allow simultaneously the voluntary resettlement of kulaks, in respect of which resettlement is applied to the worst lands.
Territorial and regional party committees and executive committees to specifically outline points of local resettlement and free resettlement, as well as methods and procedures for using those settled in economic work (logging, earthworks, road construction, fisheries, etc.).
The kulaks who are settled on the worst lands must give an obligation to fulfill state tasks to expand the sown area,
(c.118)
contracting, increasing productivity, animal husbandry, etc., and hostages must be taken from them to ensure their loyal behavior.
Sovpartoorganizations must achieve the stratification of the resettled kulak families, creating artels and partnerships from loyal elements of the youth, using them to carry out special tasks for construction, logging, agricultural reclamation and similar work.
Prohibit the unauthorized resettlement of kulak elements without the permission of the relevant Soviet authorities.
Families of Red Army soldiers and Red partisans are not subject to eviction. With respect to families of kulaks whose members work in production or were participants in the civil war, an especially cautious approach should be taken when they are evicted.
Kulak families of German, Czechoslovak, Bulgarian and other colonies are allowed to travel abroad with the transfer of property to the collective farm fund.
It is urgent to revise the legislation on organizations of religious associations in order to expel from them all the dispossessed, the non-working element, etc.50.
To instruct the People's Commissariat of Labor and the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions to develop measures to clean up industrial enterprises of infiltrated kulak elements, as well as to take measures to prevent them from being allowed back into production through grass-roots trade union organizations.
To instruct the People's Commissariat of Education to develop practical measures for organizing work in universities and secondary schools, from the point of view of neutralizing the influence of anti-Soviet elements and children of kulak elements and dispossessed, not stopping at repression against the most malicious of them, and even more intensifying educational work in relation to the rest.
In order to successfully carry out measures to evict the kulak and other counter-revolutionary elements of the countryside, it is necessary to recognize the following:
a) an increase in the staff of the OGPU by 700 - 800 people. authorized, with the release of the funds required for this, to serve those administrative regions where there are no such authorized;
b) recognize it as necessary to allow the OGPU to mobilize old Chekists from the reserve;
c) release the necessary funds to the OGPU to carry out the necessary operation. Invite the OGPU to urgently submit its estimate of the necessary expenses.
In order to carry out these measures and to ensure proletarian leadership, it is considered expedient to mobilize workers in factories and factories and responsible Party workers to send those mobilized to work in various districts and districts.
Take measures to ensure that the campaign proceeds in an organized manner, without allowing any spontaneous breakthroughs, excesses, any kind of unauthorized measures such as arbitrary confiscations, division of property, etc.
All necessary legislative changes must be carried out urgently within ten days.
...
N. Krylenko
...
RGAE. F. 7486. Op. 37. D. 78. L. 40-36. Rotary copy. from a certified copy.
(c.119)

№ 46
Draft resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, prepared by the editorial commission of Ya.A. Yakovlev
No later than January 26, 19301*
I. In areas of complete collectivization, where collectivization has embraced the bulk of the peasant farms, in order to ensure the greatest possible further development of the socialist reorganization of agriculture and the complete overcoming of the resistance of the kulak elements to the reorganization of the peasant economy on a collective basis, in accordance with the demands and decisions of the broad masses of the peasants, united in collective farms:
the effect of the law on the lease of land and on hired labor in agriculture (Section VII and VIII of the General Principles of Land Use and Land Management51) is repealed;
means of production, livestock, outbuildings and residential buildings, processing plants, fodder and seed stocks, and similar living and dead inventory are confiscated from the kulaks.
II. In this regard, all kulak farms are divided into the following categories:
the first category is a kulak asset to be concluded in concentration camps;
the second category - those subject to deportation to remote areas of the USSR or within the given region to remote areas of the region;
the third category - those who remain at their place of residence with the allotment of land outside the collective farm fields.
III. [O] When carrying out over the next two months (February - March) measures to ensure eviction to remote areas of the Union, conclusion in concentration camps, OGPU proceed from an approximate calculation conclude in concentration camps 60 thousand people and evict 150,000 households. With regard to the most malicious counter-revolutionary elements, do not hesitate to use the highest measure of repression. Take all necessary measures to ensure that by March 15 these measures are carried out in respect of at least half of the indicated number, depending on the rate of collectivization of individual regions of the USSR, in agreement with the regional committees of the party.
During the confiscation of property, the kulaks who are deported to remote regions of the Union must be left with the most necessary household items, some elementary means of production necessary for those deported to new places in accordance with the nature of their work in a new place, and the minimum food supplies necessary for the first time.
(...)
Chairman of the subcommittee Yakovlev CA FSB RF. F. 2 os. Op. 8. D. 35. L. 115-121. Rotary copy. from a certified copy.
1* Dated according to the mark on the copy of the document (RGAE. F. 7486. Op. 37. D. 78. L. 44).
№ 63
Protocol #2
January 31, 1930
Second day of the meeting.
Comrade Yagoda presides.
Heard: Draft resolution of the commission Comrade Evdokimov.
Resolved:
§ one
In order to ensure the most accurate implementation of repressive measures against anti-Soviet and kulak elements, all OGPU PPs must strictly be guided by the following basic provisions:
1. The first category includes counter-revolutionary kulak activists: members of counter-revolutionary organizations, groups, individual counter-revolutionary ideologists, inspirers of counter-revolutionary actions, authorities, active kulaks with a terry counter-revolutionary gangster past, passing through the developments, as well as anti-Soviet activists of churchmen and sectarians.
(c.152)
Cases against persons in the first category are considered out of court troikas of the OGPU PP with representatives from the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the prosecutor's office. Troikas in the OGPU PP should be created immediately. Submit the composition of the troika for approval by the board of the OGPU.
Decisions of the troika of the PGPU on the confiscation of property and the eviction of the families of convicts are drawn up through the district executive committees. When evicting families of this category, the OGPU PRs must take into account the presence of able-bodied people in the family and the degree of social danger of these families.
(...)
(c.153)
(...)
§3
All those sentenced in concentration camps and to deportation after serving the term of imprisonment (and exile) to settle in the Northern Territory, preventing them from returning to their former places of residence. To instruct Comrade Feldman to carry out the relevant draft resolution in the legislative order.
Instruct Comrade Bokiy to speed up the passage of stages by persons already sentenced to concentration camp or link.
Take measures to finally unload places of detention before the start of the mass operation.
For the duration of the operation, to intensify the perusal of correspondence, in particular, to ensure one hundred percent screening of letters going to the Red Army, and also to intensify the screening of letters going abroad and from abroad. To strengthen the political control apparatus at the expense of the mobilized KGB reserve.
To instruct the OGPU PPs that receive the evicted kulaks on their territory to present their views on the procedure for managing the mass of evicted kulaks.
Chairman Yagoda Secretary Markaryan
CA FSB RF. F. 2 os. Op. 8. D. 35. L. 4-8. Certified copy.
(c.155)

In addition to the legendary Butyrka and Kresty, there were many prisons in the Soviet Union with a long bloody history and their own "specific" features.

Brest Fortress: first there was a prison

Most of us associate this name with the feat of the first days of the Great Patriotic War. However, first of all, the Brest Fortress was built as a transit prison, where even Felix Dzzherzhinsky had a chance to visit before the revolution.

In the twenties, the Poles ruled here, and prisoners of the Red Army were kept in prison. According to various sources, about twenty thousand people died in those years due to unbearable conditions of detention and hunger in the fortress.

Before the start of World War II, when, as a result of the division of the Polish territory occupied by Germany and the USSR, part of the country was ceded to the Soviet Union, the Brest Fortress housed both a military camp with a garrison and a maximum security prison guarded by an NKVD battalion.

Minsk pre-trial detention center: a fiefdom for Polish thieves

Minsk Detention Facility, also known as Minsk Central, also known as Volodarka, or Pishchalovsky Castle, was built back in the nineteenth century. After the revolution, it was taken under patronage by the Chekists, who kept especially dangerous terrorists and opponents of Soviet power here. For example, the well-known terrorist-SR Boris Savinkov, who was caught as a result of the famous operation "Trust", was imprisoned in this prison.

In September 1939, after the former Polish territories of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine were taken over by the USSR, almost five hundred thousand Polish soldiers, officers and generals were taken prisoner by the Red Army, who overnight became convicts.

The annexation of new territories gave the NKVD another problem. The so-called "Polish thieves" did not accept Russian thieves' concepts. They didn’t pay in the common fund, they got families, and they didn’t disdain to work for the “thorn”. For such offenses, according to Russian thieves' concepts, one could lose one's life.

However, there was an overwhelming majority of Polish thieves in the Minsk Central. So, they established their own rules there. And one could not envy the Russian "authority" who got there. Bloody conflicts between lawyers in this prison happened often.

Already in later Soviet times, the number of Poles decreased here, and the prison turned into Minsk SIZO No. 1. But harsh morals and a very tough regime were still in the foreground here.

Riga prison: a paradise for lawless people

The Central Riga Prison has a long and very sad history. According to the data of the Soviet secret services, during the German occupation of Riga, up to 60 thousand prisoners and civilians died here, perished and were tortured.

After the war, the prison received boundless fame. Here they sneeze at the laws of thieves, what the hell was going on in the cells, the newcomers were humiliated as they wanted, and the guards tried not to interfere in anything. It was believed that getting into the Riga prison was worse than death.

In 1985, there was a successful escape. Several convicts, having taken a female guard hostage and put a sharpener to her throat, managed to get through the checkpoint and escape.

Alma-Ata central: freemen for "authorities"

Alma-Ata Central is one of the oldest prisons in the Soviet Union. Under Stalin, mostly political people were kept here, but after the war everyone was sent here.

The prison was considered very tough on the regime. But not for everyone. It was rumored that experienced thieves calmly found a common language with the guards and, with proper payment, anything could be brought here, including drugs.

In the early 80s, the infamous cannibal maniac Nikolai Dzhumagaliev was sitting here before being sent to a special hospital, killing and dismembering young women.

Tash-prison: messing rack

The Tashkent central or, as it was called, Tash-prison had its own indestructible Asian flavor. Previously, they tried to keep only the local contingent here. For example, in the 1920s, captured Basmachi and opponents of Soviet power were kept in the Tash prison.

But when in Stalin's times it became too crowded from "spies" and "traitors", the cells of the prison began to fill with inmates of other nationalities.

Once among them was the famous magician and soothsayer Wolf Messing. True, he was later released and even apologized to him. But it was rumored that Messing admitted in a narrow circle that there was no worse period in his life than being in Tash prison.

Lviv castle-prison: place of mass executions

After the annexation of part of Western Ukraine to the USSR in 1939, the Soviet authorities filled the local prisons with former Polish officials, policemen and military. There were especially many of them in the Lviv prison, built in the form of a castle.

However, this suddenly turned into a problem. When the approach of war with Nazi Germany was already clearly felt in the air, an army of thousands of anti-Soviet convicts not far from the borders created a threat of a “fifth column”.

The authorities considered it unreasonable to transfer such an army of prisoners somewhere inland. The convicts of the Lvov prison were treated differently. According to archival documents declassified in the 1990s, NKVD officers took prisoners in small batches to the prison yard and shot them. Presumably then, without trial or investigation, about a thousand people were executed.

During the years of occupation, German punishers did the same thing, carrying out mass executions of Red Army prisoners of war, partisans and civilians within the walls of the prison.

After the war, the main contingent of prisoners were captured Bandera. And for ordinary criminals, they began to send them to another prison, rebuilt from the old Roman Catholic monastery of the female order of St. Brigid.

Later, this particular complex became the main prison of Lviv. It was here that, until the end of the 1980s, the death sentences handed down by local courts to criminals were carried out.

There were many other, less well-known prisons in the republics of the USSR. And each of them had its own "unique" flavor. But more on that some other time...

In the Soviet Union, as in all civilized countries, there were prisons, but in addition to prisons on the territory of the USSR, there were special places where they sent dissidents, traitors to the Motherland, enemies of the people, who for the most part were simply innocent people.

In 1930, a special unit appeared in the USSR, which was part of the NKVD. The new unit was called GULAG, the name stands for the Main Directorate of Camps and Places of Detention. People belonging to this state organization were engaged in the search, as well as the detention of elements that were especially dangerous to society, at least that's what the government called them.

Map of the distribution of Gulag camps

But in addition, on the territory of the vast Soviet country, there were a large number of not only camps, but also prisons in which people who violated the law in the USSR served their sentences.

Which prison do you think is tougher?

LefortovoButyrka

For the most part, the prisons were unknown to the inhabitants of the Soviet Union, who did not encounter crime and did not break the law, but some correctional institutions, even for law-abiding citizens, were familiar by their names and stories that were told about them.

Special facility 110, as this correctional facility was also called, was created on the initiative of the official Yezhov. Subsequently, Lavrenty Beria himself was the main curator for this object. It was here that former politicians and officials who were not pleasing to Stalin, or who were his eliminated competitors, served their sentences.

"Sukhanovka"

This prison was distinguished by a particularly strict regime. Every prisoner who got here no longer even had his own name, but only a decent number. The hallmark of the Sukhanovskaya prison was executions, as well as torture of prisoners. Particularly strict guards worked here, who did not disdain to mock people and kill them for a simple violation of the internal regime. Among the people, people knew this prison under the general name "Sukhanovka".

Expert opinion

Fedor Andreevich Bryansky

Russian source historian, assistant professor at many universities, writer, candidate of historical sciences.

Nikolai Yezhov, the state politician of the USSR, who was the initiator of the creation of this prison, subsequently ended up in it himself and spent until the execution in solitary confinement.

Butyrskaya prison

This prison, which functions to this day, was built long before the creation of the USSR in the eighteenth century. This correctional institution was created by order of Empress Catherine II.

"Butyrka"

However, the most widely known Butyrka prison became precisely during the Soviet Union. In this correctional institution, during the Stalinist terror and repressions, the largest number of people were convicted and shot.

Lefortovo prison

The Lefortovo prison, or as the people still say “Lefortovo”, was established in 1881 as a paramilitary correctional institution for the detention of deserters, as well as officers of lower military ranks for a short time.

But due to the fact that this prison was located right in Moscow, not far from the city center, during the Soviet era, the NKVD reclassified it and the status of the prison changed to a place of work with enemies of the people and their re-education. Beginning in 1924, when the prison was transferred to the complete subordination of the NKVD, it became the place of detention for hundreds of prisoners who were suspected of betraying the motherland, and who were also the so-called enemies of the people.

Lefortovo prison

A few years later, in Lefortovo, they began not only to torture, but also to shoot prisoners.

Minusinsk prison

This prison is one of the oldest correctional institutions located right in Siberia. At first, enemies of the people and criminals who were sent to exile in Siberia served their sentences on the territory of this prison. It was the so-called transshipment base and the prisoners did not stay here for a long time.

But, with the development of the correctional system in the USSR, starting in 1932, when the prison came under the direct control of the NKVD, it changed its status and became a place of execution of sentences. The prisoners were sitting here in solitary confinement, awaiting the death penalty. The sentences were carried out in one of the basements of this institution.

Minusinsk prison

After this prison was built, it was considered one of the newest and most modern in the USSR.

Gulag camps

But back to the Main Directorate of Camps and Places of Detention. These are divisions of the NKVD, which later became part of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Justice, developed a variety of correctional institutions, as well as camps in which elements dangerous to society served their links.

Which elements included not only criminals who violated the criminal code. Often, it was here that dissidents, enemies of the people, dispossessed peasants, dissidents and anyone who somehow interfered with the Soviet authorities to implement their policies served their sentences.

A fairly large number of camps were located in the Khabarovsk Territory, as well as near Murmansk and in Magadan. Particularly dangerous criminals were exiled far beyond the boundaries of the so-called civilized society. They were serving their sentences beyond the Arctic Circle on the territory of the Soviet Union. A large number of such camps were also located in Vladivostok and its regions.

As a rule, people who fell into exile in the Gulag almost never returned from it. According to analysts and historians, only 25% of prisoners returned from exile. Most of them, one might say, were lucky after Stalin died and more democratic rulers came to power. It was during the reign of Stalin that the largest number of people of different classes were sent into exile.

Many people were returned and acquitted after Khrushchev came to power. In history, this period is unofficially called the “Khrushchev thaw”.

For the mere statement "the prison of the peoples of the USSR" in the "freedom-loving USSR" one could easily lose one's life. The executioners from the KGB knew their business. That is why people were afraid to even think about it. Yes, however, many did not even think about it, being, in fact, fanatical Red Guards.
Well, if you think about this expression. How true is it?
What is the USSR anyway? A slave-owning state, where a free labor force from a multimillion-strong contingent of prisoners worked in many sectors of economic activity.
Even, based on only one definition of "slave-owning state, it is already possible to include the USSR in the category of" prison of peoples ".
But maybe this alone is not enough?
Let's think about what else the "freedom-loving USSR" is famous for.
Let us recall the numerous deportations carried out by our glorious Chekists, who acted with the same cruelty as the German Einsatzkommandos. After all, even according to our official data, sixty-one nationalities were deported to the USSR. And what is the deportation of an entire people? This means the rude and forced expulsion of people, regardless of age, sex, state of health, to places unsuitable for normal living. And how much will it be, if you count in millions of souls? We keep this information confidential. Such is the modesty of the executioners. They do not want to brag about the results of their activities. Although, if you wish, you can dig out some numbers. For example, the Germans were exiled to hell on Easter cakes two million people.
And what is the settlement of those exiled in the USSR in general? Yes, the same concentration camp, only the guards are smaller. Well, the freedom-loving USSR could not provide so many guards for its people. Therefore, people, although they lived behind barbed wire, but, as it were, not in a camp. Of course, each of the special settlements, except for young children, had to report to the commandant once a week. And the commandant of the special settlement is both a king and a god rolled into one. He could also be a sadist, and ... But you never know who else could be our executioners in combination.
And what were the living conditions in the special settlements of our "freedom-loving USSR"?
Well, what can I say? Even from the false Soviet literature, one can understand how the people lived in the USSR, even outside the barbed wire. Recall, at least the works of Dudintsev, Rasputin. They often swelled up from hunger. What is there to say about special settlements. It is not without reason that we do not have any statistics on mortality and disease in these places of residence. However, could life in a special settlement be called life in the full sense of the word?
Yes, and from this side it turns out that the phrase "the USSR is a prison of peoples" is completely true.
But in the USSR, innocent people were sent not only to special settlements, but also to concentration camps for political reasons, according to the plan of political genocide, when the power of the Soviets destroyed hostile classes. Of course, at the same time, people were charged with an uncommitted criminal act, which, as a rule, did not exist. People were accused simply of belonging to a certain social group: prosperous farmers, former tsarist officers, former policemen. In general, "former". And this is a very large category of people who became victims of repression and terror by the state of the USSR.
As we see, indeed, one can rightfully call the USSR a prison of peoples or an evil empire. And how can you argue with that?

Reviews

"And what is the settlement of exiles in the USSR in general? Yes, the same concentration camp, only the guards are smaller. Well, the freedom-loving USSR could not provide so many guards for its people. Therefore, people, although they lived behind barbed wire, but, as it were, not in the camp
It is absolutely true that the guards were smaller, but the guards were out of order. Every party or Komsomol member had to be vigilant and wanted to be rewarded for this. For example, not very many people managed to escape from Siberia, so that the railway workers would not catch them.
Sincerely,

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