Gulag

Gulag (Russian: ????? {{Audio|ru-Gulag.ogg|listen}}) is an acronym for ??????? ?????????? ?????????????? ???????? ??????? ? ???????, "Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii", "The Chief Directorate of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies". Anne Applebaum, in her book Gulag: A History, explains:

Influence

Culture

The Gulag spanned nearly four decades of Soviet history and affected millions of individuals. Its cultural impact was enormous.

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Alexander Solzhenitsyn's book The Gulag Archipelago was not the first literary work about labour camps. His previous book on the subject, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", about a typical day of the GULAG inmate, was originally published in the most prestigious Soviet monthly, "Novij Mir", "New World", in November of 1962, but was soon banned and withdrawn from all libraries. It was the first work to demonstrate the Gulag as an instrument of governmental repression against its own citizens on a massive scale.

Related Topics:
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago

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The Gulag has become a major influence on contemporary Russian thinking, and an important part of modern Russian folklore. Many songs by the authors-performers known as the bards, most notably Vladimir Vysotsky and Alexander Galich, neither of whom ever served time in the camps, describe life inside the Gulag and glorified the life of "Zeks". Words and phrases which originated in the labor camps became part of the Russin/Soviet vernacular in the 60's and 70's.

Related Topics:
Folklore - ''bards'' - Vladimir Vysotsky - Alexander Galich

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The memoirs of Alexander Dolgun, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Varlam Shalamov and Yevgenia Ginzburg, among others, became a symbol of defiance in Soviet society. These writings, particularly those of Solzhenitsyn, harshly chastised the Soviet people for their tolerance and apathy regarding the Gulag, but at the same time provided a testament to the courage and resolve of those who were imprisoned.

Related Topics:
Alexander Dolgun - Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Varlam Shalamov - Yevgenia Ginzburg

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Another cultural phenomenon in the USSR linked with the Gulag was the forced migration of many artists and other people of culture to Siberia. This resulted in a Renaissance of sorts in places like Magadan, where, for example, the quality of theatre production was comparable to that found in Moscow.

Related Topics:
Magadan - Moscow

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Colonization

Soviet show that among the goal of GULAG was colonization of sparsely populated remote areas. To this end, the notion of "free settlement" was introduced.

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When a well-behaved person had served the majority of their term, they could be released for "free settlement" (??????? ?????????, "volnoye poseleniye") outside the confinement of the camp. They were known as "free settlers" (???????????????, "volnoposelentsy", not to be confused with the term ????????????????, "sslylnoposelentsy", "exile settlers"). In addition, for persons who served full term, but who were denied the free choice of place of residence, it was recommended to assign them for "free settlement" and give them land in the general vicinity of the place of confinement.

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This implement was also inherited from the katorga system.

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Life after term served

Persons who served a term in a camp or in a prison were restricted from taking a wide range of jobs. A concealment of a previous imprisonment was a triable offense. Persons who served terms as "politicals" were nuisances for "First Departments ("Pervyj Otdel", outlets of the secret police at all enterprises and institutions), because former "politicals" had to be monitored.

Related Topics:
First Department - Secret police

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Many people released from camps were restricted from settling in larger cities.

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After serving long terms, many people had lost their former job skills and social contacts. Therefore upon final release many of them voluntarily decided to become (or stay) "free settlers". This decision was also influenced by the knowledge of the restrictions for them everywhere else. When many of the previously released prisoners were re-seized during the wave of arrests that began in 1947, this happened much more often to those who had chosen to move back to their home town proximity rather than to those who remained near the camps as the free settlers.

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