Locations of all gulags on the map of the USSR. Gulag camps on maps and satellite images

The history of the Gulag is closely intertwined with the whole Soviet era, but especially with her Stalin's period. The network of camps stretches throughout the country. They were visited by the most different groups population accused under the famous 58th article. The Gulag was not only a system of punishment, but also a layer Soviet economy. The prisoners carried out the most grandiose projects

The origins of the Gulag

The future Gulag system 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. At that time 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. Mass terror against the “counter-revolution” included wholesale arrests of the rich bourgeoisie, factory owners, landowners, merchants, church leaders, etc. Soon the camps were handed over to the Cheka, whose chairman was Felix Dzerzhinsky. Forced labor was organized there. This was also necessary in order to raise the destroyed 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 were brought from all over the country. 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, a tradition had developed according to which all activities in the OGPU were subject only to internal departmental acts, and not to general Soviet legislation.

The first forced labor camp in the Gulag system existed in emergency mode. Civil War, led to lawlessness and violation of the rights of prisoners.

Solovki

In 1919, the Cheka created several in the north of Russia, or more precisely, in the Arkhangelsk province. Soon this network received the name SLON. The abbreviation stood for "Northern Camps special purpose"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, on the islands in the White Sea there was an ancient Orthodox monastery. It was closed as part of the fight against the Church and the “priests.”

This is how one of the key symbols of the Gulag appeared. It was Solovetsky camp special purpose. His project was proposed by Joseph Unschlikht, one of the then leaders of the Cheka-GPU. His fate is indicative. This man contributed to the development of the repressive system of which he ultimately 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 too was shot.

Solovki became one of the main camps in the Gulag of the 20s. According to the instructions of the OGPU, it was supposed to contain criminal and political prisoners. A few years after its inception, Solovki grew and 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 were buried there. Moreover, about half of them died in 1933, when famine raged throughout the country.

Solovki were known throughout the country. They tried not to bring information about problems inside the camp outside. In 1929, Maxim Gorky, at that time the main Soviet writer, came to the archipelago. He wanted to check the conditions 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 their hopes on him that he would make public everything that was happening within the walls of the former monastery.

Before Gorky ended up on the island, the camp underwent a total cleanup and was brought into decent shape. The abuse of prisoners has stopped. At the same time, the prisoners were threatened that if they told Gorky about their lives, they would face severe punishment. The writer, having visited Solovki, was delighted with how prisoners were re-educated, accustomed 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 abuses of the jailers: torture in the snow, overtime work, standing in the cold, etc. Gorky left the barracks in tears. When he sailed to the mainland, the boy was shot. The Gulag system brutally dealt with any dissatisfied prisoners.

Stalin's Gulag

In 1930, the Gulag system was finally formed under Stalin. It was subordinate to the NKVD and was one of the five main departments in this people's commissariat. Also in 1934, all correctional institutions that had previously belonged to the People's Commissariat of Justice were transferred to the Gulag. Labor in the camps was legislatively 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 free citizens the norm. For this purpose, regular ideological campaigns were launched. In 1931, construction of the famous White Sea Canal began. This was one of the most significant projects of Stalin's first five-year plan. The Gulag system is also one of economic mechanisms Soviet state.

In order for the average person to learn in detail about the construction of the White Sea Canal in positive terms, Communist Party gave the task famous writers prepare a book of praise. This is how the work “Stalin Canal” 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 labor was also used. The GULAG occupied an important place in the Soviet economic system. 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 a 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 make their existence easier. At the same time, the authorities demanded loyalty and surveillance of political leaders from them.

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, abuses and bullying of jailers.

Single hunger strikes led to nothing. Sometimes NKVD officers could only increase the suffering of the convicted person. To do this, plates with delicious food and scarce products were placed in front of the starving people.

Fighting protest

The camp administration could pay attention to the hunger strike only if it was massive. Any concerted action by prisoners led to the search for instigators among them, who were then dealt with with particular cruelty.

For example, in Ukhtpechlag in 1937, a group of people convicted of Trotskyism went on a hunger strike. Any organized protest was considered a counter-revolutionary activity and a threat to the state. This led to the fact that an atmosphere of denunciation and mistrust of prisoners towards 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.

If the form political protest was rare in the Gulag, then mass riots were a common occurrence. Moreover, their founders were, as a rule, criminals. Convicts often became victims of criminals who carried out orders from their superiors. Representatives underworld received exemption from work or occupied an inconspicuous position in the camp apparatus.

Skilled labor in the camp

This practice was also due to the fact that the Gulag system suffered from shortcomings professional personnel. NKVD employees sometimes had no education at all. The camp authorities often had no choice but to place the prisoners themselves in economic, administrative and technical positions.

Moreover, among the political prisoners there were a lot of people of various specialties. The “technical intelligentsia” was especially in demand - engineers, etc. In the early 30s, these were people who received their education back in Tsarist Russia and remained specialists and professionals. In successful cases, such prisoners could even develop trusting relationships with the administration in the camp. Some of them, upon release, remained in the system at the administrative level.

However, in the mid-30s, the regime tightened, which also affected highly qualified prisoners. The situation of the specialists located in the inner camp world became 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 towards prisoners.

Sharashki

Those specialists and scientists who ended up in the so-called sharashkas were luckier. These were scientific institutions closed type, where they worked on secret projects. Many famous scientists ended up in camps for their freethinking. For example, this was Sergei Korolev - a man who became a symbol Soviet conquest space. Designers, engineers, and people associated with the military industry ended up in sharashkas.

Such establishments are reflected in the culture. The writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who visited the sharashka, many years later wrote the novel “In the First Circle,” where he described in detail the life of such prisoners. This author is best known for his other book, “The Gulag Archipelago.”

To the beginning of the Great Patriotic War colonies and camp complexes became important element many manufacturing industries. The Gulag system, in short, existed wherever it could be used Slave work prisoners. It was especially in demand in the mining, metallurgical, fuel and forestry industries. An important direction There was also capital construction. Almost all large structures Stalin era were erected by prisoners. They were mobile and cheap labor.

After the end of the war, the role of the camp economy became even more important. Scope of application forced labor expanded due to implementation nuclear project and many other military tasks. In 1949, about 10% of the country's production was created in the camps.

Unprofitability of camps

Even before the war, in order not to undermine economic efficiency camps, Stalin abolished parole in the camps. At one of the discussions about the fate of peasants who found themselves in camps after dispossession, he stated that it was necessary to come up with new system incentives for productivity in work, etc. Often parole awaited a person who either distinguished himself exemplary behavior, or became another Stakhanovite.

After Stalin's remark, the system of counting working days was abolished. According to it, prisoners reduced their sentences by going to work. The NKVD did not want to do this, since refusal to take tests deprived prisoners of motivation to work diligently. This, in turn, led to a drop in the profitability of any camp. And yet the tests were cancelled.

It was the unprofitability of enterprises within the Gulag (among some other reasons) that forced the Soviet leadership to reorganize the entire system, which previously existed outside the legal framework, being under the exclusive jurisdiction of the NKVD.

The low productivity of prisoners was also due to the fact that many of them had health problems. Poor diet contributed to this difficult conditions life, bullying from the administration and many other adversities. In 1934, 16% of prisoners were unemployed and 10% were sick.

Liquidation of the Gulag

The abandonment of the Gulag occurred gradually. The impetus for the start of this process was the death of Stalin in 1953. The liquidation of the Gulag system began a few months later.

First of all, the Presidium Supreme Council The USSR issued a decree on mass amnesty. Thus, more than half of the prisoners were released. As a rule, these were people whose sentence was less than five years.

At the same time, the majority of political prisoners remained behind bars. The death of Stalin and the change of power gave many prisoners confidence that something would soon change. In addition, prisoners began to openly resist the oppression and abuse of the camp authorities. Thus, several riots occurred (in Vorkuta, Kengir and Norilsk).

One more important event for the Gulag was the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Nikita Khrushchev, who shortly before had won the internal struggle for power, spoke at it. From the platform, he also condemned the numerous atrocities of his era.

At the same time, they appeared in the camps special commissions, who began reviewing 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 GUITC (Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps), Mikhail Kholodkov, was retired.

You can visit the camps along the “Dead Road” not only in person, but also virtually, by studying satellite images or detailed military maps. Thanks to the cartographic data we collected, the considerable scale of the construction of camps and railway, and we have so far been able to describe only a small part of the entire complex.

Archival military topographic maps

The archival military maps used to create our museum were made in the 60s and 70s, and this is almost 20 years after the cessation of work on the camp complex. Despite this, both the railway itself and most of the camps are marked on the maps, which could not but serve us well when planning expeditions. Individual camps located at a distance of 5-10 km from each other are indicated on the maps as “ settlements» “settlements (non-residential)”, or “barracks”, next to it there is a mark indicating on which kilometer of the railway the camp is located.

On this moment We studied 44 scanned sheets of maps, including the entire section of the Dead Road from Salekhard to Igarka. Look at the one made up of these disparate pieces single map you can here (Old military...)

The area around Ermakovo and Barabanikha on military maps of the 70s

Detailed satellite images

Thanks to old military topographic maps, we knew that north of the Turukhan River there were two camps (a camp at km 48 and a camp at km 51), which were not visible on publicly accessible satellite photo sites. Due to lack of time and the fact that we did not know if there was anything left in these camps, we did not visit them during last expedition. Multispectral images from the Landsat satellite lifted the curtain - at least one of these camps is well preserved. Therefore, we decided to purchase detailed panoramic photographs of this camp taken from the Worldview-1 satellite. We needed to find out what everything really looks like there. It turned out to be true: several barracks stand untouched. In the northern part of the camp, a quarry is clearly visible, connected to the railway by a lift. The entire processed image can be studied in this window (Detailed satellite...)

We began studying the camp at km 169 on the Bludnaya River in the same way as we began studying the two previous camps. It can be found at topographic map, but we were unable to get to it due to a breakdown motor boat. The mysterious camp could not leave our minds, and therefore we acquired photographs taken from the QuickBird satellite. Nothing was visible in the photo. after a long study, we managed to make out one single building (initially it was located outside the camp); everything else was destroyed. Even the boundaries of the camp were indistinguishable - everything was overgrown.

As part of the Gulag Online Museum, you can visit a map with designated control points of the Gulag camps, the basis for which was the database of the System of forced labor camps in the USSR, which was created by our colleagues from the Moscow organization International Memorial. We borrowed all information about individual camp administrations from this database.

The map covers the entire geographical size GULAG systems. Thanks to the availability of information about the location or specific address of the camp, we were able to establish the exact or at least approximate localization of camp administrations throughout the entire period of their existence. That is, on the map you can also find their later location, listed in archival materials. In addition, individual directorates also contain information about the duration of the camp’s existence, the number of prisoners, as well as the corresponding camp directorates. The localization of camp administrations took place on the basis of publicly accessible databases with local names (including historical names) and archival military maps. Unfortunately, despite all efforts, some camp administrations (approximately 14 out of 486) could not be localized.

Individual camp administration centers are indicated on the map with a red dot. Each camp administration was in charge of tens and even hundreds of individual camps (there were more than 30 thousand camps, but they are not on the map; individual camps on our map are just an exception). The remaining icons on the map indicate places associated with specific stories individuals, as well as places mapped during the expeditions of the Gulag.cz group.

Creation of a map indicating the points of the Gulag camp administrations, as well as stories about repressed people from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary were supported by the Visegrad Foundation as part of the project Central European Map of the Gulag. The project partners are (Czech Republic), Instytut Pamieci Narodowej (Poland), Ośrodek Pamięć i Przyszłość (Poland), Post Bellum SK (Slovakia) and the NémetKor society (Hungary). The author of the map is Radek Swetlik.

Operating on the territory of the USSR until the 1960s. These are not just points on the map of the country - historians, designers and developers have created a growing database that allows us to assess the scale of Stalin's repressive system in time and space.

1930

In the USSR, the OGPU Directorate was created, which was soon renamed the Main Directorate - GULAG. According to the resolution “On the use of labor of criminal prisoners” adopted a year earlier, the camps become a source of free work force. In 1930, there were eight camps, the largest being the Solovetsky ITL OGPU with a “population” of 65 thousand people.

1937

NKVD order No. 00447 “On the repression operation” was signed former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements,” mass arrests and the rapid expansion of the Gulag system began. In 1937, there were 29 camps operating in the Soviet Union, the largest in the city of Dmitrov, Moscow region. Prisoners of Dmitlag are building the Moscow-Volga Canal. There are 146 thousand 920 people in this camp alone.

1949

Arrests of “repeaters” began: mainly those who were arrested during the years of the Great Terror and had already managed to be released. Most receive a new sentence for an old case and are sent into exile. There are many “traitors to the motherland” in the camps - mainly those who went through German captivity or lived in the occupied territories. There are more than a hundred camps on the territory of the USSR. And for a year now there have been special camps created on the basis of convict departments. In 1949, there were nine such camps: Coastal camp in the Khabarovsk Territory; Lake camp in Irkutsk region; Sandy, Stepnoy and Meadow camps in Kazakhstan; Mountain camp in Norilsk and River camp in Vorkuta; Mineral camp in Inta (Komi Republic); Oak camp in Mordovia.

1953

There are eleven special camps, and the largest one houses 67 thousand 889 people. New camps are appearing in Yakutia and Transbaikalia, camps have been created on the territory Murmansk region, even in Crimea there are as many as two camps: ITL “EO” and Gagarinsky LO - and in total there are more than 150 camps throughout the country with a “population” of from one and a half thousand to several tens of thousands of people in each.

But already in the first months after Stalin’s death, the system stopped growing: in 1956, only 51 camps were functioning, and they continued to be disbanded.

“Map of the Gulag” is a project of the Gulag History Museum, which tells and clearly demonstrates where camps were located, how they grew up, changed their location and were disbanded on the territory of the USSR from the 1920s to 1960. Every camp. Every year. Full statistics, location, work of prisoners in the camp - all this can be viewed in detail on the map.

White Sea-Baltic ITL. gulagmap.ru

“The Gulag is, first of all, space: the space of a barracks, the space of a camp zone, the space of a camp, and finally, the space of a country. Without the development of geographical thinking, it is impossible to imagine the history of the Gulag, the space of which stretched from Baltic Sea and Crimea to Chukotka and Sakhalin"- says the elder Researcher Museum Ilya Udovenko, who, together with his colleagues, has been working on creating a map for three years.

Now the map shows not only forced labor and special camps, but also testing and filtration camps that appeared during the war; the museum plans to add information about special settlements and camps on the territory East Germany, as well as expand the map reference book with documents and photographs. Main source data on the number of prisoners - summary documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the NKVD, statistics of individual camps and, of course, data collected by the Memorial society.

“The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the NKVD provided summary statistics in 1953 and 1956, and we relied on them. For more early periods There are statistics for specific camps. If we compare general statistics according to the years when it exists, and the statistics of specific camps, there will always be contradictions. There are several reasons for this: transfers of prisoners from one camp to another and within the camp throughout the year; mortality; the arrival of new stages.”

On July 11, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the use of labor of criminal prisoners,” according to which the maintenance of all those convicted for a term of 3 years or more was transferred to the OGPU. On April 25, 1930, by order of the OGPU No. 130/63, in pursuance of the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "Regulations on forced labor camps" dated April 7, 1930, the Department of Corrective Labor Camps of the OGPU (ULAG OGPU) was organized (SU USSR. 1930. No. 22. P. 248 ). On October 1, 1930, the OGPU ULAG was transformed into the Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps of the OGPU (GULag). On July 10, 1934 it was created People's Commissariat Internal Affairs of the USSR, which included five main departments. One of them was the Main Directorate of Camps (GULag). In 1934, the USSR Convoy Troops were reassigned to the Internal Security of the NKVD. On October 27, 1934, all correctional labor institutions of the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR were transferred to the Gulag.

On January 4, 1936, the Engineering and Construction Department of the NKVD was formed, on January 15, 1936 - the Special Construction Department, on March 3, 1936 - the Main Directorate for Highway Construction (GUSHOSDOR). The NKVD was in charge of such enterprises as the Main Directorate for the Construction of Mining and Metallurgical Enterprises, Glavgidrostroy, Glavpromstroy, Dalstroy (Main Directorate of Construction Far North) etc. The Gulag was disbanded in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR No. 020 of January 25, 1960 in accordance with the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 44-16 of January 13, 1960 and in connection with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 13, 1960 “On the abolition of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR "

According to official data, in total, in the system of camps, prisons and colonies of the OGPU and the NKVD in 1930-1956, from 0.5 to 2.5 million people were kept at a time (the maximum was reached in the early 1950s as a result of the post-war tightening of criminal legislation and social consequences famine 1946-1947).

Compared to the civilian sector, prison labor was ineffective and productivity was negligible. In particular, the head of the Gulag, Nasedkin, wrote on May 13, 1941 that “the output per worker in the Gulag for construction and installation work is 23 rubles per day, and in the civilian sector for construction and installation work is 44 rubles.” The labor of prisoners brought insignificant and often very unnecessary resources.

A brigade of Lithuanian exiles at a logging site in the Mansky district Krasnoyarsk Territory. 1950

Barracks of the 3rd camp point LO No. 4 Belbaltlag. Pos. Segezha, Medvezhyegorsky district Karelian ASSR. Photo 1936-1938.

Clothing warehouse of the Siblag branch. Photo. 1930s - 1940s

Soldiers of the 79th Aldan division of the OGPU troops. Mine Nezametny, Yakutia. 1926

Performance by the Rechlag amateur art group. Late 1940s - early 1950s. Vorkuta (Komi ASSR)

Performance by the amateur dance group of Promysla No. 2. Ukhtizhemlag (OLP No. 10), 1940

A group of Polish special settlers. Karabash, Chelyabinsk region, 1941

7th All-camp meeting of shock workers of the White Sea-Baltic Combine (Beltbaltlag). After 1935. Far right - M.I. Dengin. Pos. Bear Mountain, Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Bamlag propaganda team. Photo 1933

Alexandrovsky kindergarten. 1935

Ensemble of button accordion players at KVCH. Inta, Komi ASSR. Photo from the early 1950s

Artists of the camp theater. In the second row, first on the left is V.Ya. Dvorzhetsky. Vaigach expedition of the OGPU (Vaigach island). 1931

In the expedition club there are coffins with the bodies of prisoners who died on the White Cape mission. 03/29/1934

In the camp bakery. Lagpunkt Shipbuilding, Ukhtpechlag

Unloading coal. Ukhtpechlag. Photo 1938

A group of prisoners and employees of the Velsk branch of the Northern Railway ITL. August 1949, art. Velsk, Arkhangelsk region.

A group of Polish special settlers. Pos. Yuzhno-Vagransky Serovsky district Sverdlovsk region. November 1940

A group of camp administration workers and prisoners. Lagpunkt Shipbuilding, Ukhtpechlag

Children of special settlers who grew up on the shores of the Laptev Sea. Yakutia. Photo from the early 1950s.

Children of special settlers. Pos. Peschanoye, Surgut district. Photo 1936–1937

The women are prisoners of the Novo-Ivanovo branch of Siblag. Photo from the 1940s

Lieutenant internal troops NKVD

A group of special settlers. Pos. Yuzhno-Vagransky, Serovsky district, Sverdlovsk region. 1940 or 1941

A group of exiled Lithuanian women at work in one of the forestry enterprises in the Irkutsk region. 1952

A group of exiled Lithuanians at work in the Emelyanovsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. 1950s

A group of exiled Poles in a shoe workshop. 1943, pos. Pervomaisk, Berezovsky district, Sverdlovsk region

A group of exiled Poles at the funeral of Tadeusz Kondziolka. 1940s, Berezovsky, Sverdlovsk region.

Group portrait of employees of the Omsk gubchek. 1920, Omsk. Among the persons depicted is Pyotr Yakovlevich Petrukho (1890-1930), in January-May 1920 an inspector and head of the gubchek department.