GULAG:

FROM A PENAL SYSTEM TO A SYSTEM OF ENSLAVEMENT.

The Soviet repressive apparatus, which emerged in the early years after the October Revolution, evolved in a multifaceted way, transitioning from a mechanism for suppressing political dissidents to a vast economic framework based on the exploitation of forced labor. This transformation, spanning two decades, encompasses not only the ideological foundations of Bolshevism, but also the state's pragmatic effort to turn human suffering into a means to build a "socialist utopia."

Since the early days of Soviet rule, repression has been an integral part of government policy. In December 1917, the Cheka was established - the "sword of justice" endowed with the power to carry out executions without trial. Felix Dzerzhinsky openly stated that without such measures, "working people's power could not exist." By 1918, the Cheka had expanded to 40 provinces, and by 1921 during the confiscation of church assets, repression targeted the clergy. Over two years, 10,000 priests were arrested, and one fifth were executed. However, initially, camps like Solovki, established in 1920, were intended to isolate counterrevolutionaries rather than use them for economic exploitation.

The turning point was the decree of the Central Executive Committee on April 15, 1919, "On forced labor camps," which legalized a system where prisoners were required to "redeem themselves through labor." Although Dzerzhinsky was not officially the author of this document, the Cheka took over the organization of the camps, where by 1924, there were 66 bishops and thousands of "alien elements." Even then, there was a dual approach: intimidation through violence and an attempt to monetize repression.

With the introduction of the New Economic Policy in 1921, the rhetoric of "rebuilding" through labor began to take center stage. The camps were no longer seen solely as places of confinement, but also as sources of cheap labor. In 1929, with the onset of forced industrialization, the OGPU (successor to the Cheka) was given the task of developing remote regions. As a result, the Northern Special Purpose Camps were established, where prisoners were tasked with mining coal in the Pechora Basin and oil in Ukhta.

The official registration of the system occurred in 1930, with the establishment of the Main Directorate of Camps (GULAG) under the NKVD. Construction projects, such as the White Sea-Baltic Canal (1931-1933), were carried out by convicts. Out of the 126 thousand workers involved, 12.8 thousand died due to exhaustion, cold, and disease.

Documents from those years record "planned indicators" coldly. For example, NKVD Order No. 1,159 from September 13, 1940, on the establishment of Glavgidrostroi, ordered the use of prisoner labor for large-scale hydraulic engineering projects.

By 1934, with the onset of the Great Terror, the camps had transformed into "slave labor factories." One in three prisoners died within a year due to unbearable conditions.

By the end of the 1930s, the Gulag had become an integral part of the Soviet economic system. Prisoners built not only canals and railways, but also entire cities like Magadan. They mined gold in the Kolyma region and felled forests in Siberia.

Resolution No. 1668 of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, issued on September 11, 1940, explicitly stated that camps should be fully paid for through the labor of prisoners. This was a rationalization of the use of violence, in which a human being was treated as a resource whose life was determined by their ability to fulfill work quotas.

The conditions of detention described in the dissertations and archival documents were reminiscent of the worst forms of slavery. Prisoners were given rations based on their work output, and those who did not meet the quota went hungry. The winter temperatures of -50 degrees Celsius, lack of medical care, and a 12-hour workday all led to tragic deaths. For instance, every fourth person died during the construction of the Chum-Salekhard-Igarka railway (1947–1953).

At the same time, historian Mark Buggeln noted that the Soviet system differed from Nazi camps in terms of the exploitation of labor prevailing over direct destruction, though the results were often similar.

The mass arrests of the 1930s, known as the Great Purge, not only strengthened the Stalinist regime, but also provided the Gulag with millions of new prisoners. NKVD tribunals handed down sentences to absentee prisoners, sentencing not only "state enemies" to prison camps but also peasants, workers and intellectuals - anyone who contributed to construction projects. By 1941, the Gulags had a population of approximately 1.9 million prisoners whose labor was used even for military purposes, building airfields, manufacturing ammunition and digging trenches. Following Stalin's death in 1953, some projects were halted, such as tunnels under the Tatar Straits and the Baikal–Amur Mainline. However, camps continued to operate until the Khrushchev era, leaving a legacy not just in economic infrastructure but also in generational trauma, where fear of persecution merged with daily horror of forced labour.

The evolution of the Gulag from a punitive institution to an economic system revealed the true nature of the Soviet regime. Terror and exploitation were not simply "excesses" of the regime, but rather systematic denial of human life's value. Documents such as decrees from the Council of People's Commissars and orders from the NKVD demonstrate how the state turned repression into a tool and people into sources of labor for large-scale construction projects. This history recorded in archival records and memoirs serves as a warning against combining ideological intolerance with pursuit of economic utopias. It reminds us of the importance of recognizing and respecting human rights even in difficult times.