The 1920s were renowned for high glamor and sharp dressing. As the first world war came to an end, and people experienced freedom and a return to normal life, women’s fashion became more extravagant and daring. Evening wear ruled in the style stakes; the more glamorous the outfit, the better. Accessories were a big part of completing an outfit in the 1920s, with feathers, beads, and pearls adorning almost every item.
Trousers were starting to emerge as a casual-wear option for women, but were not considered acceptable until some time later. People were still making clothes at home, but fabrics were becoming more accessible, and imitation silk — the now wildly popular rayon — was invented in this innovative decade.
Jackson Hole (originally called Jackson’s Hole by mountain men) is a valley between the Gros Ventre and Teton mountain ranges in the U.S. state of Wyoming, near the border with Idaho. The term “hole” was used by early trappers, or mountain men, as a term for a large mountain valley. These low-lying valleys, surrounded by mountains and containing rivers and streams, are good habitat for beavers and other fur-bearing animals. Jackson Hole is 55 miles long (89 km) long by 6-to-13 miles wide (10 to 21 km) and is a graben valley with an average elevation of 6,800 ft (2,100 m), its lowest point being near the southern park boundary at 6,350 ft (1,940 m).
The city of Jackson was named in late 1893 by Margaret Simpson, who, at the time, was receiving mail at her home as there was no post office. She named the area in order for easterners to be able to forward mail west. Jackson, which became incorporated in 1914, was named after David Edward “Davy” Jackson, who trapped beaver in the area in the late 1820s with a partner in the firm of Smith, Jackson & Sublette.[1] Jackson, of Irish and Scottish descent, was one of the first European-Americans to spend an entire winter in the valley.[2]
Though the valley was used by Native Americans for hunting and ceremonial purposes, it was not known to harbor year-round human settlement prior to the 1870s. Descriptions of the valley and its features were recorded in the journals of John Colter, who had been a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After returning to the Rocky Mountains, Colter entered the region in 1807 in the vicinity of Togwotee Pass and became the first European-American to see the valley. His reports of the valley, the Teton Range, and the Yellowstone region to the north were viewed by people of the day with skepticism. The first people to settle the region were Native Americans, then fur trappers, and then homesteaders. Because the soil is not ideal for raising crops, the valley was used for cattle grazing, and tourism quickly became popular with the establishment of dude ranches.
Snake River with the Grand Tetons in the background, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 1948Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Young cowgirl Esther Allen trout fishing in String Lake. Teton Mountains behind. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Exterior of The Cowboy Bar with patrons hanging out outside. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Guests sitting around fireplace and listening to live music at Bearpaw Dude Ranch. Jack Huyler, son of owner, is playing guitar. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Room full of patrons gambling at The Cowboy Bar. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948Broadway, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Highway 189 entering Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Lake and Grand Teton Mountain Range seen from the Ranch owned by Mr. and Mrs. Berol. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Moose feeding in stream, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.Entering Jackson Hole from the east along the Blackrock Creek with the Grand Tetons in the background. Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 1948.
(Photos by Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)
Born in Signa in 1928, Italian photographer Piergiorgio Branzi was raised in Florence, a city that “looks stern”, in which “color is just a pleasant accessory, a filler, although it may appear splendid”. A city that was “born from two stone quarries: one for ‘pietra serena’, the color of gray graphite, and the other “pietra dura”, the listless ocher of Palazzo della Signoria”.
This is how the great Tuscan photographer and journalist explains how his preference for the essential nature of black and white began, and became the means for him to represent and express the reality around him.
Branzi took his first photos with a 1950s’ Galileo Condor. His works have earned him great notoriety in Italy and abroad, traveling around the world: from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to the Guggenheim in New York, from the Fine Art Museum in Houston to the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, from the Tate Gallery in London to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.
These fascinating photos were selected from his work that he documented everyday life if Italy in the 1950s.
White wall with small window, 1953Cliff, Ischia, 1953Boy of Ischia, 1953Arena under the snow, Florence, 1954Alley in Via del Corso, Florence, 1954Alley in Via del Corso, Florence, 1954Black wall, 1954Main square of Burano, 1954White pigeon, 1954Easter in Tricarico, 1955Easter, Campobasso, 1955Scanno, 1955The clock of Comacchio, 1955The first mass, Naples, 1955Vicolo dei Donati, Florence, 1955Contrada dell’Oca, Siena, 1956Wedding in Valenza, 1956Wedding in Valenza, 1956Adriatic, 1957Alley of Naples, 1957Beach bar, Senigallia, 1957Milan fair, 1959Shooting range, Florence, 1959
Ike & Tina Turner were an American musical duo, active during the 1960s and early 1970s, composed of the husband-and-wife team of Ike Turner and Tina Turner. They performed live as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, supported by Ike Turner’s rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul group, the Kings of Rhythm and backing singers, the Ikettes. The Ike & Tina Turner Revue was regarded as “one of the most potent live acts on the R&B circuit”.
The duo’s early works, including “A Fool in Love”, “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine”, “I Idolize You” and “River Deep – Mountain High”, became high points in the development of soul music. Their later works were noted for wildly interpretive re-arrangements of rock songs such as “I Want to Take You Higher” and “Proud Mary”, the latter of which won a Grammy Award in 1971.
Their live performances were a musical spectacle in the style of James Brown and the Famous Flames. The duo’s professional and personal relationship ended in 1976, and their divorce was finalized in 1978.
Ike & Tina Turner were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
Take a look at these intimate photos to see lovely moments of Ike & Tina Turner in the early years of their marriage (mid to late 1960s).
In 1969, photographer Arthur Schatz went to a California high school to do a photo-essay for LIFE magazine on an emerging trend in fashion. The results seemed to find the youth of the time developing an identity for their generation.
In contrast to the popular fashions and styles of certain decades — the Gibson Girl of the 1890s and early 1900s, the flapper of the Roaring Twenties, the “New Look” of the Fifties — there was no single reigning style in the 1960s. Even as the slim-cut trousers and shift dresses of the late Fifties crept in, Mod miniskirts and go-go boots found their way over from London to mingle with the bell-bottomed jeans and fringed vests of the latter part of the decade. By 1969, the fashion choices of tens of millions of young American men and women were as variegated and ever-evolving as the world around them.
Cultural transformation was an irresistible force during the Sixties, and across America and around the globe civil rights, women’s and gay liberation, the sexual revolution and, of course, the explosive soundtrack of R&B, soul and rock and roll informed everything from politics to fashion.
By 1969, America’s youth had not only soaked in more visual and auditory stimuli in a few years than most previous generations combined, but had re-imagined virtually all of that input in the form of sartorial self-expression. In light of that new, global sensibility, Beverly Hills high schooler Rosemary Shoong’s homemade “stunning leather Indian dress” wasn’t just a dress. It was a time and a place, man. And it was out of sight.
Students at Woodside High in California, 1969.High school students wearing “hippie” fashion, 1969.High schooler Lenore Reday stops traffic while wearing a bell-bottomed jump suit in Newport Beach, Calif., 1969.High school fashions, 1969.High school fashions, 1969.Southern California high school student wears old-fashioned tapestry skirt and wool shawl, 1969.Southern California high school students, 1969.High school student wearing bell bottoms and boots, 1969.Student Rosemary Shoong at Beverly Hills High School, wearing a dress she made herself, 1969.Beverly Hills High classmates show off their fashions, 1969.High school teacher Sandy Brockman wears a bold print dress, 1969.Corona del Mar High School students Kim Robertson, Pat Auvenshine and Pam Pepin wear “hippie” fashions, 1969.High schooler Nina Nalhaus wears wool pants and a homemade jacket in Denver, Colo., 1969.A Southern California high school student walks toward classmates while wearing the “Mini Jupe” skirt, 1969.Southern California high schooler wears a buckskin vest and other hippie fashions, 1969.Beverly Hills High School student Erica Farber, wearing a checkered and tiered outfit, walks with a boy, 1969.Kansas high school student wearing a mini skirt, 1969.
(Photos: Arthur Schatz—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
On 5 October 1917 long time secretary to Booker T. Washington, Emmett J. Scott was appointed Special Assistant to Newton D. Baker, the Secretary of War. Emmett was to serve as a confidential advisor in situations that involved the well-being of ten million African-Americans and their roles in the war. While many African Americans who served in the Great War believed that, upon returning home racial discrimination would dissipate, that did not happen. Racial hatred after World War I was probably at its worst until the start of the Second World War. So with this American discrimination of African American soldiers, these troops were often sent to Europe where they were used to fill vacancies in the French Armies. Unlike the British, the French held high opinions of black soldiers which made for a more positive environment when working together. Ironically this made African American troops more passionate about fighting for America. This newly created patriotism by African Americans then led to the creation of the 369th Infantry Regiment.
Although many African Americans were eager to fight in the war, they were being turned away from military service. When America realized that they did not have close to enough soldiers, they decided to pass the selective service act which required all men from the age 21-31 to enlist in the draft. Additionally, they decided to allow African Americans to enlist as well. This would give African Americans the opportunity that they needed to try and change the way they were perceived by white America.
The 369th Regiment was formed from the National Guard’s 15th Regiment in New York. The 15th Regiment was formed after Charles S. Whitman was elected Governor of New York. He enforced the legislation that was passed due to the efforts of the 10th Cavalry in Mexico which had passed as a law that had not manifested until 2 June 1913.
Once the United States entered into World War I, many African Americans believed that entering the armed forces would help eliminate racial discrimination throughout the United States. Many African Americans felt that it was “a God-sent blessing” so that they could prove that they deserved respect from the white Americans through service in the armed forces. Through the efforts of the Central Committee of Negro College Men and President Wilson, a special training camp to train black officers for the proposed black regiments was established.
Lieut. James Reese Europe and the 369th band on their way back to New York, 1919.The 369th parades up Fifth Avenue upon their return to New York. Feb. 17, 1919.Members of the 369th arrive back in New York, 1919.Members of the 369th arrive back in New York, 1919.The 369th parades up Fifth Avenue upon their return to New York. Feb. 17, 1919.Soldiers of the 369th ‘Harlem Hellfighters’ wearing the Croix de Guerre medal pose for a photo on their trip back to New York, 1919. In this picture we see: front row (left to right) – Private Ed Williams; Herbert Taylor; Private Leon Fraitor; Private Ralph Hawkins. Back row (l-r) – Sergeant H. D. Prinas; Sergeant Dan Storms; Private Joe Williams; Private Alfred Hanley; and Corporal T. W. Taylor. When America joined the Great War, the first African-American regiment to fight was the 369th Infantry, transported to France at the end of 1917. The racism and discrimination the soldiers encountered had begun during training in America, and continued in Europe, with many white US soldiers refusing to fight alongside the 369th. After April 1918, under the control of the French Army, such discrimination lessened. Nicknamed the “Harlem Hellfighters,” the members of the 369th were renowned for bravery, ability and ferocity. On their return to New York City after 1918, they received a euphoric welcome, marching up Fifth Avenue.Feb. 17, 1919.Wounded soldiers of the 369th ride in their victory parade. Feb. 17, 1919.Spectators cheer on the 369th, formerly known as the 15th Regiment, upon their return to New York. Feb. 17, 1919.Members of the 369th in combat on the Western Front, 1918.A wounded veteran watches the victory parade of the 369th. Feb. 17, 1919.Members of the 369th Infantry band perform under the direction of Lt. James Reese Europe in France, 1918.Cpl. Fred McIntyre of the 369th poses with a bullet-framed photo of Kaiser Wilhelm which he carries for good luck, 1918.The 369th parades through the streets of Harlem. Feb. 17, 1919.Spectators gather to watch the 369th on their return parade. Feb. 17, 1919.Officers of the 369th and 370th return home bearing the Croix de Guerre medal, 1919.Lt. Reese leads the 369th band in a parade upon their return to New York City. Feb. 17, 1919.Soldiers of the 369th Infantry Regiment stand at attention, 1918.Members of the 369th Infantry band perform at an American Red Cross hospital in Paris. 1918.Sgt. Henry Johnson of the 369th poses wearing the Croix de Guerre, awarded for bravery in an outnumbered battle against German forces. Feb. 17, 1919.Lt. James Reese Europe leads the 369th band in their victory parade in New York.Lt. James Reese Europe, left, arrives in New York with the 369th Infantry, commonly known as the “Harlem Hellfighters, ” following the conclusion of World War I. On that day in 1919, the infantry unit was treated to adoring cheers throughout the streets of Manhattan.Members of the 369th Infantry march with their unit’s colors, which had been decorated in part by the French Government.Lt. Europe leads the 369th Infantry band as it entertains wounded American soldiers at a Paris hospital, 1918.A New York crowd eagerly awaits the passing of the famous 369th Infantry. Feb. 17, 1919.Members of the 369th Infantry band perform at an American Red Cross hospital in Paris, 1918.New York’s famous 369th regiment arrives home from France, 1919.Needham Roberts, 369th U.S. Infantry, Decorated with the Croix De Guerre with Palm and wearing two service stripes and two wound stripes.Soldier-Musicians of the New York National Guard’s 369th Infantry Regimental Band conduct a performance in France for troops somewhere in France in an undated Army Signal Corps photo. The 369th Regimental Band is credited with introducing jazz to Europe during their performances as ambassadors of the all-Black infantry troops serving in the re-designated National Guard’s 15th New York Infantry. The 369th arrived in France in December 1917 and initially served as a labor force to improve the port of St. Nazaire, France for follow on forces. The infantry regiment would not move on to prepare for combat operations until March 1918. The 369th Infantry, an all-Black combat unit, served with distinction under French command in WWI and received the nickname Hell Fighters of Harlem from their German enemies.369th Infantry marching on Fifth Avenue, New York City. Feb. 17, 1919.369th Infantry marching on parade, New York City. Feb. 17, 1919.Color bearers of the famous 369th Regiment at beginning of parade in honor of their return to New York City. Feb. 17, 1919.Colors of The Famous 369th Infantry in Parade in New York City. Feb. 17, 1919.The 369th New York Infantry troops listening to their band play its last tune before debarking at Hoboken, New Jersey. February, 1919.Troops of the 369th New York Infantry before debarking at Hoboken, New Jersey. February, 1919.Spectators gather to watch the 369th on their return parade. Feb. 17, 1919.Henry Johnson, one of heroes of New York’s 369th Regiment, passing along Fifth avenue during parade. He is standing in automobile with bouquet presented to him by well-wishers. Feb. 17, 1919.The 369th parades up Fifth Avenue upon their return to New York. Feb. 17, 1919.The 369th’s band parades up Lenox Avenue upon their return to New York. Feb. 17, 1919.The 369th parades up Lenox Avenue upon their return to New York. Feb. 17, 1919.Lieutenant James Reese Europe and his famous band of the 369th Infantry in the parade in Fifth Avenue. Feb. 17, 1919.Parade of returned fighters of the famous 369th Regiment at the Flatiron Building, New York City at the start of the parade. Feb. 17, 1919.Spectators gather to watch the 369th on their return parade. Feb. 17, 1919.
Born 1899 in Chicago, American actress and producer Gloria Swanson made her film debut in 1914 as an extra in The Song of Soul for Essanay. She reportedly asked to be in the movie just for fun.
In 1916, Swanson moved to California to appear in Mack Sennett’s Keystone comedies opposite Bobby Vernon. With their great screen chemistry, the pair became popular. In 1919, Swanson signed with Paramount Pictures and worked often with Cecil B. DeMille, who turned her into a romantic lead in such films as Don’t Change Your Husband (1919), Male and Female (1919), Why Change Your Wife? (1920), Something to Think About (1920), and The Affairs of Anatol (1921).
In the space of two years, Swanson rocketed to stardom and was one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. She was a star in the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon. Throughout the 1920s, Swanson was Hollywood’s top box office magnet.
She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for an Academy Award as Best Actress, most famously for her 1950 return in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, which also earned her a Golden Globe Award.
In 1925, Swanson joined United Artists as one of the film industry’s pioneering women filmmakers. She produced and starred in the 1928 film Sadie Thompson, earning her a nomination for Best Actress at the first annual Academy Awards. Her sound film debut performance in the 1929 The Trespasser, earned her a second Academy Award nomination. After almost two decades in front of the cameras, her film success waned during the 1930s. Swanson received renewed praise for her comeback role in Sunset Boulevard (1950). She only made three more films, but guest starred on several television shows, and acted in road productions of stage plays.
Swanson was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category. She also produced her own films, including Sadie Thompson and The Love of Sunya. In 1929, Swanson transitioned to talkies with The Trespasser. Personal problems and changing tastes saw her popularity wane during the 1930s when she moved into theater, and later television.
In 1960, Gloria Swanson was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures at 6750 Hollywood Boulevard, and another for television at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard.
Shortly after returning to New York from her home in the Portuguese Riviera in 1983, Swanson died in New York City in New York Hospital from a heart ailment, aged 84.
As one of the greatest stars of early Hollywood, today, Swanson is most remembered for her portrayal of Norma Desmond in 1950’s Sunset Boulevard.
Take a look at these glamorous photos to see the beauty of young Gloria Swanson in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Gulag, “chief administration of the camps”) was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labor camps set up by order of Vladimir Lenin, reaching its peak during Joseph Stalin’s rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s. English-language speakers also use the word gulag to refer to all forced-labor camps that existed in the Soviet Union, including camps that existed in the post-Lenin era.
The Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. The camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers of whom were convicted by simplified procedures, such as by NKVD troikas or by other instruments of extrajudicial punishment. In 1918–22, the agency was administered by Cheka, followed by the GPU (1922–23), OGPU (1923–34), later by the NKVD (1934–46), and in the final years by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). The Solovki prison camp, the first corrective labor camp constructed after the revolution, was established in 1918 and legalized by a decree, “On the creation of the forced-labor camps” on April 15, 1919.
The internment system grew rapidly, reaching a population of 100,000 in the 1920s. According to Nicolas Werth, the yearly mortality rate in the Soviet concentration camps strongly varied, reaching 5% (1933) and 20% (1942–1943) but dropping considerably in the post-war years (about 1 to 3% per year at the beginning of the 1950s). In 1956 the mortality rate dropped to 0.4%. The emergent consensus among scholars who utilize official archival data is that of the 18 million who were sent to the Gulag from 1930 to 1953, roughly 1.5 to 1.7 million perished there or as a result of their detention. However, some historians question the reliability of such data and instead rely heavily on literary sources that come to higher estimations. Archival researchers have found “no plan of destruction” of the gulag population and no statement of official intent to kill them, and prisoner releases vastly exceeded the number of deaths in the Gulag.[2] This can be partly attributed to the common practice of releasing prisoners who were either suffering from incurable diseases or near death.
Almost immediately following the death of Stalin, the Soviet establishment took steps in dismantling the Gulag system. A general amnesty was declared in the immediate aftermath of Stalin’s death, though it was limited to non-political prisoners and political prisoners sentenced to no more than five years. Shortly thereafter Nikita Khrushchev was elected as First Secretary, initiating the processes of de-Stalinization and the Khrushchev Thaw, triggering a mass release and rehabilitation of political prisoners. The Gulag system ended definitively six years later on 25 January 1960, when the remains of the administration were dissolved by Khrushchev. The legal practice of sentencing convicts to penal labor, though restrained, was not fully abolished and continues to this day, although to a far more limited capacity, in the Russian Federation.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who survived eight years of Gulag incarceration, gave the term its international repute with the publication of The Gulag Archipelago in 1973. The author likened the scattered camps to “a chain of islands”, and as an eyewitness he described the Gulag as a system where people were worked to death. In March 1940, there were 53 Gulag camp directorates (colloquially referred to simply as “camps”) and 423 labor colonies in the Soviet Union. Many mining and industrial towns and cities in northern and eastern Russia and in Kazakhstan such as Karaganda, Norilsk, Vorkuta and Magadan, were originally blocks of camps built by prisoners and subsequently run by ex-prisoners.(Wikipedia)
Young boys in a gulag stare at the cameraman from their beds. Molotov, USSR. Date unspecified.A miner who died working in a forced labor camp is put to rest under the ground. Vaygach Island, USSR. 1931.Polish families are deported to Siberia as part of the Soviet Union’s relocation plan. Influential families in conquered states would often be forced into labor to help systematically destroy their culture. Poland. 1941.Not every political prisoner was lucky enough to pushed into forced labor. Here, the bodies of thousand of Polish people lie dead in a mass grave. Katyn, Russia. April 30, 1943.The dead bodies of political prisoners, murdered by the secret police, lie inside of a prison camp. Tarnopil, Ukraine. July 10, 1941.Convicts sleep inside of a sod-covered house in a Siberian gulag. Siberia, USSR. Date unspecified.Posters of Stalin and Marx gaze down at the prisoners inside of their sleeping quarters. USSR. Circa 1936-1937.Prisoners at work building the White Sea–Baltic Canal, one of the first major projects in the Soviet Union made entirely through slave labor. 12,000 people died while working amid the harsh conditions at the canal. USSR. 1932.The chiefs of the gulags. These men were responsible for forcing more than 100,000 prisoners to work. USSR. July 1932Prisoners in a Soviet gulag dig a ditch while a guard looks on. USSR. Circa 1936-1937.Stalin comes out to inspect the progress on the Moscow Canal, which is being built by imprisoned workers. Moscow, USSR. April 22, 1937.A gold mine that, during Stalin’s reign, was worked through prison labor. Magadan, USSR. August 20, 1978.Philosopher Pavel Florensky after being arrested for “agitation against the Soviet system.” Florensky was sentenced to ten years of labor in Stalin’s gulags. He would not serve the full ten years. three years after this picture was taken, he was dragged out into the woods and shot. USSR. February 27, 1933.The directors of the gulag camps gather together to celebrate their work. USSR. May 1, 1934.Two Lithuanian political prisoners get ready to go to work in a coal mine. Inta, USSR. 1955.The crude lodgings that host a group of prisoners in one of Stalin’s gulags. USSR. Circa 1936-1937.Prisoners at work operating a machine inside of a gulag. USSR. Circa 1936-1937.Prisoners at work on the White Sea-Baltic Canal. USSR. Circa 1930-1933.Prisoners hammer away at the rocks in the White Sea–Baltic Canal. USSR. Circa 1930-1933.Yuriy Tyutyunnyk, a Ukranian General who fought against the Soviets in the Ukranian-Soviet War. Tyutyunnyk was allowed to live in Soviet Ukraine after the war — until 1929, when Soviet policies changed. He was arrested, taken to Moscow, imprisoned, and killed. USSR. 1929.Prisoners transport lead-zinc ore. Vaygach Island, USSR. Circa 1931-1932.Prisoners digging clay for the brickyard. Solovki Isalnd, USSR. Circa 1924-1925.Officials look over their laborers, at work on the Moscow Canal. Moscow, USSR. September 3, 1935.A “penal insulator” inside of a gulag. Vorkuta, USSR. 1945.Stalin and his men inspect the work on the Moscow-Volga Canal. Moscow, USSR. Circa 1932-1937.Gulag prisoners forced to work on a mine overseen by the USSR’s secret police. Vaygach Island, USSR. 1933.Prisoners at work in a gulag pause for a moment’s rest. USSR. Circa 1936-1937.A guard shakes hands with a prisoner, at work cutting down lumber. USSR. Circa 1936-1937.Guards walk through a gulag during an inspection. USSR. Circa 1936-1937.The prison photo and papers of Jacques Rossi, a political prisoner arrested for his connections to revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, hang on the wall of a gulag. Norillag, USSR.Men at work on the Koylma Highway. The route would come to be known as the “Road of Bones” because the skeletons of the men who died building it were used in its foundation. USSR. Circa 1932-1940.Colonel Stepan Garanin, at one time the chief of the Kolyma Force Labor Camps, prepares for his new life as a prisoner. USSR. Circa 1937-1938.A miner who died working in a forced labour camp was surrounded by prisoners as he was buried on Vaygach Island.Two Lithuanian political prisoners get ready to go to work in a coal mine in Inta, USSR. The Inta labour camp existed from 1941 to 1948, and prisoners were mainly engaged in the mining of local coal deposits. The number of inmates at the camp reached 20,585 at its highest size. In 1948, the camp was shut down and reorganized into a special camp for political prisonersStalin and his men are pictured examining the Moscow-Volga Canal, built by prisoners in 1932.Guards walk through a gulag during an inspection in 1936. As of March 1940, there were 53 Golag camps and 432 labour colonies across the USSR. Today’s major cities in the Russian Arctic were originally camps build by prisoners and run by former prisonersConvicted men sleep inside of a sod-covered house in a Siberian gulag, Siberia, at an unknown date. Prisoners lived in squalid conditions, and many people died of starvation or exhaustion from working too many hours and not receiving enough food from the prison staffThe prisoners weren’t just for adults, however. Pictured above, young boys look at a camera from their bunk beds at a camp in Molotov, USSRPrisoners at work in a gulag pause for a moment’s rest in 1936. By the time the last Soviet gulag closed its gates, millions had died. Some worked themselves to death, some had starved, and others were simply dragged out into the woods and shot.Hunger, physical punishment and sexual harrasment – and that’s only the beginning of the suffering for women in the Gulag.Prisoners work at Belbaltlag, a Gulag camp for building the White Sea-Baltic Sea, 1932Manacled and with barely enough clothing to keep them warm, prisoners had to work in Siberian temperatures. Toture, or death, was common for anyone who didn’t comply.Prisoners with severe malnutrition in a camp hospital, most were expected to die. How much bread they got depended on how much timber they had cut the day before – a tally that could be the difference between life and deathPrisoners building a copper factory in Norilisk in 1949. Few survived the brutal conditions.Women and children work at a gulag in 1932. Prison nurseries did exist, but malnutrition, restrictive breast-feeding schedules and astonishing cruelty often resulted in the child suffering an early death
