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
Extraordinary courage stepped up to bigotry in America during the summer of 1961. The acts of bravery came not from soldiers in battle or politicians taking a stand. No, in this case, the valor came from everyday Americans – civilians concerned about the state of their country. Eventually, there would be hundreds of them, acting over a five month period. They came from all over the U.S. They were black and white; liberal and conservative; Catholic, Protestant, and Jew. Many were college students; some from the seminary. They came to lend their presence and put their bodies on the line. Their actions were innocent and non-violent. All they set out to do was ride on a bus – or rather, insure that a person of any color could ride on a bus from one state to another. They were called “Freedom Riders.”
Before it was all over more than 60 “Freedom Rides” would criss-cross the South between May and November of 1961. At least 436 individuals would ride buses and trains to make their point. However, a number of the “freedom riders” were physically assaulted, chased, and/or threatened by white mobs, some beaten with pipes, chains and baseball bats. Many of the riders were also arrested and jailed, especially in Mississippi. Yet these arrests became part of the protest – and in this case, a badge of honor.
For those arrested were not criminals. Far from it. They were among America’s finest heroes. Yes, America has a long line of heroes, and none more honorable than those who fought and died in military conflicts – from the Revolutionary War through WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Those heroes occupy a special and honored place. Yet few heroes stand taller on the domestic front than those who came from the civilian population during the 1961 civil rights “freedom rides.”
Below are some of the mugshots of the “Freedom Riders” after being arrested for protesting in Jackson, Mississippi in 1961. Most of them were sent to the brutal Parchman Prison in Mississippi.
Between 250,000 and 420,000 males under 18 were involved in the American Civil War, for the Union and the Confederacy combined. It is estimated that 100,000 Union soldiers were 15 years or younger.
Given the large number of boys and young men in the American Civil War, compared to the number of older men, one author stated that it “might have been called The Boys’ War.”
When the surrender of Fort Sumter was announced, men and boys of all ages on both sides of the conflict were eager to enlist. Abraham Lincoln initially only called for 90-day enlistments. However, after the Union army was driven out of Richmond in the disastrous Peninsula campaign, and the Rebel Army began to march on to Washington, Lincoln issued a call for three hundred thousand three-year volunteers.
Boys had many of the same motives for joining the military as their adult counterparts did. In the North, boys felt a desire to set the South straight. In the South, boys wanted to repel the North, whom they viewed as a hostile invader.
A key difference between boys and adults was their attitude towards slavery: in general, boys on both sides had neutral feelings towards slavery. Thus, few were motivated to fight for it or against it.
By and large, the most popular reason boys joined the military was to escape what they viewed as a dull life on the farm. (In 1860 the population of the United States was more than 80% rural.) Nearly all dreamed of coming home as heroes. Almost none imagined the conflict would drag on as long as it did.
Boys were not spared from the horrors of war that their adult counterparts faced, including violent deaths, injuries (and poor medical treatment), and appalling living conditions when captured.
Young soldiers’ romantic illusions about military glory evaporated under the harsh realities of combat. They suffered hunger, fatigue, and discomfort, and gradually lost their innocence in combat. Every aspect of soldiering comes alive in their letters and diaries: the stench of spoiled meat, the deafening sound of cannons, the sight of maimed bodies, and the randomness and anonymity of death.
The accounts of young Union prisoners at Confederate prison camps are especially harrowing. Sixteen-year-old Michael Dougherty was shocked by the sight of “different instruments of torture: stocks, thumb screws, barbed iron collars, shackles, ball and chain. Our prison keepers seemed to handle them with familiarity.” William Smith, a fifteen-year-old soldier in the 14th Illinois Infantry, was shaken by the physical appearance of prisoners at Andersonville in Georgia, a “great mass of gaunt, unnatural-looking beings, soot-begrimes, and clad in filthy trousers.”
Michael Dougherty was the only member of his company to survive imprisonment at Andersonville Prison in Georgia.
“No one, except he was there in the prison can form anything like a correct idea of our appearance about this time. We had been in prison nearly five months and our clothing was worn out. A number were entire naked; some would have a ragged shirt and no pants; some had pants and no shirt; another would have shoes and a cap and nothing else. Their flesh was wasted away, leaving the chaffy, weather beaten skin drawn tight over the bones, the hip bones and shoulders standing out. Their faces and exposed parts of their bodies were covered with smoky black soot, from the dense smoke of pitch pine we had hovered over, and our long matted hair was stiff and black with the same substance, which water would have no effect on, and soap was not to be had. I would not attempt to describe the sick and dying, who could now be seen on every side.”
A “powder monkey” aboard the U.S.S. New Hampshire. Charleston, South Carolina. 1864Little Johnny Clem became the youngest soldier in the Union Army to kill a man when he put down his drum, grabbed a rifle, and shot a Confederate officer. Circa 1863-1865.Three drummer boys in the Confederate army. By the time this picture had been taken, these boys were veterans of nine battles. Circa 1861-1865.This photo, labelled “Captain Goodrich’s Jack” on the back, appears to show the African-American servant of an army officer. Circa 1861-1865.A 15-year-old Confederate child soldier lies dead in the trenches at Fort Mahone. Petersburg, Virginia. 1865.A group of Generals in the Union Army pose for a photo with an African-American servant boy. Cumberland Landing, Virginia. 1862.Major Luzerne Todd poses for a photograph with his African-American child servant. Arlington Grounds, Virginia. 1861.The crew of a frigate poses in front of a cannon. The boy sitting on top serves as a powder monkey, gathering gunpowder and bringing it to the cannons. Circa 1861-1865.A young African-American boy stands next to a Union Officer. He is most likely working as the officer’s servant. Circa 1861-1865A young Union drummer. Circa 1861-1865.A Union drummer boy in uniform. Circa 1861-1865.Johnny Clem in uniform, with the stripes showing off his officer’s rank. Circa 1863-1865.A portrait of a young boy in a Confederate uniform. Circa 1861-1865.William Black, the youngest soldier to injured in active duty, was 12 years old when his arm was hit by an exploding shell. Circa 1861-1865.An African-American child poses in front of a painted backdrop in the clothing of an army servant. Circa 1861-1865.Soldiers at Camp Cameron, including a young African-American servant boy. Washington, D.C. 1861-1865.Drummer boy Johnny Jacobs in his Union Army uniform. Circa 1861-1865.A child at a military camp leans against a wooden barrel with spikes. Circa 1862-1863.A young drummer boy, his cheeks made rosy to emphasize his youth, poses with his drum. Circa 1861-1865.Nathan Jones, an African-American servant boy, serving at Camp Metcalf. Virginia. Circa 1861-1865.Johnny Clem, the youngest soldier in the Union Army. At the time of this photo, he was 12 years old. 1863.Jimmy Doyle, a drummer boy who was wounded in combat. New Haven, Connecticut. 1863.A child in the uniform of the Washington Rifles. Circa 1861-1865.A Union drummer boy in uniform, holding his drum. Circa 1861-1865.Johnny Clem would survive the war, despite being captured and held prisoner by Confederate soldiers. He would even stay in the American Army after the war. When he left the service in 1915, he was a General and the last Civil War soldier still in the army. 1865.A Union child soldier poses with his rifle. Circa 1861-1865.A drummer boy named Jackson poses for a portrait during the Civil War. Jackson is believed to be a freed or escaped slave who joined the 79th Infantry Regiment – U.S. Colored Troops, an all-black unit assigned to Kansas and Arkansas during the war that incurred heavy casualties. As a drummer, Jackson would have used up to 40 different beats to convey his commanders orders to assemble for formation, head to chow, line up for pay or charge into battle. Many drummer boys also served as stretcher bearers. Edwin Jemison of Monroe, Louisiana enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 16 in 1861. He served in the 2nd Louisiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment and participated in the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles in 1862. Jemison would die during the Battle of Malvern Hill.John Cook enlisted in the Union Army in Cincinnati, Ohio as a bugler for the 4th U.S Artillery at the age of 14. He would fight at Antietam and Gettysburg and would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism.Charlie King was enlisted into the 49th Pennsylvania at age 12 after a company captain heard him practicing his drum near the military camp. During the Battle of Antietam on September 17th, 1862 King would die becoming the youngest known casualty of the Civil War on either side of the conflict.Orion P. Howe enlisted at the age of 12 in the 55th Illinois Volunteer Infantry as a musician along with his brother, Lyston. During the Battle of Vicksburg on May 19th, 1863, Howe, severely wounded & would eventually be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Vicksburg.At age 14 Susie King Taylor married Edward King, a black officer in the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment, and served as a nurse, laundress, and taught reading and writing to soldiers in his regiment until the end of the war.Edward (William) Black (1853–1872) was a drummer boy for the Union during the American Civil War. At twelve years old, his left hand and arm were shattered by an exploding shell. He is considered to be the youngest wounded soldier of the war.Rashio Crane was a 15-year-old drummer with Company D 7th Wisconsin. He was captured May 5, 1864 at the Wilderness while helping a wounded comrade. Sent to Andersonville Prison, he took sick and died July 23, 1864.Benjamin Knox was a 15-year-old private in Company H 20th Ohio, from Vicksburg to the Atlanta Campaign. He was shot in the trenches at Atlanta and died a short time later in the company quarters.Ten-year-old Willie Lawn was wounded near Suffolk, Virginia, April 23, 1863. He lost part of his right arm.Robert Henry Hendershot, known as the Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock, was an American Civil War drummer boy known for his reputed heroics at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in December 1862.Drummers of the 61st New York Infantry, March 1863.This young Virginian, William Nelson Boswell entered the Confederate service at eleven years of age as a drummer in the 56th Virginia. His soldierly bearing on drill so attracted the attention of President Davis that with his own hands presented the little drummer with a sword.Gustav Schurmann, Twelve-year-old who served in the Civil War as bugler and orderly to Generals Philip Kearny and Daniel Sickles. He served with the “Mozart Regiment,” which was made up of New York men. He also met and befriended Tad Lincoln.Detail from a photograph of scouts and guides of the Army of the Potomac, Brandy Station, Virginia, March 1864.Henry Monroe, a member of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, the first black regiment from the North during the Civil War.
Hollywood starlet Linda Darnell was just 20 when she eloped in Las Vegas with 42 year-old Pev Marley in 1942Child actress Shirley Temple met Army Air Corps Sergeant John Agar when she was just 15 and married him in 1945 in a grand ceremony when she was 17Esther Williams and Ben Gage on their wedding day in 1945Tony Curtis carries new bride Janet Leigh over the threshhold, 4 June 1951Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds on their wedding day, 1955Elizabeth Taylor chose a green silk hooded dress for her wedding to Eddie Fisher, on May 12 1959 in VegasActors Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue married and divorced in 1964Sue Lyon and Hampton Francher on their wedding day, 1964Mia Farrow married Frank Sinatra in 1966Actors Ann-Margret and Roger Smith at their 1967 Las Vegas nuptialsActress and former Playboy Playmate Corinne Cole married first husband Sands Hotel President, Jack Entratter in Las Vegas in 1967Actress Kathy Kersh married actor Burt Ward, aka ‘Robin’ from TV’s Batman and Robin in 1967Priscilla Ann Beaulieu married Elvis Presley in 1967British entertainer Cilla Black married her manager Bobby Willis in a London civil ceremony in 1968Johnny and June Carter Cash’s wedding, 1968German-Swiss photographer, author, industrialist and famous playboy Gunter Sachs married third wife, former Swedish model Mirja Larsson in 19691968 Olympic Gold Medal Figure Skating Champion Peggy Fleming and Greg Jenkins married in 1970Stevie Wonder with first wife Motown singer and songwriter Syreeta Wright, 1970Tito and Delores Jackson wedding in June 1972Farrah Fawcett and Lee Majors on their wedding day in 1973Tipper and Al Gore on their wedding day, May 1975Muhammad Ali and Veronica Porsche on their wedding day in Los Angeles in the summer of 1977Jewelry designer, businesswoman, socialite, style icon daughter of Pablo Picasso, Paloma married Rafael Lopez-Cambil in 1978Kris Jenner and her first husband Robert Kardashian at their 1978 weddingKurt Russell & Season Hubley on their wedding day, 1979Ali married Bono in Dublin, Ireland in 1982Elton John wed German music engineer Renate Blauel in London on Valentines Day, 1984Julie Anne married Nick from Duran Duran in 1984Music icon Diana Ross married Norwegian billionaire shipping magnate Arne Næss, Jr. in 1985Gospel and R&B singer Shirley Murdock married husband Dale DeGroat in Dayton, Ohio, 1988Isabella and Detmar Blow at their 1988 weddingRita Wilson wed Tom Hanks in 1988Robert Smith of the Cure and his long-time love Mary Poole married in 1988Basketball legend and HIV/AIDS activist Magic Johnson wed Earlitha ‘Cookie’ Kelly at a small (by celebrity standards) wedding in Lansing, Michigan in 1991Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain married in 1992 on a beach in Hawaii days after finding out she was pregnant with their daughter Frances BeanDavid Bowie and Iman married in April 1992Actress Julia Roberts wed country crooner Lyle Lovett in a small service in Marion, Indiana, 1993
