A historic photographic record of the Soviet Gulag and its legacy.
The Gulag was a network of labor camps and penal colonies run by the Soviet security organizations. While forced labor and internal exile had a long history in Russia, the Gulag evolved into a devastating tool of political suppression and massive industrial production. From the early years of the Revolution to the final years of the USSR, millions labored and perished within this system.
Gulag covers the history of the Gulag with incredible essays and firsthand narratives by former prisoners. The text is accompanied by photographs provided by the prisoners, survivor groups and state archives as well as contemporary photographs that show the camps as they look now.
Each chapter covers a key camp or work project of the Soviet penal-industrial complex:
- Solovki, the monastery that was the birthplace of the Gulag system
- The White Sea Canal
- Vaigach, the doomed humane camp
- The Theater in the Gulag
- Kolyma, the deadly Siberian gold rush
- Vorkuta, coal mining above the Arctic Circle
- The Railroad of Death
Each chapter has:
- A concise introductory essay
- Formerly banned and previously unpublished archival photographs
- Detailed chronology of the camp
- Prisoners' accounts of life and death in the camps and colonies
- Contemporary photographs
- Accounts of survivors some of whom still live near their former camp or colony.
Gulag is a remarkable pictorial history of a harrowing era of the twentieth century.
(200412)
