Vorkuta Gulag

The Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp, Rechlag (Russian: Pекалаг River Camp) or The Vorkuta Corrective Special Labour Camp Number 6 , commonly known as the Vorkuta Gulag (Воркута ГУЛАГ) or Vorkutlag (Воркутлаг), was a major GULAG labor camp in the Soviet Union located in Vorkuta, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1932 to 1962.

The Vorkuta Gulag was one of the largest camps in the GULAG system, the camp housed 73,000 prisoners at its peak in 1951, containing Soviet and foreign prisoners including prisoners of war, dissidents, political prisoners ("enemies of the state") and common criminals who were used as forced labor in the construction of Coal mines, coal mining works and Forestry. The camp was administered by the Joint State Political Directorate from 1932 to 1934, the NKVD from 1934 to 1946 and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union) from 1946 until its closure in 1962. The Vorkuta Gulag was the site of the Vorkuta Uprising in July 1953.

History

Establishment of Vorkutlag, 1930-1932

In 1930 the geologist Georgy Chernov (1906–2009) discovered substantial coal fields by the river Vorkuta. Georgy Chernov's father, the geologist Alexander Chernov (1877–1963), promoted the development of the Pechora coal basin, which included the Vorkuta fields. With this discovery the coal-mining industry started in the Komi ASSR. (At the time only the southern parts of the field were included in the Komi ASSR. The northern part, including Vorkuta, belonged to the Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Arkhangelsk Oblast) In 1931 a geologist settlement was established by the coal field, with most of the workers being inmates of the Ukhta-Pechora Camp GULAG. The Vorkuta Gulag was established by Soviet authorities a year later in 1932 for the expansion of the GULAG system and the discovery of coal fields by the river Vorkuta, on a site in the basin of the Pechora River, located within the Komi ASSR of the Russian SFSR (present-day Komi Republic, Russia), approximately from Moscow and above the Arctic Circle. The town of Vorkuta was established on 4 January 1936 to support the camp, which was constructed to exploit the resources of the Pechora Coal Basin, the second largest coal basin in the Soviet Union. The camp was constructed mainly for Coal Mining and Forestry, There were approximately 132 sub-camps in the Vorkuta Gulag system during the height of its use in the Soviet prison system. Town status was granted to Vorkuta on November 26, 1943.

The Trotskyist uprising of 1936

Vorkuta in the 1930s was temporarily used as a camp for not only forced labour but also "re-educating" political dissidents, especially Trotskyists, most of Leon Trotsky's followers and supporters were sent away to the Gulags in Siberia, were executed or exiled by Joseph Stalin as a part of the Great Purge which started in August 1936. The purges and convictions of Trotsky's followers, Mensheviks and other party factions started long before the Great Purge but the killings and convictions were ramped up as Stalin grew more suspicious of the high ranking members of the party. on 27 October 1936, Trotskyist prisoners started a hunger strike and a small uprising which turned into a very long and large one. Ivan Khoroshev who made a report on the uprising and strike wrote: “In the mid and late 1930s, the Trotskyists in Vorkuta were a very patchwork group; some of them still called themselves Bolshevik-Leninists.” Khoroshev estimates that the “genuine Trotskyists” numbered “almost 500 at the Vorkuta mine, close to 1,000 at the camp of Ukhta-Pechora, and certainly several thousands altogether around the Pechora district”, (this report wouldn't reach the west until 1961).

According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn the strikers demanded, among other things, “separation of the politicals from the criminals, an eight-hour workday, the restoration of the special ration for politicals and the issuing of rations independently of work performance”. In his own account, Khoroshev’s summary of the demands is similar, except for one concerning special rations. According to Khoroshev, the hunger strikers insisted only that “the food quota of the prisoners should not depend on their norm of output. A cash bonus, not the food ration, should be used as a productive incentive”. After 132 days of protesting and going on strikes on 8 March 1936 the strikers received a “radiogram from the headquarters of the NKVD, drawn up in these words: ‘Inform the hunger strikers held in the Vorkuta mines that all their demands will be satisfied’”. The strike lasted for 5 months which is considered as the longest uprising that happened in the Gulag system, it ended as a victory for the Trotskyist strikers. Soon after the strike ended most of the political dissidents including the Trotskyists in the camps and around the Soviet Union would be executed later in the Great Purge.

Vorkutlag, 1932-1961

About 102 prisoners were housed in the camp, most were transported from the nearby camps Inta, Ukhta and others in 1932 and soon went up to 332 prisoners. In 1937 the construction of the Pechora Mainline started, the new railway was an addition to the Northern Railway (Russia) which connected Moscow to Vorkuta, Konosha, Kotlas, the camps of Inta and other Northern parts of European Russia. The Railway was built by tens of thousands of prisoners from the Vorkutlag and other nearby Gulags and was completed in 1941, the first train in vorkuta arrived on 28 December 1941, this important event was attended by residents of Vorkuta and photographed by Fomin Yakov Yakovlevich who was in charge of constructing the railway. From 1939, Polish prisoners were held at Vorkuta following the Occupation of Poland until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Vorkuta was then also used to hold German prisoners of war captured on the Eastern Front in World War II as well as criminals, Soviet citizens and those from Soviet-allied countries deemed to be dissidents and enemies of the state during the Soviet era, US soldier were also held in the camp, a majority of whom were captured from the Korean War. Many prisoners didn't survive in the camp and died by freezing to death in the cold climate, dying from starvation as food was scarce in Vorkuta, or the inmates worked themselves to death. Prisoners were given Rye Bread, Buckwheat, a little meat and fish and potatoes as food but in very little amounts, Prisoners resorted to killing rats or stray dogs for food. Self harm was common in the camp, if an inmate sustained an injury they would be sent to the hospital where conditions were better, The average amount of working time in the camp was 16 hours a day for every inmate. The guards who protected and managed the Gulag were a part of the NKVD, MVD and the Red Army. Guards were most often recruited on three-year contracts after completing their basic military service. Regulations allowed guards to shoot without warning any prisoner who strayed outside the designated work zone or too near a camp fence.

The Vorkuta Uprising, 1953

The Vorkuta uprising occurred at the Vorkuta Gulag from 19 July 1953 to 1 August 1953, when inmates at various camps who were forced to work in the region's coal mines went on strike. The uprising—initially in the form of a passive walkout—began on or before July 19, 1953, at a single "department" and quickly spread to five others. Initial demands—to give inmates access to a state attorney and due justice—quickly changed to political demands. Even without foreign assistance, strikes at nearby sites were clearly visible as the wheels of the mine headframes stopped rotating, and word was spread by trains, which had slogans painted by prisoners on the sides, and whose crews spread news. The total number of inmates on strike reached 18,000. The inmates remained static within the barbed wire perimeters. For a week following the initial strike the camp administration apparently did nothing; they increased perimeter guards but took no forceful action against inmates. The mines were visited by State Attorney of the USSR, Roman Rudenko, Internal Troops Commander, Ivan Maslennikov, and other top brass from Moscow. The generals spoke to the inmates who sat idle in camp courtyards, peacefully. However, on July 26 the mob stormed the maximum security punitive compound, releasing 77 of its inmates. The commissars from Moscow remained in Vorkuta, planning their response. The inmates demanded lower production targets, wages and to be allowed to write more than two letters a year. Concessions were made, including being allowed to write more than two letters a year and to be allowed one visitor a year but the inmates demanded more. On July 31 camp chief Derevyanko started mass arrests of "saboteurs"; inmates responded with barricades. The next day, on August 1, after further bloodless clashes between inmates and guards, Derevyanko ordered direct fire at the mob resulting in the deaths of at least 53 workers and injuring 135 (many of them, deprived of medical help, died later) although estimates vary. According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, there were 66 killed. Among those shot was the Latvian Catholic priest Jānis Mendriks.

Closing of Vorkuta, 1962

The Vorkuta camp was liquidated by order of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and eventually closed in 1962, the closure of GULAGS started when Nikita Khrushchev came into power, Khrushchev started a series of reforms known as De-Stalinization which caused the closure of most GULAGS. Vorkuta became one of the most well known Gulags, it gained a reputation of being one of the worst in the Soviet Union. About 2 Million Prisoners had gone to Vorkutlag from 1932 until the closure in 1962, the amount of deaths in the camp were estimated to be 200,000. Most prisoners were released after the closure of Vorkuta but Large numbers of Soviet citizens who were former prisoners remained living in Vorkuta, either due to the restrictions on thei…