The list below, enumerates the selected sites of the Soviet forced labor camps of the Gulag, known in Russian as the "corrective labor camps", abbreviation: ITL. Most of them served mining, construction, and timber works. It is estimated that for most of its existence, the Gulag system consisted of over 30,000 camps, divided into three categories according to the number of prisoners held. The largest camps consisted of more than 25,000 prisoners each, medium size camps held from 5,000 to 25,000 inmates, and the smallest, but most numerous labor camps operated with less than 5,000 people each.[1] Even this incomplete list can give a fair idea of the scale of forced labor in the USSR.
A list of Gulag penal labor camps in the USSR was created in Poland from the personal accounts of labor camp detainees of Polish citizenship. It was compiled by the government of Poland for the purpose of regulation and future financial compensation for World War II victims, and published in a decree of the Council of Ministers of Poland.[2]
Camp system operation
There were a number of particular categories of convicts that were imprisoned there including:
Any person convicted to a term of imprisonment of more than three years (all those convicted to less than three years were to be sent to "corrective labor colonies").
Opponents of the Soviet rule. Initially these were dubbed "class enemies" (White Army combatants, members of opposition parties, nobility, etc.). Later, when the full victory of the Revolution was declared and there were supposedly no more "class enemies" left, a more flexible term of the enemy of the people was introduced, as well as an infamous Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code) that covered "counter-revolutionary activities".
Soviet combatants returned from captivity. As a rule they were held liable under Article 58.
The prisoners of war were generally imprisoned in special POW camps, which existed independently from the network of corrective labor camps, and were subordinated to a separate administrative apparatus within the NKVD (since 1946: MVD) called GUPVI. However, a fair number of POWs ended up in the regular camp system eventually. Unlike Gulag camps, located primarily in remote areas (mostly in Siberia), most of the POW camps after the war were located in the European part of the Soviet Union (with notable exceptions of the Japanese POW in the Soviet Union), where the prisoners worked on restoration of the country's infrastructure destroyed during the war: roads, railways, plants, etc., see POW labor in the Soviet Union. Polish citizens and members of other nationalities who were imprisoned at the Soviet forced labour camps during World War II worked also for the Soviet Army, digging trenches, employed in lumber and cement works, airport runway construction, and unloading of transport goods.[3]
Location map of the Soviet Gulag system of concentration camps
SMU: "stroitelno-montazhnoe upravlenie", Administration of construction and installation works
NKVD: literally, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs
MVD: literally, the Ministry of Internal Affairs
UVD: literally, the Administration of Internal Affairs, subordinated to GUVD
GUVD: literally, the Main Administration of Internal Affairs, renamed MVD
NKV: literally, the People's Commissariat of Arms
OITK: "Otdel ispravitelno-trudovykh koloniy", corrective labor colonies department
OLP: "Otdel'ny lagerny punkt", separate camp point
OGPU: "Ob'yedinennoe glavnoe politicheskoe upravlenie", United Main Political Administration
PL: to mark sites that also detained Polish nationals
SGU: "Spetsialʹnoye glavnoye upravleniye Glavspetstsvetmeta", Special Chief Directorate of Glavspetstsvetmet
TMFM: Traitor of Motherland Family Member (Russian: ЧСИР: член семьи изменника Родины), a category of repressed designated for the family members of the person who was recognized as the Traitor of Motherland; some camps were specifically designated to this category.
Yeniseystroy: Yenisei River basin regional CW directorate[4]
GULAG
GULAG: "Glavnoe Upravlenie Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey", or The Chief Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps
GUAS: "Glavnoe Upravleniye Aerodromnogo stroitelstva", Chief Directorate of airport construction
GULGMP: "Glavnoe Upravleniye Lagerey (GUL) Gorno-Metallurgicheskoy Predpriyatiy", Chief Directorate of Camps in Mining and Metallurgical Enterprises
GULLP: "GUL Lesnoy Promyshlennosti", Chief Directorate of Camps in Forest Industry
GULTP: "GUL Tyazholoy Promyshlennosti", Chief Directorate of Camps in Heavy Industry
GULGTS: "GUL Gidrotekhnicheskogo stroitelstva", Chief Directorate of Hydroelectric CW
GULPS: "GUL Upraveleniye Promyshlennogo stroitel'stva", Chief Directorate of Industrial CW
GULZhDS: "GUL Zheleznodorozhnogo stroitelstva", Chief Directorate of Railway CW
GUSHOSDOR, GULShosDor, GULShDOR: "GUL Shosseynykh dorog", Chief Directorate of Camps in Highway CW
Sevvostlag or SVITL[5] (severo-vostochnye lagerya): Directorate of North-Eastern Camps, until 1939 was an independent system of labor camps outside of the main administration of camps, GULAG.
USLON: "Upravlenie Severnykh Lagerey Osobogo Naznacheniya", Directorate of Northern Special Purpose Camps
USKMITL: "Upravlenie Solovetskogo and Karelo-Murmanskikh ITL", Directorate of Solovki and Karelia–Murmansk Camps
SLON: "Solovetski Lager Osobogo Naznachenia", Solovki Special Purpose Camp
KhOZU: "Khozyaystvennoe upravlenie MVD", Economic Directorate of the MVD
UITLK: "Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i Koloniy", Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies
ALZhIR, camp for wives of "traitors of the Motherland" (АЛЖИР, Акмолинский лагерь жён изменников Родины), an example of a morose Gulag wordplay: Алжир is Algeria (in Siberia...)
Butugychag, Uranium mine and Special ITL (Magadan Oblast), headed by Dalstroy, later, at closing, Sevvostlag. Coordinates: 61 18'05.65" N 149 02'53.34" E
Central Asian ITL (Sazlag, Sazulon, Central Asian camps, Directorate of Central Asian labor camp and colonies of the NKVD of the Uzbek SSR, UITLK of the NKVD of the Uzbek SSR)
Chapayevsky ITL (Chapayevskoe construction, Chapayevstroy, ITL Directorate of Restoration Works; subordinated to Chelyabmetallurgstroy)
Kaspiysky ITL (ITL at directorate of Construction No. 2 GUAS, NKVD Building No. 2, Kaspiylag)
Kazakhstansky ITL OGPU (Kazlag)
Keksgolmsky ITL (ITL Special construction of pulp and paper objects of the Karelian-Finnish SSR, ITL special construction on the Karelian isthmus, Keksgolmlag)
Klyuchevsky ITL (ITL and construction of the Klyuchev complex; Klyuchevlag)
Kochkarskoe LO (Kochkarlag)
Kokshinsky ITL
Kolsky ITL and special construction 33 (Kollag; Kolskogo ITL and UNKVD colonies for the Murmansk region; transferred to Construction 106 and ITL in 1941)
Obsky ITL and construction 501 (Obskoe upr. GULZhDS, ITL at construction 501, Construction 501; part of camp liquidated and remainder became a portion of Pechorsk ITL in 1954)
Olkhovsky health camp (Olkhovlag [uk], Olkhovsky ITL, Olkhovsky invalid ITL)
Tomsky ITL (ITL "A" OITK UMVD in the Tomsk region)
Tomsko-Asinsky ITL (Tomasinlag, Томско-Асинский ИТЛ), subcamp of Siblag [ru] in Asino[9]
Tom-Usinsky ITL [uk][10][11]
Transit LO Dalstroy (Transit-transfer OLP)
Tsimlyansky ITL (Construction and ITL of the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric complex, ITL at the SU of the Tsimlyansk hydroelectric complex; merged with Martynovsky ITL into ITL and construction of irrigation and hydraulic structures in 1952)
Tugachinsky ITL (Tugachlag; absorbed into Krasnoyarsky ITL in 1953)
Tuimsky Mining Authority and ITL Yeniseystroy Directorate
Yansky Construction ITL, Yanstroylag, Исправи́тельно-трудово́й ла́герь Янстро́я Дальстро́я (Янсстройла́г)
Yansky ITL of Dalstroy (Yanlag, ITL of the Yansky mining department, Yansky ITL USVITLa, Yanskoe LO, Исправительно-трудовой лагерь Янского горнопромышленного управления, Янское лагерное отделение)
Yansky Mining Directorate and ITL of Dalstroy
Yeniseysky ITL SGU (Yeniseylag)
Yeniseysky ITL (Directorate of Yenisei labor camp and colonies, Yeniseylag)
Yeniseysky ITL and construction 503 (Yeniseyzheldorlag)
Yenskoe construction and ITL (Yenlag, ЕНСКОЕ СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВО И ИТЛ; Енлаг)[13]
Continued from the Polish complete listing of NKVD camps with Poles.[2]
Zaimandrovsky ITL (Zaimandrovskoe construction and ITL, Zaimandrovlag)
Zapadny ITL (Zaplag, Zapadnoe GPU and ITL, Zapadny ITL USVITLa)
Zapadny railway ITL (Western Railway ITL)
Zapolyarny ITL and construction 301 (Zapolyarlag, Polyarny ITL)
Zapolyarny ITL and construction 503 (Zapolyarlag, Construction 503)
Zhigalovskoe LO
References
^"НИПЦ "Мемориал", при содействии фонда Фельтринелли и кафедры картографии географического факультета МГУ". Карта ГУЛАГа (Gulag map). The Memorial Society, Russia. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
^ a b c d e f g hRada Ministrów (20 September 2001). Decree of the Council of Ministers regarding places of Soviet detention of Polish nationals. Dz.U.2001.106.1154. ROZPORZĄDZENIE PREZESA RADY MINISTRÓW z dnia 20 września 2001 r. w sprawie określenia miejsc odosobnienia, w których były osadzone osoby narodowości polskiej lub obywatele polscy innych narodowości. (Dz. U. z dnia 29 września 2001 r.) (in Polish)
^А. Kokurin. Тюремная система. 1934–1960 [The prison system, 1934–1960] (in Russian). Memorial. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
^ a bЛагеря ГУЛАГа в Красноярском крае (включая Хакасию)
^Information about Dalstroy and SVITL (para #5) Archived 2006-12-09 at the Wayback Machine(in Russian)
^ИТЛ И СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВО ВЛАДИМИРСКОЙ ГЭС (ИТЛ и Строительство Верхне-Клязьминской ГЭС)
^ a b c d e fВиктор ЛОЗИНСКИ. "Archipelago Gulag". Объединенный ученый совет СО РАН по экономическим наукам. Retrieved 26 February 2015.