CONDITIONS IN SOVIET OREST CAMP IN URALS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500810182-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 18, 2013
• Sequence Number: 182
• Publication Date: April 5, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500810182-7
U.S. Of 7iciils Only
CONFIDFNTI!.I.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Conditions Soviet orest
Camp in Urals
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REPORT
DATE DISTR. APA. 3V.
NO.
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Of ENCLS.
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SUPP, TO
REPORT NO.
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3.
ILn_19_511_\.
Te 11
aSIT417, tive.
war damage in the city had not yet been repaired but was still widespread,
and that almost all the people in the city were soldiers.
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U.S. Officials Only
CONFIDENTIAL
LD STR I OUT I ON 4 I 1'RMY I lAIR I FBI
This report is for the use within the USA of the Intelligence components of the Departments or
Agencies indicated above. It is not to be transmitted overseas without the concurrence of the
originating office through , .45 Assistant Director of the Office of Collection and Dissemination, CIA.
'L! Declassified in Part: Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500810182-7
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500810182-7
5.
'tri AL
"ral Muntnins.
of 17.ersons in the
in them; in_faot,
three yelWle
t.hc LUri-pean :;ide c.f the ncrthern
the number
camps was very laree, flnd that tnere were many fureiener.;
since ne seems t have learneo little
it would seem few flf tee camp inmate could have been Russian
,i,.,: r.- 1,1,1
speakers.
ent natlenalitie
Austrians,
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in one camp there ned been e5 differ- 50X1 -HUM
there were a great number of
no fmeriosro rBritishere at all.
The work they were called upon to oo forest werk--the felline trees and
the preparation of lumber for shipment (floating) to interne Soviet mnrkets.
the fereste were primeval and vast in extent, and tne trees
size now quite unkncwn in -Inlend
apparently around 5 feet in diameter
The trees consisted in the main of; the
spruce than that or Finland; and a red pine whizh
171..nlanrs. Fr.reet work involved no mechanization ?rive of to
drag the logs co water. Wher an area was cut over, everything on it was cut
down; this struck his very etrange in v1c. of the meet: ceeeervetiunist pructice
of Finland. He said that vast bare spots were left. He also noted that waste
was deliberately burned on the spot. and In response to my question he said that
this definitely did give rise to very extensive and destructive forest fires
every summer.
were of a
spruce ef Finland; another
is again not the pine ef
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the use
tractors
6. The working day was from dawn until dusk. 2here were fu r free dayu in each
month. Food was poor, consisting mostly of cabbage. Clothing furnished was
standard, end the climate was harsh; yet none of these things seemed to have
been calamitously bad. Physical brutality on the part of guards in camps was
not usual, but on the other hand it was extremely dangerous to stray even ever
so slightly out of line when on the way to work a; the guards would shoot with-
out prevocation in cane one seemed to be plonning to eacepe.
7. /n the region. where work camps were there was very /.1ttle civilian populatio50X1 -HUM
Indeed and it was strictly prohibited both for the civ inn to talk to prisoners
arid for prisoners to talk to the civilians. The population in interio:50X1 -HUM
consisted only in very small part of natives of the area most of them being
exiles from other parts of Russia. In this connection "
the greater part of the remaining popelat'-- ^r 'atonia, amount- 50X1 -HUM
mg to 80 percent of those who were caught ti-re when the Sovtats occupied the
country, had been exiled beyond the Urals to eiberia,
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CONFIDENTIAL
. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500810182-7
r Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500810182-7
CONFIDENTIAL
-3-
a certain number of the Finnish prisoners did petition to
remain in the USSR before they were sent back. At all .times, both in work
camps and elsewhere, they were all Subjected to very vigorous anti-American
propaganda which was set forth with apparently real conviction and which had
a marked effect upon the prisoners most of whom believed it implicitly. In
this connection amOng the Finns who returned there
are at least 18 Communists, one of whom a man named Kuutio, was an active
Communist before his detention and sentenced to imprisonment.
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the Soviets Jere still holding a
.number of high caliber Finnish prisoners of war in a northern Rres in Soviet
.Kerelia. There were reported to be about 150 men. officers and.airplane
pilots, and about 8 women, who were menLera of the Lotta Svard organisation.
- end -
CONFIDENTIAL
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013103/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500810182-7