THE SOVIET FORCED LABOR CAMP SYSTEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R006500820005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 8, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/27: CIA-RDP82-00457R006500820005-2
AMFORMATWUVI REPORT no Nip
L C h ZDE2TTTAJ
The Soviet Forced .Labor Camp System.
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SUPPLEMENT ` O
REPORT NO.
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
ta4Af Adraini.at"ration
The abbreviation Gulag 11d.a.vr:oye UFrrav?leniye Lagerei, or Chief Direc.tora` v~
of Camps - i. s used to ;the org nA .;.: t.i.on which is responsible for ad"
ministration of all work can:,ps _-~_n the Soviet Union,. Gulag is a
division of the MVI) adri nzstr? Live headquarters and is located in koscow,
probably at Kuznet ski. r,.)st Number The 'chief (na.chlalrik, of Gulag is
usually an MVD general or colonel, All chiefs of camp systems are responsible
to him, as are all division chiefs, ir.+cludi.n; the following. the personnel
division (otdel kadrov), tit: re(ristry division (MC, ur?'.n~!;.rr)-.-raspredeliteirny
otdel), the sanitary divisioi (sanotdel.), the finance division (finotdel)?
the transport division, (trs;laportny otdel), and the purchasing division
(otdelsnabzhenii). Special srcticns for railroad construction, canal d:igrinlg,
power station construction, a?riculture,and timbering also are subordinate
to the chief of Gulag,
The term camp as used in the 5;viet Union means a camp system which includes
several individual camps, or c.mnp points. Thus, names such as Kar gopolag?
Vorkutla - and Pechorlav do not si r-ni.fy individual camps but rat he: ate terms
for grourps of c^,mrn. Camps orc:i.nari;.y are named because of their geo. raphiu_al
location,, Kargopol is a city r.car A.rkhangel; Pechora and Vorkuta are ri .r?r.;
and Sazlag means '-.redno--Az atsk ; la .rg or Central Asiatic camp, Camcs .also
are named because of the s,ecif'i, ourf."ase of the individual camp. naue
Sevzheld.orlag is an abbreviatiar, of the term sever _^Lhelezno-dorozhrr: lie :
the northern railroad camp.
The number of individual camps included in a cam; system cannot be stated
definitely, Large camp systems (both in terms of prisoners and geographical
extensiveness) ma;:a be divided into sub-groups, or otdelen y e, each of which
includes several individual 1. amps , The exam Ales given below do not contain
any exact figures but can s?irve as poi:-rts of reference in questions of
,judging size of larger camI;,n For examni.,le, Pec!rorlag has about ten sub.-,groups,
each of which inc .udes abode: twenty individual camps. Such individua carps
sua.ily contain frorii six !-r Hdred to a -.r,ouzard prisoners; thus) Pechorlag ci.n
?e assumed to contain abok.l- 200.000 pr ,loners;,
CLASSIFICATION ?'/GuNTWI, US OFFICI.ILS ON
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E:.rery camp system is under the Iona?sand of a nachaln..ik, or chief, usually v,
hi, h 96tH) officer, Until 1946, for example, the chief of the Pechorlag
system was a Colonel Barabanov, while I,:VD General J ikhail Maltsev headed the
Yorkutlag system Directly under the chief come the directors for the various
administrative sections of the camps - in Russian the -1.avnoveul avZ_
lager Camp systems are organized on the sai!ne pra nciFl vas the Gulag ars
include personnel, registry, sanitation, finance, axad other ee:fJioas.
The ace inistration of eiub-sections the uaravlen,gtde and individual.
camps is organized on the same principle, In camps themselves the word o` de:i.
has been replaced by the term chast,
Rfr
PechorlaZ
0
Otdeleciye A
sub-group A
sub groups
Di_vis -on of the Pechorlag system;
Otdeleniyer 9.
,sbraarp B
sub-group C
subwgrou~s
t
sub-.rouns
'hue, in order to know the location of the individual prisoner in this
scheme it is necessary to know tho camp system name (Pechorlag), the name
of the subgroup, which is given either geographically or by number, and
finally the name of the srecific ramp. With the help of this plan it is
possible to obtain some idea of the inner organization of a camp system.,
_heri a prisoner has been sentenced, Gulag arran=ged that he be sent to a
certain camp systems; within the camp system the chief administrative sec-
Lion is free to dispose of prisoners within its jurisdiction,. However no
care, system can send l ri soners to another carp system without permission of
Gulag, Each #-amp system has a transient, camp r pes'e
s
iln;*, or in abbreviated
form per-point) where prisoners who are assigned to the camp system are processed.
s'rison4 As are sent front the transient camp to other camps on the basis of
.Loral labor needs or of Lhe health or sf:ecial work c.ualificatiLns of the in-
dividual prisoner.,
It is impossible to give .any exact figures on the number of guards in the
s=oviet prison camp system, Generally =: eakiug guard Personnel can be
c'n_i.vi.ded into two classes, the "inner" and the "outer" guards. The inner
guards, the so-called nadzirrateli_a make up a guard system which is responsible
for the internal secur;it,Y of a camp.. Such guards are usually relieved ereryr
eeight hours., every single camp point has eight of these nadziratel guards a-
plus an officer - nine men in all.. The figure seems to be fixed and does
iary according to the number of pri.soriors in various ca.mr:s., Te "{outer" guard,
the v h,: a., an abbreviation for the term voyennaYa ~t-,hr ape, or MVD guard
personnel, is chiefly responsible for seeing that prisoners do not escape
from wore: or from camp areas., The chief of vokhra is a very important post
in any camp organization and is fairly independent of the camp chief n Each
smaller camp area is guarded by four vokhra soldiers day and night who are
9t.ationed in towers at each corner of the camp area. Such soldiers are
relieved every eight hours:. Thus, counting men on leave, about sixteen men
are employed in this particular guard function. Every work brigade Is guarded
by a soldier, Consequently, a normal camp which works six hundred prisoners
will generally have forty guards over work bri?,ades of fifteen men. each., it is
possible to assume that thFej ratio of fvtiards to prisoners is about 1;10: '.e`nus,
U there are ten million pr.isi,ners in the Soviet Union, there would be about
a million 14VD giard.s over them-
acre s;te?rrs
As had previously U~. en stated, the smallest unit of a camp system is the in..
rividual camp. .It should be pointed out, however? that the individual
p ~'an include several sub-camps or odl.omzaa.radirovka ouch Sul points are
r? s :. 7nsi ble to the commanding officer of ra camp, but each has its own
cornrianding officer. Podkommandirovki are not constructed on any special
;, rinciple~, but are set up when need arises and then dissolved after the
specific job has been completed.. For example, before 1946 the transient camp
SECh1;T /CCNThOL US CFF ICI,-, , ONLY
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CENT u L INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
f the Kotlaslag system included a sub-camp which was located about thirty
kilometers from the ts,a.in camp at Kati as, About one hundred prisoners we v,
sent to this camp. during the sue ,er to collect wheat needed in the t.ra rs.i on'!;.
camp during the
fxi re ,. ?.a` m.._,F -f-i oos ben .,X. 'fit fit t*-_.3;4 ~.1 t"
1 4y"4y i -i .i`..3 tg ;sap . Cirtt- 1:"'" 01, i3t?s 7 tiA?: C
and . ?4.t t wic 7 12 `= wig
5f ax y ira:3.nt and
=iGa a 1;a camp.. 1b-
:ship and euppi:y r'risoners who arr?:bve from the south, Koalas is a
arge food supply point and. has storage space for large amounts of potatoes
other sur lies Warehouses are bu l i. along the Severnaya Ovina River:,
-oduce is shipped here from the a"ricult. ura.l. camps At one time the crimp
TAI `ccCn ROL us 0.F F.. J US ONLY
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y3 s called Pitateeinv or pre:?+iision'ing camp., The carnpp hosF.ital_ i-
-a aaipped with a modern operating room. There: are no available fiFures on
agricultural production from the camps in this systems
Pachorlap
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the Pechorlac systei :`i7t!ipr ises the 1.arj;est number of individual {fir??ps 1!..
111 North European Russia, with individual camps extending along the Kotlis?
Vorkuta- Khalmeryu railroad., The camp group includes the camps at Kot: ra sx
Chnlyu, Kozhva?and Khalaneryu, The distance between Kotias and Khalme,ryu
is 1;,400 kilometers. It should. be renae-mitered that this area also include:;
such came groups as the Sevzheldorlag, Ust--Vymlag, and Vorkutlag. In 1946
the administrative center of this system was located at Abez (66-30N, 61-45T
at the point where the Usa River crosses the polar circle, The centr-~l
i.raans ient camp is loc ,oted at Kozhva. In 1946 it was decided that Kozhva
vhould become administrative center for the system.. Chief of the camp
system, which includes more than a million prisoners, was in 1946 an .ErVD
colonel named Bssrabanov.. It is e*timated that this camp's chief economic
purpose between 1946-1950 was the construction of a double railroad track
on the koscow?-Vorkuta railroad, rek.lace.ment of all temporary bridges on
the line with .permanent structures, construction of stations, depots,
and repair shops on the line, and erection of schools, hospitals, aara.d home
or civilian workers in the area, especially in Ko shva, which will replace
byktyvkar (61-10N, 50-rt50E) as capital of the Konii. Republic, The new
capital, will by called Kraasnopecizorsk In order to a},eet this program the
camp system was divided into various working groups., -nest data on the
character of this camp is found in a... Ekart w s I9Dir~~-kt fran Ryssland"f page
,01,. In 19x46 the prisoners at the c4un : constructed a railroad line,- from
rorkuta to the Kara Sea, a distance of 250 kilom:tors. A harbor for the
sxctic fleet will be constructed at the northern terminus of the line.:
Y -rzhlaa ,
1Ja'azhlag is a camp group in the neighborhood of the Unzha River, a subsi.diar_y
cry the Volga, Chief' administrative renter of the camp systemt is at.
Sukhobezvodnoye (57--031`, 44--55E), in the Gorki district, This camp is
used for cutting timber and has connections with the LenirgTrad-..Vologda -
K .rov-tlral-Asia railroad in the Volo(pda- Kirov rep ion> There are between
fifty and one hundred thousand prisoners in the camp group,
erini.kovsk oye
T'rhIs camp system lies on the border between. the Moscow oblast and the
tordovskaya. A SEt Temnikov (5k-38N. 43-12E) is a city on the Loksha River,:
a subsidiary of the Oka.. The prisoners work in the forests, produce
furniture, and engage in agriculture. Communications are maintained on
tl,.ie Volga River system, the '..oscow-Gorki and .oscow-Kalbyshev railroad lines
str0i
`Share are camp systems in the neighborhood of the cities of Iiy'binsk (58-03N,
;~P--50E) and Kuibyshev (53--10N, 50-0rE) . These camps are working on a
.;'stem of controls for the Volga Rive ?; Including darts, canals, and power
faorks. The camk near Rybinsk also works at lumbering..
i
x".s carry S stem. is located in the ;.(?' a
1 3' ' ok:a region 159-,3 k 3{ --146E) An the
iii strict near the Finnish-kuss:'tar: border Exact site of the c;artip :is not
!-,.own, but it probably a.orks: at l.u:taber. in k and railroad constx uction..
okorskoi. Syjel, a i d idVice ` lag
t'i e ^ camps are located In the Len:in-rad area. and work on waterways in the
region, including construct,: on of dams, canals', and power stations.,
tt~ala.~:
111:3 easel: system is located in the liirov district , in the region around the
.r;rxt.?..tza (sic) I i' er The prisoners work at lumbering and agriculture.,
3EC1*:T/CONTR.GL U5
F .1til.:v ONl.`j
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The camp system Severo-Ur .1ski lag no:ix?thern Ural camf~ group) has its i Via? :pf
idmini.strative centers at Sol katt?sk (59-40N. 56-45S) and &:rezn:i ki (59-25N,.
- OE) . The cam;: Tabor is used on ra ~.l ro.ad construction and agriculture
:a oat; Los ] .~. .. E.;"4$.irnat.e the E.ize of a 5ing'- ;,;km!;: y'' eLLI
ad:.vidual. c44i syr.:t e i is l acAed in an area which Is simultaneously
=ccupied by civilian i,opulation and -wh.(;h is under normal civilian advdnie-
,ion and authorities,. Camp systems are, as has beer.: said, xtade uj, of ire=.--
divid'ual canLps3 uruaily in a geagraphi; al area of about. 10,000 s"T;'are kil_o.rao~ ers..
r s.' camps are organized. on the system herein described, Camps usually rely on
prisoners for all labor rather than uetend on machinerys, and most have
attl.y basic: and rrimit:ive tools? Ksi ecially .i.mcortant construction jobs
be carried out with good equipment: boost camps have electricity, ".the
productive capacity of the camas is kept. very secret; a nd?rather than
?.wt~aal production figures4 statistics are in terms of relative product.iviff,y?
Since geographical conditions of northwest Russia - that is to say in the
?rea north of the sixty-first meridian ? are unsatisfactory f or construction
of normal road, and since the popul.atifl)n is so small that goods cannot
be transported on already existing road::, it is necessary to build temporary
roads along railroad lines while the lines are under constr?u