THE SOVIET FORCED LABOR SYSTEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83M00914R001200120005-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 31
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 5
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 20TPIC L A S T F
Central Intelligence Agency
wasningon, R C 20505
DIREC'T'ORATE OF INTELLIGENCE
THE SOVIET FORCED LABOR SYSTEM
Forced labor is at the core of the Soviet penal system and we currently
estimate that it encompasses some 4 million Soviet citizens in its ranks, at
least half of whom are incarcerated in over a thousand heavily-secured forced
labor camps scattered throughout the USSR. Most of the remainder are parolees
and probationers--unconfined in the strictest sense, but forced to work,
usually at construction projects far from their homes. Recent trends indicate
an increase in unconfined forced laborers while the number of confined
prisoners remains about the same as during the last decade. (U)
Unconfined forced laborers are sentenced (in the case of probationers) or
are released (parolees) to perform mostly low skill labor on large
construction projects, often in remote regions where labor is scarce and
incentives for attracting and keeping free laborers are expensive. Thousands
of these unconfined forced laborers, for example, were used on construction of
the huge Kama River truck plant (the world's largest) and the Baykal-Amur
Mainline (BAM) railroad. Recent evidence--including reports from the
International Society for Human Rights--confirms the present use of parolees
and probationers on large domestic pipelines, in particular for construction
of compressor stations. (U)
Because of the use of forced laborers in the past and because of current
labor shortages in the USSR, it is likely that forced laborers will be used on
almost any large construction project in the USSR, including pipelines such as
the West Siberia-to-Europe natural gas export line. In addition, because of
their widespread distribution, forced labor camps can be found near most major
construction projects or pipeline routes. For example, 90 to 100 camps are
close to the proposed route of the export pipeline (see Map 1). Heavily
secured prisoners could be tapped for work because of their proximity, even
though the problems of controlling and guarding them would be difficult. The
International Society for Human Rights alleges that this is so, but we cannot
independently confirm their reports. (U)
While large-scale use of forced laborers on the export pipeline is
unlikely because many of the jobs require special skills, some forced labor
will probably be used unless the Soviets depart from their usual practice
because of the exposure the issue has received in the Western media. If
historical. precedent is followed, the unskilled forced laborers will be used
in construction of compressor stations and auxiliary buildings--most of which
are in an early stage of construction. (U)
UNCLASSIFIED
GI M 82-10241
November 1982
 Approved For Release 2007/06105CLAO,1
Page
Preface .......................................... i
The Soviet Forced Labor System .................... 1
How Many Forced Laborers? ..................... 2
Forced Labor With Confinement ................. 3
Payment of Prisoners ...................... 4
Incentives and Penalties .................. 5
Hbrking Conditions........................ 6
Forced Labor Without confinement .............. 6
Role of Forced Labor in the Economy ........... 10
Construction. ........................... 10
Pipeline Construction ..................... 12
Siberian Gas Export Pipeline .............. 12
Manufacturing ............................. 13
Logging and Other Activities .............. 13
Appendix
1. Crime and Sentencing
2. Regimes in Effect in Correctional Labor Facilities
3. Types of Prisons
4. Eligibility for Parole
Maps
1. Soviet Union: Forced Labor Camps and Selected Pipelines
2. Soviet Union: Economic Utilization of Prisoners
Figure 1
Sketch of Typical Corrective (Forced) Labor Camp
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To enable observers of the Soviet Union to better assess the reports of
use of forced labor in the USSR, especially reports of its use on the gas
export pipeline to Western Europe, this study has been prepared on the overall
system of forced labor in the Soviet Union. Various aspects of the system as
outlined in Soviet official documents, such as the The Russian Soviet
Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) Criminal Code, are examined in the light
the accounts by former prisoners and other emigres that have been published in
Western news media about the realities of the system. The report has been
prepared fran a broad array of documents, scholarly studies, and other source
materials relating to the subject of the Soviet penal system in general and
forced labor in particular.
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THE SOVIET FORCED LABOR SYSTEM
The Soviet penal system is remarkable for its huge size and its
systematic employment of labor. The labor camps so vividly described by
Solzhenitsyn are only one element of a system that also includes prisons as
well as a growing cadre of forced labor without confinement. The Soviets have
an ideological commitment to the rehabilitative role of labor in the social
adjustment of the individual, and accordingly refer to the forced labor camps
as "correctional" labor colonies.*
Correctional labor colonies were first established in 1919 on the
Solovetskiy Islands in the White Sea, but until Stalin assumed power the
system grew rather slowly. Stalin's forced labor system reached a peak of
perhaps 15 million persons in 1947. After Stalin's death liberal reforms
reduced the camp population, and in 1957 P.I. Kudryavtsev, Deputy Procurator
General of the Soviet Union, asserted that the number had been reduced to
about 800,000 to 900,000, and that 1 to 2 percent were "politicals." Toward
the end of the Khrushchev era, criminal penalties were toughened, the crime
rate increased, and the camp system began to expand again. Criminal charges
were used increasingly to control political dissidents. Although many of the
old camps in Siberia and the Far East were abandoned, others were built closer
to population centers.
In addition, an extensive system of forced labor without confinement had
its inception in the early 1960s and has grown rapidly in scope since then;
the number of non-confined forced laborers now more than equals the number of
those confined, and it is continuing to rise. Given the worsening labor
*The term forced labor camps is used in this report as a general appellation
for correctional labor colonies, educational labor colonies, and correctional
labor colony settlements; the specific terms will be used when particular
types of facilities are ing discussed.
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shortage in parts of the Soviet Union, this relatively efficient, flexible
method of deriving some economic benefit from an increasing crime rate is
likely to continue to grow.
In the Soviet union nine out of every 10 persons convicted of crimes (see
Appendix 1) more serious than misdemeanors receive sentences that include
forced labor. About half of these sentences also include confinement.
Although approximately half of those sentenced to confinement are paroled from
confinement, they continue in the forced labor system until they finish their
terms.
How Many Forced Laborers?
We currently estimate that some 4 million Soviet citizens--about 1.5
percent of the population--are now serving sentences of forced labor.
-- About 2 million of these are confined, 85 percent in forced labor
camps--of which there are over 1,100-and the remainder in prisons.
-- Approximately 1.5 million, convicted of crimes for which they could
have received sentences of confinement, have been sentenced instead to
probation with "compulsory involvement in labor." Most of them are
working at construction jobs far from their homes.
-- About 500,000 have been paroled from confinement but remain obligated
to perform forced labor for the remainder of their terms. Many of
them also are working at construction sites.
-- In addition an undetermined number are sentenced to "correctional
tasks" without confinement; they are working at their own jobs for
reduced pay or in more menial jobs for low pay while continuing to
live at home.
Among these forced laborers are dissidents (political prisoners) whose
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numbers may reach as high as 10,000, the figure claimed by Sakharov and
Amnesty international. A former Soviet official reports that ministry of
Internal Affairs (MVD) records listed 10,358 political prisoners at the
beginning of 1977. Aleksandr Ginsburg, a prominent political dissident,
estimated that there were 5,000 political prisoners in 1979. Dissidents in
the Soviet Union fall into at least six categories: refuseniks (those refused
permission to leave the USSR), religious nonconformists, human and civil
rights activists, minority nationalists, discontented workers, and Russian
nationalists. The higher estimates above probably include some who, in
addition to being dissidents, are accused of crimes of "hooliganism" and
"parasitism."
Forced Labor With Confinement
The Correctional Labor Code of the RSFSR establishes four basic types of
confinement facilities: correctional labor colonies, educational labor
colonies (for juveniles), colony settlements, and prisons. Each type of
facility is differentiated by the amount of freedom and privileges granted to
the prisoners; the degree of supervision, regimentation, and restraint to
which they are subjected; the difficulty of their labor; and the conditions
under which they must live and work. The regimes (see Appendix 2) in effect
at prisons are the most harsh; the ones in effect at correctional labor
colonies and educational labor colonies somewhat less harsh; and the regime at
colony settlements is the mildest in the system.
The gravity of the offender's crime and whether or not he is a recidivist
determines in which of the following facilities incarceration will occur.
Correctional labor colonies constitute the bulk of the traditional
Soviet confinement system where convicts are closely guarded,
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supervised, and regimented. Labor colonies are enclosed by as many as
six or seven fences and walls with towers on each corner manned by
armed guards (Figure 1). A typical one-story wooden barracks houses a
detachment of 140 to 160 prisoners divided into two sections. The
legal minimum living area. per prisoner (2.0 square meters in prisons;
2.5 square meters in camps) is not much larger than an American-style
twin bed.
? Educational labor colonies are correctional institutions for juvenile
criminals aged 14 through 17. Inmates of educational labor colonies
are usually transferred to correctional labor colonies when they reach
age 18. Those who have less than two years of a sentence remaining
and who seem well on the way to rehabilitation however, may be allowed
to remain at the educational labor colony.
? Correctional labor colony settlements are milder forms of confinement
that were introduced in 1977. Often referred to by prisoners as the
"fifth regime", these colony settlements are located in areas where
new industries are being built and at other construction sites. Many
regular camps--especially in Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Far East, and
the Far North-have associated colony settlements. Colony settlements
are the least onerous facilities in the penal system and the only ones
in which the sexes are not segregated. For instance, prisoners must
observe a curfew and perform the labor designated for them, but they
may wear ordinary clothing, and few restrictions are placed on their
private behavior or their privileges.
? Soviet prisons are urban facilities, most of which have been expanded
and reconstructed since Czarist times, and present the harshest
confinement in the system. All major cities have at least one large
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prison. Major prisons number about 300 and house some 300,000 inmates
at any one time. Prisons are differentiated by primary function; four_
types may be distinguished: penitentiaries, transit prisons,
investigatory prisons and psychiatric prisons (see Appendix 3).
Payment of Prisoners
Soviet law stipulates that inmates in prisons and labor colonies are to
be paid at least the minimum wage for their work. Since inmates are not
permitted to keep money in their possession (a rule constantly abused), wages
are credited to the prisoners' accounts. Theoretically, after deductions for
their upkeep have been made, the balance is credited to their accounts and
paid to them when they depart; however, many prisoners reportedly have no
money when they are released.
Prisoners are allowed as much as 5 rubles monthly in credit at the prison
or colony commissary on what are termed "food items and basic necessities."
Soap, tooth powder, envelopes, postage stamps, tobacco, cigarettes, black
bread, margarine, candy, jam and canned fish are typical commissary items, but
reportedly many of these are frequently unavailable. There are no
restrictions placed on the amount of money a prisoner may spend on books,
educational supplies, and stationery. The number of letters prisoners may
send and receive and the number of packages and parcels they may receive are
closely regulated; such privileges are commonly used as a means of enforcing
prison discipline.
Incentives and Penalties
The Correctional Labor Code specifies incentives that "may be employed to
encourage convicts' good behavior and honest attitude toward work and
training." These incentives include the granting of additional privileges--
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perhaps permission to spend an extra couple of rubles in the commissary. More
significant measures entail transfer of prison inmates to labor colonies, or
transfer of inmates of labor colonies of other than special regime to colony
settlements. Such transfers may not take place until at least half the
sentence has been served. The Correctional Labor Code also specifies penalties that "may be applied
to convicts for violating the requirements of the regime." Not surprisingly,
most of the penalties are mirror images of the incentives: a warning or
reprimand, withdrawal of privileges, and transfer to harsher confinement
conditions. For major infractions, inmates of both labor camps and prisons
may be put in "punitive isolation." First offenders are sentenced for as long
as 15 days to a punishment isolation cell, better known as the shizo, or
cooler.
Working Conditions
The RSFSR Correctional Labor Code provides guidelines on the general work
conditions of prisoners, while specific conditions are established by the
prison and colony administrators. Work is compulsory, and those who do not
work receive a reduced food ration and no pay. Inmates are required to work
eight hours per day, six days a week. Prisoners who must travel to work
sites, such as those in logging or construction areas, "donate" this extra
time to the state. Most camps work two shifts, from 0800 to 1700 and from
1700 to 0100.
According to many former prisoners from many different camps, violations
of good safety and health practices are common throughout the system, even
though the Correctional Labor Code stipulates that "convicts' work is
organized so as to observe labor protection rules and industrial safety
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measures as established by labor law." At a sawmilling camp in Riga, for
example, serious accidents were reported to occur frequently. Prisoners in
this camp work without helmets, gloves, or safety goggles.
Forced Labor Without Confinement--
Persons sentenced to forced labor without confinement fall in two
categories: those assigned to correctional tasks without confinement, an
administrative penalty that amounts to little more than a fine, and those
sentenced to correctional labor without confinement. The latter comprises two
sub-categories: parolees (also known as khimiki*) and probationers with
compulsory labor.
The penalty of correctional tasks without confinement is meted out to
offenders whose crimes are deemed not serious enough to justify sentences of
confinement. The compulsory tasks may be performed either at the offender's
regular workplace or at some other nearby place so that he may continue to
live at home. The offender's pay is docked as much as 20 percent, and the
time spent performing correctional tasks (maximum sentence: one year) may not
count towards his job seniority. The number of Soviet citizens who receive
such sentences annually is difficult to estimate but could number about a half
million, judging from fragmentary information.
In 1964 the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decreed that certain prisoners
then under confinement could be released--in effect, paroled--fran penal
institutions and sent to construction sites to work out the balance of their
*When the parole program started, most parolees were sent to
construction sites of the chemical industry, which was then
undergoing a major expansion. The prisoners therefore referred
to the program as khimiya--chemistry--and to the parolees (and,
later, also to the pro ationers) as khimiki--chemists. The term
khimiya remains in use to this day.
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sentences without confinement. Article 44 of the Criminal Code was amended to
establish eligibility requirements for this program. Those not eligible
include prisoners undergoing compulsory treatment for alcoholism, drug
addiction, or venereal disease; foreign prisoners, and prisoners "who
systematically or maliciously" violate the terms of their confinement. All
others were eligible--those confined for the most serious offenses
(intentional homicide, crimes against the state) after serving three-quarters
of their time, and those serving for lesser offenses after lesser amounts of
time (See Appendix 4).
The MVD serves as a clearing house--a kind of employment agency keeping
track on the one hand of requests from other ministries for forced laborers,
and on the other of eligible prisoners who might be paroled to fulfill these
requirements. Periodically (perhaps two or three times a year), groups of
eligible prisoners are freed from confinement in what are called "amnesties"
and sent in guarded batches to the forced labor sites. Until recently,
prisoners convicted of especially dangerous crimes against the state had
little chance of being granted parole. However, demands for forced laborers
have become so insistent that even some political prisoners have been
paroled. Overall, roughly one-half of all persons under confinement are now
being paroled before the end of their terms and are serving an average of two
years at compulsory labor without confinement. Approximately 500,000 parolees
are currently performing forced labor under this system.
In 1970, another decree of the Supreme Soviet authorized courts to issue
sentences of "probation with compulsory labor" as an alternative to
"confinement with compulsory involvement in labor." In such sentences, the
confinement portion is suspended but the labor portion remains. The new
decree greatly widened the scope of the program of forced labor without
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confinement, for now the entire sentence could be so served. The stated
intent of the decree was to allow courts more latitude in determining the
sentence when they decided that an offender could be reformed without
confinement. Perhaps not coincidentally, however, treating offenders in this
way permits the state to extract-maximum economic benefit from their labor at
minimum cost.
Estimating the number of persons serving sentences of probation with
compulsory involvement in labor is difficult. In 1973 the Chief Justice of
the Lithuania Supreme Court commented that nearly 20 percent of the court
sentences issued in Lithuania fell into this category and that this percentage
was rising. A Ukrainian court lawyer until 1979 estimated at least 30 percent
of all criminal court cases received sentences to compulsory labor. Recent
information suggests that this has risen to about half of current sentences.
Assuming this is correct, and that the average sentence is 3 to 4 years, there
are now 1.4 million to 1.8 million persons on probation with compulsory
involvement in labor.
Persons sentenced to correctional tasks without confinement never leave
home and suffer minimal disruption in their lives, but the parolees and
probationers sentenced to correctional labor without confinement may be sent
to large construction sites far from their hares. Wren assigned to work
outside their immediate home areas, parolees are usually transported to their
assigned work sites in guarded groups on trains, and if they travel long
distances, they spend several periods in transit prisons en route.
Probationers are usually permitted to make their own travel arrangements and
travel to their assigned work sites unescorted.
At the work sites the forced laborers live in barracks similar to those
in correctional labor colonies. The facilities are not guarded, but the
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convicts must observe a daily curfew, normally at 2200 hours. As a rule a
laborer's special skills will be utilized as much as possible at the work
site, but there are reports that some laborers are required to perform heavy
manual labor regardless of their skills. They are paid the Soviet minimum
wage for such labor and after paying for roan and board (no more than 50
percent) are allowed to keep or spend the rest of their money as they wish.
They are permitted to eat wherever they wish. It is not unusual for such
convicts, especially probationers, to be granted permission to leave the work
site to visit relatives, conduct personal business, or even to take vacations.
The time spent at forced labor without confinement counts toward
fulfillment of the confinement sentence at the rate of one day for one day.
But if the parolee or probationer violates the terms of his sentence or
commits a new crime at his work site, he is sent back to the penal institution
from whence he came (or would have gone, in the case of a probationer) and
forfeits all of the time spent outside confinement. Authorities apparently
try to avoid applying this drastic punishment to convicts nearing the ends of
their sentences.
Pole of Forced Labor in the Economy
Forced laborers engage in nearly all forms of economic activity. They
constitute about 3 percent of the total Soviet labor force, which now is
estimated at 147 million. In the 1980s, labor force growth will be less than
half of what it was in the 1970s. Forced labor is thus likely to become a
more important means of relieving serious manpower shortages, particularly in
inhospitable areas, and there is likely to be much greater use of forced
laborers who are not confined. Unconfined forced labor provides a flexible
and inexpensive source of labor for hazardous or unhealthy duty or for work in
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remote locations.
Most inmates of prisons, correctional labor colonies, and colony
settlements work full time in a broad variety of economic activities,
including manufacturing, construction, logging and wood processing, mining,
producing building materials, and agriculture (Map 2).
Construction. Under Stalin, forced labor was used heavily in the
development of remote areas of the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East.
Cities such as as Norilsk, Vorkuta, Magnitogorsk, and Magadan were built
largely by forced labor. Major construction projects such as the Baltic-White
Sea and Volga-Ion Canals, as well as parts of the Trans-Siberian and Kotlas-
Vorkuta Railroads, relied heavily upon forced labor.
In recent years, more than 100 camps, or approximately 10 percent of the
total, have been associated with construction activities. Construction camps
are scattered throughout the USSR, most of them in or near cities. The
heaviest concentrations are in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The inmates
usually work at sites throughout the cities in which the camps are located;
hence they are more visible to the general populace than those in other kinds
of camps. one source reported watching 40 trucks, each loaded with 40
prisoners, drive off daily from the labor colony at Nizhnekamsk to nearby
sites where a petrochemical canplex, a large automotive repair facility, and a
concrete products plant were under construction. In many large cities
apartment houses, hotels, hospitals, government office buildings, and the like
have been built by convict labor.
The practice of using forced labor for the clearing and construction work
for entire new towns continues. Examples include Shevchenko, a showplace city
on the Caspian Sea containing a nuclear powered desalination plant, and Navoi,
a petrochemical city in Central Asia near a large deposit of natural gas.
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Both cities still contain major concentrations of forced labor.
Forced laborers on probation or parole from confinement are being
employed at a multitude of major construction projects throughout the
country. Especially large concentrations of them, numbering in the thousands,
have been used in construction of the huge Kama River truck plant (the world's
largest) and the Baykal-,Amur Mainline (BAM) railroad. Parolees and
probationers are also employed in industrial production and other economic
activities, including pipeline construction.
Pipeline Construction. Forced labor has been used as an integral part of
pipeline construction work crews in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the central
RSFSR. The forced laborers in pipeline construction have came largely from
parolees and probationers, and have been used in unskilled jobs such as
clearing forests, draining swamps, and preparing roads. Forced labor crews
are usually removed before skilled workers arrive, minimizing contact between
the groups. In some areas, however, unconfined forced laborers have worked
directly with free workers doing low-skilled jobs. Parolees are usually
released to a specific work site, for example, a construction site for a
compressor station, where they must remain until completion of their
assignment. They often live in trailers or barracks similar to those of other
workers. If local labor is not available, construction authorities may appeal
to the oblast executive committee and the local organs of the MVD to assign
paroled prisoners to a work site. Paroled prisoners and probationers are not
generally employed in laying pipe, which requires mobile crews. They
reportedly are used in the construction and repair of gas compressor stations,
service roads, and workers' housing. Many of these unconfined forced laborers
are young people who have been convicted of petty crimes and are serving
relatively light sentences.
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Siberian Gas Export Pipeline
In view of the past use of unconfined forced laborers and the current
shortage of labor, it seems that sane forced labor would be used along the
export pipeline route for compressor station and auxiliary construction unless
the Soviets depart fran their usual practice because of the exposure in the
Western media. There are about 100 heavily secured forced labor camps close
to the proposed route, all of which existed before the start of construction
of the export pipeline. Prisoners in the camps are engaged in a variety of
activities, but they could be tapped for pipeline construction work if
needed. However, it is more likely that forced laborers will cane from the
ranks of parolees and probationers.
Manufacturing. Well over half of the USSR's forced labor camps and
numerous large prisons contain sane type of manufacturing facility. These
institutions associated with manufacturing are most heavily concentrated in
the western USSR, especially in the Ukraine. Industrial camps tend to be
larger and more complex than the other types, and there is a great diversity
of manufacturing activities, for example:
- 17 camps in the Mordovskaya ASSR Complex produce a variety of
manufactures including metal products, clothing, clocks, autamtive
parts, furniture, and souvenirs;
- 12 Latvian camps produce metal goods, wooden furniture and souvenirs,
clothing, footwear, and electrical equipment;
- eight camps in Lithuania produce electrical sockets and plugs, home
appliances, clothing, plastic and rubber products, and furniture;
- in a Siberian camp near Ulan-Ude, 1,500 prisoners produce furniture,
glass, and clothing.
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Typically, the prisoner work force at a manufacturing camp is
supplemented by free laborers, scene of them former prisoners, who may account
for as much as 15 percent of the total. Most of this latter group serve as
foremen, technicians, engineers, and quality control experts.
Logging and Other Activities. About 350 camps are engaged in logging,
sawmilling, and related activities. These operations are concentrated in the
Urals, the Northwest, the Volga-Vyatka, and the Siberian econanic regions.
Most logging camps are by nature temporary and crude in construction; they are
abandoned as surrounding areas are depleted of trees. In the past, abandoned
logging camps were usually replaced by new ones elsewhere. Now, however, the
use of forced labor in logging and wood processing seems to be declining, and
relatively few new camps of this type are being constructed.
Approximately 50 camps are associated with mineral extraction, far fewer
than in former years when forced labor was extensively used in mining,
especially in the Kolyma Basin, where gold mining and some lead and coal
mining were carried on by prisoners. Coal mining was also pursued in
Kazakhstan and in the Russian North at Vorkuta and on Novaya Zemlya. Zbday
coal is still mined by forced laborers at brkuta and Karaganda as is uranium
at Zheltyye Vody in the Ukraine, gold at Zarafshan in Central Asia, iron ore
at Rudnyy, and bauxite at Arkalyk-the last two in Kazakhstan. At Vasalemma,
Estonia, prisoners work a large limestone deposit.
Camps producing construction materials have in recent years increased
slightly, to about 60, and are scattered throughout the USSR. Camps in this
category engage primarily in producing bricks and blocks used in the
construction industry.
Agricultural camps number about 20 and play a small and decreasing role
in the Soviet forced labor system. Conditions in agricultural camps are less
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severe than in other camps: the work is less strenuous, and agricultural
camps are located in more hospitable regions of the USSR, such as the North
Caucasus.
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Crime and Sentencing
Crime is a major problem in the Soviet Union, and it appears
to be getting worse. These conclusions are supported by many
sources -- diplomats, businessmen, tourists, emigre accounts
published in the West, and even Soviet journals and news media.
The most prevalent crimes are hooliganism and theft of state
and personal property. Juvenile crime is reaching serious
proportions. Alcoholism has reached epidemic proportions and
is blamed for much crime, especially the violent forms. The
murder rate (in 1976, 6 per 100,000 people) is below that in
the US, but much higher than in Western Europe. The crime rate
is generally higher in urban areas than in rural areas, with
the exception of several of the largest cities such as Moscow
and Leningrad, where ex-convicts are denied residence permits.
It is highest of all in the remote cities of Siberia and the
Far North, where many convicts have been forced to resettle
after completing terms of forced labor.
Crimes that are categorized as "especially dangerous crimes
against the state" are considered among the most serious in the
USSR; they include treason, terrorism, sabotage, and "anti-
Soviet agitation and propaganda" -- the last an offense with
which political dissidents are often charged. Persons convicted
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of such crimes receive some of the harshest punishment the penal
system offers. Legal punishments range from a public expression
of censure or a small fine to death by shooting. The death
penalty is authorized for some 25 crimes, including a number of
economic offenses. Several hundred executions are carried out
annually.
Crime and punishment in the USSR differ from their nature
in the United States and Western Europe in several important
respects. There are several kinds of behavior considered
crimes in the Soviet Union, but not elsewhere. These include
the preparation and distribution of writings critical of the
government or of the communist system, several kinds of
unregistered or unauthorized religious activities, living in
the capital without authorization, departure from the country
without permission, "hooliganism" and "parasitism." Although
prominent political dissidents may be sentenced for "serious
crimes" such as slandering the Soviet state, lesser known indi-
viduals who run afoul of political and religious restrictions
are often accused of "hooliganism" and "parasitism." "Hooli-
ganism" is a frequent charge for rowdy or drunken acts, but is
also applied liberally to dissidents. "Parasitism" is a charge
which is often brought against persons -- including dissidents
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and "refusniks" -- who have been fired from their jobs and
prevented from obtaining new employment. Finally, the judiciary
is less independent of the executive in the USSR and has very
little independence in political cases.
In addition, the nature of Soviet society and particularly
the inefficiency of the economy have created a system that, in
order to function, depends heavily on individual free-market
activity, the use of unauthorized channels and methods to
procure necessary supplies for state enterprises, and various
forms of trading personal favors. Most of these activities are
nominally illegal, but are so much part of the system that
fulfillment of the annual economic plans depends on them. Thus
it is more difficult in the Soviet Union than in the United
States or Western Europe to know whether one is doing one's job
or committing an illegal act, frequently giving the
administration of justice an arbitrary and political
character.
Some of the most comprehensive data were provided by a
former official of the Procurator's office in Moscow who has
published in the West what appear to be official records on
criminal convictions in the USSR: in 1976, Soviet courts
sentenced-976,000 persons for serious crimes, and another
1,684,355 lesser crimes and misdemeanors were handled
administratively or by "comrades courts" (see table below).
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UNCLASSIFIED
USSR Criminal Convictions, 1976
Serious Crimes - Tried by Peoples' Courts No. Sentenced
Percent
Hooliganism
235,215
24.1
Crimes against persons
168,013
17.2
Theft of state and public property
156,451
16.0
Crimes against personal property
151,934
15.6
Motor vehicle crimes
97,388
10.0
Economic crimes
43,653
Crimes against administrative order
38,445
Malfeasance in office
37,669
Crimes against justice
13,892
Other serious crimes
33,430
Zbtal serious crimes
976,090
100.0
Minor Crimes (petty larceny, moonshining, poaching,
petty hooliganism, and others)
Handled administratively
Reviewed by comrades' courts
Tbtal minor crimes
879,265
805,070
1,684,335
2,660,425
Source: The official described in the previous paragraph.
18
UNCLA
SSIHED
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UNCLASSIFIED
APPENDIX 2
Regimes in Effect in Labor Colonies and Prisons
Correctional Labor Colonies
Correctional labor colonies are by far the daninant form of incarceration
in the USSR. Four confinement regimes are in effect at correctional labor
colonies; in order of increasing severity they are defined as the general,
intensified, strict, and special regimes.
- general regime: for adult male first offenders who have been
sentenced to confinement for three years or less for premeditated
felonies or for more than five years for crimes of negligence; and for
all adult female offenders except especially dangerous recidivists,
women whose death sentences have been commuted, and those who have
ca[unitted especially dangerous crimes against the state;
- intensified regime: for adult male first offenders who have been
sentenced to terms of confinement for more than three years for
premeditated felonies;
- strict regime: for men and women who have catunitted especially
dangerous crimes against the state, men who have previously served
sentences of confinement (recidivists), especially dangerous female
recidivists, and warren whose death sentences have been carunuted;
- special regime: for especially dangerous male recidivists and men
whose death sentences have been ccnmuted.
NCLASSIFIED
U
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These colonies are correctional institutions for juvenile criminals aged
14 through 17. Only two regimes are in effect.
- general regime: for male first offenders who have been sentenced to
confinement for three years or less and all females;
- intensified regime: for males who have previously served sentences of
confinement and first offenders who have been sentenced to confinement
for more than three years.
Prisons
Persons temporarily confined in investigatory and transit prisons live
under a light regime akin to the mildest of the regimes in effect at
correctional labor colonies. But criminals serving sentences of confinement
in penitentiaries live under much harsher conditions.
- general regime: inmates live in communal cells from which they are
released only to work or to exercise outside, the latter activity
limited to one hour a day. Privileges are very limited.
-- strict regime: inmates also live in communal cells (in special cases,
in individual cells), but their privileges are more restricted than
under general regime. Prisoners under the strict regime are kept
separate from prisoners under general regime.
UNCLXSSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
APPENDIX 3
Types of Prisons
Prisons in the Soviet Union'-are differentiated by primary function; four
types may be distinguished:
-- Penitentiaries serve primarily as places of incarceration for
criminals and political prisoners specifically sentenced to terms of
confinement in prison--an exceptional punishment which may be assigned
by the courts only to persons convicted of especially dangerous crimes
against the state or certain other grave crimes, and to persons
serving in correctional labor colonies who maliciously violate camp
rules. Examples of such prisons are the ones at Vladimir and
Chistopol', both associated with male political prisoners. The
central prison for warren is in Minsk. Prisoners are required to
perform labor full time in industrial facilities in the prison
complex.
-- Transit prisons where prisoners are organized into groups for shipment
to their destinations are located at regional transportation hubs such
as Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, and Irkutsk. The Correctional Labor Code
limits to 10 days the time a person sentenced to forced labor without
confinement or to exile may be held in any transit prison, but a trip
fran the European USSR to the remote regions of Siberia or the Far
East may entail several sojourns in transit prisons. According to
same former prisoners the huge facility at Sverdlovsk (which is also a
penitentiary) can hold thousands of prisoners when, as is cannon, it
is filled beyond legal capacity.
UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
Investigatory prisons are used to incarcerate suspects awaiting trial
on serious charges and other persons already sentenced to confinement
in correctional labor colonies who are needed to testify as witnesses
at upcaning trials. Lefortovo Prison in Moscow is an example of such
a prison; the regime in an investigatory prison is less harsh than
that at other prisons.
-- Psychiatric prisons, otherwise known as "special psychiatric
hospitals" (SPHs), are used to hold and treat persons who have been
declared criminally insane. (They are to be distinguished fran
"ordinary psychiatric hospitals"--OPHs--run by the Ministry of
Health.) Sane SPHs have been repeatedly associated with maltreatment
of dissidents.
UNCLAtSIrIED
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UK, IAAs F!FD
APPENDIX 4
Eligibility for Parole
In 1964 the supreme Soviet of the-USSR decreed that certain prisoners
then under confinement could be released--in effect, paroled-from penal
institutions and sent to construction sites to work out the balance of their
sentences without confinement. Article 44 of the Criminal Code was amended to
establish eligibility requirements for this program.
-- Not eligible: prisoners undergoing compulsory treatment for
alcoholism, drug addiction, or venereal disease; foreign prisoners,
and prisoners "who systematically or maliciously" violate the terms of
their confinement.
- Eligible after serving three-quarters of the confinement sentence:
especially dangerous recidivists; prisoners convicted of especially
dangerous crimes against the state; prisoners convicted of intentional
homicide under aggravating circumstances; prisoners whose death
sentences have been caunuted.
-- Eligible after serving two-thirds of their confinement sentences:
prisoners convicted of certain serious crimes (especially if committed
under aggravating circumstances) including counterfeiting, currency
speculation, embezzlement, taking or giving bribes, banditry, robbery,
endangering the life of a policeman, disrupting a penal institution,
hijacking, rape, drug trafficking, and particularly malicious
hooliganism.
-- Eligible after serving half of their sentences: prisoners, other than
those listed above, sentenced to confinement for more than 10 years.
Dt
1"NCLAS, SIHED
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UNCLASSIFIED
-- Eligible after serving one-third of their sentences: prisoners, other
than those listed above sentenced to confinement for not more than 10
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The'United States Government has not recognized
the incorporation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
into the Sorel Union. Other boundary representation
is not necessarily avthen( ive
Soviet Union
Forced Labor Camps
and Selected Pipelines
Gas oil
Wider lines represent multiple pipelines.
MAP 1
 The United States Government has not recognized
the incorporation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
into the Soviet Union. Boundary representation
is not necessarily authoritative.
Soviet Union
Economic Utilization of Prisoners
Circles and segments indicate relative importance
- Economic region boundary
Toti l U.S.S.R
Map 2
 I. Living Zone
A. Barracks
B. Mess Hall
C. Support buildings
D. Isolation building
E. Entrance control building
F. Latrines
G. Outdoor Lecture Area
II. Industrial Zone
This typical corrective (forced) labor camp
may house as many as 1,000 prisoners.
Security measures may include as many as
six or seven rows of fencing surrounding
the camp. Prisoners in large, diverse industrial camps
such as these may never leave the compound
during their confinement.
Figure 1