Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON) is the first forced labor camp in the USSR. Over the 10 years of its existence, tens of thousands of people have passed through it. In 1933, it was officially liquidated, but until 1939, an institution with the abbreviation STON - Solovetsky Prison for Special Purposes - continued to operate on its territory.
Prison on Solovki
Dungeons existed in these places even in tsarist times. Since the 16th century, a prison for special prisoners operated at the Solovetsky Monastery.
Thus, Kasimov Khan Simeon Bekbulatovich, who for some time was the formal head of state during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, was exiled to Solovki. Also there, the author of the “Tale” telling about the events of the Time of Troubles, Abraham (Palitsyn), Alexander Pushkin’s cousin Pavel Hannibal and other famous personalities served his sentence.
The monastery prison ceased to exist in 1883. But exactly 40 years later, the first forced labor camp of the USSR appeared in these places - the notorious Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp, or, as it was often called, SLON. The first batch of prisoners - criminals from Arkhangelsk prisons - arrived there in 1923.
After camp
In 1933, there were almost 20 thousand prisoners in the camp. After disbandment, most of them were transferred to other places. About one and a half thousand prisoners remained on Solovki. The camp itself was converted into a prison by 1937 (STON).
In the area of the former monastery plant, between the Biosadsky and Varyazhsky lakes, a new, three-story correctional facility building was built in 1938-39. In addition, since the founding of SLON, men's and women's punishment cells have operated on Solovki. The first was located on Sekirnaya Mountain, and the second on Bolshoi Zayatsky Island.
Despite the name change, the life of the remaining prisoners of the prison differed little from the camp times. The same “occupational therapy”, frequent beatings from representatives of the administration and, in general, a difficult existence full of deprivation.
Basically, the prison population was divided into two categories: counter-revolutionaries and “punks” (criminals). During camp times, political prisoners (Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and others) were also kept on the islands. However, after they went on a two-week hunger strike in June 1925, the Council of People's Commissars decided to remove them from Solovki.
"Caers"
Counter-revolutionaries, or “kaers” (from the abbreviation KR - counter-revolutionary) were mostly convicted under Article 58 of the Criminal Code (treason, espionage, undermining industry, etc.).
Among the prisoners were many former tsarist officers, representatives of the bourgeoisie, intelligentsia, as well as members of non-socialist social movements and parties. The same category included peasants who resisted collectivization, as well as workers and engineers in production who allegedly deliberately engaged in sabotage.
The amnesty did not apply to this category in STON, and attempts to escape were stopped by execution on the spot. In case of talk about escape, the prisoner was punished by staying in a punishment cell.
"Shpan"
In STON, along with the “fifty-eighths,” ordinary criminals were also kept. Unlike the Kaers, they had the right to amnesty. Also included in this category were beggars, women with reduced social responsibility, as well as juvenile delinquents who were sent to Solovki from Moscow and Leningrad.
It is worth noting that former prostitutes often became mistresses of prison administration employees. The women lived in a separate building, in more tolerable conditions, and they ate better.
From prison to military unit
The Solovetsky special-purpose prison operated for two years, from 1937 to 1939. The three-story building that was built was never used. The prisoners were sent to other places, and the building itself and the territory of the correctional facility were transferred to the military. The cells were converted into barracks.
After the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish War, the Northern Fleet Training Unit was located in the buildings of the former prison. Later this territory was given over to military warehouses.
This article makes an attempt, based on materials from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) and the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), to show the main milestones in the history of the Solovetsky camp1
This article makes an attempt, based on materials from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) and the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), to show the main milestones in the history of the Solovetsky camp1.
On the eve of the revolution, the Russian prison system was a huge and extensive, albeit disorderly system. On January 1, 1914, it consisted of 719 prisons, 495 stages and half-stages, and 61 correctional institutions for minors, subordinate to the Ministry of Justice; 23 fortresses, 20 prisons and 23 military guardhouses; 7 maritime department prisons; 20 monastic prisons under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod; 704 arrest houses and 1093 arrest premises subordinate to the police. More than one and a half million prisoners passed through these institutions every year. On average, 169,367 prisoners were kept in the prisons of the Ministry of Justice every day in 1913, not counting the Sakhalin penal servitude and places of detention of other departments. In 1914, the average daily number of prisoners rose to 1,774,412.
After the October Revolution, the management of all places of detention was concentrated in the People's Commissariat of Justice (NKJU), locally they were subordinate to provincial and regional Soviets. By the resolution of the People's Commissariat of Justice of July 23, 1918, the following places of confinement were established in the RSFSR for serving a sentence of imprisonment: houses of detention (prisons), reformatories, arrest houses, agricultural colonies, as well as punitive medical institutions and hospitals3.
In the conditions of the outbreak of the Civil War, it was not possible to maintain the unity of management of all places of detention. The resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated September 5, 1918 “On the Red Terror” proclaimed the organization of concentration camps to isolate class enemies4. However, in reality, by the beginning of 1919, only 2 camps were organized. By the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of April 11, 1919 “On the organization of forced labor camps,” the camps were formed under the management departments of the provincial executive committees, while their initial organization was entrusted to the provincial emergency commissions, which transferred them to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD)5. Thus, during the Civil War, two parallel systems of places of detention operated in the country: a general system, under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Justice, and an emergency system, under the jurisdiction of the NKVD. On January 1, 1920, there were about 300 general detention centers and 21 forced labor camps. There were 16,447 prisoners and prisoners of war of the white armies in the camps. Of these, 31% were prisoners of war, 9% investigators, 13% hostages and prisoners until the end of the Civil War6. In 1922, by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of August 237, forced labor camps were liquidated or transformed into general places of detention. In October of the same year, all places of deprivation of liberty were transferred to the jurisdiction of the NKVD8.
The GPU (and with the formation of the USSR - the OGPU) was left under the jurisdiction of only one prison each in Moscow and Petrograd and the northern special-purpose forced labor camps organized at the end of 1920, located in Arkhangelsk and Pertominsk. However, they could only accommodate 1,200 people, and such a number of places after the closure of forced labor camps in other parts of the country was clearly insufficient. The search for a place to organize a camp that could accommodate a significant number of prisoners and located in isolation led to the Solovetsky Islands.
In May 1923, Deputy Chairman of the GPU I.S. Unshlikht turned to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with a project to organize the Solovetsky forced labor camp in order to carry out the necessary isolation of the most socially dangerous element on the territory of the USSR. The new camp was supposed to house 8,000 political and criminal prisoners, mainly those convicted extrajudicially9.
It took several months to coordinate the resolution with various departments, especially with the NKVD of the RSFSR, which objected to the division of places of detention between various departments. Nevertheless, on October 13, 1923, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution marked “Not subject to publication” signed by Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Rykov, Administrative Officer Gorbunov and Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars Fotieva on the organization of the Solovetsky forced labor camp for special purposes and two transit and distribution points in Arkhangelsk and Kemi. The resolution stated:
1. Organize the Solovetsky Forced Labor Camp for special purposes and two transit and distribution points in Arkhangelsk and Kemi.
2. The organization and management of the Camp and transit and distribution points specified in Article 1 shall be entrusted to the OGPU.
3. All lands, buildings, living and dead equipment that previously belonged to the former Solovetsky Monastery, as well as the Pertominsky camp and the Arkhangelsk transit and distribution point, should be transferred free of charge to the OGPU.
4. At the same time, transfer the radio station located on the Solovetsky Islands to the OGPU for use.
5. Oblige the OGPU to immediately begin organizing the labor of prisoners for the use of agricultural, fishing, forestry and other industries and enterprises, exempting them from paying state and local taxes and fees”10.
All the land, buildings and equipment that previously belonged to the Solovetsky Monastery were transferred to the new camp. True, the monastery itself ceased to exist back in 1920, and on the basis of its farm the Solovetsky state farm was created, the property of which was transferred to the organized camp.
A few months before the official decision was made, on June 6, 1923, the steamship Pechora delivered the first batch of prisoners from Arkhangelsk and Pertominsk to Solovki. On the eve of the arrival of the prisoners, a fire in the Solovetsky Kremlin (within the walls of the monastery) destroyed or severely damaged almost all the buildings. Those who arrived, first of all, began to restore housing, set up farmsteads, and prepare for winter. A few months later, kitchens and laundries, a bakery and a hospital, brick and leather production appeared on the islands. In the forest camps of Valdai, Ovsyanka, and Sosnovaya, the first teams of lumberjacks felled ship pine. During the summer and autumn, new batches of prisoners were transferred to the islands. On December 1, 1923, there were already 3,049 people11.
October 13, 1923 and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee makes an official decision on the creation of the “Solovetsky Special Purpose Forced Labor Camp” (SLON). The camp consisted of 6 camp sections on the islands and a transit point in Kemi. The first department, concentrating the bulk of the prisoners, was located within the walls of the monastery (in the Kremlin). The second department was based in various points of the Big Solovetsky Island (Sosnovka, Valdai, etc.), where logging and peat harvesting work was carried out. The third department was located on the island of Bolshaya Muksalma, and prisoners who had lost their ability to work and needed rest were concentrated in it. The fourth department, located in the Voznesensky monastery on Sekirnaya Gora, was a men's punishment cell. The fifth department was set up at Kondostrov, where prisoners with contagious diseases and those who did not want to work were concentrated. The sixth department was located on the island of Anzere and, having more favorable climatic conditions compared to the Big Solovetsky Island, was used to house disabled prisoners and prisoners who were unable to work (for various reasons). In addition to these departments, there was also a women’s punishment cell on Bolshoi Zayatsky Island12.
Members of various anti-Soviet political parties sent to Solovki were placed separately from other prisoners in the Savvatievsky, Trinity and Sergievsky monasteries. They were given preferential treatment. However, at first it largely extended to other convicts.
Camp inmates could elect elders, use personal property, subscribe to newspapers and magazines, and meet with close relatives. Political prisoners, of whom there were about 350 people in the camp, had the opportunity to create party factions and conduct inter-factional polemics, legally discuss issues of politics, the camp regime, everyday life, and leisure13.
An 8-hour working day was established for work, and free movement within the zone was allowed during the daytime.
Prisoners and monks who were imprisoned were allowed to hold services in the Church of St. on holidays. Onuphry at the monastery cemetery. This church was left to serve the monks who remained on the island after the closure of the monastery. Most of them worked as civilians in the camp in various household jobs. As one of the prisoners recalled, several bishops often performed services in the church, and priests and deacons lined up in trellises along the aisle to the altar14.
For lovers of secular entertainment, a camp theater opened in the Transfiguration Cathedral on September 23, 1923. A White Sea gull was embroidered on the curtain of this theater, but, unfortunately, its images have not survived and how it differed from the Moscow Art Theater is unknown. At the end of 1924, another amateur theater appeared in the camp called “HLAM”, which in no way related to the artistic merits of this theater, but reflected the professions of the people participating in its work (artists, writers, actors, musicians).
Simultaneously with the theater, a local history museum was opened, located in the gateway Church of the Annunciation, and a biogarden-nursery under the direction of M.I. Nekrasov, who was a member of the circle of nature lovers of the Solovetsky branch of the Arkhangelsk Society of Local Lore.
The presence of a large number of writers and journalists among the prisoners helped to establish regular publication of periodicals. Already on March 1, 1924, the monthly magazine “SLON” began to be published, renamed in 1925 to “Solovetsky Islands” - the organ of the USLON OGPU. The weekly newspaper “New Solovki” also appeared, and in May 1926 the USLON press bureau began publishing “Materials of the Solovetsky Branch of the Arkhangelsk Society of Local History” (17 collections in total).
However, it would be extremely wrong to imagine life in the camp as some kind of idyll, and Solovki itself as a branch of a rest home. First of all, it was a place of strict isolation of opponents of Soviet power, a “socially dangerous” and “socially harmful” element. The population of prisoners was extremely diverse: from members of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties and members of White Guard formations to criminals and members of various gangs. Their attitude towards the new government and the OGPU employees was extremely negative. The conflict between the prisoners and the administration, as well as the soldiers of the Solovetsky special purpose regiment-division under the OGPU board, who guarded the camp and the Kem transit point, existed constantly. The strength of the regiment on the islands was about 200 people.
“Politicians,” that is, members of anti-Soviet parties, categorically refused to comply with regime restrictions. Particular indignation was caused by the clause prohibiting movement at night. On December 19, 1923, the prisoners of the Savvatievsky monastery went out into the street late in the evening. The guards used weapons, as a result, 6 prisoners were killed and 3 seriously wounded. After this incident, all political prisoners began to demand transfer to the mainland, and a flurry of articles about the horrors of the KGB dungeons appeared in the emigrant and European press. Lengthy negotiations between prisoners and the administration did not produce results, and at the end of 1924 the “politicians” went on a hunger strike that lasted 15 days. In order to end the conflict situation, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, on June 10, 1925, adopted a resolution on the removal of this category of prisoners from the Solovetsky Islands. The resolution stated:
1. To cease from now on the detention in the Solovetsky special purpose concentration camp of members of anti-Soviet parties convicted of political crimes (right socialist-revolutionaries, left-wing socialist-revolutionaries, Mensheviks and anarchists).
2. Members of the anti-Soviet parties specified in Article 1 of this Resolution, prisoners in the above-mentioned camp, must be transferred no later than August 1, 1925 to places of deprivation of liberty under the jurisdiction of the OGPU on the mainland.
3. From now on, the persons specified in Art. 1, sentenced to imprisonment in concentration camps, shall be sent to serve the term of imprisonment in places of deprivation of liberty on the mainland subordinate to the OGPU for the same period.”15.
In pursuance of this resolution, Deputy Chairman of the OGPU, G.G. On June 13, 1925, Yagoda signed order No. 144 “On the transfer of political prisoners from the Northern camps,” in which the deputy head of the OGPU SOU Andreeva was ordered to go to the Solovetsky camps, receive political prisoners from their chief Nogtev and ensure their removal to Vologda. From Vologda the prisoners were sent to the Verkhneuralsk political isolation ward16.
The political prisoners deported to Solovki in the fall of 1925 were replaced by 1,744 hard-core beggars expelled from Moscow. Their colony was organized as part of the camp17.
The number of prisoners in the Solovetsky camp was constantly growing. The number as of October 1 was: in 1923 - 2557, in 1924 - 4115, in 1925 - 6765, in 1926 - 9830, in 1927 - 12896 people18.
The increase in the number of prisoners led to an increase in the costs of maintaining the camp. Subsidies to USLON from the state budget amounted to: in 1923–1924 business years - 500 thousand rubles, 1924–1925. - 600 thousand rubles, in 1925–1926. - 1 million 60 thousand rubles.19 Per prisoner, subsidies amounted to about 100 rubles. per year and were less than the costs of maintaining prisoners in general places of detention (approximately 150 rubles), but, nevertheless, there could be no talk of any self-sufficiency of the camp.
The situation began to change radically from the 1926/27 financial year thanks to the proposals of one of the prisoners. The name of this man is associated with many legends in Russian literature, and therefore let us dwell on his fate and his role in the formation of the penal system in a little more detail. His name was Naftaliy Aronovich Frenkel. He was born in Moscow in 1883, received a construction education in Germany, then worked in various construction companies as a foreman. After the revolution, he was in the south of Russia, where he was arrested in 1923 and sentenced to 10 years for embezzlement and currency speculation. Finding himself in Solovki against his will, Frenkel worked in the construction organization of the camp, and then in the production department. There was nothing unusual about this; almost three-quarters of the positions in the administrative and production apparatus of the Solovetsky camps were occupied by imprisoned specialists. Frenkel proposed the basic ideas that formed the basis for the self-sufficiency of the camps. As is known, the idea of using the labor of convicts to maintain prisons has existed since the early 20s. The miserable state of prisons, due to a lack of funds in a country that was just beginning to emerge from devastation, stimulated the search for ways to use the convict labor force. But all attempts to achieve results were unsuccessful. In the conditions of the central regions with their enormous unemployment, it was not possible to use convicts in external work, and internal work did not give the desired result due to the need to attract significant funds to organize production. Another obstacle was the lack of qualifications among the prison labor force.
N.A. Frenkel proposed using prisoners for external work that does not require significant initial investment and allows for the use of a large amount of manual labor, as well as unskilled labor. Given the shortage of labor in the northern regions of the country, this made it possible to achieve the desired results with minimal costs and receive significant income for the maintenance of both prisoners and the camp apparatus. Moreover, the use of prisoners in the apparatus and security significantly reduced the cost of their maintenance. To stimulate the work of convicts, a system of material incentives was used, both in kind and in monetary terms, and, most importantly, a system of credits: work made it possible for the prisoner to significantly reduce his sentence. During shock work, 2 working days were counted as 3 days of the deadline. Subsequently, this ratio reached 3 days for one day of work20.
On October 1, 1927, out of 12,896 prisoners, 7,445 were on the islands (or 57.5% of the total number), and 5,451 were on the mainland. Among those convicted there were 11,700 men and 1,196 women. They were distributed by age as follows: up to 20 years - 2040, 21–30 - 5692, 31–40 - 3165, 41–50 - 1234, from 50 - 765, including 35 women. The class composition of the prisoners is interesting: workers - 629, peasants - 8711, burghers - 2504, honorary citizens - 213, nobles - 372, clergy - 119, Cossacks - 344. By nationality, the absolute majority of prisoners were Russians - 9364 people, then Jews - 739 people, 502 Belarusians, 353 Poles and 229 Ukrainians. In total, there were people of 48 nationalities in the camp. More than 90% of the prisoners were previously non-party members - 11,906 people, there were 591 former members of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the Komsomol - 319. Among those convicted were 485 former employees of the Cheka and OGPU. According to the term of punishment, prisoners were distributed as follows: up to 3 years - 10183, 3–5 years - 1101, 5–7 years - 88, 7–10 years - 1292 people. In addition, 232 people did not have documents determining the length of their stay in the camp21.
Starting this year, the center of the Solovetsky camp moves to the mainland, to Karelia, where prisoners build railways and dirt roads and harvest wood. The use of labor in these works made it possible already in 1928 to obtain income exceeding the costs of maintaining the camp. Product production increased from 289 thousand rubles. in 1926/27. up to 3 million 319 thousand rubles. in 1929/30 In addition, the camp carried out logging work worth 7.5 million rubles.22 The new system made it possible to accept streams of prisoners into the camp in 1928 and 1929, when both those convicted in the “Shakhty case” and wealthy peasants began to arrive there for failure to fulfill obligations for grain supplies. On January 1, 1930, there were already 53,123 people in the Solovetsky camps (including the mainland).
At the end of 1928, more than 60% of the guards in the camp were prisoners (630 out of 950 personnel). Subsequently, the OGPU established a special uniform for prisoner guards. The order stated that prisoner shooters wear the following uniform: a khaki-colored cap, buttonholes on the overcoat and tunic of gray (mouse) color without edging; instead of a star, a tinplate badge with the inscription “security” is worn on the caps and helmets.
It was the experience of the Solovetsky camp that enabled the leadership of the OGPU and the country to decide to create a system of forced labor camps as the main type of penal institution. The resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of July 11, 1929 “On the use of labor of criminal prisoners” marked the beginning of a network of such camps. It stated that those sentenced by the judicial authorities of the Union to imprisonment for terms of three years or more should be transferred and will continue to be transferred to serve imprisonment in forced labor camps organized by the OGPU23. These camps solved numerous economic problems without requiring funds for their maintenance. To manage them, the Main Directorate of OGPU camps was created in 1930.
Without the experience of Solovkov and the initiatives of N.A. Frenkel, the creation of such a system would be impossible. Thus, Frenkel was one of the “godfathers” of the Gulag. And his very fate was inextricably linked with this organization. A non-party member, he retired in 1947 as head of the Main Directorate of Railway Construction Camps with the rank of Lieutenant General of the NKVD.
Solovetsky camps of the early 30s. were a huge economic complex stretching from Murmansk to the Svir River and carrying out significant road construction and logging. In mid-1930, out of 62,565 prisoners, 50,800 people or 81.2% worked in production, in the administrative and economic apparatus, security and household services; 11,762 people did not work (sick, disabled, mothers, quarantine, etc.) or 18.8%. Of those employed, 2,500 worked on the construction of the Belaya–Apatity railway, 8,500 on road construction in Karelia, 23,500 on logging and 1,500 on drainage of swamps24. At the end of 1929, the camp administration was transferred to the mainland in Kem. The very name of the camp also changed: instead of SLON, the Solovetsky and Karelo-Murmansk forced labor camps of the OGPU appeared. These camps were served by a squadron of seaplanes and a flotilla of 18 ships. Among them were the steamships “Gleb Bokiy” and “Elephant”, tugboats “Neva”, “Spets” and “Chekist”, motor-sailing vessels “Anzer” and “Slonenok”.
The rapid growth of the camp population and the enormous scale of production activity led to to a significant deterioration in the situation of Solovetsky prisoners. Hard work in the conditions of the Subpolar and Arctic led to an increase in diseases and an increase in the number of disabled people among convicts. Despite a higher ration than in general prisons, costing about 30 kopecks. per day (in general prisons 12–15 kopecks) and the possibility of using personal money, morbidity and mortality from scurvy and pellagra was quite high. There were interruptions in the delivery and distribution of bread in the camp. During the existence of the Solovetsky camp from 1923 to 1933. About 7.5 thousand people died there, 3.5 thousand of them died in the famine year of 1933. 25
The presence of a larger percentage of professional criminals among the camp inmates also complicated the situation; fights and stabbings among prisoners were not uncommon.
Control and accounting of the personnel of convicts was not established; the administration often did not know where and in what numbers certain persons were located. Thus, when receiving prisoners who arrived from Solovki on Vaigach Island, who according to documents should have been 712 people, an inspection revealed 720. When checking the camp, it turned out that a number of prisoners listed as dead (personal files were archived) are in camp and work. Several prisoners remained in the camp for several months after the end of their sentences, and four were released much earlier than their sentences26.
The Solovetsky camp, which determined many features of the Gulag system, was disbanded in December 1933. Later, one of the camp branches of the White Sea-Baltic camp was located on Solovki, and in 1937–39. - Solovetsky prison of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD of the USSR.
1 The materials used are in funds 393, 4042, 1235, 353, 8131, 5446, 9401, 9414 GARF and in fund 17 (inventory 21) RGASPI.
2 Kuzmin S.I. Correctional labor institutions in the USSR (1917–1953). M., 1991. P. 7.
3 Collection of laws and orders of the workers' and peasants' government (hereinafter - SU; since 1924 - SU of the RSFSR). 1918. No. 53. Art. 598.
4 SU. 1918. No. 65. Art. 710.
5 SU. 1919. No. 12. Art. 124.
6 GARF. F.393. Op. 89. D. 161. L. 182-184.
7 SU. 1922. No. 53. Art. 675.
8 Resolution of the People's Commissariat of Justice and the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of October 12, 1922.
9 GARF. F. 5446. Op. 5a. D.1. L. 24.
10 GARF. F. 5446. Op. 1. D. 2. L. 43.
11 RGASPI. F.17. Op.21. D. 184. L. 401.
12 GARF. F. 9414. Op.1. D. 2918. L. 9-10.
13 Solovetsky Islands. 1926. No. 4.
14 Volkov O. Plunge into darkness. M., 1989. P. 65.
15 SU RSFSR. 1925. No. 38. Art. 287.
16 GARF. Collection of documents.
17 GARF. F. 5446. Op. 7a. D. 113. L. 1.
18 CA FSB. Collection of documents.
19 GARF. F. 5446. Op.7a. D.113. L.5.
20 GARF. F. 9414. Op. 1. D. 1132. L. 59– 60
21 GARF. F. 9414. Op. 1. D. 2918.
22 RGASPI. F. 17. Op. 21. D. 184. L. 397.
23 GARF. F. 5446. Op 1. D. 48. L. 223–224.
24 GARF. F. 9414. Op. 1. D. 2922. L. 41.
25 RGASPI. F. 17. Op. 21. D. 184. L. 400–401. See: Gulag statistics - myths and reality // Historical readings at Lubyanka. Novgorod, 2001.
26 Order on the Gulag of the OGPU No. 141 dated September 15, 1933 (GARF. F. 9414. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 69–70).
Morukov Yuri Ikolaevich
Born in 1948 in the Tambov region. In 1977 he graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. Until 1995 he served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Currently works in the Joint Editorial Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Area of scientific interest: history of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the penitentiary system of Russia in the twentieth century.
Yuri Morukov Almanac “Solovetsky Sea”. No. 3. 2004
SOLOVETSKY SPECIAL PURPOSE CAMP (ELEPHANT)
Story
“Prisoner of war camps,” “internment camps,” or, in modern terms, “filtration camps” have been known since the times of the pharaohs, when captured enemies were kept locked up in pits, ravines, and gorges, guarded by archers. The captured and disarmed soldiers died in large numbers, they were not given food, they were killed or turned into slaves. The slaves of ancient Egypt, Greece, and ancient Rome were replenished with captured soldiers. Their professional skills were used in gladiator camps.
It was precisely these camps that were created everywhere on the territories of countries waging war. They were also in Napoleonic France, Tsarist Russia, Imperial Japan, Kaiser Germany... in a word, everywhere where wars were fought. And this is the bitter reality of any war. Agree that the same “Swedes near Poltava” had to be disarmed, searched and kept by Russian soldiers somewhere before Emperor Peter the Great sent them home.
There were similar prisoner camps in the United States during the Civil War (1861-1865). They write that in a camp near Andersonville, up to 10 thousand captured soldiers died of starvation. It is this that has recently been intensively called the “first concentration camp”, forgetting that just a year ago the “first concentration camps” were the Boer camps of the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899. Big Russian money came to London and the Kremlin political wind immediately blew to the west.
Now about “concentration camps” as a state body. Their homeland is the USSR. The camps, which later transformed into concentration camps, first appeared on the territory of present-day Russia in 1918-1923. The term “concentration camp”, the very phrase “concentration camps” appeared in documents signed by Vladimir Lenin, wrote Anatoly Pristavkin. Their creation was supported by Leon Trotsky. And only after Lenin’s Russia, concentration camps arose in Hitler’s Germany and in Pol-Pot’s Kampuchea*.
A concentration camp is not just a place surrounded by barbed wire
The Solovetsky Forced Labor Camp for Special Purposes (ELEPHANT OGPU), including two transit and distribution points in Arkhangelsk and Kemi, was organized by resolution of the Council of People's Commissars (Minutes No. 15 of the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars of October 13, 1923, chaired by the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars A.I. Rykov) on the basis of the Pertominsk camp forced labor, which by this time already had its own branch in Solovki.
According to the draft resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (prepared by the OGPU in June 1923), it was planned to accommodate 8,000 people in the Solovetsky camp.
The total number of Solovki prisoners grew from 2,500 people at the end of 1923, to 5,000 at the end of 1924, then stabilized - about 8,000 people at a time.
The period 1925–1929 of the existence of the Solovetsky Camps was most reflected in memoirs. At the same time, the image of Solovki was formed, which became famous far beyond the borders of the USSR.
During these years, Solovetsky prisoners worked: on the construction and operation of the railway (the Kremlin-Kirpichny Zavod branch and the Kremlin-Filimonovo branch), in logging (the central and northern part of Bolshaya Solovetsky Island), in peat mining (the northwestern part of Bolshaya Solovetsky Island ), in the fish and animal industry (catching lake and sea fish, slaughtering sea animals - M. Muksalma, Rebolda), in the agricultural sector (extraction of salt from sea water), in agriculture (dairy farming, pig farms, vegetable growing - Kremlin, B. Muksalma, Isakovo) , in the fur industry (rabbitry, breeding of muskrats, arctic foxes, foxes, sables - Glubokaya Bay Islands), iodine industry (extraction and processing of seaweed - Anzer, Muksalma, Rebolda); for servicing factories: brick, leather, mechanical, pottery, tar, lime, lard and a number of workshops.
An exploitation and commercial unit (headed by N.A. Frenkel) was organized on Solovki, aimed at using free “labor” in the undeveloped region rich in resources. The most profitable thing for the GPU is logging for export.
By 1929, logging from Solovki was finally transferred to Karelia, and after the threat of an embargo in connection with the “use of slave labor of prisoners,” it was carried out through the Karelles trust.
The Solovetsky camps gradually grew, moved to the mainland with Administration in the city of Kem (since 1929), the number of prisoners, taking into account mainland assignments, by 1929/1930 reached 65,000 people, while about 10,000 people were kept on the Solovetsky Islands themselves.
By this time, the labor of prisoners from forced labor for the purpose of “re-education” had finally become slave labor, the development of the North was transformed into colonization, which was carried out by the forces of the Gulag. “Colonization villages” were organized from among prisoners who had served part of their sentence (depending on the article) with the obligatory call of the family. Production activity is concentrated on the mainland; in 1930–1933, several large stages of Solovki prisoners are known to work on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, in the Ukhta and Vaigach expeditions of the OGPU.
During these years, Solovki served to isolate the “special contingent”; political isolation wards were created again – special isolation wards (Trotskyists, Ukrainian “Borotbists”, communists). Disabled people and “walkers” were also sent here.
The mass executions of 1937 affected mainly the category of prisoners of the Solovetsky camp who were transferred to prison regime without a decision. From October 1937 to February 1938, the Special Troika of the UNKVD in the Leningrad Region sentenced 1,825 prisoners of the Solovetsky prison to execution: on October 9, 1937, 657 people were sentenced (shot on October 27, November 2 and 3, 1937); On October 10, 1937, 459 people were sentenced (executed on November 1 and 4, 1937); On November 10, 1937, 84 people were sentenced (executed on December 8, 1937); On November 25, 1937, 425 people were sentenced (executed on December 8, 1937); On February 14, 1938, 200 people were sentenced (the date of execution is unknown). The place of execution and burial of the first stage - 1111 people (from October 27 to November 4, 1937) - the Sandormokh tract (outskirts of Medvezhyegorsk), the remaining burial places are unknown. Presumably on December 8, 1937, a group of 509 people were shot in the Leningrad region, and in February 1938 the remaining 200 people were shot on Solovki (presumably in the Isakovo or Kulikov Swamp area).
After the mass executions of 1937, the regime was even more stringent (prisoners were deprived of surnames - they were assigned numbers; after getting up and before lights out, it was forbidden not only to lie down on the bed, but also to lean against the wall and headboards; one had to sit with open eyes, holding hands on knees; walk 30 minutes a day; limited correspondence; received letters were not given to prisoners - they were allowed to be read once in the presence of the warden).
Solovetsky camp - the first demonstration state concentration camp in the world
- For the first time in world history, the Solovetsky camps became a STATE STRUCTURE (state structures at the rank of ministry were created to manage the camps - OGPU, NKVD, MGB, the Charter of the Solovetsky camp was written, their own monetary circulation was introduced, etc.).
- The camps were created DIRECTLY INDICATED BY THE CHIEF PERSONS OF THE STATE, who were PERSONALLY AND DIRECTLY involved in the murders of their own citizens through the secret state decrees or orders they issued. (Secret Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars "On the organization of the Solovetsky forced labor camp" dated November 2, 1923. With the participation of Vladimir Lenin, signed by his deputy - Alexei Rykov and his secretary Nikolai Gorbunov. The so-called "execution lists" of Joseph Stalin).
- A vile LEGAL BASIS for sending to a camp has been created (Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). Black is declared white and vice versa. Lies are elevated to the level of state policy. Without any hesitation, the Justice and Police openly take the side of lawlessness, and the main enemies of the state are citizens who dare to declare their rights and oppose state arbitrariness.
- A STATE SYSTEM of ideological support for the camps was created - state media exposed “enemies of the people” and brainwashed the people themselves, public figures justified and praised terror... Fear and horror that came from Solovki took hold in the country.
- The camps were intended to destroy the POLITICAL OPPOSITION within the country (destruction and exile of prominent members of other political parties, members of social movements and political organizations).
- The camps were used to SOLVE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS - prisoners dug canals, built factories, erected settlements, etc., and the concentration camps were integrated into civil institutions, for example the Ministry of Railway Transport, the Ministry of Construction, etc.
- Concealment of crimes in the camps was carried out AT THE STATE LEVEL (Soviet Secret Resolution of the KGB of the USSR No. 108ss). War criminals were covered by the STATE, presenting them with STATE orders, insignia and honorary titles of “Pensioner of State Importance” (The History of the Solovki Executioner Dmitry Uspensky).
- Incredible and previously unknown in history SCALE OF KILLINGS (The clash between the British and the Boers, which “glorified” the British as the first builders of camps for the civilian population - the British drove more than 200 thousand people into the camps - claimed the lives of 17 thousand people in 1902 alone. Through the ELEPHANT concentration camp According to various estimates, up to 3 million people passed away, and from 300 thousand to 1 million people died.).
- The camps were used to intern and exterminate their OWN CITIZENS.
- The camps were used to intern representatives of ALL LEVELS OF SOCIETY, and not representatives of certain groups of the population (military, rebels, migrants, etc.).
- The camps were used to exterminate people IN PEACETIME.
- In the camps, people of all religions, genders, ages and nationalities were exterminated - Armenians, Belarusians, Hungarians, Georgians, Jews... Kazakhs... Russians... "International Solovki" arose.
Here are the 12 features that distinguish the SYSTEM of concentration camps from camps for prisoners of war, from colonies for criminals, from penal battalions, from correctional labor camps, reservations, ghettos, from filtration camps...
Nothing like this existed anywhere before Bolshevik Russia (RSFSR-USSR). Not in the United States of America, not in England, not in Finland, not in Poland. In none of these countries were the camps raised to the level of a STATE STRUCTURE, a state institution. Neither the Diet, nor the Parliament, nor the Congress passed laws on the camps. Neither the Prime Minister nor the President personally gave orders to the punitive authorities to “Shoot”. The ministers of these countries did not convey to their subordinates the state regulations on the number of people to be shot. Prisoners in England and the USA did not build factories, canals, power plants, roads, universities, bridges... did not participate in the “atomic” project, did not sit in sharashkas. In none of these countries did the economy depend on the “occupancy” of the camps and the “economic return” of each prisoner. The newspapers of England did not howl in a wild frenzy, “Death to the enemies of the people!” The people of the United States did not demand “Death to dogs” in public squares. And, most importantly, in none of these countries did the camps exist for decades, for several generations... in peacetime.
This FIRST began in Solovki, in the Solovetsky special purpose camp. The communists "drove humanity towards happiness with an iron hand." And “happiness” immediately appeared to humanity through mass executions, typhoid Solovki, the Ukrainian famine, Kolyma. Communism gave birth to the monstrous - cannibal women and torture of children. Communism created a state organization - the Cheka / GPU / NKVD, in which the majority of employees were psychopathic patients. They were put in charge of the Russian people. An unprecedented tragedy began, stretching for almost seventy years and leading to severe degradation of the entire population of Russia.
Source - Wikipedia
Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON) is the largest forced labor camp of the 1920s, located on the territory of the Solovetsky Islands.
Monastery prison
For many years, the Solovetsky Monastery was used as a place of isolation for Orthodox hierarchs, heretics and sectarians who were disobedient to the will of the sovereign. Politically unreliable people also ended up here, such as the disgraced Averky Palitsyn or Pavel Hannibal, a Decembrist sympathizer, and others. Since 1718, the State Prison on Solovki existed for almost 200 years; it was closed in 1903.
On February 3, 1919, during the Civil War, the government of the Northern Region Miller-Tchaikovsky, which was supported by the Entente troops, adopted a resolution according to which citizens “whose presence is harmful ... may be subject to arrest and extrajudicial deportation to the places specified in paragraph 4 of this resolution.” The specified paragraph read “The Solovetsky Monastery or one of the islands of the Solovetsky group is designated as the place of deportation...”
Northern camps
In 1919, the Cheka established a number of forced labor camps in the Arkhangelsk province: in Pertominsk, Kholmogory and near Arkhangelsk. The camps had to exist on their own money without the support of the center.
In 1921, these camps became known as Northern Camps for Special Purposes (SLON).
The emergence of the Solovetsky special purpose camp (1923)
At the beginning of 1923, the GPU of the RSFSR, which replaced the Cheka, proposed increasing the number of northern camps by building a new one on the Solovetsky archipelago. In May, Deputy Chairman of the GPU I.S. Unschlicht turned to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with a project on organizing the Solovetsky forced labor camp. And already in July, the first prisoners were transported from Arkhangelsk to Solovetsky Island.
On July 6, 1923, six months after the formation of the USSR, the GPU of the union republics were removed from the jurisdiction of the republican NKVD and merged into the United State Political Administration ( OGPU), subordinate directly to the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The places of detention of the GPU of the RSFSR were transferred to the jurisdiction of the OGPU.
Later, one of the BelBaltLag camp departments was located on Solovki, and in 1937-39. - Solovetsky Special Purpose Prison (STON) of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD of the USSR.
Thanks to archival research conducted in 1995 by the director of the St. Petersburg Research Center "Memorial" Veniamin Ioffe, it was established that on October 27, 1937, by the verdict of the Special Troika of the NKVD for the Leningrad Region, some of the prisoners of the Solovetsky camp were loaded onto barges and, delivering them to the village Povenets , shot in the Sandormokh tract (1,111 people, including all those disabled and “untrained” - a camp term meaning a prisoner who did not have a specialty).
Chronology
Bitter on Solovki. 1929
June 6, 1923(even before the decision was made to create the Solovetsky camp), the paddle steamer Pechora delivered the first batch of prisoners from Arkhangelsk and Pertominsk to the Solovetsky Islands.
October 13, 1923- the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on the organization of the Solovetsky forced labor camp is issued. The camp was supposed to accommodate 8,000 people.
December 19, 1923 During the walk, five members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party were killed and three were wounded (one fatally). and anarchists. This execution received wide publicity in the world press.
October 1, 1924- the number of political prisoners in the camp is 429 people, of which 176 are Mensheviks, 130 right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries, 67 anarchists, 26 left-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries, 30 socialists of other organizations.
“Politicians” (members of socialist parties: Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bundists and anarchists) made up a small part of the total number of prisoners (about 400 people), nevertheless they occupied a privileged position in the camp - as a rule, they were exempt from physical labor (except for emergency work ), communicated freely with each other, had their own governing body (elder), could see relatives, and received help from the Red Cross. They were kept separately from other prisoners in the Savvateevsky monastery. From the end of 1923, the OGPU began a policy of tightening the regime for holding political prisoners.
June 10, 1925 The Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated June 10, 1925 was adopted on ending the detention of political prisoners in SLON. In the summer of 1925, political prisoners were taken to the mainland.
Camp leaders
From October 13, 1923 to November 13, 1925 - A. P. Nogtev;
From November 13, 1925 to May 20, 1929 - F. I. Eichmans ,
from May 20, 1929 to May 19, 1930 - A. P. Nogtev
from May 19, 1930 to September 25, 1931 - A. A. Ivanchenko,
from September 25, 1931 to November 6, 1931 - K. Ya. Dukis, acting chief
November 6-16, 1931 - E. I. Senkevich
from November 16, 1931 to January 1, 1932, the camp was closed due to the organization of the Belbaltlag at its base
from January 1932 to March 1933 - E. I. Senkevich
August 27, 1932 - Boyar (mentioned as acting chief)
from January 28, 1933 - no later than August 13, 1933 (mentioned) - Y. A. Bukhband,
October 8, 1933 - Ievlev (mentioned as acting chief)
December 4, 1933 - the camp, as an independent unit, was finally closed.
Living conditions in the camp
Maxim Gorky, who visited the camp in 1929, gave evidence from prisoners about the conditions of the Soviet system of re-education through labor:
Prisoners worked no more than 8 hours a day;
Increased rations were given for more difficult work “on peat”;
Elderly prisoners were not subject to assignment to heavy labor;
All prisoners were taught to read and write.
Gorky describes their barracks as very spacious and bright.
However, according to researcher of the history of the Solovetsky camps, photographer Yu. A. Brodsky, various tortures and humiliations were used against prisoners in Solovki. Thus, prisoners were forced to:
Drag stones or logs from place to place,
Count the seagulls
Shout International loudly for many hours in a row. If the prisoner stopped, then two or three were killed, after which the people stood screaming until they began to fall from exhaustion. This could be done at night, in the cold.
Cm. Chernavin: escape from the Gulag
The fate of the camp founders
Many organizers involved in the creation of the Solovetsky camp were shot
The man who proposed gathering camps on Solovki, Arkhangelsk activist Ivan Vasilyevich Bogovoy, was shot.
The man who raised the red flag over Solovki ended up in the Solovetsky camp as a prisoner.
The first head of the camp, Nogtev, received 15 years, was released under an amnesty, did not have time to register in Moscow, and died.
The second head of the Eichmanns camp was shot as an English spy.
The head of the Solovetsky special prison, Apater, was shot.
At the same time, for example, an ELEPHANT prisoner Naftaliy Aronovich Frenkel, who proposed innovative ideas for the development of the camp and was one of the “godfathers” of the Gulag, moved up the career ladder and retired in 1947 from the post of head of the Main Directorate of Railway Construction Camps with the rank of Lieutenant General of the NKVD.
Notable prisoners
Alimov, Safa Bedretdinovich - second imam of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque
Anichkov, Igor Evgenievich
Antsiferov, Nikolai Pavlovich
Artemyev, Vladimir Andreevich
Bezsonov, Georgy Dmitrievich
Beneshevich, Vladimir Nikolaevich
Braz, Osip Emmanuilovich
Volkov, Oleg Vasilievich
Danzas, Yulia Nikolaevna
Quesnel, Alexander Alexandrovich
Krivosh-Nemanich, Vladimir Ivanovich
Likhachev, Dmitry Sergeevich - worked, among other things, in the criminological office of the camp administration
Lozina-Lozinsky, Vladimir Konstantinovich - priest
Lysenko, Ivan Nikiforovich - Hero of the Soviet Union, before the war he was convicted under the “law of three ears of corn.”
Malsagov, Sozerko Artaganovich- officer, participant in the legendary escape
Mirzhakip Dulatov
Magzhan Zhumabaev - Kazakh poet
Mitrotsky, Mikhail Vladimirovich - priest
Meyer, Alexander Alexandrovich
Frantisek Olekhnovich - Belarusian playwright and political activist
Priselkov, Mikhail Dmitrievich
Pigulevskaya, Nina Viktorovna
Hieromartyr Hilarion (Trinity)
Skulsky, Dmitry Arkadevich
Vitaly Snezhny
Snesarev, Andrey Evgenievich
Solonevich, Boris Lukyanovich
Florensky, Pavel Aleksandrovich - held from 1933 to 1937.
Shiryaev, Boris Nikolaevich
