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Parts of a wooden plank bed, Butugichag Mine (Kolyma Region), 1940s.

Usually four prisoners - sometimes even more - had to share one wooden plank bed of this type.

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Plank bed signs bearing prisoners' names, from a camp along the Salekhard-Igarka transpolar railway, 1940s

In a number of camps, the plates mounted on the plank beds served the purpose of identifying the prisoners. Often just the prisoner's name was entered, but sometimes also the date of birth, criminal code article, length of term and date of release.

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Plank bed signs bearing prisoners' names, from a camp along the Salekhard-Igarka transpolar railway, 1940s.

In a number of camps, the plates mounted on the plank beds served the purpose of identifying the prisoners. Often just the prisoner's name was entered, but sometimes also the date of birth, criminal code article, length of term and date of release.

image

Plank bed signs bearing prisoners' names, from a camp along the Salekhard-Igarka transpolar railway, 1940s.

In a number of camps, the plates mounted on the plank beds served the purpose of identifying the prisoners. Often just the prisoner's name was entered, but sometimes also the date of birth, criminal code article, length of term and date of release.

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The Camp

Life in the camp was dominated by countless directives and prohibitions. The conditions were oppressive and life-threatening.

On their arrival, the inmates frequently found themselves in provisional camps or had to build them themselves. Isolated from society and subjected to inhumane conditions, they now lived a life consisting of heavy labour and a constant struggle for survival. The new arrivals had to find their places within the inmate hierarchy, which was usually ruled by criminal prisoners. A rigid schedule governed the daily routine. Early wake-up call, agonizing roll calls every morning and evening, often at inconceivably low temperatures, and strength-sapping marches to the place of work. Gruelling working hours were the rule, alleviated by only a few short breaks. A day of rest was a rarity.

What did the Soviet Gulag camps look like?

Where do these photos come from?

The majority of the photos come from albums kept by the camp administrations. The latter had photos of this kind taken to provide higher-ranking offices with evidence of how smoothly their detention facilities operated.

The penal camps of the Soviet Gulag

View of a camp in the Kolyma Region from a mountaintop, 1944 | Source: Russian Federation State Archive, Moscow
Camp inmates in front of their earthen hut in a camp on the Volga, 1940s | Source: "Memorial" Collection, Moscow
View of the interior of a barrack for adolescent prisoners, Yagry "Corrective Labour Camp" (Archangelsk Region), 1945 | Source: Russian Federation State Archive, Moscow
Camp barrack, Vorkuta Region, 1944 | Source: "Memorial" Collection, Moscow
Detention cell ("penal isolator") of a camp in the Vorkuta Region, 1945 | Source: Russian Federation State Archive, Moscow
 

Janusz Bardach recounts his initial impressions of everyday life in the camp.

... but nobody here cared about a human life ...

Report by Janusz Bardach, 1998 (0:40 min.) in German

J. Bardach (1919-2002), Sentenced to death in 1941 for alleged espionage, later commutation of punishment to ten years of camp imprisonment in the Kolyma Region; early release in 1945

Source: Janusz Bardach and Kathleen Gleeson: Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag, Berkeley, 1999