The Stalin Era: some characteristics of the formation of the GULAG

  • Viktor A. Berdinskikh Vyatka State University, Institute of Humanitarian and Social Sciences, 111 Lenina Street, Kirov 610002, Russia
  • Viachaslau I. Menkouski Belarusian State University, 4 Niezaliežnasci Avenue, Minsk 220030, Belarus

Abstract

The article examines the ideology and economics of forced labour in the Soviet Gulag (the Main Directorate of Camps and Places of Detention, then the Main Directorate of Forced Labour Camps). The formation of Gulag structure is shown, its features are revealed, negative consequences of servitude labor are noted. The authors note that Gulag became one of Russian history that continue to remain relevant for both the academic world and wider society. This, without doubt, includes the history of Stalinism with all its dimensions and components. Objective analysis of the historical experience of the Stalin period of Soviet history seems to be gaining in common civil significance over again. Noted the influence of fact of the existence of the Gulag on the culture, language and morals of the Soviet and now Russian society that faces the problems of moral overcoming of the legacy of Gulag. It is in Gulag that a certain set of norms of behavior was formed to be followed not only by prison camp inmates but, to a certain degree, by civilian camp workers as well, for both of these segments of the camp population lived in a sort of symbiosis. So «camp ethics» would, naturally, permeate everyone who had something to do with the «zona» («area»), be it the camp’s inmates, who were grouped into «bytoviks» («everydayers») and «politicals», its security guards and warders, or its educators and guidance officers. The internal and extra-campal Soviet society is characterized as a single whole created by the same «sculptors», according to a single plan, from the same human material.

Author Biographies

Viktor A. Berdinskikh, Vyatka State University, Institute of Humanitarian and Social Sciences, 111 Lenina Street, Kirov 610002, Russia

doctor of science (history), full professor; professor at the department of native history and ethnology, faculty of history, political science and culturology

Viachaslau I. Menkouski, Belarusian State University, 4 Niezaliežnasci Avenue, Minsk 220030, Belarus

doctor of science (history), full professor; professor at the department of Russian history, faculty of history

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Published
2017-09-29
Keywords: Gulag, Stalinism, USSR, Prison camp inmates, Forced labour, Historiography, Social Sciences and Humanities
How to Cite
Berdinskikh V. A., Menkouski V. I. The Stalin Era: some characteristics of the formation of the GULAG // Journal of the Belarusian State University. History. 2017. 3. PP. 44-54.
Section
1917 in the Belarusian History