Stalin’s Gulag at War: Forced Labour, Mass Death, and Soviet Victory in the Second World War PDF
Preview Stalin’s Gulag at War: Forced Labour, Mass Death, and Soviet Victory in the Second World War
STALIN’S GULAG AT WAR Forced Labour, Mass Death, and Soviet Victory in the Second World War Stalin's Gulag at War places the Gulag within the story of the regional wartime mobilization of Western Siberia during the Second World War. Far from Moscow, Western Siberia was a key area for evacuated fac- tories and for production in support of the war effort. Wilson T. Bell explores a diverse array of issues, including mass death, black markets, and the responses of both prisoners and prison personnel to the war. The region's camps were never prioritized and faced a constant strug- gle to mobilize for the war. Prisoners in these camps, however, engaged in such activities as sewing Red Army uniforms, manufacturing artil- lery shells, and constructing and working in major defence factories. Stalin’s Gulag is revealed as a complex system, but one that was close- ly tied to the local, regional, and national war effort to the point where prisoners and non-prisoners frequently interacted. Western Siberia’s low priority forced-labour camps and colonies saw catastrophic death rates, often far exceeding official Gulag averages. Ultimately, their pris- oners played a tangible role in Soviet victory, but the cost was incredibly high, both in terms of the health and lives of the prisoners themselves, and in terms of Stalin's commitment to total, often violent, mobilization to achieve the goals of the Soviet state. WILSON T. BELL is an associate professor the Department of Philo- sophy, History, and Politics at Thompson Rivers University. This page intentionally left blank Stalin’s Gulag at War Forced Labour, Mass Death, and Soviet Victory in the Second World War WILSON T. BELL UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press 2018 Toronto Buffalo London utorontopress.com Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4875-0408-3 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-4875-2309-1 (paper) Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable- based inks. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Bell, Wilson T., 1977−, author Stalin’s Gulag at war : forced labour, mass death, and Soviet victory in the Second World War / Wilson T. Bell. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4875-0408-3 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4875-2309-1 (softcover) 1.Stalin, Joseph, 1878−1953. 2. GULag NKVD. 3. World War, 1939−1945 – Prisoners and prisons, Soviet. 4. World War, 1939−1945 – Conscript labor – Soviet Union. 5. Concentration camps – Soviet Union – History – 20th century. 6.Forced labor – Soviet Union − History – 20th century. 7. Political persecution – Soviet Union − History – 20th century. 8. Soviet Union − History – 1925−1953. 9. World War, 1939−1945 – Soviet Union. I. Title. HV8964.S65B45 2018 940.53'1747 C2018-903915-9 This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario. Funded by the Financé par le Government gouvernement of Canada du Canada For Martha, Maeve, and Amri. This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures and Tables ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Stalin’s Gulag at War 3 1 Ready for Total War? 20 2 Total War, Total Mobilization 49 3 Patriotic Prisoners 79 4 Patriotic Personnel 111 5 The Gulag’s Victory 136 Epilogue: Memory, Stalin’s Gulag, and the Great Patriotic War 159 Notes 165 Bibliography 231 Index 251 This page intentionally left blank Figures and Tables Figures 0.1 Map: Siblag camps and colonies, May 1941 xvi 1.1 Siblag farm 41 2.1 Yak fighter planes on assembly lines, 1942 66 2.2 Siblag prisoners construct a building in Mariinsk, 1940s 67 3.1 Siblag prisoners at a Mariinsk work site, 1940s 91 6.1 The Tomsk “Sorrow Stone” and monument 163 Tables 2.1 January prisoner population, 1939–1945, Siblag and Gulag 52 2.2 The standard ration 60 3.1 Official wartime Gulag mortality, 1939–1946, all prisoners 95 4.1 Administrative personnel departures, Novosibirsk Province Camp and Colony Administration, first half of 1942 123
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