FORCED LABOR CAMPS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A005300770003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 7, 2007
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 1, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2007/06/07: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA005300770003-9
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
This material contains information affecting the Na-
tional Defense of the United States within the mean-
ing of the Espionage Laws, Title 18, U.S.C. Seca. 793
and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in
any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law.
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Forced Labor Camps
REPORT NO.
DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
1 December 195+
1. The following report mentions several different types of forced labor camps
in the USSR, viz.:
a. Minlag: A camp maintained by the MGB for political prisoners. Minlag
is an abbreviation of ministralnaya lagernaya chast MSGR. The meaning
of ministralnaya is said to be that the camp is a central one with cer-
tain responsibilities for dependent camps.
b. Gorlag: A camp maintained by the MGB for political prisoners, at which
special precautions against escape are taken. Gorlag is an abbreviation
of gosudarstvennyy osoborezhimnyy lager (State special regime camp).
c. OLI': A small camp in a severe climate, maintained by the MGB and believed
to be a subdivision of a minlag. OLP is an abbreviation of otdeleniye
lagernogo)unkta chrez cha orezhimno o la e a (subsection of a sub-
camp of an extreme regime'camp .
d. Ozerlag: A camp maintained by the MVD for both political and criminal
prisoners with long sentences, at which special restrictive measures
apply. Ozerlag is an abbreviation for osobozakrytnyy rezhimnyy lager
(special closed regime camp).
e.
Steplag: An MVD camp in the steppe zone, believed to be identical in
function with an ozerla .
f.
ITL: A corrective labor camp maintained by the IMMVD. The initials stand
for ispravitelnyy trudovoy lager (corrective labor camp).
g.
KTR:
A penal labor camp maintained by the Ministry of Justice. The
stands
for katorzynyy (penal), the "T" probably`standsfor trudovoy (la-
bor),
and the "R" may stand for rezhim (regime).
h.
Peresylka: A transit camp (peresylnyy lager).
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Sosva (N 59-10, E 62-00), 1945-1951
At Sosva, there was the headquarters of the Severnyy Urallag (North Urals Camp).
This is an ITL of the MVD, commanded by a Col. Vasin (fnu). It had a subcamp
at Simi (not identified) and possibly another at Verkhoturye, 60 kilometers south-
west of Sosva. Between them these camps held 200,000 prisoners, who were sub-
divided into groups of 800 to 1,000 for work. The prisoners were mostly Rus-
sians, though they included many Ukrainians, Belorussians, and Germans; very few
were of other nationalities. They all worked at felling timber or in sawmills.
Up to 1948, conditions were very hard, with very poor food and a high death rate;
since then conditions improved: that is, prisoners lived in wooden barrack-huts
and got two meals a day. The morning meal consisted of 0.75 liter of soup, 375
gr of bread, and 90 gr of fish, The evening meal was identical, except that
200 -,r of porridge was substituted for the fish. The food was supposed to con-
tain 45 gr of meat, 15 gr of fat, and 20 gr of sugar. Prisoners who were Soviet
citizens could write letters and could receive letters and parcels.
Burovsk, 1946-1949
The location of this camp has not been identified exactly, but informant de-
scribed it as north of Solikamsk (N 59-40, E 56-50), on the Kama River and also
on the railroad some 450 kilometers by rail from Molotov. This was an MVD camp,
subdivided into 18 subcamps.
were not segregated, and they all had the same work and norms. All prisoners
worked at felling timber in the sawmill or on loading timber into railroad cars.
There was a good deal of malaria and dropsy at this camp.
Pechora (N 65-50, E 57-00), 1947-1948
4. This camp was merely a peresyylka, mainly for political prisoners.
Inta, 1948_- December 1953
5. The exact location of Inta has not been established, but informant described it
as on the Kirov-Vorkuta railroad, 80 kilometers southwest of Abez. Inta must,
therefore, be at approximately'N 66-00, E 60-00. This was an MGB minlag and
contained very few foreigners. It held altogether 30,000 men and 12,000 women,
subdivided into seven subcamps (lagernoye otdeleniye) as follows:
a, Laaotdel No. 1: 3,500 men mining coal in three shifts at four mines.
b. Lagotdel No. 2: 4,000 men or more, mining coal at five mines.
c. Lagotdel No. 3: 4,000 men or more mining coal at six or seven mines.
d. Lagotdel No. 4: About 6,000 women, working in a tile factory, a woodworking
combine, and on the construp-tion of roads- rail] and houses for free
settlers in the district..
e. Lagotdel No. 5: Camp hospital, also used as a transit camp for arrivals and
departures. It normally contained a little less than a thousand persons but
had room for 2,800. It had two operating theaters, a large X-ray cabinet,
and a women's department. Altogether, it had 36 barrack buildings of one
or two stories.
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f. Lagotdel No. 6: Held about 7,000 prisoners, working seven mines, in 1953;
but this camp has been under extension since 1952 and should eventually
hold 13,000 prisoners.
g. Lagotdel No. 7: This camp had the machine repair shop (mashinoremontnyy
zavod, abbreviated to emza), in which 4,000 prisoners were working on
repairs to equipment used in the mines. An increase to 5,000 prisoners
was planned. It also had a tile factory employing about 2,000 prisoners,
and a special camp for ex-criminals. This special camp held about 4,000
persons, of whom many were not prisoners any longer but had been directed
to work at the camp after their release. These persons worked in the bet-
ter trades,which were forbidden to political prisoners, such as shoemaking
and tailoring.
6. The camp at Abez (see paragraph 8 below) was also subordinated to the camp
headquarters at Inta.
7. There were also 30,000 persons living outside the camps, in the town of Inta.
These were all Russians, political suspects,or ex-prisoners, who had been di-
rected to live there.
Abez _(H 66-50, E 61-45), 1248-December 19,51
8. Abez was also an MGB minlag, which held prisoners were were not 100 percent
fit for work, including invalids from Inta who recuperated at Abez and then
returned to Inta. It consisted of three sub-camps (lagotdel) for men, one
for women, and one which was a hospital camp. The camp at Abez was subordin-
ated to the camp at Inta.
Shum, 1947-1249
9. The exact location of Shum has not been established, but, like Pechora, Abez,
and Inta, it lies on the Kirov-Vorkuta-Salekhard railroad. Informant de-
scribed it as about 70 kilometers southwest of the point where the railroad
crossed the Usa River, which would mean that it must be situated near Kochmes
(N 66-10, E 60-45), or else be related to a second crossing of the Usa River
at some point between Vorkuta and Salekhard.
10. Nine hundred men from the Pechora transit camp worked on the railroad and on
a bridge across the Usa River from August 1947 until February 1949. These were
all political prisoners, mostly Russians, but included a number of prisoners
from the satellite nations, from the Baltic States, and East Germany.
Vorkuta (N 67-30, E 64-00). 1951-June 1953
11. OLP No. 3 was at Vorkuta. It contained some 4,500 prisoners, of whom about 1,000
were from the Baltic States, predominantly Estonians. Some of these prisoners
had been transferred from the camp at Sosva (see paragraph 2 above). They all
had long sentences of 20 to 25 years. They worked in three coal mines, Nos. 12,
14, and 16. Informant believed that the Vorkuta Rayon included 40 mines and a
total of 400,000 prisoners.
Dzhezkaz an (N 47-50, E 67--30), 1949-1953
12. Dzhezkazgan was the site of the MVD Steppe Camp (steplag) of the Kazakh SSR.
Up to the end of 1949, it contained some 6,000 political prisoners, divided in-
to three subcamps named lagerpunkty. No. 1 subcamp did stone-breaking and
general labor; No. 2 dug mines and erected buildings, while No. 3 operated
five or six mines which yielded copper.
13. At Dzhezdy, some 40 kilometers southwest of Dzhezkazgan mines, there was a hos-
pital camp and a labor brigade also belonging to the steplag. Up to December
1953, there were about 2,000 men at this camp; they broke stones, worked in a
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tile factory, and mined for manganese. There were four or five manganese mines,
of which the prisoners worked three, and civilians worked the other one or two.
tore than half the prisoners here were Ukrainians, while the rest were from the
Baltic States, mostly Lithuanians.
14. All these prisoners wore two or three letters and three figures on the back and
on the left trouser leg. The first letter was "S" (for spetskontingent) in all
cases; prisoners' numbers thus ran from SA-001 to SA-999, then from SB-001 to
SB-999, ? then the system began again at SAA, SBB, and so and so on to forth. the numbering had
reached He believed that is series o bers covered all the
steppe camps of the MVD. This suggests a total of about 60,000 prisoners in
steplag camps.
15. The steppe camp was a hard regime camp, and the food was very poor. From May
1952, the bread ration was increased, and one-third of each man's pay, amount-
to between 30 and 200 rubles, was paid to him in cash.
16. The camp was surrounded by a wall four meters high with barbed wire on top.
A five-meter forbidden zone was wired off outside the wall. Inside the wall,
first a three-meter zone and then a two-meter zone were similarly wired off,
and the three-meter zone was patrolled with dogs by night. The wire at the
inside of the two-meter zone was fitted with electric alarm bells. At each
corner of the camp there was a watchtower.' The guards were 11VD troops with
blue cap bands and red shoulder boards; they served for seven years, and many
of them were themselves undergoing punishment. After release at the end of
their sentences, a number of these prisoners were compulsorily settled at Ka-
raganda, Novosibirsk, and Krasnoyarsk.
Stalinsk (N 53-50, E 87-10), 1947-1948
17. At Shodrova, 80 kilometers east-southeast of Stalinsk, there were at least two
labor camps. At Shodrova No. 2 Camp there were 800 prisoners, mostly Estonians,
engaged in felling timber. Their camp was infested with lice, and the food was
poor; there was a good deal of pneumonia and dystrophy in the camp, and within
three months of 1947 half the prisoners lost weight;
18. At Konfarma, just outside Stalinsk, there was a woman's camp with a section set
aside for male semi-invalids. In January 1948, the camp contained 1,500 to
2,000 prisoners. The food, in particular, was better at this camp.
19. At Abakur, eight kilometers outside Stalinsk, there was a persylka. In sum-
mer 1948, it held 2,000 prisoners, including a number of women.
Krasnoyarsk (N 56-002_E 92-45), August 1948
20. At Krasnoyarsk, there was a peresylka which held 12,000 to 13,000 political and
criminal prisoners. Informant believed that this camp was maintained by the
YGB. Prisoners arrived by the Trans-Siberian railroad, and many of them were
moved on northwards down the Yenisey River by river steamers to Dudinka and
Norilsk.
Norilsk (N 69-20, E 60-OO). 1948-July 1953
21. At Norilsk, there were at least six camps of the gorlag type; Gorlag No. 4 held
some 8,000 prisoners, of whom a good 3,000 we"e from the Baltic States, pre-
dominantly Estonians. Gorlag No. 6 was a women's camp, holding 6,000 women, of
whom about half were from the Baltic States, predominantly Latvians, but also
including a large number of Ukrainians. All told, informant estimated that
there were about 50,000 prisoners in the og rlag camps at Norilsk; nearly half
of them were from the Baltic States. They were all political prisoners, and
the camps were maintained by the MGB. These prisoners worked in the ore mines.
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22. At the same time, the MVD maintained ITL corrective labor camps at Norilsk.
These held almost 100,000 prisoners, primarily criminal offenders but also
including some political prisoners. These prisoners worked in factories in
Norilsk, not in the mines.
23. There was also a KTR and an ozerlag at Norilsk.
24. Another informant stated that No. 4 subcamp (lagotdel) at Norilsk contained
6,000 to 8,000 prisoners in summer 1949, while from then until June 1953 No. 2
subcamp contained 3,000 prisoners.'
Tayshet (N 56-00, E 98-00) and Bratsk (up to 220 kilometers east of Bratsk),
1949-November 1953
25. The Tayshet-Bratsk ozerlag consisted of a number of subcamps known locally as
columns, which were strung out along the railroad from Tayshet to Bratsk. The
largest column contained some 2,500 prisoners, all political prisoners, many
of whom were Germans. At least ten such columns existed and were engaged in
building houses and villages, repairing roads, railroads, and bridges, in fell-
ing timber, and in operating sawmills. They were under MVD guard. The Japan-
ese PWs who had built the Tayshet-Bratsk railroad had all gone by the begin-
ning of 1949. In August 1953, shortly before the large-scale repatriation of
German prisoners, Soviet criminal prisoners were moved into the area; they were
engaged in the same kind of work but were kept entirely segregated from the
political prisoners. Informant knew the following columns:
a.
Column 007: Was engaged in strengthening the railroad bridge over the
Chuksha River.
b.
Column 011;
Existed, but no details were known to informant.
c.
Column 013:
Was engaged in January 1950 in building Vikhorevka Village
about 30 kilometers west of Bratsk, equipping Vikhorevka with a water
tower,'an electric power station, and a 10-grade school. Column 013
consisted of about 1,200 men. It was guarded by 150 armed MVD troops.
d. Column 020: Contained about 1,500 prisoners, a number of whom were in-
valids.
e. Column 034: Existed, but no details were known to informant.
f. Column 042: Was a hospital camp *located in the town of Bratsk, just
beside the bridge over the Angara River.
g. Column 043: Built a sawmill during 1950 and thereafter operated it, as
well as felling the timber for it.
h. Column 049: In 1949, this was a men's camp, but in March 1952 it became
a women's camp, holding some 650 women, including many non-Russians. They
had to fell trees and build roads.
26. Another informant mentioned a camp numbered 03/215/2, known in Russian as a
lagpunkt and therefore probably an OLP as described in paragraph 1 above,
located at Kilometer 162 on the railroad from Tayshet towards Bratsk. It
contained 600 men in the summer of 1953; they were felling timber, operating
a sawmill, and loading sawn timber on railroad trains. They were all poli-
tical prisoners, although the camp had formerly been occupied by criminals.
27. A parallel women's camp existed at Kilometer 161. The women did the same
type of work as the men at Kilometer 162.
Vladivostok, 1949
28. In February 1949, a transport of 2,000 political prisoners, including 200 women,
went by rail from Burovsk (see paragraph 3 above) to a camp at Vladivostok. At
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one labor camp, some 15 kilometers outside Vladivostok, there were 1,200 men.
They felled timber and operated sawmills. Two thousand men moved from this
camp to Dratsk (see paragraph 20 above) in April 1949.
Conditions in Forced Labor Camps
29. In most of the camps mentioned above, quarters consisted of fairly primitive,
undivided woodcn barrack-huts, anO food consisted mainly of soup, bread, and
fish. At the extreme regime camp at Vorkuta, however, the food is said to
have been better, probably as a condition of survival. At Burovsk, the day's
ration of bread was withheld from any prisoner who failed to perform his full
labor norm. At Norilsk, in a biting wind at temperatures of -30?C and below,
prisoners walked four kilometers each way to their work in the mines. Iortalitty
was fairly high rtt all camps until 1948, in which year conditions became more
humane at most camps. From May Day 1952, each prisoner was paid a daily wage,
though deductions were made for food and clothing, with the result that the
only prisoners who ever held any cash in their hands were the few who were able
occasionally to exceed their norm, Even these, at that'time, were not allowed
to have more than 100 rubles in the pockets, though this was increased to 300
rubles on I-lay Day 1953. From 13 August 1953, close relatives of prisoners
were allowed to visit the camp for a day or two once a year. A prisoner's
wife was allowed to stay the night in camp; she and her husband were locked
into a special room. Soviet citizens could write two letters a year from
these camps but could receive any number of letters and parcels. From 4
December 1953, non-Soviet prisoners with good conduct records were allowed to
write a postcard to relatives through the Red Crescent Society.
30. she normal punishment for an attempt to escape from camp was to start one's
sentence from the beginning again. After completing a sentence, a prisoner
was released, but would usually have to settle as a "free citizen" in the same
area as the labor camp.
31. In all camps, women had exactly the same conditions as men.
Comment: These subcamps appear to be identical with the _orlac
camps escribed in paragraph l.b.
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