INDUSTRIES, RAILROADS, AND FORCED LABOR IN THE NORILSK AREA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A006600290005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 14, 2008
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: April 28, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/01/14: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA006600290005-6
EHMM~,TION REPORT INFORMATION REPORT
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18. U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
C-0-N-F- I-Dog-g-T- I-A-L
COUNTRY USSR (Taymyr National Okrug) REPORT
SUBJECT Industries, Railroads, and Forced
Labor in the Norilsk Area
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
DATE ACQUIRED
REFERENCES
REQUIREMENT
DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES
28 April 1955
4
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The City of Norilsk
1. Construction of Norilsk was started in 1938, at which time the city was
cal:Led Sotsgorod (Socialist City) and was only a small settlement of
Nentsy and Tunguzy. Plans for the construction of the city were care-
fully worked out. In June 1953, the population was approximately one
mil:tin (sic) and included administrative officials, former prisoners
who could not returl to their homes, and a few civilians who :lived in
the city by choice.
2. Most of the buildings were of brick, five to eight stories high. There
was one building 11 stories high. The industrial quarter (prom to sh-
chadka) was located in the eastern part of the city, but there were
some factories scattered throughout other sections of the city. Most
of the forced labor camps were located three or four kilometers south
of the city. No food was produced in Norilsk ;it had to be shipped
in during the two summer months. Throughout the year, there were two
postal planes a week from Krasnoyarsk; the flight took six hours.
3. The whole area of the city, about 40 kilometers in diameter, was sur-
rounded by a barbed wire fence (sic), with watchtowers and dog patrols.
No one could leave the city without special permission. Some former
political prisoners had to report to the militia every two weeks to 25X1
sign a paper.
Industries
4. Medzavod, a copper factory which was located 500 meters from Camp No. 4,
began operations in 1952. The factory employed approximately 25,000
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workers, consisting only of criminal prisoners and free workers.
The ore came from nearby mines. The factory had two chimneys, about
150 meters tall, with red lamps hung on them at night, possibly to
warn approaching aircraft. Factory No. 25 which refined cobalt and
nickel ore, was located east of Medzavod. a
special military factory 7-- was located in the industrial quarter
and guarded by soldiers.
5. Strip mining for copper and iron was carried out mostly on Shmidt
the mines on S hmidt Mountain were started in 1947 and
and it was hoped that rich deposits would be reached. Two camps
1953
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were assigned to the work in these iron and copper mines'. Camp No. 10,
for criminals, and Medvezhka or Camp No. 2, for political prisoners.
The mines were connected by rail with the Nadezhda railroad station
(sic), which was the starting point for the line to Dndinka. Freight
cars were 80-ton cars of U. S. manufacture, obtained by the Soviets
during World War II.
6. Three coal mines near the city produced enough coal for the factories
and general city needs. Prisoners from the following camps worked in
the mines'. Camp No. 1 (Ugolnyy lager - Coal Camp), Western Camp
(Zapadnyy lager), and Kayrkan or Camp No. 2, a political camp.
Kayrkan was located 25 kilometers west of Norilsk. The Kayrkan sine
was the richest of the mines and could supply all the needs of the
city and its factories. Full operations were begun in 1948. At that
time, a few hundred prisoners worked there, but in 1953 there were
5,000 workers.
7. Cobalt and nickel were mined in the Norilsk area and were found in the
same ore, which contained four to six percent cobalt and a similar
percentage of nickel. Platinum mines in the area had been exhausted.
8. There were a geological commission and a mineralogical commission in
Norilsk, composed of several hundreds of engineers, assistants, and
administrative officials. Groups of prisoners were sent out by the
commissions to prospect and return samples of ore to the laboratories
for analysis. There were various small, specialized laboratories and
the Central Chemical Laboratory (T.3entralnaya khimicheskaya laboratoriya),
which was located in the southeast part of town, near the industrial
quarter, in a three-story, wooden building, erected in 1940. In 1945-
1946, the head of the chemical section of the geological laboratory was
Vener (fnu). The overall director (sic) in 1945-1947 was Gusakorskiy
(fna), who in 1953 was a director of the Norilsk Combine. The head of
the combine, which included all the mines and factories in Norilsk,
was Zverev (fnu), a brother of Arseniy G. Zverev, the USSR Minister of
Finance.
Railroads
8. The construction of abroad-gauge railroad from Krasnoyarsk via Igarka
to Norilsk was begun in 1951 and was to be completed in 1954. The rail
line went from Igarka to Norilsk, bypassing Dudinka 2, After the
line approached the narrow-gauge Norilsk - Dudinka line, the two lines
ran roughly parallel and at various points they crossed. In such
places, there were sometimes three rails; switches sent the car on the
proper tz?ck. There were to be two railroad bridges over the Yenisey
River, one in Krasnoyarsk and the other at Igarka. In June 1.953,
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some construction work was in progress on the river, near Krasnoyarsk,
which might have been the beginning of a bridge.
Forced labor CampOreanization in Norilsk
9. Until September 1948, there were 27 camp sections (lagpunkt) in Norilsk,
all under one administration and all corrective labor camps (i.spravitelnyy
trudovoy lager - ITL). The complex of camps was called Norilag. In
September 1948, the Norilsk prisoners were divided into two groups,
political and criminals. The politicals were put into camps called
Special State Disciplinary Camps (Gosudarstvennyy osoborezhimnyy lager -
Gorlag). These camps were under the administration of the 1GB, as
indicated by directives posted in the camp barracks concerning the
internal order of the camps. There were seven camp sections (lagpunkt)
under Gorlag, six for men and one for women. Criminals remained in
the corrective labor camps (ITL), which were administered by the MPD.
10. Political prisoners were not allowed to work in factories, only in
mines and on construction jobs. Criminals could work in factories
and were not segregated from free workers and ex-prisoners at work.
Prisoners were frequently transferred from one camp to another,
apparently, to prevent them from getting on friendly terms with the
camp administration or to help one or another section in the ful-
fillment of its norm.
11. There was some conflict between the MGB and the MPD in regard to the
employment of prisoners. The KYD was concerned solely with the
completion of the job and would use any labor available. The MVD
was part of the production administration. The MB was only concerned
with the aspects of state security. The 1GB decided what kind, of work
a prisoner was allowed to do.
35 to 40 million forced laborers in the USSR.
Comment; The population of Norilsk has'been' variously
estimated by a number of sources at 100,000.to 500,000.
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