CORRECTIVE LABOR CAMP NEAR VERKHOTURYE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2013
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: November 25, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/25: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8
INFORMATION 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.
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COUNTRY USSR (Sverdlovsk Oblast)
SUBJECT
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
DATE ACQUIRED
Corrective Labor Camp near
Verkhoturye
REPORT NO.
DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES
REQUIREMENT NO.
REFERENCES
RD
25 November 1955
4
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SOURCE EVALUATIONS' ARE DEFINITIVE. APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
I 1/55
STATE I ARMY
NAVY I ihE
AIR
FBI AEC
(Note: Washington distribution indicated by "X"; Field distribution by "#".)
INFORMATION REPORT INFORMATION REPORT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/25: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/25: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8
CONFIDENTIAL
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COUNTRY USSR (Sverdlovsk
Oblast) DATE DISTR. 26
August
1955
SUMO' Corrective
Labor Camp Rear Verkhoturye
NO. OF PAGES
3 '
DATE OF INFORMATION
REFERENCES:
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PLACE ACQUIRED
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
1.
The LeapetsKontora was engaged in cutting timber in nearby forests
and hauling the timber away by rail. The administrative headquarters
as well as a saw mill subordinate to thka office were located in
Verkhoturye. Prior to the amnesty- there also were two corrective
labor camps in the vicinity. The prisoners were used exclusively
to out timber for. the office and to load the timber on railroad cars.
However, the amnesty made such inroads into the prison, labor supply
that the kontora was forced to hire some 200 men to replace the
released prisoners.
Source did not know the ni10 number of either of the corrective
labor camps. The first camp was located approximately 15 kilometers
north of Verkhoturye. After the amnesty, the prisoners remaining
in this camp were moved to the second camp,which was located on the
outskirts of a small village .oalled Novaya Koreshchikha, approximately,
10 kilometers north of Verkhotur
The camp occupied an area of approximately
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/25: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/25: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8
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4.
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400x400 meters and was surrounded by a double stockade four or five
meters high, topped by -several rows of barbed wire. There was a
guard tower at each corner of the compound which was lighted by
floodlights at night. A high stockade divided the camp into two
equal Sections with an entry way into each section. There were
guardhouses at each entrance. One section was for prisoners serving
short sentences working-finder guard in the forest cutting timber.
Source believes that the prisoners in the other section were serving
long-term sentences for political crimes. These prisoners were kept
under a more strict regime and were only taken out occasionally under
heavy guard to work on construction projects near the camp, such as
the erection of living quarters and a recreation club for the newly
hired workers employed by the lumber office. Source eStimated that
there were altogether about 2,000 prisoners. The guards wore uniforms
with red shoulderboards and red: cialt? bands "like the infantry".
Source believes dogs were also kept in the camp because he heard them
barking at night on several-oottist,Sdi: He thought these dogs were
probably allowed to run .loose in the space between the inner and outer
stockade walls of the camp, n 50X1
5, the prisoners made
one attempt to escape from this camp. Two' of the prisoners who were
cutting timber in the woods managed to hide among logs which were
being loaded on railway ears. As far as source knew, these men
made good their &scane since they had not been anorehended two
weeks later
All of the lumber office workers who could be spared,
as well as prisoners serving short sentences, were pressed into fire
fighting brigades. It was said that the fires broke out because
of the unusually dry hot weather. The brigades were only equipped
with *hovels and picks and could not make much headway against the
fires_ which usually burned out of their own accord. On two occasions,
source noticed an old two-place, single-engine biplane which flew
over the fire and dropped some sort of "fire bombs". He did not know
what these "bombs" looked like or what chemical substance they
contained, They had little if any effect on stopping the fires which
were too lidespreid.
SlienT
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/25: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/25: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8
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7. On one occasion the fire advanced to a point where it threatened
the corrective labor compound and burned part of the outer stockade
before it could be brought under control. The prisoners were herded
out of the compound under guard but some refused to leave and climbed
to the roofs of their living quarters4stating they preferred to
remain and be burned to death. Prisoners who were led gut were taken
to the nearby fields and told to lie flat on the ground.-- Many refused
to do so until the guards fired several shots over their heads.
50:00
By 22 August, there were
still some spOrOdic fires in the area though moat of them bad been
brought under control. He estimated that more than 200 hectares
of forest had been destroyed.
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/06/25: CIA-RDP82-00046R000500300005-8