SOVIET SAID TO HOLD MILLION IN PRISON, INCLUDING 10,000 ON POLITICAL CHARGES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00825R000300020003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 13, 1974
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/04/18 : CIA-RDP84-00825R000300020003-6
Till NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
Dated Sunday January 13, 1974
k::) I C1 011 ,,n a t old Million Prison,
Soviet
including 10,000 on Political Ch,--zrL-)
Ey I11, ItNAIU) GVJE1tTZMAN my one time exceed 12 million,
CPecSaf to 1ne Naw ]00. 11mex of wlhor half were probably
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 _ so-called political prisoners.
While Soviet authorities have this peak is believed to have
drastically reduced the size of been reached just before Sta-
Ti
'
d
th 1953
l
their prison population in the
20 years si e Stalin's death,
Western ex Arts believe that
P
n
ea
s
. Mr. So
zhenit-
sy~n did not offer any over-all
total of prison camp inmates
- for the period of roughly 40
more than a million soviet i
citizens, including about 10,000,years covered by his statistics.
political prisoners remain in Estimate by the C g,,
half t.irnes as many Soviet citi-
zens are in captivity as r .t;neeri-
cans. The United States has
the largest prison po Illation
in the Western world, about
425,000.
Since the late nineteen-
twenties, the Soviet Union has
not released information aboutl
its crime rate or its prison sys-!
tern and little is known about
captivity in a r twork of about,'. The Central Intcliigencc1the mass of ordinary prisoners.
900 prisons awl labor campst;;f,eney, through the of'?3trt much has beer learned
throughout the country. gatellito photographs, pets they- bout the syst.etn in accent
Interest in the Soviet lac+n kurr nt prison population at 2. `years through inter e d c~oil-
former inmates allowed to e.ml
system has been raised by the mil i m-t to 2,5 million, but Statelgrate to Israel, the United
puhlicat oa of Alcksander If) .anent and outside ex- States and other country .>.
"The Gulag Archipelago: 1915-ithe British specialist on Soviet
1956," which discuss:-,-d the sys-prisons, believe the number is
Item before the prison popul.~-~c-,oecr to one million, of these,
;Lion was cut to about one An in-- to the estimate Of
lion, a figure- most Western
experts believe has retrained
(constant since the mid-fifties.
Mr. Solzhenitsyn estimated
that th;, total population of So-
viet prison camps (lid riot at
Air. Rcddaway, a senior lecturer
at the London School of Eco-
nomics, about 10,000 can be
classed a political prisoners.
On a per-capita basis, this
would mean that two and a
In addition, Mr. Red .*ray
and others have done extensive,
research ' r) the system by care-
fully analyzing the many writ-
ten accounts of the camps
circulated in underground,
typed form known as "satniz-
dat," o: "self-published."
The political9prisoner group
Continued no Page 70, Column 5
Approved For Release 2000/04/18 : CIA-RDP84-00825R000300020003-6
 THE NET/ptp:0*74CVFir,9e~g~ 0~{A p JAS- 7 4-10825R000300020003-6
vtet s internal Security ,z r azb.
Si e... UT !e MUn (Am' 07 t ttfru?e y
.~.
., ._
Stalinist Era
Arbitrary Repression That Solzhenitsyn
Described Is Now Much Reduced
Facade of Legality Upheld.
By' $EDRICK SMITH
spe.:!a: to The New York Times
`COW. Jan. 12 - In the the cases are open a
ars since Stalin's doath,'often rushed through in dasday
bo.:et internal sec,, Sys ...,..
Orion from of the prosecution's pre.
the pervasive sentation. It is common for
ry and violent re esod
`
h are believed to it c ftpnSOP ~a
n .rs Cer, ral u
$OUfce: International Committee for the e :: ++ Defense of Human r,Qhfsjn the
,Y ~'~ x""r`r?* ---- `~?., 140?p tal f;
vent aii.r p\~
.t jS 3 x
riiVl* 1 ga~itiLln -1 ? Yava+
US.S.R., Brussels.
44
es to join prot
,secuors' in
rescrb d by Al` Sandi interrogating witnesses - and
S31 itsyn in };is new,
even to lecture dfd
eenants, and
T e Gulag Archipelago: it is very unusual for any
1 o. s.,,
,
d
ju
ge to give
a sentence that
on:v are there behoved differs
far fe from the state prose-
.~er parsons in theicutor's plea.
c: s:derab!e Soviet
ri
p
son) Nonethlf
eess, o e?v lawyers
:k for political masons n
ave gained ati
, repuaton for
Soviet authorities make a'defending political dissidents,
, .?estern diplomats
B
ut often requests from
j:.t ri
:asst ; fa- e ? ea5t i~?
e ad of l y defendants for theira sistance
:ze r prosecution of political i
a s s rejected by authorities
,through various administrative
e Soviett dissenters tl.e;n-'stratagems.
co:icede tha
d
t
t to
ay
herei
Either way, the defense is
lJf [ b'aln, t .--?~ b.?"` -1-C L"a"' "'[Anna! - - - -
purges, time n read the prosecution's ] vie jd' T Is Said to a .y uiist ad i v 6. d R7 H old al iII
?_d fct .,le J ct case and, as in the case of erMr. s o in ??
arrest a. in,-Shilchanovich defense' lawyers .110
?nt without trial o n tl,ai
r.t-V -...--- someti?npc fin not
- - - --s o e. and rump in the days in camp apparently
said a free think-I An Occasional Challenge includes intellectuals who have
r`' Third Reich." the caret store." became a sort ex
of mystical
r
ort b M
Y N -ail N
'
R
pr?p e p? o
dd
~
`
av A re
p
_
p y
p
r
~
e
away
onetheless Soit
beentd f
,ve sources
In b
arreseor circul I. everyarracks, there rience because they used the
v when t} e_~ are t -i.'.? a say that whey defendants or dissident documents re
for the International Committee was a stove for whichh
h If you 'n:nd
d
gar
ed
t
your Own thi l
ey time to examine th.^ir vie
erawyers are / s on
] oil. .w your
si ass, ust f particularly as anti-Soviet U for the Defense of H- provided 22 pounds of coal and life and to exchange profound
ca-1courageous, some modest court - ~' Authorities, Rights in the U.S.S.R. in B Binss- 2 pounds of wood a day," per,-reap qu}eta and say what room iv those who seek to practice she ideas with fellow inmates.
e occurs,u sels last. year, said that 'the'said "I
es ou ie t ?u you can ng ta
their reli
i
!l
i '
g
y
oly n
n th
on outside thffi
t etthe. ,ere were Yuri L. G
out of trou a
to the ' r, who to recently
ble. But under prosecution case based on legal ciali a system of wor-
e o- worst single aspect of the con- no sanitary conditions to speak emi r d e the United State;,
k
, even that hind of con-Itecl,nicalities Or extenuating yad r those who have en. ditions in Soviet camps, espe- of. Often there was no water r
f,, v not puarartee ou'c r ship I em n an interview over
1