C.I.A. SAYS 4 MILLION IN SOVIET ARE DOING PENAL LABOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000200820010-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: November 7, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-008
ARTICLE A.??.t.A:R? s~
ON PACE. ~-)
NEW YORK TIMES
7 NOVENIB t 1982
C.I.A. Says 4 Million in Soviet
Are Doing PenalLab~r
-- muuron other convicts have been given On the specific issue of the use of
spea,ttoTS.NewYorkTtme probation with "compulsory involve- penal labor in pipeline construction, the
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 - The Cen- ien in labor," which means that they report said that such workers have been
tral Intelligence Agency estimates that are generally forced to work at con- -an integral part of pipeline oonstruc~
4 million e people in the, Soviet Union are struction jobs far from their homes. tion work crews in the Ukraine, Ka-
za
s
an, an
t
e central Russian Re-
kind of "forced labor." Of that number,: from confinement to perform forced public." They are mainly parolees and
10,000 are said to be political prisoners. labor for the remainder of their terms, probationers and have been used in
In a study on Soviet penal labor pre- the C.I.A. said. clearing forests, draining swamps and
pared for Congress and made public on The Reagan Administration has been preparing roads, the report said.
Friday night, the C.IA said it could not seeking to discredit the Soviet Union The report said that, in view of the
substantiate reports from Europe alleg ugh such vehicles as a news confer- past use of unconfined laborers and the
lag that such labor was being used cn once to expose purported Soviet at- current shortage of labor, "it seems
the new gas pipeline from Siberia to tempts to disseminate false informs- that some forced labor would be used
western Europe.. tion about the west and conferences along the export pipeline route for con.
Congress voted a resolution last Sep- such as one last month at the State De- pressor station and auxiliary -'
construc~
tember asking the State Department to I , partment on ways to bring democracy tion unless the Soviets fro
m they
investigate the charges of forced labor to Eastern Europe. The C.IA. report usual practice bemuse depart
exposure
on the pipeline. The department re-, seems to fit this pattern: in the Western media "
sponded with a report, the centerpiece The C.I.A. did not say bow it arrived
But in C
ponse
of which was the C.I.A. study. at its estimates, but it has been re- Europe, the resthe reports I
that "large,.!
from IV4- TIC DoTted that satpllitp nhntnc hnvo hmn
This is the first published United
States Government report on the Soviet
system of labor camps, but in 1974 Tb?
New York Times undertook its own
study because of the publication then of
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Are
chipelego," which detailed forced labor
under Lenin and Stalin.
The Times study noted that the C.I.A.
estimated that 2.4 million to 2.5 million
people were in prison camps, but State
Department and other experts put the
r-
oU 'G~e Q;
vi. to pinpoint and enter- w KL WWWILrb
.port pipeline is unlikely, because man
views with former inmates have pro-
of th
h
'
.
e o
s
vided information. The l State4 special skills.
The report said that "the Soviet went in its sum-
penal
mary said that forced labor in the
system is remarkable for its huge size Soviet Union "is a human rights issue of
and its systematic employment of deep concern to the Administration."
labor." It noted that the Soviet Union. "We believe it is crucial that the in-
has "an ideological commitment to the; ternational community investigate.and
rehabilitative role of labor in the social' demand remedial action when con-
adjustment of the individual and as fronted with serious
cordingly refers to the forced labor charges of viola-;
camps as `correctiornal' .labor Colo lions of international ogre menus, dt
said
t.
figure at one million. It estimated that un3er Stalin the Many Perished Under Stalin
The new study of the C.I.A. is consis-' camps reached a peak of perhaps 15. Mr. Solzbenitsyn, in his "Gulag"
tent with its 1974 estimates. It said that million persons in 1947, and after books, and works ' by other Soviet
2 million people were confined, 95 peT- Stalin's death in 1953, the camps were writers,have documented that forced
cent in "forced labor camps" and the reduced in size, but the numbers began laborers in the Stalin era lived under
rest in prisons. It said there were now to rise again in the 1960's. brutal conditions and a high percentage
more than 1,100 such labor camps. In More Convicts Are Not Confined of them perished in the camps.
1974, experts put them at about 900. The C.I.A. said that in recent
The C.I.A. said forced laborers work . What is significant about the current more .than 100 camps, or 10 percent ofof
in a wide variety of economic activities, situation, the C.I.A. report said, is the the total, have been involved in con-
including manufacturing, constru ction, rise in the use of convicts who are not struction activities, mostly in Kasakh-
logging? and wood processing, rziininv, confined and work off their sentences on
producing building materials and agri-, specified construction sites. ? etun and Central Asia, where the work-
culture." The report said more than "Given the worsening labor shortage are
cps are eangaged in log.
half of the camps and many prisons en- in parts of the Soviet Union, this rela-
gaged in some manufacturing activity. lively efficient, flexible method of . related activities,
it said. And 50 camps are ee in
The total of 4 million people was ar- deriving some economic benefit from ~,~ extraction,
..f~ fewer r than in
rived at, the C.I.A. said, because 1.5 an increasing crime rate is likely to forme r Yeats when forced labor was ex-.
continue to rise, it said tensively used in mining, especially in
the Kolyma basin, where gold mini g
and some lead and coal mining were
-carried on by prisoners."
There are only about 20 agricultural
camps, the study said. and 60 camps de.
voted to-:producing building materials
such asbrick.
paroled
kh
t
d
h
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845R000200820010-5