GULAG: archives against lies

Genuine data show a reality that is fundamentally different from the one that from the school bench is embedded in the minds of people both in the West and in Russia itself. The myth of the "bloody USSR" was created to slander and blacken Russia-USSR and Soviet civilization as the main enemy of the West on the planet.


In particular, the creators of the myth of the "bloody terror" in the USSR were not interested in the crimes committed by prisoners. Those who were convicted by Soviet repressive and punitive bodies always appear in the work of the “whistleblowers” ​​as innocent victims of Stalinism. But in fact, most of the prisoners were ordinary criminals: thieves, murderers, rapists, etc. And such people were never considered innocent victims at any time and in any country. In particular, in Europe and the USA, in the West as a whole, up to the last period of the newest stories penalties against criminals were very harsh. And in the current United States, such an attitude exists up to our time.



The Soviet punitive system was not out of the ordinary. In 1930, the Soviet punitive system included: prisons, labor camps, labor camps of the GULAG and special open zones. Those who committed serious crimes (murder, rape, economic crimes, etc.) were sent to labor camps. This largely extended to those who were convicted of counter-revolutionary activities. Other criminals sentenced to more than 3 years could also get into labor camps. After serving a certain time in a labor camp, a prisoner could get on a milder regime in a labor colony or a special open area.

Labor camps were usually large-sized zones in which prisoners lived and worked under close surveillance and security. Making them work was an objective necessity, since society could not take the burden with the full content of prisoners in complete isolation and immunity. As of 1940, the year was 53 labor camps. Obviously, if at present we conduct a survey of Russian citizens on the correctness of the work of prisoners, then the majority will agree that the criminals must work in order to support themselves and, if possible, compensate the material damage to society and the people affected by their hands.

The GULAG also included 425 labor colonies. They were much smaller than camps, with not so much a strict regime of maintenance and less supervision. Prisoners with short sentences were sent to them - convicted for less serious criminal and political crimes. They had the opportunity to work for freedom in enterprises and in agriculture and were part of civil society. Special open areas were mostly agricultural areas for those who were sent into exile (for example, kulaks during collectivization). People whose fault was less could serve time in these zones.

As the figures from the archives show, political prisoners were much less than criminal ones, although the slanderers of the USSR tried and are trying to show the opposite. Thus, one of the leading slanderers of the USSR, the Anglo-American writer Robert Conquest, asserted that in 1939 there were 9 million political prisoners in labor camps and another 3 million people died in 1937 – 1939. All this, in his opinion, is political prisoners. According to Conquest, in 1950 there were 12 million political prisoners. However, archival data show that in 1939, the total number of prisoners was slightly more than 2 million people: of these, in the labor camps of the Gulag - 1,3 million people, of whom 454 thousand were convicted of political crimes (34,5%). Not 9 million, as Conquest claimed. In 1937 – 1939 166 thousand people died in the camps, not 3 million, according to a western professional disinformer. In 1950, there were only 2,5 million prisoners, in the labor camps of the Gulag - 1,4 million, of which counterrevolutionaries (political prisoners) - 578 thousand, and not 12 million!

The figures of another professional liar, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, about 60 million and more people who died in labor camps, are generally not necessary to analyze because of their complete absurdity.

How many people were sentenced to death by 1953? Conquest reports that the Bolsheviks killed in the period from 1930 to 1953. 12 million political prisoners in labor camps. Of these, approximately 1 million were destroyed in 1937 — 1938. Solzhenitsyn reports tens of millions of people killed, of which at least 3 million - only in 1937 – 1938.

Archives say otherwise. The Soviet and Russian historian Dmitry Volkogonov, who was in charge of the Soviet archives under President B. Yeltsin, cited this figure: between 1 in October 1936 of the year and 30 of September in 1938, there were 30 thousand of 514 people sentenced to death by military tribunals. Other information comes from the KGB data: 786 098 people were sentenced to death for counterrevolutionary activities in the period from 1930 to 1953 years (that is, for 23 year). However, the majority was convicted in 1937 – 1938. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that not all those sentenced to death were actually executed. A significant part of the death sentences were replaced by terms in labor camps.

Another defamation of the USSR is an unlimited period of stay in prisons and camps. Like, the one who got there, never left. This is another lie. Most of those who were imprisoned during the Stalinist period were sentenced to a term, usually no more than 5 years. Thus, criminal offenders in the RSFSR received the following sentences in 1936 year: 82,4% - up to 5 years, 17,6% - 5-10 years. 10 years were the maximum possible period up to 1937. Political prisoners convicted by civil courts in the USSR in the 1936 year received sentences: 42,2% - up to 5 years, 50,7% - 5-10 years. As for those sentenced to imprisonment in the labor camps of the Gulag, where longer sentences were established, the 1940 statistics of the year show that those who served there up to 5 years were 56,8%, from 5 to 10 years - 42,2%. Only 1% of prisoners received a term of more than 10 years. That is, the majority of prisoners had time periods up to 5 years.

The number of deaths in labor camps fluctuates from year to year: from 5,2% - in 1934 (with 510 thousand prisoners in labor camps), 9,1% - in 1938 (996 thousand prisoners) to 0,3% (1,7 million prisoners ) in 1953 year. The highest numbers in the hardest years of the Great Patriotic War: 18% - 1942 year (by 1,4 million prisoners), 17% - in 1943 year (983 thousand). Further, there is a constant and large decline in mortality: from 9,2% in 1944 (663 thousand) to 3% - in 1946 (600 thousand) and 1% in 1950 (1,4 million). That is, as the war stopped and the material conditions of the country were adjusted, the death rate in places of detention sharply decreased.

It is obvious that the death rate in the camps was not connected with the “bloody regime” and Stalin’s personal environment and his entourage, but with the general problems of the country, lack of resources in society (especially the shortage of drugs and food). The most terrible were the years of the great war, when the invasion of Hitler's "European Union" led to the genocide of the Soviet people and a sharp drop in the standard of living even in free territories. In 1941-1945 more than 600 thousand people died in the camps. After the war, when the living conditions in the USSR began to improve rapidly, as did health care (in particular, antibiotics became widely practiced), the death rate in the camps also sharply went down.

Thus, the tales of the many millions and even tens of millions of people deliberately destroyed under Stalin are a black myth created by the enemies of the Union in the West during the information war and supported by anti-Soviets in Russia itself. The goal of the myth is to blacken and discredit the Soviet civilization in the eyes of humanity and the citizens of Russia themselves. Destruction and rewriting of true history in the interests of the West occurs.