"To the victims of repressions who have found eternal rest in the Kazakh land"
"In memory of 150,000 Azerbaijanis, victims of Stalinist repressions, exiled to Kazakhstan"
"Armenians - Victims of Political Repression"
"Hungarian prisoners of war, victims of World War II, are buried here":
"As a sign of the eternal memory of Karlag prisoners - victims of political repression from the people of Georgia"
"In memory of the victims of political repression. There is no future without memory. Shma Yisrael"
"To the Italians who died in Kazakhstan"
"Koreans - Victims of Political Repression"
Monument to the Kyrgyz.
"To the Lithuanians who suffered and died in the Karlag"
"Prisoners of war and interned Germans who died far from their homeland - victims of World War II"
"In memory of Russians - victims of Stalin's repressions. Grieving Russia"
(This bell is cast without a tongue, it is silent. The bell rings at the memorial to Ukrainians.)
"In memory of more than 900 Romanian prisoners who died in Stalin's camps in Central Kazakhstan":
"In memory of Slovaks - victims of Stalinism"
Monument to Ukrainians. "Sons and daughters of Ukraine, who laid down their heads, tortured in enemy captivity, Ukraine will not forget you"
(In windy weather, the bell rings)
"France mourns its children who died here"
"The Finnish military who died in 1941-1944 in Kazakhstan"
Monument to the Japanese
"Museum-memorial complex of victims of political repression and totalitarianism" ALZHIR "in the village of Akmol (formerly the village of Malinovka)
Akmola camp for wives of traitors to the Motherland (A. L. Zh. I. R.) - colloquial name of the 17th female camp special department of the Karaganda labor camp in Akmola region, Kazakhstan (1938-1953)
The camp was opened at the beginning of 1938 on the basis of the 26th settlement of labor settlements as a labor camp "R-17". Beginning on January 10, 1938, convoys began to arrive at the camp. Within six months, the department was overcrowded and the leadership of Karlag was forced to first temporarily distribute the next stages of convicts of the ChSIR (members of families of traitors to the Motherland) to other camp departments, and by the fall to create another special department for the ChSIR - Spasskoe.
In 1953, the 17th Akmola camp department of Karlag was closed.
Unlike most of the Karlag camp divisions, the 17th division was surrounded by several rows of barbed wire, and guard towers were installed. On the territory of the camp there was a lake overgrown with reeds. The reed was used for heating the barracks in winter and for building in the summer.
A sign on the territory of the museum-memorial complex "ALZHIR" (Akmola camp of wives of traitors to the motherland)
Stylized perimeter section with a tower
The "Arch of Sorrow" monument. Here the meeting of two worlds - living and dead takes place.
Monument "Struggle and Hope" dedicated to the prisoners of ALZHIR
Monument "Despair and Powerlessness" dedicated to relatives of prisoners in ALZHIR
Stalin's carriage for transporting prisoners.
The prisoners were on the way for more than 2 months. More than 70 prisoners were placed in the carriage.
The area of \u200b\u200bthe car is 18.15 square meters. More than 70 prisoners were placed in the carriage.
Museum of ALZHIR in Akmola (former village of Malinovka)
Memorial stones from Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland
Memorial stones from Georgia and Azerbaijan
Wall of memory in "ALZHIR"
List of all prisoners of "ALZHIR"
Monument on the alley of prisoners of ALZHIR
Memorial signs to the prisoners of the Akmola camp of wives of traitors to the Motherland (ALZHIR) - Orthodox and Muslim women
Museum of memory of victims of political repression in Dolinka settlement
Museum of Memory of Victims of Political Repression in Dolinka settlement (building of the former Karlag Administration, built in 1933)
Monument to the Victims of Political Repression
Museum exhibits
Museum exhibits
A crib from an orphanage in Dolinka. As soon as the child grew up, he was taken to the orphanage. Many never saw their children again. Children were sent to orphanages in the Soviet Union. Most often changed the name and surname
Children and prisoners of Karlag were buried here
Memorial cemetery Yurshor, Vorkuta, Russia
River camp, Rechlag, a special camp for political prisoners No. 6 was organized on August 27, 1948 on the basis of the Vorkutlag camp divisions. Closed on May 26, 1954, the Rechlag and Vorkuta ITL Administrations were merged.
In July-August 1953, an uprising of prisoners took place in Rechlag, which was brutally suppressed. In Yurshor, there was a camp department No. 10 - mine No. 29.
Memorial Cross of the Memorial. On the cross the inscription "Eternal memory to those who died for freedom and human dignity"
Monument to the Fallen Estonians
Monument to the Lithuanians who died in the camps of Vorkuta and the victims of the execution of prisoners at mine No. 29 “Yurshor” on August 1, 1953.
Monument to Slavic Peoples - Victims of Stalinist Terror
Monument to the deceased German prisoners of war.
Memorial "Norilsk Golgotha" in Norilsk
Located at Mount Schmidt in Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Memorial cemetery "Norilsk Golgotha" - the former cemetery of the Norillag, where in 1935-1956 prisoners were buried in common graves
Belfry in memory of those killed in Norillag
Memorial sign at the mass grave - the place where the remains of the Norillag prisoners are reburied
Monument to the repressed Jews - prisoners of the Norillag
Monument to the "Poles who died during the Stalinist repressions in the city of Norilsk"
Complex of commemorative signs "to Norilsk from the Baltic states"
Three monuments - crosses to the Baltic officers who died in Norillag,
in the center is a stone hury.
Memorial cross to the soldiers of the Lithuanian army, former prisoners of the Norilsk camps
Memorial cross to officers, sergeants and soldiers of the Latvian army
/ Memorial Cross to the Fallen Estonians
The Chapel of the Holy and Life-giving Cross of the Lord at the Norilsk Golgotha \u200b\u200bMemorial Cemetery.
Memorial sign to the victims of political repression
Monument to the Victims of the Norillag in Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Russia
Modern map of the Karaganda region
The administrative and economic center of the camp was in the village of Dolinskoye, 45 km south-west of Karaganda.
The camp area was served by two railway lines:
- Karaganda - Balkhash - passed in the eastern part of the main massif and cut the territory of the camp from north to south.
- Zharyk - Dzhezkazgan - cut through the main massif from west to east.
The entire local population was deported from the "state farm" lands in 1931, so only camp staff, members of their families and prisoners lived on the territory of the labor camp. The exceptions were:
- the right-of-way along the railway lines, where the railway workers lived;
- the village of Dolinskoye, where about 50 families of employees of the prosecutor's office, court, branch of the State Bank, post office, school lived.
In the 40-50s, the indigenous population was again allowed to land uncultivated by the state farm. There are no exact statistics on the composition and size of this population. However, Karlag's reports indicated that the “local population” is actively helping the labor camp guards in the search and detention of the fugitives.
The history of the camp
The main goal of the Karlag organization was to create a large food base for the developing coal and metallurgical industry of Central Kazakhstan: the Karaganda coal basin, Dzhezkazgan and Balkhash copper smelting plants.
To achieve this goal, it was required to solve two main tasks:
- 1) find a source of labor (as cheap as possible);
- 2) provide conditions for work and living.
From the order for the Karaganda separate forced labor camp of the OGPU dated December 19, 1930: "one. The first department of KazITlag of the state farm "Gigant" of the OGPU of this date will be reorganized into the Karaganda separate forced labor camp, abbreviated as Karlag OGPU. Divide the territory of Karlag into 8 branches - the area is 17,129 square kilometers ... "
Simultaneously with the Karaganda labor camp, at the beginning of 1931, a joint commission with the OGPU was created under the chairmanship of A. Andreev, which makes a decision on the eviction of 52 thousand peasant families to Central Kazakhstan.
Karlag control system
The Karlag administration was subordinate to the OGPU-NKVD GULAG.
- from 17.09.31 - GULAG of the OGPU and PP of the OGPU in Kazakhstan;
- from 08.05.35 - OLTPiMZ UNKVD of the Kazak ASSR;
- from 21.10.37 - GULAG of the NKVD;
- from 17.09.55 - WHITLK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR.
The administrative apparatus had the following departments: administrative and economic (AXO), accounting and distribution (URO), control and planning (KPO), cultural and educational (KVO), personnel department (for civilians), supply department, trade department, third operative -chekist (OCHO), medical, financial, transport, political department, special department, production department, agriculture department.
One of the largest was the agriculture department which included:
- Land Management Service;
- Melioration and Irrigation Service;
- Livestock and Veterinary Service:
- vetbaklaboratory
- central veterinary pharmacy
- Mechanization Service
In addition, under the management of the camp were created:
- Agricultural Experimental Station for Crop Production (ECOS)
- Livestock Research Station (NIS)
Both stations had their own experimental (experimental) bases. There was a permanent livestock feeding expedition.
Karlag had 19 agricultural departments (state farms) with production sites and farms subordinate to them. In addition, as special administrative departments there were: Balkhash department (specialized in contract work), Karabass department (transit point and supply base), Central infirmary.
Communication between the camp administration and the departments was carried out by telephone, telegraph, radio, mail.
Heads of ITL
Conditions of detention of prisoners
The number of KarLag prisoners (thousand people) 1931-1959 according to the "Memorial" society
Economic activity
- in agricultural production (state farm "Gigant") - 8400 prisoners;
- in the production of consumer goods - 1000 prisoners.
Notes
Links
- A MEMORIAL TO VICTIMS OF REPRESSION IS OPENED AT THE SPASSKY CEMETERY OF THE FORMER KARLAG
- Return to art (About some little-known pages of the history of art of Kazakhstan)
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Modern map of the Karaganda region Karlag (Karaganda corrective labor camp) is one of the largest corrective labor camps in 1930-1959, subordinate to the GULAG of the NKVD of the USSR. Wed ... Wikipedia
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LIST OF BASIC ABBREVIATIONS - Agitprop Department of Agitation and Propaganda Academic Center Academic Center (under the People's Commissariat of Education of a particular national republic) AmurLag Amur Correctional Labor Camp (Svobodny, Khabarovsk Territory / Amur Region; ... ... Biobibliographic Dictionary of Orientalists - Victims of Political Terror in the Soviet Period
Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Ivanenko. Dmitry Dmitrievich Ivanenko Date of birth: July 16 (29), 1904 (1904 07 29) Place of birth: Poltava, Russian Empire Date of death ... Wikipedia
Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Zhuravlev. Viktor Pavlovich Zhuravlev Philip Filatovich Zhuravlev V. P. Zhuravlev Date of birth November 14, 1901 ... Wikipedia
Karaganda Forced Labor Camp (Karlag) was organized in 1930. In May 1930, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a decree “On the organization of the Kazakh forced labor camp (KazITLAG). The document says: “Taking into account the political-economic and agrarian-cultural significance created by the special-purpose camps of the OGPU in Kazakhstan at the forced labor camp in the Karkaralinsky district of a large combined state farm, the Council of People's Commissars decides:
1. Agree with the conclusion of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, and the request of the Kazakh administration of special-purpose camps OGPU for the allotment of a continuous land mass of 110,000 hectares, except for the territory and buildings of the Koyandinsky fair, for unlimited and free use - to satisfy.
Administration of Karlag in Dolinka
2. The People's Commissariat of the Kazakh SSR immediately carry out land management of the alienated area, allocating technical personnel for the work. The work should be done with the labor force and means of the Administration of the OGPU Special Purpose Camps in Kazakhstan. "
In accordance with this resolution, on May 13, 1930, the Council of People's Commissars of the Kazakh SSR decides to allocate the OGPU in Kazakhstan to special purpose camps for gratuitous, perpetual use of a continuous land mass of 110,000 hectares and the transfer of residential buildings and services of the Besob cultural center and the Koyandinsky fair of the Karkaralinsky district.
However, a year later, on December 19, 1931, another decision was made: "The first branch of KazITLAG - the state farm" Giant "of this date to be reorganized into the Karaganda separate labor camp of the OGPU, abbreviated as" Karlag OGPU ", with direct subordination to the" GULAG "and the location of the Camp Administration in the village of Dolinskoye.
So, the Karaganda separate forced labor camp (Karlag) was formed on December 19, 1931, the center of the camp is located in the village. Dolinka, 45 km from the city of Karaganda. "Karlag" is allocated 120,000 hectares of arable land, 41,000 hectares of hayfields. The length of the Karlag territory from north to south is 300 km and from east to west - 200 km. In addition, outside this territory there were two departments: Akmola, located 350 km from the center of the camp, and Balkhash department, located 650 km from the center of the camp. One of the main goals of the Karlag organization was the creation of a large food base for the rapidly developing coal and metallurgical industry of Central Kazakhstan: the Karaganda coal basin, the Zhezkazgan and Balkhash copper smelters. In addition, a labor force was needed to create and develop these industries.
The idea that the Karlag was organized from scratch, that is, in the uninhabited, hungry steppe of Central Kazakhstan, is incorrect. There were settlements of Kazakhs, Russians, Germans and Ukrainians throughout the vast territory allotted to the camp. As you know, Kazakhs have inhabited these lands from time immemorial, while Germans, Russians and Ukrainians moved to these lands in 1906-1910. The village "Dolinka" received the right of an independent settlement unit by the decree of the Akmola government on December 10, 1909. By 1911, 2,630 people lived here - Germans, Russians and Ukrainians. On the territory of Karlag there were 4 thousand Kazakh yurts with a population of 80 thousand people, 1200 yards of the German, Russian and Ukrainian population.
In 1930 - 1931 forced eviction of the population began. For this "operation" the NKVD troops were involved. Germans, Russians and Ukrainians were resettled mainly to Telmanskiy, Osakarovskiy and Nurinskiy districts of Karaganda region. The fate of the Kazakhs was especially tragic: from the northern part, the territory allocated to the camp, many of them were resettled to Karaganda and the nearest regions. All this coincided with dispossession, with the confiscation of large quantities of cattle, sheep, horses and camels. The confiscated cattle were transferred to the specially created organization "East - Meat" of the state farm "Gigant". After the eviction of the local population, the vacant land was occupied by numerous columns of prisoners. They spread throughout the camp: they built a railway, barracks for prisoners, cattle houses, barracks for the VOKhR, housing for the commanding staff. Old buildings were often used for construction, “it was strictly forbidden to use adobe from burial grounds for construction, but this prohibition was sometimes violated. The destruction of the burial grounds took place in the Zhanarka district of the Karaganda region. The first secretary of the regional party committee Zh. Suleimenov sent a special letter to the first secretary of the Karaganda regional party committee Galaydin with the following content: “During the construction of the Karlag branch on the territory of the district in the Ortau, Alabas, Zhaidak-su tracts, Karlag workers destroyed the graves of Kazakh noble people. The grave of the son of a famous batyr Zhidebai Syzdyk, dozens of graves were destroyed, turned into a cattle yard.
The Karlag administration was subordinate only to the OGPU GULAG (NKVD) in Moscow. Republican and regional party and Soviet bodies had practically no influence on the activities of the camp. It was a colonial-type formation with its metropolis in Moscow. In essence, it was a state within a state. It possessed real power, weapons, vehicles, and contained mail and telegraph. Its numerous branches - "points" - were linked into a single economic mechanism, with its own state plan.
The structure of Karlag was quite cumbersome and had numerous departments: administrative and economic (AXO), accounting and distribution (URO), control and planning (KGTO), cultural and educational (KVO), personnel department for civilians, supply, trade, III-operchekist , financial, transport, political department. The last department of Karlag sent 17 types of reports to the GULAG administration every month, and the entire camp administration did the same. High profitability (cheap labor, minimum asset value, low depreciation costs) contributed to the expansion of production.
The bulk of the Karlag economy was located on the territory of the Karaganda and Akmola regions. If in 1931 the territory of Karlag was 53,000 ha, then in 1941 it was 1,780,650 ha. If in 1931 Karlag had 14 branches, 64 sections, then in 1941 - 22 branches, 159 sections, and in 1953 - 26 branches, 192 camp points. Each department, in turn, is divided into a number of economic units called plots, points, farms. The camp has 106 livestock farms, 7 vegetable gardens and 10 arable areas.
Prisoners are housed throughout the Karlag territory. Branches and sections are located from the center of the camp at a distance of 5 to 650 km. The territory of the Karaganda forced labor camp in 1950 was 2,087,646 hectares or 20,876 sq. km, including arable land - 111886 hectares, hayfields - 337670 hectares and pastures - 1.378.999 hectares.
The share of agriculture in the camp was 58%, industry - 41.5%. Agriculture had two profiles: crop production accounted for 51.8%, animal husbandry - 48.2%. The total number of prisoners in Karlag for some years is as follows:
Sometimes the number of prisoners grew up to 75 thousand people. These people, having withstood the term of testing by the camp regime, having gone through moral and physical overload, humiliation, found the strength not to become embittered for the undeservedly perpetrated violence against them, for the best years torn from life. Over the entire period of Karlag's existence, more than 1 million prisoners have visited it, who have left an indelible mark on the history of Central Kazakhstan.
Spassk - POW camp
The Spassk special camp department of the OGPU-NKVD-MTB is located 45 km from Karaganda. Spassk is the former center of a large company of foreign businessmen who settled in pre-revolutionary Kazakhstan.
Until 1931 Spassk was the center of the Karaganda region. In March 1931, he was transferred to the disposal of the Karaganda forced labor camp (Karlaga). Later, in Spassk, a separate camp "Sandy", separated from Karlag, was formed - a terrible place, from there few people returned alive. If Karabas was the gateway to Karlag, then Spassk was its mass grave. Sick prisoners were sent to die in Spassk - “the all-Union disabled woman of the special camp”. And to this time, countless mounds have survived - former graves.
Foundations of barracks in Spassk
By order of the Deputy NKVD of the USSR Chernyshev from June 24, 1941, a special camp for prisoners of war was organized in Spassk. The camp had two sections - the central and the second section "Kokuzek", staffed by internees separated from the main camp with complete isolation from prisoners of war. The distance between the branches is 500 meters.
The normal and maximum capacity of both camp divisions was as follows: a) the central compartment for prisoners of war, normal capacity - 5,000 people, maximum - 6,000 people; c) camp department "Kokuzek" for internees, normal capacity - 650 people, maximum - 1100 people. In total, there were 19 military posts serving 259 security personnel. The camp had a local search group in the settlements adjacent to the camp (within a radius of 100 km.). Brigades of assistance for the detention of escaped prisoners of war were created from the assets of the local population. There were 46 brigades in total, the total number of which was 214 people.
The camp had 22 departments under its jurisdiction. They are located in the cities of Karaganda, Temirtau, Saran, as well as in the city of Balkhash at a distance of 650 km from Karaganda, one branch in the village of Zholymbet, Akmola region, at a distance of 360 km from Karaganda. The rest of the departments were located within the city of Karaganda: Kirzavod, Maikuduk, Prishakhtinsk, st. Bolshaya-Mikhailovka and others.
The first echelon with prisoners of war arrived in Spassk in August 1941, in the amount of 1436 people. Two years later, the number of prisoners of war in the camp almost doubled. Over the ten years of the camp's existence, about 40 thousand prisoners of war, representatives of 26 nationalities, have visited here.
The number of prisoners of war who arrived at the camp increased sharply in the second half of 1944. If in January 1944 there were 2,529 prisoners of war in the camp, then in October of this year their number reached 11,583.
In October-November 1945, the camp received five echelons of prisoners of war of the Japanese army, in the amount of 11608 people.
Prisoners of war as a labor force began to be used in mines, brick, mechanical repair factories, construction enterprises.
In the trusts "Karagandaugol", "Shakhtostroy", "Zhilstroy", "Metallurgstroy", "Zheldorstroy" and other enterprises in 1945, 9537 people worked, and in 1946 - 18592 people, in 1949 - 15 thousand people.
In the Karaganda coal basin, a great deal of work was done to train prisoners of war for work in the mines. For example, in 1945, 1,162 people were trained by the course method, among them: bulk haulers - 225 people, woodcutters - 452 people, locksmiths - 159 people, vrubmashinists - 85 people, sinkers - 11 people, etc. In addition, 1753 people were trained by individual brigade method, among them there were 800 bunkers, 200 borers, 250 sinkers, etc.
To carry out the daily order-task, the camp leadership gave the instruction: "To detain at work the brigades of prisoners of war who did not complete the order due to their fault, and it is allowed to stay for another 3 hours in excess of the 8 hour working day." Special guards are attached to the facilities. They were obliged to achieve unconditional fulfillment by all prisoners of war of 100% of the production rate. For the overfulfillment of production plans by prisoners of war, camp workers were constantly awarded. In September 1946, 201 workers received a bonus (from 150 to 1200 rubles), in October - 219 camp workers.
In the mines where the prisoners of war worked, there were serious violations, it was practiced to add ten days of civilian workers at the expense of prisoners of war. On August 14, 1945, at mine No. 3 of the Kirovugol trust, the plan for a shift assignment at site No. 2 of coal production was 88 tons, in fact, 135 tons or 153.4% \u200b\u200bwere produced. There were 5 civilians, 17 prisoners of war, of which 10 were bulk fighters. On that day, there were no civilian workers in this shift. The ten's manager filled out a report on non-working civilian workers. On site No. 7 of this mine, the foreman recorded the implementation of the coal mining plan on civilians, where 22 prisoners of war and 9 civilians worked.
There was a very high mortality rate among prisoners of war in the camp. According to incomplete data, from 1942 to 1946 the death rate of prisoners of war was more than 7 thousand people. In 1945 alone, 2,430 people died. Mortality rate for the Japanese contingent, 1945-1949 looks like this: in 1945 - 49 people, in 1946 - 228 people, in 1947 - 149 people, in 1948 - 92 people, in 1945 - 38 people. In total - 556 people. Main diagnoses: tuberculosis and dystrophy. In the camp, the necessary measures to improve and preserve the contingent were not carried out. The sanitary condition in the barracks was very poor. Sometimes in the camp departments there was a massive poisoning of prisoners of war contingents. They were not provided with timely medical assistance. For example, in the 12th and 15th camp departments, 96 patients with dysentery were admitted to the infirmary, they were not given any help for 3-4 days. The camp employed 10 doctors, 6 nurses, 4 paramedics and 11 nurses. They were physically unable to provide timely services to all patients in the camp. There were from 1000 to 3000 thousand patients constantly in the special hospital.
The set normal temperature was not maintained in the barracks, it was constantly cold, in winter, and the outer doors of the barracks did not close. In 17 camp departments, there was a massive frostbite of 44 prisoners of war, including: I degree - 14, II degree - 24, III degree - 6 people. When prisoners of war entered the infirmary for treatment, the valuables they had (watches, rings, money, etc.) were not accepted for storage, but remained with the patient. This created the conditions for theft.
There was illegal communication between camp workers with the contingents of internees and prisoners of war, the purchase and resale of valuable things and items.
There were cases of escapes among the prisoners of war. In 1944, 5 escapes and 3 attempts to escape were made. In 1946, 41 prisoners of war escaped from the camp, including: Germans - 6, Romanians - 14, Japanese - 13, Hungarians - 4, Moldovans - 2.
In order to strengthen the security of the camp on holidays and prevent possible excesses, it was forbidden to take prisoners of war to work outside the camp zone. And also on holidays, increased protection of the camp sites was established, by setting up additional guard posts and patrols to ensure the safety of the camp sites and prevent possible escapes of prisoners of war and internees. Before the holidays, a general inspection of all the things of the prisoners of war, as well as the premises they occupied, was carried out in order to seize from them the things and objects prohibited for storage.
The Spassky camp was considered a special regime camp in the Karlag system, so it was no coincidence that convicts, especially dangerous "criminals" were constantly sent to Karlag. Spassky camp until 1956 remained part of the Karaganda forced labor camp.
Karlag - Steplag
The construction of the city of Zhezkazgan and the mining and metallurgical plant began in 1936. In 1940, on the banks of the Kengir River, on the site of the former pioneer camp, a large camp of the NKVD of the USSR - Zhezkazgan was created. All the existing and construction projects of the Big Zhezkazgan were transferred to the NKVD, and all this became known as the "Zhezkazgan Forced Labor Camp and the NKVD Combine", and the construction site of the city of Zhezkazgan - the Kengir NKVD Construction District.
More than 7 thousand prisoners worked at industrial facilities and construction. First, they built a dam of the Kengir reservoir and a thermal power station. The prisoners built a railway line over 400 kilometers long from Zharyk station to Kengir station.
In connection with the expansion of construction projects, the number of prisoners constantly increased. 3117 prisoners worked in the mines, 2731 in the construction of the railway to the Zhezkazgan manganese mine, 2100 in the Zhezkazgan mine, 1553 in other industrial facilities, 1901 in civil construction, 300 in the Baikonur coal mining, and 338 in agricultural work. In 1941, the combine and the camp have mastered 52 million rubles of capital investments and mined 53 thousand tons of copper ore containing 1,500 tons of copper. As of January 1, 1942, there were only 1,784 civilians at the plant, including 780 workers. And there were 12040 prisoners. In addition, there were about a thousand guards and the camp administration. In the same year, a new replenishment of prisoners arrived. The number of workers in the mines has increased significantly. In 1942, 605 thousand tons of copper ore (19,800 tons of copper) were already mined. The mined ores were sent to Balkhash, the Karsakpay medical plant and to the factories of the Urals. In the first years of the war, four previously abandoned mines were put into operation, five mines were converted from auxiliary to mining, the first large mine, No. 31, was put into operation.
In 1942, on the deserted banks of the steppe river Ulken Zhezdy, about two dozen temporary barracks appeared, where the prisoners of the builders and operators of the future Zhezkazgan manganese mine were housed. 38 days after the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the construction of the mine, on June 12, 1942, the first tons of manganese ore were mined and sent to consumer plants.
During the war, the Zhezkazgan mine largely satisfied the manganese needs of the Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk metallurgical plants. The results of the great labor heroism of the prisoners are explained by the fact that the most hardworking workers, highly qualified specialists and engineering and technical workers were brought to the camp. During the Great Patriotic War, the powerful wire bastion of Zhezkazgan provided the defense industry of the USSR with more than half of all copper and 70 percent of manganese.
In 1941 - 1942 in the Zhezkazgan camp were for counter-revolutionary crimes - 1830, for banditry and murder - 548, for illegal border crossing - 108, for desertion and war crimes - 477, for other crimes - 9050.
So, "for other crimes" there were innocent people: workers, collective farmers, engineers who came here on the orders of the NKVD as a workforce. They were in the camp not because they were guilty of something, but because they were needed at construction sites, mines and mines.
In March 1945, on the basis of the Kengir branch of the Karlag, camp No. 50 for prisoners of war was created. By the end of the year it was transformed into Camp 39. The first echelon of German prisoners of war in the amount of 8 thousand people arrived in Kengir on 23 April 1945.
Until 1946, the Zhezkazgan forced labor camp was part of the Karlag of the NKVD for especially dangerous categories of criminals "enemies of the people", "traitors to the motherland" and "counter-revolutionaries".
If Karlag was created on the principle of tsarist Russia as a corrective labor colony, then Steplag - on the principle of German concentration camps. If Karlag was mainly engaged in agriculture, then the Steplag prisoners worked only at industrial enterprises. Rashat Akhmetov, a former prisoner of the camp, says: “We lived like in fascist concentration camps. Here, too, each prisoner was given a special cipher number. We were never called by last name, only by cipher numbers. Each brigade has 15 - 20 people.
The prisoners worked in copper mining. The drilling was dry, waste rock dust caused rapid silicosis and tuberculosis. The living conditions of the prisoners were very difficult. The prisoners accumulated a lot of discontent, because even their rights, which were curtailed by the GULAG, were violated: they were poorly fed and treated, they were constantly bullied (unjustified use of weapons, beating of prisoners, etc.).
All this caused a dull discontent, which gradually grew into disobedience. On May 16, 1954, the famous uprising began in Steplag, which shook the entire GULAG system. The uprising of the Steplag prisoners lasted forty days. For 40 days, the prisoners fought organized resistance to the authorities. At the head of the uprising were representatives of the military intelligentsia of the Soviet Army, freed from German captivity and sent to the Soviet "captivity" without a transfer. They were brave and determined people.
During the uprising, the Minister of State Security of the USSR Serov, the Minister of Internal Affairs Kruglov, the Prosecutor General Rudenko, the head of the GULAG Dolgikh and others visited Zhezkazgan.
The uprising was suppressed with the help of military equipment and units of the regular army.
Resistance leaders were arrested. There were many killed and wounded, according to eyewitnesses - 600 people, according to the materials of the production-planning department of Kengir - more than 700 people.
The Kengir resistance of prisoners is of great importance in the history of the existing and existing camps. After the Kengir uprising, special convicts were liquidated in the entire GULAG system.
Literature:
Bugay N.F. Deportation of ethnic communities: problems of rehabilitation in Russia and Kazakhstan // Russia and Kazakhstan: problems of history (20th - early 21st centuries). - M., 2006.
Kozybaev M.K., Abylkhozhin Zh.B., Aldazhumanov K.S. Collectivization in Kazakhstan: the tragedy of the peasantry. A, 1992.
Kozybaev M., Aldazhumanov K. Totalitarian socialism: reality and consequences. A., 1997.
Aldazhumanov K.S. Peasant resistance movement. // Peoples Deported to Kazakhstan: History and Fates. A, 1998.
Aldazhumanov K.S. Open trials in Kazakhstan. // Materials of "round tables" and seminars. A, 1996.
Shaimukhanov D.A., Shaimukhanova S.D. Karlag. Karaganda 1997.
Special settlers in the Karaganda region. Collection of documents and materials. Karaganda 2007.
Book of Sorrow. Shooting lists. Volume 3. Karaganda region. Almaty 1997.
In 1931, the state farm "Gigant" with an area of \u200b\u200b17 thousand hectares was organized in the Kazakh steppe. Under this name, an institution appeared, which from 1931 to 1959 forever distorted the fate of 6 million political prisoners, internees and prisoners of war. The name of this bloody monster is Karlag of the NKVD
A memorial cross at the Spassky memorial cemetery of camp No. 99, 25 kilometers from Karaganda, where political prisoners and internees were kept in inhuman conditions, and from 1941 also prisoners of war. According to official figures alone, more than five thousand of them remain forever in a mass grave.
There is no place for oblivion and lies. It's deafeningly quiet here. And very scary
Kazakhs, Germans, Russians, Romanians, Hungarians, Poles, Belarusians, Jews, Chechens, Ingush, French, Georgians, Italians, Kyrgyz, Ukrainians, Japanese, Finns, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians - the infernal millstones of the NKVD grinded everyone without examining nationalities
The Karlag system included many camps and special zones (special camps). The largest of them are Spasslag (prisoners of war), Algeria (Akmola camp of wives of traitors to the Motherland) Steplag (Ukrainians, Balts, Vlasovites). The administrative center of Karlag was the Dolinka village 50 km from Karaganda
The total territory of the Karlag is comparable in area to the territory of France
After the closure of Spasslag, almost all buildings were destroyed. A military unit was placed on the site of the camp administration
Monument to a soldier of a military unit
The main activity of the prisoners was the extraction of stone for the construction of highways. All work was done by hand. People died from cold, hunger and physical exhaustion. The weakest were finished off by the guards
The walls were erected for centuries. The stones are fitted without a single gap and without the use of mortar. Those who died during construction were simply buried under the foundation of the walls and the work continued further
At the time of the creation of the camps, authorized special units of the NKVD forcibly evicted the entire local population from this territory. Often with forced removal of livestock. For Kazakhs, this meant starvation.
The entire Dolinka was surrounded by barbed wire. The entrance to the territory was carried out with special passes until the beginning of the 80s. There are still functioning colonies around the village
After the liquidation of the camp, only skeins of barbed wire were left scattered across the steppe. Even scrap metal collectors bypass these "hedgehogs"
A majestic building in the "Stalinist Empire" style. Center of Hell. Karlag administration in Dolinka village
Today it houses a museum of victims of political repression.
Sentence of guilty to Saken Seifullin. The writer and patriot of his homeland was arrested as a "bourgeois nationalist who worked for Japanese intelligence" and shot on February 28, 1939 in the dungeons of the Alma-Ata NKVD
On false accusations in the dungeons of the NKVD, all the leaders of the "Alash-Orda" were destroyed. Thus, the Stalinist machine dealt with the Kazakh intelligentsia, who fought for the independence of Kazakhstan after the revolution.
Karlag's guards were recruited from “class close elements” - people without principles, executive and cruel. To receive an extraordinary prize, the guards killed two prisoners and reported to the leadership about the suppression of the mass escape attempt. For a mass escape, the prize was twice as much as for a single
Basement corridor. Torture chambers, punishment cells and a firing wall were located here.
The punishment cell. The inmate was allowed to sleep on the ice floor for 4 hours a day. The rest of the time he had to stand. They were brutally beaten for trying to lean against the wall
Particularly intractable were put in a pit and were not given water and food for several days
On the territory of Karlag, there were several "sharashek" - laboratories where prisoners from among the former researchers worked for the good of the Motherland
The accounts of those who died from diseases were not kept, and personal files were destroyed after death. So a man disappeared forever
The intelligentsia of the Soviet Union was exiled to Karlag, including such names as: the greatest biologist Chizhevsky, Lev Gumilyov, father Sevastyan
Campaign work in the camps was set to a high level
Torture chamber. The smell of blood is still there. People were beaten, tortured with electricity, fingers smashed with hammers
Execution place at the end of the basement corridor. Here the "highest measure of social protection" - execution was carried out. The condemned was ordered to face the wall. The guard sent a bullet to the back of the head through the bars
The participant of the Kengir uprising Ivan Ivanovich Karpinsky was a prisoner of the Steplag.
I myself am from Ukraine. I was arrested for reading bourgeois literature. It was a book on the history of Ukraine. For this they gave me 25 years in the camps. And I myself was only 19 ... So I ended up in the Kengir village, the prisoners of which were building Zhezkazgan. Mostly there were young people from Ukraine, the Balts and Vlasovites
The guards were ferocious. Prisoners were killed for no reason. On Easter, the guards fired at a convoy of prisoners. The next day, the entire camp did not come to work. A lesson was sent to our camp. Criminals. For them to kill us. But we didn't let them do it. Then 15 people died in the massacre. It was the limit ...
On May 16, 1954, we blocked the camp and demanded a change in the camp regime. We held the defense for 42 days. And on June 26, several land mines were dropped on us from the plane. And then tanks entered the camp. They fired at the barracks, crushed people. The whole earth was covered in blood. Spared neither children nor women
When asked: "How did you survive?", Ivan Ivanovich burst into tears ...
We were taken to kill in ore wagons. They wanted to throw it into the mine. We hung over the precipice for fifteen minutes. Press the button - and 40 meters down. But at the last moment they changed their mind. And that's how I survived ...
Here I am with my cellmates in 1954. Until now, difficult memories haunt, and four years of real hell cannot be erased from memory
Polina Petrovna Ostapchuk, former prisoner of Karlag.
I'm from Ukraine. After the war, we starved badly, and I collected money for a government loan after the war. 50 rubles each. There was a lot of money then. She interceded in front of her superiors for a widow with four children so that they would not take money from her. For this they gave me 10 years. They assigned me a job for American intelligence. They didn't let me sleep for a week and I signed everything
In 1948 I was sent to Spassk. I stayed there for 4 years. Miraculously survived. Then there was Aktas. Building in summer, factory in winter. 4 years on a jackhammer. And I left already in 1956, after serving 8 years
In my youth I was a prominent girl; the camp commandant began to look after me. For four months he followed me, but I did not respond to his courtship, then he threatened me to arrange a "tram" - this is when 11 men are raped, and 12 are sick with syphilis. One girl was so infected and soon died. I had to agree to save my life. So in the zone I lost my virginity and gave birth to my first son ...
During her imprisonment, Polina Petrovna watched how one artist painted pictures and, observing, learned to draw herself
Polina Petrovna shows her place of imprisonment, drawn from memory.
Many died. From our department in Spassk, five coffins a day were taken out. The coffins were light - the people were so emaciated. And there was chaos. Women were raped, people were tortured. But, thank God, all this is long gone
I also write poetry. This is just an outlet for me not to get bored. She learned in the camp, in the amateur performances. She sang too. We went to other camps with concerts. I spent my time in Dolinka - we built houses there, and gave concerts
The women had a difficult time apart from their children. But the children themselves experienced all the cruelty of the regime and silently bore the stigma "children of enemies of the people"
As soon as the child grew up, he was taken to the orphanage. Many never saw their children again.
But the teachers reminded the children of who they were
Children were sent to orphanages in the Soviet Union. Most often changed the name and surname
Zoya Mikhailovna Slyudova is Karlag's child.
Mom was expelled from Belarus in 1939, she was 18 years old. I was born in 1940 and grew up in Dolinka. Our teachers were "the wives of traitors to the Motherland." And at the age of 8 we were transferred to the Kompaneiskiy orphanage. The educators took away our bread. They did not drown in winter. We ourselves carried the dead children. Many have died. Children were buried in wooden barrels. No coffins were allocated to them. We were children of the enemies of the people, we were not sorry ...
Children starved to death every day. The grief never left this damned place
Huge, 20 stadiums in size, children's cemetery
All victories and accomplishments, all historical construction projects, mines, roads, factories, which were proudly reported from all the stands in Soviet times, were built with their blood and sweat. Their lives. Broken destinies The tragedies of entire nations and each individual person. We have no right to forget about it ...
Aisulu Toyhibekova, Vlast
During its 28-year existence, one of the largest camps in the GULAG system, the Karaganda Forced Labor Camp, has become a home and a grave for hundreds of thousands of people who fell into the millstones of the Soviet Union's repressive machine. 80 years after the beginning of the Great Terror, Vlast remembers how it all began.
Collectivization and the subsequent industrialization of the country required huge human resources, while at a minimum cost. Then it was decided that the prisoners would rebuild the industrial and food centers. On July 11, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a decree "On the use of labor of criminals", according to the decree, all convicts for a term of three years or more were transferred to the United State Political Administration, which was involved in the fight against counter-revolution and espionage. In the spring of 1930, the Council of People's Commissars approved the "Regulations on Forced Labor Camps." This document regulated the work of all forced labor camps. For everyone, this activity was presented as the protection of the communist society from socially dangerous elements, the use of human resources of unreliable citizens for the good of the Soviet Union. It was through exhausting daily work that they had to atone for dissent.
"Correctional labor camps have the task of protecting society from especially socially dangerous offenders by isolating them, combined with socially useful labor, and adapting these offenders to the conditions of a labor community."
"Regulations on Forced Labor Camps"
Photo by Galina Zhuvakina
The prisoners in the camps were classified into three categories. The first category, according to the regulation, included prisoners from among workers, peasants and employees who had voting rights before the sentencing and who were sentenced for the first time to terms not exceeding 5 years not for counter-revolutionary crimes. The second category included all the same representatives of the working class, but sentenced to terms above 5 years. The third - all unearned citizens convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes.
Counter-revolutionary activities in the Soviet Union were taken very seriously. The most famous article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic - 58th, it had 14 points and 4 subparagraphs, established punishment for counterrevolutionary activities in its most diverse manifestations - from a coup d'état to failure to report a family member and sabotage. Articles similar to it existed in the Criminal Codes of other union republics.
The Karlag administration building in the village of Dolinka. Photo from the site shahtinsklib.kz and from the archive of the Museum of Memory of Victims of Political Repression
Very soon, dozens of camps began to be created throughout the country. The GULAG had 64 large branches, 500 correctional labor colonies, 770 industrial colonies, 414 state farms under its jurisdiction. In December 1931, on the basis of the state farm by the forces of the NKVD, the Karaganda forced labor camp, or, as it was also called, Karlag, was created. It occupied the area of \u200b\u200bthree districts of the Karaganda region: Telmansky, Zhana-Arkinsky and Nurinsky, the main territory of the camp stretched from north to south for 300 km, from east to west - 200 km. On this territory there were numerous auls and villages created and populated by the Germans during the Stolypin reforms. One of these was the village of Dolinskoye or Dolinka, 45 kilometers from Karaganda.
“Dolinka itself was formed at the beginning of the 20th century. In this territory. Germans came here to reclaim land even during the Stolypin reforms. Altgradenreit - this is what the village of Dolinka was called in German - the Sacred Valley of Grace. In 1909 Dolinka received the status of a settlement unit, at the same time Dolinskaya volost was formed. In 1931, when Karlag was formed, Dolinka became its "capital". The entire population living on the territory of Karlag was forcibly evicted outside the camp. The period of the establishment of the camp coincided with collectivization, and, as a rule, people were evicted with complete confiscation of their property, ”said Ivan Kondrashev, a researcher at the Museum of Memory of Victims of Political Repression in the Dolinka village. He conducts guided tours for museum visitors.
Photo by Galina Zhuvakina
One of the goals of creating Karlag was the creation of a large food base for industrial centers: Karaganda, Balkhash and Karsakpay. In addition, the prisoners of the camp became free labor for the enterprises of the coal and metallurgical industries.
Soviet citizens, recognized as unreliable, were sent from all over the Soviet Union in stages to Kazakhstan in cattle wagons. Here they were awaited by grueling hard labor. According to data for 1951, 58.5% of all activities were associated with agriculture (animal husbandry accounted for 48.2%, crop production - 51.8%); on industry - 41.5%.
Karlag was not just a camp, it was a kind of state within a state with its military formations, telegraphs, railway stations, printing houses. Karlag was directly subordinate to the administration of the Main Directorate of Forced Labor Camps in Moscow. As of 1931, the Karaganda camp had 14 departments and 64 sections; 10 years later, in 1941 - 220 branches, 159 sections; in 1953, there were 26 branches, 192 camp points, 106 livestock farms, 7 vegetable gardens and 10 arable plots were located on its territory. In 1940, the Karlag farm had 17,710 cattle, 193,158 sheep, 5,814 horses, 567 pigs, and 3,729 working oxen. The work for the prisoners of the camp never ended: in the warm season they were engaged in agriculture, in the cold season they worked in factories and factories.
Goodbye kids. I was judged by a troika, I am an enemy of the people
A short note by the carpenter Philip Seleznev to children. He was arrested and convicted in 1937 by an extrajudicial body of criminal prosecution, the so-called "troika", which consisted of the head of the regional department of the NKVD, the secretary of the regional committee and the regional prosecutor. The history of his family, originally from the Kursk region, is described in the book by Ekaterina Kuznetsova "Karlag: on both sides of the" thorns "".
Photo courtesy of the Museum of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression
First of all, religious servants, intellectuals, nobility, officers, peasants were subjected to repression. In 1937, the Great Terror began, during this period there was a massive purge both in the highest echelons of Soviet power and among scientists, intellectuals, ordinary workers and peasants. And before the war in the steppes of Kazakhstan, known for their harsh climate, whole peoples began to be exiled - overcrowded freight cars with "special settlers" went from all over the Soviet Union to Sary-Arka for weeks.
Railway station Karabas, 2004. Photo of the Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents and Sound Recordings
At different times, many famous scientists were prisoners of Karlag, among them the orientalist Lev Gumilyov. In March 1951, he was exiled to the Karlag shipment to the Karabas station for six months.
According to Ivan Kondrashev, over a million people have passed through Karlag over the 28 years of its existence. With the help of these people, the industry of Central Kazakhstan was built, primarily the Karaganda coal basin, Dzhezkazgan and Balkhash copper-smelting plants. The largest number of repressed fell on the war and post-war years, when deported peoples, prisoners of war and Soviet soldiers and officers who had been in Nazi captivity were exiled to the camp: in the period from 1942 to 1949, the number of prisoners increased from 42 thousand to 65-75 thousand people. From 1931 to 1959, 1507 children were born in Karlag, but the conditions in life in the camp contributed to the high mortality rate among both adults and children: in September and October 1945, 98 out of 514 children died in Karlag.
Photo courtesy of the Central State Archive of Film, Photo Documents and Sound Recordings
There is no exact number of prisoners killed in Karlag and other labor camps on the territory of Kazakhstan, the count goes to tens of thousands of people: this is more than one and a half thousand certificates on the executed; even more people died from disease and the hands of the camp guards.
Julia Pankratova contributed to the material