Chapter 30 Chapter 3 Spread of Islands Lesions-1

Yes, the development of the archipelago is not isolated, but closely related to the whole country.When there is still unemployment in the country, there is no demand for the labor of prisoners. Arresting is not a means of mobilizing labor, but a means of removing obstacles.But when it was decided to use a huge mixer to stir up the country's 180 million people; ; when the extermination of the rich peasants and the large-scale social movements during the first five-year plan were predetermined, that is, on the eve of the "Year of the Great Cut [Transformation]", the perception of the archipelago and everything in the archipelago All have changed.

On March 26, 1928, the Council of People's Commissars (this means that it was still during the time of Lykov's chairmanship) conducted a study of the state of the country's penal policy and the current situation in various places of imprisonment.In terms of punishment policy, it is believed that there are many deficiencies.Decision: severe repression against class enemies and class dissidents, stricter labor camp management regime (and no prison sentences at all for "socially unstable elements").In addition: Forced labor should be arranged in such a way that, on the one hand, the prisoner will not receive any labor remuneration, and on the other hand, the country will receive economic benefits.And "think that the capacity of labor camps must be expanded in the future".To put it plainly, is to demand that more camps be prepared in advance for planned mass arrests. (Trotsky also foresaw this economic necessity. However, the method he proposed was his labor army organized by compulsory mobilization. Horseradish is no sweeter than carrots, and they are all the same. But not Knowing whether Stalin was deliberately bullying his eternal rival, or in order to more thoroughly dissuade the people of complaints and hopes of returning home, he decided to let the fighters of the Labor Army go through the prison machine first.) When unemployment across the country After the phenomenon has been eliminated, the economic significance of expanding the labor camp will appear.

If the total number of people imprisoned by Solovitz in 1923 did not exceed 3,000, then in 1930 there were already about 50,000, and another 30,000 were in Kem.From 1928 onwards, Solovitz's cancer cells began to spread.It spread first to Karelia, where roads were built and timber felled for export.At this time, the northern special battalion was also very happy to start the business of "selling" engineers: they could go to any place in the north without being escorted to work for the local area, and their wages were paid to the labor camp by transfer.In 1929, along the Murmansk line, from Logenoye Polje to Tepaola, camps of the Northern Special Battalion had already appeared.From here they continue to move along the Vologda railway line.Their activity was so frequent that it was necessary to set up a dispatch station for the Northern Special Battalion at the Zvanka railway station.In 1930 Sverlage in Logenoye Polje had a considerable size and started to operate independently.A Kotlag has also been formed in Kotlas.In 1931 the White Sea Baltic Lago was born, with its center in Medvyzhegorsk.This labor camp was destined to bring immortality and glory to the archipelago for the next two years and spread across the five continents.

Cancer cells continue to spread outward.It was blocked on one side by the sea and on the other by the Finnish national border, but the establishment of a labor camp near Red Vishella in 1929 was not hindered in any way.And the main thing is that all the roads to the north of Russia are unimpeded throughout the east.The road from Soroka to Kotlas was quickly built, ("Soroka--we will build it ahead of time!"--prisoners often use this line to make fun of its author C? Aremo Husband. However, this person was able to change and never give up, and finally he became a poet and songwriter.) The cells of the labor camp moved to the banks of the North Dvina River, forming the North Dvilag.They crossed the river and marched bravely towards the Urals.In 1931, the North Ural Subcamp of the Northern Special Battalion was established here, and soon became two separate labor camps, Solikamlag and North Urallag.The Berezniki labor camp started the construction of a large chemical complex, and there were many articles admiring it.In the summer of 1929, an expedition of convicts was sent from Solovitz, led by the geologist Professor M.B. Rusinski, to explore the Chibiu River as early as the nineteenth century. Oil was discovered there in the 1980s.The exploration was successful, so a labor camp - Ukhta Lag was established on the banks of the Ukhta River.But it didn't stay still, its cancer cells moved rapidly to the northeast, annexed the Pechora River, and reorganized into Ukhbchaolag.Soon it had sub-camps in Ukhta, Inta, Pechora, and Vorkuta, all of which would be the basis of future large independent labor camps.

There is also a lot left out here. The development of the vast and inaccessible northern border required the construction of a railway: from Kotlas to Vorkuta via Knyazh-Pogost and Ropcha.Therefore, it was necessary to build two new labor camps dedicated to building railways.Among them, the northern railway Lag is responsible for the section from Kotlas to Pechora; A section of the tower. (Admittedly, the construction process of this railway was very long. Its Vim section, from Knyazh-Pogost to Ropcea, was completed in 1938. The entire railway line continued until 1942 It was completed at the end of the year.)

In this way, hundreds of new islands of medium and tiny rose above the surface of the vast sea of ​​tundra and taiga.The new organizational system of the archipelago was also gradually established in the battle sequence during the march: the labor camp administration, the labor camps, the labor camps (independent labor camps, guard district labor camps, and central labor camps), labor camps (that is, " Dispatch Point" and "Dispatch Point").There are divisions in the management bureau, but there are divisions in the Fen labor camp: Division 1 - Production Division, Division 2 - Registration and Distribution Division, Division 3 - Cheka Action Division (the third again!...)

(The dissertation of this period reads: "The outlines of educational institutions for the individual undisciplined members of the future classless society are presented in advance." ("From Prisons to Educational Institutions", Page 429.) Really, if there are no classes, there will be no criminals. But you seem to be shocked: So, in a classless society tomorrow, no one will go to prison? ... Oh , and there are some undisciplined ones... It turns out that classrooms are indispensable in a classless society.) So, the entire northern part of the archipelago is derived from Solovets.But it is by no means the only one!Under the great call, labor reform camps have blossomed all over the vast land of our country.Each province set up its own labor camps.Millions of kilometers of barbed wire stretched and stretched.The iron wires are intertwined and intertwined, and the iron thorns are blinking happily beside the road, beside the railway, and in the suburbs of the city.The spiers of the ugly watchtowers of the labor camps have become the most reliable symbols of our country's landscape. It is a strange coincidence of various factors that they do not appear in the painter's frame and the film lens.

As was the old custom in the days of the Civil War, the monastery buildings were mobilized intensively to meet the needs of the labor camps.They are located in a location that is very suitable for the isolation of prisoners.The Boris Gleb Monastery in Torzhok became a transit point (and still is), and the Valdai Monastery became a reformatory for juvenile delinquents (across the lake from the later Zhdanov's dacha).Nile Abbey on Storrene Island in Lake Seliger turned into a labor camp.The Sarov Monastery became the headquarters of the Počmag labor camp.Counting like this is endless.In the Donbass, in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Volga, in the central and southern Urals, in Central Asia, in Siberia and the Far East, labor camps are being built everywhere.According to the official announcement, in 1932 the labor reform farms covered 253,000 hectares in the Russian Federation and 56,000 hectares in Ukraine.Based on the average land area of ​​a farm of one thousand hectares, we can know that there were more than 300 labor camps alone—that is, labor camps with the lowest and best conditions—at that time (not counting the border areas of the country)!

Regarding the distribution of prisoners according to the location of the labor camps, the official documents of the Central Executive Committee and the People's Committee on November 6, 1929 (each time coincided with the anniversary of the October Revolution) easily resolved Solved: Removed the original "strict isolation" approach (because it hindered creative labor).It is stipulated that those with a sentence of less than three years should be sent to ordinary (nearby) places of imprisonment, and those with a sentence of more than three years but less than ten years should be sent to remote areas. All flocked to the North and Siberia - to exploit and die.

And those of us are walking together under the drumbeat of the youth team in these years... There is a stubborn legend in the archipelago that "the labor camp was invented by Frenkel." I feel the previous chapters have been strong enough to refute this unpatriotic and even insulting government fiction.Despite the limited data we have, I think we have succeeded in showing that the camps for repression and labor were born as early as 1918.It didn't take much for Frenkel to reach the conclusion that prisoners should not waste their time in moral reflections ("Soviet labor policy was not at all aimed at individual rehabilitation in the traditional sense"), but should Labor, and at the same time they must be given very severe labor quotas that are almost beyond their capabilities.Long before Frenkel they had often talked about "reformation by labour" (already in Eichmanns' time this phrase actually meant "destruction by labour").

Yes, even without modern dialectical thought processes, it is conceivable to use prisoners to perform heavy manual labor in sparsely populated areas.As early as 1890, the Ministry of Communications decided to use the exiled and hard-served prisoners in the Amur Krai to build railways.Hard labor prisoners are simply forced, while immigrants and administrative exiled prisoners are allowed to participate in road construction work, for which they can get a one-third or half of the sentence reduction (however, they would rather take the method of escaping. thrown off at once).From 1896 to 1900, more than 1,500 convicts worked as convicts on the shore of Lake Baikal on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and more than 2,500 immigrants were exiled. But generally speaking, the development trend of the Russian penal estates in the nineteenth century was in the opposite direction: labor became less and less compulsory and less and less.In the 1990s, even the hard labor prison in Kari became a place of simple confinement, and labor was no longer performed.The requirements for labor in the Akatuyi Hard Labor Prison were also eased during this period (Jakubovich).Therefore, it is a temporary need to use convicts to build the Baikal Railway.Here, haven't we seen the "two horns" or "parabola" in the prison for long-term offenders described in the ninth chapter of the first part? (Chapter Nine of Part One) One is the tip of the horn that is getting wider and wider, and the other is the tip of the horn that is getting more and more cruel. Meaningful (of course not compulsory) labor helps criminals to rehabilitate. This idea was known to frl before Marx was born, and it was also practiced in Russian prison management in the last century.Fi Kurlov, who once served as the head of the Prison Administration, said: In 1907, there were many labor items for prisoners; Money and a craft. But no matter what, Frenkel really became the nerve of the archipelago.He was one of those lucky activists that history hungrily awaited and beckoned.Before him, labor camps seemed to exist, but not in that perfect final and unified form.A true prophet comes when he is most needed.Frenkel appeared on the islands just at the beginning of the spread of the disease. Naftali Aronovich Frenkel, a Turkish Jew, was born in Constantinople, the monarchy.Worked in the lumber trade after business school.He opened a company in Mariupol and quickly became a millionaire, "The Timber King of the Black Sea".He had his own troops and even published his own newspaper "One Copeck" in Mariupol.The newspaper's mission was to vilify and haunt his rivals.During World War I, Frenkel speculatively traded arms through Gallipoli.In 1916 he had a premonition of an impending storm in Russia, and before the February Revolution he transferred his capital to Turkey, and in 1917 he himself went to Constantinople. He could have gone on with his intense and sweet businessman life without all the suffering and without becoming a legend.But some force of fate called him to the great red country.Since February 1917, however, many Russians abroad, who were by no means revolutionary exiles, have returned home and contributed enthusiastically but with pernicious consequences to the various stages of the revolution. There is an unconfirmed rumor that Frenkel became an agent of Soviet intelligence during his years in Constantinople (hard to see why he would have needed to, unless it was for ideological reasons) .But here is the fact: in the years of the New Economic Policy he came to the USSR, where he personally set up a black market exchange for treasures and gold in Soviet banknotes on the instructions of the State Political Security Service (he was the State Political Security Service Bureau and the founder of the "Golden Movement" of the Quansu Foreign Guest Commodity Supply Company).Businessmen and brokers were familiar with his past and trusted him, so the gold flowed into the coffers of the Political Security Service.The acquisition business was done, and as a token of gratitude, the State Political Security Bureau put him in prison.It is really the so-called "a wise man has a thousand worries, and he must make a mistake". However, the tireless and non-complaining Frenkel made a report to his superiors when he was still squatting in Lubinka or on the way to Solovets.Obviously, after realizing that he had fallen into a trap, the local decided to conduct some pragmatic research on this life as well.He was taken to Solovets in 1927, but he was immediately separated from the liberation team, lived in a stone house outside the monastery boundary, was taken care of by an orderly, and was allowed to move about freely on the island.We have already mentioned that he became chief of the economic section (a privilege only available to free men) and published his famous thesis on the physical draining of prisoners during the first three months.In 1928 he had moved to Combe.There he established a highly profitable subsidiary business.He transported the hides that the monks had accumulated for decades and now stagnated in the monastery warehouse to Kem, gathered the cobblers and shoemakers among the prisoners there, made beautiful shoes and leather goods, and sent them to Kuznets Bridge Street (The store is run by the State Political Security Service and all proceeds go to it, but the ladies who bought the shoes didn't know it, and they didn't think of it when they themselves were dragged into the archipelago shortly afterwards. This store, I don’t understand what’s going on). That was in 1929.Moscow sent a special plane to take Frenkel to see Stalin.The best friend of the prisoners (and the best friend of the Chekist) talked to Frenkel with great interest for three hours.A transcript of this conversation will never be made public because no recording was made.But Frenkel clearly presented to the fathers of nations the glorious prospect of building socialism with prison labor.Many of the geography of the archipelago that I now trace with this gentle pen after the fact, he had already sketched on the big map of the Soviet Union with rough lines at that time amidst the hiss of the conversationalist's pipe.It was Frenkel, and apparently on this occasion, who proposed the all-encompassing camp registration system.This system of registering in groups A, B, C, and D could not even exploit the loopholes of the camp chief, let alone the prisoners: all non-camp service personnel (B), personnel without sick leave certificates (C), Persons not subject to solitary confinement (D) have to do hard labor (A) every day while serving their sentences.No such all-encompassing regulations have been seen in the history of hard labor in the world!It was Frenkel, and it was in this talk, that he proposed the abolition of the reactionary equality of food for the prisoners.He drew up a uniform throughout the archipelago for the redistribution of meager provisions--a scale of bread and a scale of hot food.In fact, he learned it from the Eskimos: use a pole with a fish hanging in front of the running cart dog.He also proposed methods such as reduction and early release as rewards for those with excellent labor performance.The first experimental site - the great White Sea Baltic Canal project was also decided during this meeting.The shrewd and capable currency speculator was soon appointed there—not director of engineering or camp commander, but a post specially created for him—"director of construction," that is, general supervisor of the labor field. This is him.The ferocious and inhuman will that filled his heart was clearly displayed on his face.But in the book on the White Sea Canal, a Soviet writer, in praise of Frenkel, would write this about him: "At the canal site, he appeared now here and there with a cane, Walking without a word to the construction site, leaning on his cane, standing with one foot in front of the other, and standing like that for hours... The eyes of the investigator and the inspector-general, the lips of the skeptic and the satirist... He was a A person with a huge desire for power and a sense of pride. He believes that the main thing for a chief is power. Absolute, unshakable, unshareable power. If you need people to fear you for the sake of power --- let them be afraid . " The writer could even turn his tongue to praise his "ruthless sarcasm and indifference, it seems that any kind of mortal emotion is beyond the comprehension of the chief." We feel that last sentence is crucial, both for understanding his character and his history. Frenkel was set free when work on the White Wave Canal began.After the completion of the canal, he received an Order of Lenin and was appointed head of the engineering department at Bearague ("Bega-Amur main line" was the future name).In the 1930s, Bearag (Baikal-Amur main line labor camp) was tasked with repairing double tracks on the sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway where there were no double tracks.Naftali Frenkel's career was far from complete, but we shall leave it to the next chapter. Now it is my turn to write the whole long history of the archipelago for which I have written this homegrown work, which for half a century has found little reflection in the public texts of the Soviet Union.Here, the same unfortunate accidents that keep the watchtowers of the labor camps out of the camera lens and into the landscape paintings of our country play a role. But the situation of Baibo Canal and Volga Canal is different.I have a book on hand for each of these projects.So at least when writing this chapter, we can rely on Soviet literature and responsible proof materials. In serious papers, any material should be described before it is used.We have to do the same. Before us was a volume about the size of a Gospel, with bas-relief portraits of demigods embossed on its cardboard cover.The title of the book is "History of the Construction of Stalin's White Sea and Baltic Canals", published by the State Publishing House in 1934.The authors dedicated it to the Seventeenth Congress of the Party, and it seems that it was rushed out for the Congress.It is one of the "Factory History" series edited by Gorky.The editors of the book are: Maxim? Gorky, Avelbach and Filin.The last name is not known to many people in the literary world. Let us explain the reason: Xie Ming Feilin, although very young, is the deputy director of the Gulag.Driven by his vanity as a writer, he wrote a separate pamphlet on the White Wave Canal; Leopold Leonidovich Avelbach (Ida Leoni Dovna’s brother) on the contrary, there is no one more glorious than him in Soviet literature, the responsible editor of the magazine "In Literary Post", the main thug who beat the writers with a stick, and he is also Sverdlov's nephew. The history of this book is as follows: On August 17, 1933, 120 writers took a boat to visit the newly completed canal.Witkowski, a canal construction worker who was a prisoner, saw with his own eyes that when the ship passed the lock, these people in white suits gathered on the deck and called the prisoners in the lock area (most of the people who were in this place at the time) man is already an operator, not a builder), asks a prisoner in the presence of canal chiefs whether he loves his canal and his job; whether he thinks he has been reformed here; Welfare doesn't care enough.Many questions were asked, all of this kind.All the people asked questions from the ship to the shore, in front of the officers, and it only took a while for the ship to pass through the lock.After this excursion, eighty-four writers deserted in various ways and did not participate in Gorky's collective creation (but perhaps went to write their own glorified poems and features), and the remaining thirty-six formed the A creative collective.After intense labor in the autumn and winter of 1933, they completed this unique work. Publishing this book was originally intended to be handed down through the ages, and it was originally intended to be read and amazed forever by future generations.But by a fateful coincidence, most of the leaders shown in the photographs and celebrated in the text were exposed as enemies of the people within two or three years.All printed copies of the book were, of course, taken from the library and destroyed.In 1937, the book's private owners destroyed it because they didn't want to go to jail for it.The number of existing volumes is very small, and there is no hope of reprinting, so we feel that we shoulder the great responsibility of not letting the guiding ideology and facts written in the book be forever annihilated in the hearts of our compatriots.It would be unjust not to preserve the names of its authors for the history of literature.At least the names of these people: M. Gorky, Victor Shklovsky, Vsevolod Ivanov, Vera Imber, Valentin Kadayev, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Rabin and Hatzlevin, Nikulin, Cornelius Zelinsky, Bruno Yasensky (chapter "Total defeat of class enemies"), E. Gabrilovich , A? Tikhonov, Alexei? Tolstoy, K? Fern. Why did the prisoners who built the canal need this book? Gorky made this explanation: "The soldiers of the Canal Army" lacked the "necessary vocabulary" to express their complex feelings about undergoing transformation, and the writers had mastered these vocabulary, so They are coming to help.He also explains why writers need this book: "Many writers have visited the canal... to be enriched, and this has had a very positive effect on their writing... A new atmosphere is emerging in current literature and art , which will move our country's literature and art forward and place it on the level of our great cause." (Emphasis added by me - author's note. This is the level we still feel in Soviet literature today.) As for this The necessity of this book to the millions of readers, many of whom will soon be migrating to the archipelago themselves, is self-evident. What views do the collective authors have about the subjects they describe?First: the conviction that all sentences are just and that all those driven to build the canal are guilty.Even the word "convinced" is too weak: in the opinion of the authors, the question is not only undiscussable, but should not even be raised.This matter is as obvious to them as the night is darker than the day.When they used their own words and images to instill in us this thirties hatred of human legend, the word "assailant" became the essence of engineers and technicians in their interpretation.The agronomists who objected to early planting (in snow and mud, perhaps?), the irrigation specialists who supplied Central Asia with water, were all outright saboteurs in their eyes.These writers talk about the engineer class in every chapter of the book, all in a top-down tone, as if talking about inferior and inferior races.On the first two or five pages of this book, a large part of the engineering and technical circles before the revolution were accused of dishonesty.It's not an accusation against an individual person, not at all. (Should we understand that the engineers even undercut tsarism?) None of those who wrote these words could (as some circus horses can) find even the simplest square root. Authors repeat to us the absurd rumors popular in those days as unquestionable historical truth: in the factory cafeteria someone poisoned a woman worker with arsenic; Tactics of the class enemy in order to starve and swell our people (that's how the original text was written).They use a general and unnamed style of writing, and they bring up the ferocious rich peasant as a collective noun. He went to work in the factory and secretly threw a bolt into the machine tool.It's nothing, people are the insiders of the human heart, and it is obviously easier for them to imagine such a thing: someone escaped exile to the tundra by some miracle and hid in the city.When he was dying of starvation, by another and greater miracle he found work in a factory.At this juncture, instead of earning money to support his family, Hukou secretly threw a bolt into the machine tool! On the other hand, for the leaders of the canal project, for their employers, the authors cannot and will not restrain their praise.Even though it is the thirties, they still stubbornly call these people "Cheka", so that we have to use this term too.They admired not only their intellect, their will, their organization, but they themselves, in the highest human sense, as some marvelous beings.An episode about Yakov Rappoport is representative.This person was originally a student of Delpt University, but he was evacuated to Voronezh before graduating. In his new hometown, he became the deputy chairman of the Provincial Cheka, and later the deputy director of the Baibo Canal Engineering Bureau.The authors describe how once he was touring a construction site, dissatisfied with the way workers were pushing their carts, he posed a devastating question to the engineer: What is the cosine of forty-five degrees, do you remember?Overwhelmed by Rappoporte's erudition, the engineer, ashamed, immediately corrected his destructive command, and the work of pushing the cart was immediately raised to a high technical level.With jokes like these, the authors not only add artistic flavor to their narratives, but lift us up to scientific heights as well! The higher the rank of the employer, the more reverence the writers write with.Matvey Berman's words of praise for the Gula pattern are like the Yangtze River.Ebullient tributes to Lazar Keegan also poured forth.This man turned out to be an anarchist who had defected to the victorious Bolsheviks in 1918 and had proved his loyalty successively as chief of the special division of the Ninth Army and deputy commander of the troops of the State Political Security Headquarters.He was one of the organizers of the Gulag and is now the director of the Baibo Canal Engineering Bureau.Comrade Chong Gan said when talking about "people's commissars like steel". "Comrade Yagoda is our general leader, our daily and hourly leader." For this statement, the authors can only express their approval. (The most unlucky thing about this book is this sentence! Even the one that survived in our hands, the passage praising Henrich Yagoda, together with his portrait, was torn out .It took us a long time to find this portrait of him.) In the pamphlets printed in the camps, the tone permeated even more.Here is an example: "Distinguished guests - Comrades Kaganovich, Yagoda and Berman (their portraits hang in every shed) arrived at the lock No. 3. People worked more happily They smiled on it—a smile passed on to the hundreds of people who labored in the pit.” It is also in the song composed by the official family: Yagoda personally led and educated us, His eyes were sharp and his wrists strong. The all-encompassing love of the camp way of life led the authors to sing the hymn: "Wherever fate throws us in the Soviet Union, even in the most remote wilds and remote places - in any part of the OGPU The imprint of order...accuracy and self-consciousness can be seen in an organization." But what organization is there in the backcountry of Russia?Only labor camps.The labor camps as beacons of progress - that's the level of the historical material we have. The editor-in-chief himself also spoke.Gorky delivered a speech at the last representative meeting of the builders of the Baibo Canal (by this time they had transferred to the Moscow-Volga Canal project) held in Dmitrov on August 25, 1933: "From the beginning Since 1928, I have followed the work of the State Political Security Bureau to re-educate people." (This means that before Solovitz, before the boy was shot, he had just returned to the Soviet Union from abroad, and he had watched I’m dying.) Then, holding back his tears, he hissed to the Cheka personnel present: “You little devils with great powers, you don’t even know what you have done…” The authors note here: the Cheka personnel only smiled at this time. (They know what they have done...) In this book, Gorky also pointed out the high level of humility of the Cheka personnel. (They don't like to be public, which is indeed a touching trait.) The collective authors did not simply keep quiet about the deaths during the construction of the Baibo Canal, that is, did not follow the cowardly rule of telling only half the truth, but wrote bluntly: No one died during the construction! (About their calculations are like this: there were 100,000 people when the canal was started, and there were still 100,000 people when it was completed. This means that they are all alive. They just forgot the batches that were swallowed up by the project during two severe winters. Newly solved prisoner, but this is already a cosine value problem that should be solved by dishonest engineers and technicians.) The authors see nothing more exciting than camp labor.They regard forced labor as the highest form of conscious creative activity in full swing.See, this is the rationale for re-education: "Criminals are products of the ugly environment of the past, while our country is beautiful, strong, and generous, and we should make it even more beautiful." According to them In my opinion, these men who were drawn to build the canal would never have found their way in life if their employers had not sent them to communicate the White Sea and the Baltic Sea.Because you need to know: "Processing human raw materials is infinitely more difficult than processing wood."--What kind of language!What depth!Whose talk is this?This is what Gorky said when he refuted the "gorgeous rhetoric of humanitarianism" in this book.And Zoshchenko wrote after thinking: "Accepting reform - this means not simply wanting to serve the sentence and be released (this kind of suspicious phenomenon has always happened? - Author's Note), but to Really get a mind-shifting and builder's sense of self." Oh, what an anthropologist!Have you ever pushed a wheelbarrow on a canal?And eating a ration ration cart... This venerable book, which brought glory to Soviet literature, will serve as a basis for our discussion of the canal. Why did you choose the Baibo Canal as the first major project in the archipelago?Did calculated economic or military necessity compel Stalin to do so?When we see the situation after completion, we can answer with confidence: no.Was it the lofty spirit of wanting to compete with Peter I, who had hauled his fleet along this route, and Tsar Paul, who first proposed the construction of the canal, made him suddenly feverish?But wise leaders may not know these things.What Stalin needed was a large convict-built project anywhere that would swallow up a lot of labor and a lot of lives (supplied as a result of the extermination of the kulaks) with the reliability of a gas murder chamber , but cheaper than that, and at the same time leave behind a pyramidal grand monument to his dynasty.In his favorite slavery East—from which Stalin had learned almost everything throughout his life—people had a penchant for building the "Grand Canal."我几乎看见了，我们的君主满怀深情地查看着集中了大部分劳改营的欧俄北方的地图，一面用烟斗柄在这地区的中心地带划出了 一道从一个海洋通向另一个海洋的线条。 这个工程项目，必须宣布为紧急的。因为在那些年代在我国凡是不紧急的事情一件也做不成。如果它是不紧急的，那么谁也不会相信它的生命攸关的重要性-一连手推车翻了被压在下面慢慢死去的犯人也必须相信这个重要性。如果它是"不紧急的"，那也就没法让犯人死掉，没法为新社会清除地基。 "运河必须又快又省地建成！--这是斯大林同志的指示！"（在那时候生活过的人记得斯大林同志的指示意味着什么）。二十个月！--这就是伟大领袖给自己的罪犯们规定的建成运河和完成改造的两大任务的期限：从一九三一年九月到一九三三年四月。连两个整年都不能给，他迫不及待。二百二十六公里。多石土壤。地面乱石堆积。沼泽。"波维涅茨台阶"的七座船闸，面向白海的倾斜面上的十二座船闸。同时，"这可不是给予了足够的期限和批给了外汇的第聂伯工程。修建白波运河的任务是交给国家政治保卫总局的，一分钱的外汇也没有批！" 现在我们越来越看清了意图：原来斯大林和国家太需要这条运河了，所以一分钱的外汇也不给。让十万犯人同时给你们干活，还有什么比这更贵重的投资？限你们在二十个月之内把运河给我交出来，一天也不许拖延！ 在这种情况下，就不得不对那些工程师一暗害分子们发发脾气了。工程师说：构筑物要做混凝土的。契卡人员回答：没那闲工夫。工程师说：需要大量钢材。契卡人员：用木料代替。工程师：需要拖拉机、起重机、建筑机械！契卡人员：都不会有。一分钱外汇都没有：一切用人力！ 该书把这称做"对技术任务的敢想敢干的契卡式的提法"。换句话说，就是拉波波尔特的"余弦"……（附带说一句：在《白海波罗的海运河修建史》一书的不同版本里，"余弦"的值是互不相同的。） 我们这样着急，以至为了这个北方的项目从塔什干调来中亚的水利工程技术人员和灌溉技术专家（恰好这时候及时地抓进来了一大批）。使用这些人在莫斯科的富尔卡索夫胡同（大卢宾卡后面）建立了一个特别（又是特别，多么心爱的字眼！）设计室。（不过契卡人员伊万琴科向茹林工程师问道："已经有了个伏尔加-顿运河设计方案，你们干嘛还要设计？就照它修吧。"） 我们这样着急，以至在实地勘测以前就开始设计！同时另派一些勘测队赶赴卡累利阿。设计人员一概不许走出设计室的大院，更不用说去卡累利阿（警惕性）。于是往返电报满天飞：那里标高多少？那里是什么土质？ 我们这样着急，以至当一列列运犯人的火车开到未来运河的沿线时，那里既没有工棚，也没有供应；既没有工具，也没有明确的计划。他们该做些什么？没有工棚，却有北方的初秋。没有工具，但已经是二十个月中的第一个月严 我们这样着急，以至终于来到施工现场的工程师们没有绘图纸、直尺、图钉（！）。办公的工棚里连电灯也没有。他们在油灯下工作，这很像国内战争！--我们的作者们陶醉了。 他们油腔滑调地告诉我们：女人们穿着丝绸的连衣裙来了，可是在这里每人领到的是一辆手推车！还有："在通古达有多少旧友重逢啊？过去的大学生，世界语学者，白军中的战友！"其实白军中的战友们早在索洛维茨就已经重逢了。而我们倒要感谢作者们向我们提供了关于世界语学者和大学生也领到了白波运河工程的手推车的情报。作者们乐呵呵地告诉我们：从克拉斯诺沃次克劳改营、斯大林纳巴德、撒马尔汗运来了穿着布哈拉袍子、缠着穆斯林头巾的土库曼人和塔吉克人，而这里却是卡累利阿的严寒！这可是巴斯马赤们没有预料到的！这里的劳动定额是每天凿碎两立方花岗岩，并且用手推车运到一百米以外！大雪纷飞，把一切盖在下面。手推车从跳板上撒进雪坑里。 但还是让作者们自己说吧：手推车在湿滑的木板上东歪西倒，底朝天地翻下去，"推这样的手车的人活像一匹套在辕里的马，"（第-一二---一三）不要说花岗石，就是冻土，"装满这样一手车，也需要一个小时的时间"。再看一个比较广阔的画面："在覆盖着积雪的挖得奇形怪状的凹地里，人们川流不息地来往，在石头上磕磕绊绊。两三个人弯下腰，一起抱住一块巨大的圆石，想抬起来。圆石纹丝不动。他们喊来第四个、第五个……"但是这时我们这个光荣时代的技术前来帮他们的忙了："他们用绳网把圆石从开挖的河床里拉出来。"绳网是用一根缆绳拽着的，而缆绳是靠一架"马拉的绞盘牵引的"！另一种办法是用木制的桔槔把石块吊起来。此外，还有这样一些白波运河工地上的最初的机械。是五个还是十五个世纪以前的？ 这些人是你们说的那些暗害分子吗？不，这些人才是真正天才的工程师！人家把他们从二十世纪硬摔进穴居时代，可是，你瞧，他们仍能想出解决问题的办法。 白波运河工程的基本运输工具是什么？书中告诉我们，是一种运土的平板大车。可是另外还有一种白波运河型的福特汽车！它是这么个东西：厚重的木制大平台装在四个木头滚子上，用两匹马拉，专门运石头，每一辆手车由两个人负责，在上坡的地方由一个"钩子工"搭力拉上去。如果既没有锯子，也没有斧子。怎样才能把树放倒？我们的灵活的头脑能找到答案：用绳子系在树上，由几队人轮流朝不同方向拉，把树根晃松！我们的灵活的头脑什么问题也能解决--这是因为什么？这是因为运河是遵照斯大林同志的倡议和指示修建的！报上这样写，广播里天天这样说。 请想象一下这场大会战的画面吧。"穿着长下摆的浅灰色军大衣或皮外套"的契卡人员们亲临战场，他们一共三十七名，带领着十万犯人。无人不爱他们，依靠这股爱的力量移动着卡累利阿的大圆石。你瞧他们在这里站住了。弗连克尔同志手指前方，菲林同志咬着嘴唇，乌斯宾斯基同志（弑父者？索洛维茨的刽子手？）没有讲话。于是成千人在严寒的今夜或冰天雪地的本月内的命运就决定了下来。 这项建设工程之所以伟大，就在于它的完成没有使用现代技术和设备，而且整个说来没有得到全国的物资供应。"这不是一天天烂下去的欧美资本主义的速度。这是社会主义的速度！"---作者们无比自豪地说。（到了六十年代我们将会知道这叫作大跃进。）全书歌颂的正是技术的落后和手工业的土办法。没有起重机？自己动手做土"德利克"（动臂起动机）。机身是木制的，只有磨擦部件是金属的，也是由自己铸造。作者们欢呼："运河上有我们自己的工业！"连手车的轮子也是他们用自己的土化铁炉浇铸的！ 国家对这条运河的需要是那么紧急，而且是那么匆忙，以至连修这条运河用的手车轮子都找不来。大约列宁格勒的工厂承担不起这项订货。 不，把这项二十世纪最野蛮的工程，这条"用手车和丁字镐"修成的大陆运河比做埃及的金字塔是不公道的，这太不公道了。要知道，埃及的金字塔是用当时的现代化技术建成的！ !而我们使用的却是四十个世纪以前的技术！ 这就是我国的"窒息汽车""的构造。我们没有供毒气室使用的毒气。 请你试试看在这样的条件下当工程师！所有的堤坝都是土筑的，所有的泄水闸都是木制的。主坝到处渗漏。怎样夯实？--用马拉着滚子在坝顶上来回压！（斯大林和国家只有对两样东西不吝惜--犯人和马，因为马是富农家的牲口，也是命该死绝的。）要消灭土木结合处的渗漏也是很难办到的。要求用木料代替钢材！于是工程师马斯洛夫发明了一种菱形木闸门。没有混凝土浇筑闸壁！用什么加固？人们回忆起俄罗斯古代的"木笼"--用圆木拼合的大木槽，高达十五米，内部填土。请使用穴居人时代的技术，但是要按二十世纪的要求承担责任：如果哪里漏水，"要你的脑袋！" 钢铁般的人民委员雅戈达给总工程师赫鲁斯塔廖夫的指示信里写道："根据现有的报告（即眼线们和科甘-弗连克尔?菲林打来的报告），你在工作中没有显出也没有感到要有必要的毅力和热心。我命令你立即回答，你是否准备立即（瞧瞧这语言！）……认真把工作抓起来……并且迫使从事怠工和捣乱的那一部分（哪一部分？谁？）工程师老老实实地工作……"总工程师该怎样回答呢？他还想活呐……"我承认自己的有罪的软弱性……我悔恨自己的松懈……" 同时我们耳边不断听到哇哩哇啦声："运河是遵照斯大林同志的倡议和指示修建的！""工棚里面，河道工地上，小河旁边，卡累利阿的茅舍里，卡车顶上，都装着广播喇叭，白天黑夜都不睡眠的广播喇叭（请你们设想一下！）。这些数不完的乌黑的大口，这些没有眼睛的黑色面具（形象！）不知疲劳地大声报告着：关于这条运河工程，全国的契卡人员是怎么想的，党是怎么说的。所以你们也该这样想！你们也该这样想！我们叫自然低了头--我们就能得自由！"社会主义竞赛和突击运动万岁！作业班之间的竞赛！大队（二百五十人-一三百人）之间的竞赛！劳动集体之间的竞赛！闸门之间的竞赛！最后，警卫人员也和犯人们展开了竞赛！ ? 当然，主要的依靠，还是放在社会亲近分子身上换句话说，就是放在小偷身上。（这两个概念在运河上已经合二而一了。）深受感动的高尔基站在讲坛上向这些人大声疾呼："要知道，任何一个资本家偷的东西，比你们全体加到一起都多！"贼骨头们受宠若惊，欢呼雀跃。"大颗的泪珠滚出了以前的扒手们的眼眶"。当局指望着把"犯法分子的浪漫主义"利用到建设上来。小偷们怎能不感到万分荣幸？一个小偷从大会主席台上对到会人说："我们连着两天没有领到一点吃的，但是这对我们并没有什么可怕（因为他们永远能抢别人的）。对于我们最可贵的，是人们用对人的态度和我们说话（工程师们可不能夸这个口）。我们河道＿L的岩石，硬得连钢针都打折了。这没什么，能克服。"（用什么克服？是谁在克服？） 这就是阶级论？依靠自己人，反对异己分子，这是劳改营的根本原则。书里没写白波运河上的作业班长们的伙食如何；但是别列兹尼基的一个目击者说，有作业班长（全是盗窃犯）的单独伙房和口粮定量，比当兵的吃的还好。这是为了保证他们的拳头有劲，并且让他们知道攥紧拳头该干什么…… 在第二劳改点经常发生偷窃、抢饭碗、抢菜汤票的事，但盗窃犯并不因此而被开除出突击队：这种事无损于他们的社会面貌和生产干劲。他们送到工地的是冷饭。他们偷走烘干室的衣物。没有什么，我们能克服！波维涅茨是一处惩戒工地。整个是一塌糊涂，一团糟。面包不在波维涅茨烤，而是从克姆市运来。在希日尼亚工段，粮食定量不照发，工棚里木生火，人人长虱子．纷纷病倒--这没有什么，我们能克服！运河是遵照……的倡议……建设的！到处都有文教科。（流氓一进营就成了教育员。）制造了一种经常的战斗警报的气氛！忽然宣布了要搞一个突击夜战--为了打击官僚主义！教育员们恰好在下午收工的时候钻进办公室里去闲逛，就算是参加了突击。忽然，通古达工段出现了缺口（不是漏了水，是完成计划方面的缺口）！组织突击！决定把工作定额提高一倍！一点不含糊！忽然，某个作业班冷丁地完成了日计划的百分之八百五十二！天晓得是怎么回事，于是就宣布了一个全面的超产日！打击拖后腿分子！请看正在给某个作业班发奖励馅饼。面孔怎么这样憔悴？这是盼望已久的时刻，可是显不出一点快乐…… 似乎一切都在顺利进行。一九三二年夏天，我们的衣食父母雅戈达巡视了全线，表示满意。但是十二月发来了他的电报：定额均未完成。必须制止成千人无所事事的现象！（这一点你是相信的，这一点你是看见了的。）劳动集体打着褪了色的旗子无精打采地去上工。上头发现了，修建运河应挖掘的全部土方量，按照进度报告，已经完成了好几倍，而运河还是没有竣工。应付差事的苦力们把冰块填进木笼里代替土和石头。春天一开化，水就冲过来了。给教育员们提出了新口号："弄虚作假是最危险的反革命武器。"（最爱弄虚作假的是盗窃犯；用冰块填木笼准是他们的花招！）还有一个口号："弄虚作假者是阶级敌人！"于是给小偷们任务：到处揭发弄虚作假，检查反革命分子作业班交的活！（此乃是他们把反革命分子作业班完成的任务算在自己帐上的最好机会。）"弄虚作假就是企图破坏国家政治保卫局的整个劳改政策"--这就是它的可怕的实质！"弄虚作假就是窃取社会主义财产！"一九三三年二月，他们把一批提前释放了的工程师重新抓起来，因为发现了弄虚作假。 明明是热火朝天，干劲十足，哪里又来的这种弄虚作假？犯人们为什么想起要干这种事？……显然他们是一心想着复辞资本主义。这里面一定有国外白俄分子的黑手。 一九三三年初下达了雅戈达的新命令：各管理处一律改称战区指挥部！百分户五十的机关人员投入施工劳动（铁锹够用吗？……）！实行三班制（夜间可差不多跟北极一样）！吃饭直接在工地上（吃的是冷饭）！发现弄虚作假--送法庭审判！ 一月间开始了分水岭大会战！各大队带着伙房和家什全集中到了一个工段！帐篷不够，睡在雪地里--没有什么，我们能克服！运河是遵照……的倡议……修建的…… 从莫斯科来了个一号命令："宣布直到竣工为止的全面突击"每天下班以后，把女打字员、女办事员、洗衣女工一律轰到工地上去劳动。 二月，整个白海运河劳改营范围内禁止接见亲属。不知道是因为斑疹伤寒的威胁，还是为了对犯人施加压力。 四月，四十八小时的连续突击--乌啦！了不起啊！ ! --三万人不睡觉！ 一九三三年五月一日前夕，人民委员雅戈达向敬爱的导师报告：运河按期完工了。 一九三三年七月，斯大林、伏罗希洛夫和基洛夫乘船巡视运河，进行了一次愉快的旅行。有一张照片，他们坐在甲板上的藤椅里，"吸着烟，谈笑风生"。（基洛夫的命运当时已经注定了，不过他还不知道。） 八月间，一百二十名作家做了运河之游。 该地区没有为运河服务和操作的人员，他们把扫地出门的富农运到那里（"特别移民"），别尔曼亲自选定了他们的定居点。 而大部分"运河军战士"们从这里开拔，前去修建下一条运河--伏尔加莫斯科运河。 让我们暂且抛开这一部嘴尖皮厚的集体大作吧。 不管索洛维汉看起来多么阴森，可是从索洛维茨押到白波运河工地来继续服刑（也许是送终）的犯人们到这里来以后才真地感到以前不过是闹着玩，只是到这里以后才发现了真正的，也就是我们大家后来都逐渐熟悉了的劳改营是什么模样。与说教宣传交织着的一刻不停的骂娘声和野蛮的吵闹声代替了索洛维茨的寂静。连白波运河劳改营管理处所在地麦德维日戈尔斯克的劳改点，每一架所谓"小车厢"（当时已经发明了这个东西）里不是睡四个人，而是睡八个：每块板上交错着躺两个。代替修道院的石砌建筑的是透风的！临时工棚，再不就是帐篷，再不就干脆睡在雪地上。连从惩戒工段别列兹尼基调来的人也都说这里实在够呛，尽管他们那里也是一天干十二小时。超产日。突击夜战。"献出全部--不要分毫"……由于现场的拥挤和混乱，爆破岩石时造成许多人残废和死亡。蹲在大圆石缝里往肚里灌冰凉的稀汤。干的是什么样的活儿，我们在前面已经读到了。关于伙食怎么样--请问一九三一至一九三三年能有什么样的伙食？（据安娜?斯克里普尼科娃说，在麦德维日戈尔斯克的自由雇员食堂里，也只供应放了几条刀鱼和几粒麦片的浑汤。）衣服--是自己家里穿来的一身，直到磨得稀烂。招呼只有一句，吆喝只有一句，口头语只有一句："快干！快干！快干！……" 据说开工后头一个冬天，一九三一与一九三二年之交，就死掉了十万人--等于运河工地上经常保持的人数。有什么理由不相信？倒不如说这是个缩小的数字：在类似的情况下，在战时的劳改营里，每天百分之一的死亡率是平平常常、众所周知的事。按这个比率，运河工地上的十万人在三个月内就可以死完。此外还有整整一个夏天呢，还有另外一个冬天呢。可以估计，少说也死了三十万。 一九三三年初，各劳改营同时关押的犯人总数可能还不超过一百万。一九三三年五月八日斯大林和莫洛托夫签署的秘密《指令》提供的数字是八十万。为了对这些数字不感到奇怪，必须考虑到这种因大批死亡而造成的人员更新，这种以新的活犯人替换死掉的犯人。 索洛维茨的老犯人员维特科夫斯基在白波运河工地上当施工员。他曾靠弄虚作假也就是用谎报完成数字的办法救了好多人的命，下面是他描绘（维持科夫斯基《半生》）的一幅黄昏时的景象： "每天收工后，工地上留下许多尸体。薄雪盖在他们脸上。有的蜷缩在翻倒的手车下面，手插在袖筒里，就这样冻僵了。有的是把头俯在膝盖之间冻坏的。那边有两个人是背靠着背冻在一起的。这都是一些农家子弟，是最理想的干活的好手。他们几万人一批地被遣送来运河工地，当局还千方百计地把他们一家拆散，不让他们和自己的爹同进一个劳改点。一上来就要他们在布满砾石和大圆石的地段上完成连夏天也完成不了的定额。没有人能指点他们，警告他们；他们还是按照在农村干活的样子使出全身的力气，很快就把身体累垮了。结果你看，两人搂在一起冻死了。夜间派雪橇来收尸，车夫把尸体扔上雪撬时，发出木头似的梆梆的声音。 "夏天，没有及时收敛的尸体只剩下骨头，它们和石碴一道进入混凝土搅拌机。它们就这样化为别洛莫尔斯克市附近的最后一道闸门的混凝土，永远保存在那里了。"