Chapter 32 Chapter 4 The Islands are Hardening

The bell of history clangs to tell the hour. In 1933, at the January Plenary Session of the Central Committee and the Central Supervisory Committee, the great leader who was calculating the exact number of bipeds in this country again and again announced that what Lenin promised so "The withering away of the state, so desired by the humanists, will be brought about not by the weakening of state power, but by its maximum strengthening, which is necessary for the complete extermination of the remnants of the dying class..." (The point is what I added - author's note).And since those remnants "appeal to the backward strata of the population and mobilize them against the Soviet power" when they are on the verge of their doom--and the hat of the backward stratum can be put on the head of anyone who does not belong to the dying class On the above, -- so "we must quickly eliminate such molecules without causing special casualties." (The benefactor did not specify how to "need not cause special casualties".)

This kind of unexpected genius judgment is not something that any brain can pretend to be.But with Vyshinsky sticking to his post of assistant, he immediately continued to play the following: "This also means that the labor reform institutions must be strengthened to the maximum extent." Enter socialism through the maximum reinforcement of the prison! --This is not a quip from a humorous magazine, it is the statement of the Prosecutor General of the USSR!So "hedgehog leather gloves" have been sewn when there is no "hedgehog". Does anyone remember the second five-year plan (no one in our country remembers anything! Memory is the weakest link of the Russians, especially the memory of bad things), many brilliant and splendid events of the second five-year plan Among the tasks (which have not yet been completed) there is another such task: "Eliminate the remnants of capitalism in people's consciousness." That is to say, this eradication work also needs to be completed in 1938.Please think about it for yourself, how can we eradicate them so quickly?

"At the moment of entering the Second Five-Year Plan, the places of deprivation of liberty in the USSR have not only lost none of their significance, but have become even more important." (Kogan's prediction that the labor camps would soon disappear was less than a year old. But he didn’t know about the January Plenum at that time!) "In the era of socialism, labor reform institutions function as tools of the dictatorship of the proletariat, as organs of repression, and as means of coercion and education (coercion is already in the first place) It must be increased and strengthened." (Otherwise, under socialism, what would the leading cadres of the NKVD do - drink the northwest wind?)

Who can blame our advanced theory for lagging behind practice?All of this is printed in black and white.It's just that we didn't know how to read it then.In the Great Purge of 1937, people have already spoken publicly and thought out a theoretical basis. But what actually happened in the archipelago in 1937?In concerted efforts with Vyshinsky, the archipelago was visibly "strengthened": its population rose substantially.But contrary to popular belief, the increase in numbers was not just due to arrests from outside in 1937: it was because "special immigrants" became prisoners.They are the leftovers of collectivization and extermination of kulaks, those who managed to survive in the taiga forest, on the tundra, those who were stripped clean, without cattle, without belongings, without tools people.Thanks to the physical fitness of the peasants, there are still millions of people who survived.The "special villages" in which the expelled people lived no longer exist,--but not by sending them back individually, or by setting them free, no, by putting the villages entirely in the ancient Rag.These villages were surrounded by barbed wire fences (if they didn't exist before) and turned into labor camps (this is how the whole Norilsk comprehensive labor camp was formed), and then some people were escorted to other labor camps, already as prisoners ( The children were sent to a children's home).This increase can be several million-another army of peasants!It was mainly this group of people who flooded the archipelago in 1937.Although there were not as many arrests in the countryside as in the cities that year (but they were obviously swept away), people who saw them remembered that, generally speaking, the peasantry among the islanders became very dense.

The archipelago has grown like a giant -- but could its governance be more brutal?It turned out to be possible. Those little flowers and plants were grabbed by a big furry hand all at once.labor collective?prohibit!What other tricks did you invent?Self-management in labor camps?In addition to the homework class, there is nothing good!What else is political talk?stop!Prisoners come here to work, they don't have to know anything.In Ukhta came the slogan "destroy the last cab"?Politically wrong!how?Want us to put them on spring beds?Just let them squeeze in the "cars", and double the number of people in each shed!discount?This should be canceled first!Do you want the court to do nothing?What should I do if I have already given a discount?Declared null and void (1937)!Are relatives allowed in some labor camps?All prohibited!Was there a prison where the body of a priest was handed over to outsiders so that they could have a funeral?You are crazy!You are providing an excuse for anti-Soviet demonstrations.The relevant personnel must be severely punished to follow suit!Make it clear to them that the bodies of the dead belong to the Gulag, and the graves are strictly confidential.What about vocational training courses for prisoners?Disband!Who wants them not to learn while they are out there?What... the instructions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee?Which All-Russian Central Executive Committee?Was it signed by Kalinin? ... We are not the State Political Security Service, we are the NKVD.When these people go out, let the Central Executive Committee teach them by themselves!Schedules and graphs?Tear it off the wall!Paint the walls white!Of course it doesn't matter if it's whitewashed.What kind of report is this?Salary to prisoners?Is it the circular issued by the General Administration of Prison Places on November 25, 1926, which pays 25% of the wages of workers of the corresponding level in state-owned industries?shut up!rip off!We are going to stop paying your own salaries!Prisoner, do you still need money?They should be grateful that they were not shot.The Labor Reform Code of 1933?Forget about it at all!Get this file out of all camp safes! "All measures in violation of the All-Soviet Labor Code ... must be approved by the Central Council of All-Soviet Trade Unions"?Do we have to go to the Central Council of All-Soviet Trade Unions?What do trade unions count?Blow on it and it's gone!Article 75--"The rations should be increased correspondingly when engaging in heavier labor"?Invert-turn-come!The rations should be reduced accordingly when you are engaged in lighter labor.Just do it.No money wasted.

Hundreds of reform-through-labor codes seem to have been swallowed by sharks. Not only has no one seen it in the next twenty-five years, even the name has left no trace. They shook the archipelago, and concluded that the machinery of the whole labor camp was impermissibly loose as early as Solovitz's time, especially when the canal was being built.So now it's time to get rid of the slack. First of all, security work is totally out of character.These were not some labor camps at all: there were sentries on the watchtowers only at night; there was a solitary unarmed watchman in the concierge, who would let you in and out for a short time if you spoke nicely; kerosene was allowed inside the camp lights; dozens of prisoners were escorted to work by only one soldier with a gun.Now, a row of electric lights (using politically reliable electricians and generators) was pulled up along the camp.Guard gunmen receive combat doctrine and military training.Police dogs, breeders, and trainers are included in the indispensable establishment, and there are separate regulations in this regard.The labor camp has finally acquired a fully modernized look as we know it now.

How many daily details have been tightened and sharpened in the management system of the labor camp, it is impossible to list them all here.It was found that there were also some small holes through which outsiders could spy on the archipelago.Immediately cut off these connections and blocked these small holes.There was still a "supervisory committee" or something left, which was also driven away. Nowhere else in this book does it show what it is.So let me make a long comment here for the curious. The hypocritical bourgeois society has come up with the idea that social control should be exercised over the conditions of the place of imprisonment and the process of reforming the prisoner.In Tsarist Russia, there was the "Prison Supervision Association", whose purpose was "to improve the physical and mental conditions of prisoners", and there were the "Prison Charity Committee" and the "Prisoner Protection Association".And in American prisons, the supervisory committee of the twenties and thirties, made up of representatives from all walks of life, already enjoyed wide-ranging powers: it even had the right to early release (not an application, but straightforward release, without going through the courts).But our dialectical jurists retort sharply: "Don't forget which classes their committees are made of, and the decisions they take are in their interests."

In our country it is very different.The first "temporary order" on July 23, 1918, concerning the establishment of the first concentration camps provided for the establishment of distribution committees under the penal departments of the provinces.Their task is to distribute all convicted prisoners according to the seven forms of deprivation of liberty established in the early days of the Russian Federation.This work (similar to acting as a court of law) was so important that the People's Commissar of Justice reported in 1920 that the activities of the distribution committees were called "the nerves of the work of punishment".The composition of these committees reflects a high degree of democracy, for example in 1922 it was a three-member panel: the Director of the Provincial Department of Internal Affairs, a member of the Provincial Court Bureau and the head of the provincial place of deprivation of liberty.Later, one person from the Provincial Workers and Peasants Supervisory Council and one from the Provincial Council of Trade Unions were added.But by 1929, the top was not happy with them: they applied early release and preferential treatment to class dissidents. "This is an act of right opportunism led by the NKVD."For this reason, the distribution committee was abolished in that year of great transformation, and was replaced by a supervisory committee. The chairman of each local committee was the presiding judge, and its members were the camp director, the chief prosecutor, and a representative from all walks of life— That is, guard workers, civilian police, district executive committee members and representatives of the Communist Youth League.How sharply our jurists retorted, don't forget which classes it is from ... oh, sorry, I quoted this before ... the task of the NKVD side to the Supervisory Committee is to deal with the reduction And the issue of early release; the task assigned by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (wrong, it should be called the Congress) is to supervise the completion of the production and financial plan.

Even such supervisory committees were disbanded at the beginning of the Second Five-Year Plan.Frankly, none of the prisoners ever sighed at the loss. Now that the head has been raised, let me say a few more words about class by the way.Shestakova, one of the authors of the "Collected Works" we often refer to, draws a strange conclusion based on the data of the twenties and thirties, that the class of prisoners in bourgeois prisons and our prisons The ingredients are very similar."She herself was surprised that both places held... working class people.Well, of course there was some kind of dialectical reason here, but she just didn't see it.Let us add one more point: 1937-1938 undermines this "strange similarity" a little.At that time, a large number of people in high positions in the country poured into the labor camp.But the ratio quickly equalized again: all those wartime and postwar "flows" of millions -- all belonged to the working class.

By the way, let’s talk about the "Franco" in the labor camp. Although it already shone with the brilliance of socialism, it was still renamed "Brigade" in 1937 to avoid confusion with "Franco".The Operations Section of the labor camp used to have to pay for general labor and production planning, but now it has an independent leadership position and can ignore any production work and any professional establishment.Granted, they didn't abolish the liberal arts section in the labor camps, but that was partly because it made it easier to collect small reports and pass eyeballs on the situation.

So an Iron Curtain was cast around the archipelago.Except for officers and non-commissioned officers of the NKVD, no one could enter or leave at will through the gatehouse of the labor camp.A well-coordinated order was established.It didn't take long for the prisoners themselves to think that this was what the camp should look like.This is what this part of the book will describe.Those red cloth strips are no longer hung, and the labor has been more than "reconstruction". The wolf tooth was only detected at this time!The bottomless pit of the archipelago opened its mouth wide! "Take a tin box as your shoes, and you have to go to work!" "Not enough sleepers--I'll make them up with you!" Siberia transported the "fifty-eight" stuffy tank train. At this time, a machine gun was mounted on the roof of every two wagons.When they need to get off the car along the way, they are driven into the foundation pit of the construction site and told to wait there for more secure guarding.This was before the first shots were fired in World War II, and the whole of Europe was still dancing the foxtrot.At that time, in the Mariinsk distribution station (the in-camp deportation station of the various labor camps in Mariinsk), the lice had no time to be strangled, but were swept down from the clothes with a small broom made of wormwood.A plague of typhoid fever broke out, and within a short period of time fifteen thousand dead bodies were thrown into mass graves.The corpse was curled up and naked.In order to save money, even the underpants they wear at home are cut from them. (We have already mentioned the typhoid fever in the Vladivostok transit station.) The only thing left in the Gulag from the achievements of the previous period was the encouragement of rogue thieves.All the "commanding heights" in the labor camp were more thoroughly handed over to the thieves.Instigate thieves to oppress the "Fifty-Eight Articles" more often, allowing them to rob, beat, and mutilate these people without hindrance.The thieves became figures like camp policemen and camp stormtroopers. (In many labor camps during the war years the guards were completely abolished, and the work of the guards was entrusted to the management office - "the bitches turned thieves". forbidden.) It is said that in February and March 1938 a secret order was issued throughout the NKVD: reduce the number of prisoners! (Of course not by letting them go.) I don't think it's impossible, it's a logical direction, because the conditions of agriculture, food and housing cannot keep up.The Gulag couldn't take it anymore. That's when people with Pelage disease (i.e. pellagra or niacin deficiency) slump and fester.It was at that time that the captains of the escort team began to test the hit rate of the machine gun test on the stumbling prisoners.It was at that time that every morning, the duty officer would drag a pile of dead bodies to the side of the gate post and pile them up deep. In Kolyma, the archipelago's cold and cruel "polar region", this turning point is particularly dramatic, and it really deserves the characteristics of the "polar region". According to the memories of Ivan Semyonovich Karpunich-Blavin (former commander of the 40th division and commander of the 12th army, died not long ago, leaving some unfinished and scattered notes) , in Kolyma stipulated the extremely harsh system of food, labor and punishment.The prisoners were so hungry that at the Zarosshi spring they ate a dead horse that had been left for more than a week in July, stinking and infested with flies and maggots.In the Uginne gold mine, prisoners ate half a barrel of lubricant used to lubricate wheelbarrows.In Melgar, people eat lichen like wild deer.After the mountain pass was blocked by heavy snow, only one hundred grams of bread was distributed to the remote gold mines every day, and the owed rations were never reissued.Masses of the dying who could not walk were hauled to work in sledges by others who were not so bloated.If you lag behind, you will be whipped and bitten by dogs.Working in the open air at minus forty-five degrees, no fires allowed for warmth (but thieves were allowed to do so).Karpunich also had the experience of using a two-meter-long steel drill to carry out "cold artificial drilling" at minus 50 degrees, and using a sled to transport the so-called "peat" (containing crushed stones and round stones) soil), each sled was drawn by four men (it was made of barbed logs, and the upper body was nailed from raw backboards).The fifth person is "thief reminder", followed behind.He is "responsible for the completion of the task" and specializes in beating the sledgers with "controls".For those who cannot complete the quota (what is "failure to complete the quota"? You must know that the amount of work completed under the "Fifty-eight Rules" is always stolen by the thieves and counted on their own account), the chief of the labor camp Zelkin adopts the following measures: In winter, strip them naked on the working surface, pour cold water on them, and then let them run back to the labor camp; in summer, strip them naked, tie their hands behind their backs to a tree stick, and The chained people were pulled out and placed under a cloud of mosquitoes. (The guard next to him stood inside the mosquito-proof cover.) Of course, simple methods such as beating with a gun butt and throwing him into an isolation room were also adopted. In Melgar (the "solitary labor site" affiliated to the Alligan labor camp), when Gavrik was a prisoner, for female prisoners who could not meet the quota, such punishment was milder: it was just that there was no fire in winter. a tent (but you can run out and run around it), an unprotected twig hut (Sliosberg) during the mowing season when the mosquitoes are swarming. Some will retort that there is nothing new and no development here; they will say that it is nothing more than a return to uncovered Solovets from the yelling, education-emphasizing canalworks.wait!Maybe this is Hegel's three-stage formula?Solovets-White Sea Canal-Kolyma?Pros and cons?Negation of negation, but with richer content? Take the "Death Carriage" as an example, it seems that there has never been one in Solovitz, right?According to Karpnich's recollections, this happened at the Marisny Spring (66 kilometers from the Srednekonda road).The chief tolerated the failure to meet the quota for a full ten days.On the tenth day, they were sent to the isolation hall to eat disciplinary rations, and then they were taken to work again.But if anyone still can't meet the quota under such circumstances, he should be invited to take a "carriage".This is a 5x3x1.8m wooden cage mounted on a tractor sled, made of rough wooden squares connected with silver.There was a small doorway with no windows, and it was empty, not even a shop.In the evening, the punished people who have fallen into a state of numbness and don't care about everything are taken out of the punishment isolation room, stuffed into a "carriage", hung with a big lock, and dragged by a tractor to three or four kilometers away from the labor camp. place, pulled into a canyon.Some people yelled inside, but the tractor got hooked and left it there all day and all night.After a day and night, unlock the lock and throw the corpse out.The blizzard would have buried them, of course.At the temporary dispatch point in summer, the isolation room is sometimes a pit dug in the frozen soil (the Yakuts safely store fresh fish and meat in such a pit).Logs are used to cover the roof. If the digging is not deep, people will not be able to straighten up inside, but can only stand bent over, feeling numb all over. (Of course it is impossible to sit down.) At the dispatch point of the Southern Administration, the punishment for non-fulfillment of the quota is even simpler: Lieutenant Grigoriev, the head of the solo point, goes to the mine with a pistol-here kills two or three of them every day. The Quota Man (Thomas Scovio's recollection). The external sign of the harshness of the Kolyma management system is that Galanin was appointed as the director of the Northeast Labor Camp Administration, and Pavlov replaced Berzin, the former commander of the Latvian Infantry Division, as the director of the Far North Construction Bureau. (By the way, this is entirely an unnecessary revolving door caused by Stalin's paranoia. Why can't the old Chekist Berzin serve the new demands as well as his cohorts? Does he have the slightest Are you soft?) At this moment, the last public holiday (of the "Fifty-Eight Articles") is canceled (there are three days in a month, but it is not given normally, and when the completion of the winter plan is not good, it is not given at all), and the summer work is extended back to 14 Hour.Minus forty-five degrees and fifty degrees are considered to be suitable for labor, and only when it is below minus fifty-five degrees is it allowed to "scrap" the working day.A few officers were happy, and even took the prisoners out to work at minus 60 degrees (many Kolymas didn't even remember having any thermometers in their independent labor camps).At the Gorny Gold Mine, those who refused to work were roped onto sledges (again a rip-off of Solovitz) and dragged to the working face.In Kolyma, such a rule has also been formed: the task of the escort team is not only to guard the prisoners, but also to be responsible for the completion of the plan by the prisoners, so they cannot doze off and must constantly urge them to work. There is also scurvy, which can wipe out a large number of people without the help of officials. But all this still appears to be too little, not institutionalized enough, and the number of prisoners has not been reduced enough.So began the "Garanin's shooting", that is, the direct massacre.Sometimes it was masked by the roar of the tractor motor, sometimes not even that.Many labor camps are famous for shootings and mass graves: Orotukan, Polyarny Springs, Svisstoplias, Annushka, etc., even Dukcha State Farm .But the Zolokisti Gold Mine is the most famous in this regard (the head of the labor camp is Petrov, the special agents for operations are Zelinkov and Anisimov, the head of the mine is Barkarov, the district internal affairs office The directors are Brov) and Shcherpankinka.In Zolokisti, some work teams were brought out of the working face in broad daylight and shot one by one immediately. (This does not replace shootings at night, which are still done.) Whenever Nikolay Andreevich Agranov, the commander of the Yugo labor camp, went there, he always liked to pick out A homework squad that had made some mistake, ordered it to be taken aside, and himself shot the terrified, huddled crowd with a pistol, all the while yelling with joy.The corpses were not buried, and when they began to rot in May, some old, weak, sick and disabled people who were still alive were called to bury them, for which they could get extra rations, even including alcohol.In Shcherpandinka, between thirty and fifty people were shot every day under the pergola near the isolation chamber.Afterwards the body was pulled behind a hill with a tractor sled.The tractor drivers, body movers and burial workers live in a separate shed.After Galanin was shot, they were all shot too.There was another technique: Blindfolded and led to a deep manhole, he was shot directly in the ear or the back of the head. (No one ever mentioned that there was any resistance.) Sherpandinka was later sealed off, the isolation room and everything conspicuous related to the shooting were completely destroyed, and even the manholes were filled. At that time, on those gold mines where the shooting was not carried out, some notices were often read or posted in public, with the name printed in large characters and the reason for the execution printed in small characters: "Conduct counter-revolutionary propaganda", " Insulting the escort team", "not fulfilling the quota". The shooting work sometimes stopped for a while, because the gold mining project was in sight, and they couldn't bring new prisoners from the frozen Okhotsk sea. (Kononenko waited for more than half a year to be shot in Shcherpandinka, but he survived.) In addition, the harshness is also manifested in the addition of new sentences.The scene of Gavrik of Melgar's handling of this matter is quite spectacular: in front are knights holding high torches (Night of the Arctic), and behind them are prisoners led by ropes.This is how they went to the District Internal Affairs Office (30 kilometers away) to handle the new case judgment procedures.Other reform-through-labour practices are purely routine: the registration department picks out from the card cabinets those whose original sentences have expired for an unreasonably short sentence, calls eighty to one hundred people at a time, and adds another ten years to each person. Even if it's over (P? B? Letts). I actually excluded Kolyma from the scope of this book.Kolyma is equal to a separate continent in the archipelago, which qualifies for its own mention.And Kolyma was also "lucky": there survived a Varlam Shalamov, who has written a lot; there survived Yevgenia Ginzburg, O? Leosberg, H? Surovtseva, H? Grankina and others, they also wrote memoirs.I only allow myself to quote here a few lines from B. Shalamov's description of "Garanin's shooting": "For months on end, day and night, countless execution orders were read at morning and evening roll call. Before and after each order was read, a band of common criminals played celebratory music in the freezing cold of fifty degrees below zero .Smoking gasoline torches tore through the night...Orders printed on cigarette paper were covered with frost.Sometimes the chief who read the order brushed the snowflakes off the page with his glove, so as to recognize and call out the next Executioner's name." This is how the "Islands" ended the Second Five-Year Plan and, naturally, entered socialism. The beginning of the war shocked the leaders of the labor camps: the development of the fighting situation threatened to lead to the complete destruction of the entire archipelago at the beginning, and might even lead to the responsibility of the employers before the employees.According to the impressions of the prisoners in different labor camps, it can be judged that this trend of events has caused two different manifestations among the masters: some of the wiser or less courageous relaxed the management system, and their tone of voice became almost Affable, especially in the lost weeks of war.As for improving food or living conditions, they are naturally powerless.The other part, which is more stubborn and more vicious, is on the contrary. Their treatment of "Article 58" has become harsher and more ferocious, as if they are determined to kill these people before they can get any kind of release.The start of war was not even announced to the prisoners in most of the camps - our insurmountable penchant for secrecy and lying!It was only on Monday that the prisoners heard about it from the ex-cons and the free men.Even the place where the loudspeaker was installed (Ustervim and many places in Kolyma) it was abandoned during the whole period of our defeat.In the aforementioned Ustvem labor camp, letters to the family were suddenly banned (but they could be received), and relatives thought they must have been shot there.In some labor camps (instinctively anticipating future policy trends!), the "58 Articles" began to be separated from ordinary criminals and placed in special heavily guarded isolation areas.Set up machine guns on the watchtowers, and even openly said in front of the detachment: "Here you are hostages! (The acrid smell of the Civil War! How unforgettable that word is, how easy it is to recall!) -- If Stalingrad falls, you will all be shot." With such a clear heart, the natives asked about the situation ahead: Is Stalingrad standing still or has it been knocked down?In Kolyma, Germans, Poles, and some prominent figures of the "Fifty-Eight" were also concentrated in such special districts.But they soon began (August 1941) to release the Poles slowly. From the first day of the war, everywhere in the archipelago (as soon as the war mobilization orders were read) the release of the "Fifty-eight" was stopped.There were even those who had been released half way back.On June 23, in Ukhta, a group of released persons had left the quarantine area and were waiting for the train. Suddenly, an escort team drove them back and said cursingly: "It is because of you that this battle was fought." Get up!" Karpnich received the release notice on the morning of June 23rd, but before he had time to go out of the porter's room, they tricked him back with the notice; "Take it out and have a look!" He took it out— - ended up staying in a labor camp for another five years.That's kind of -- "leave it until special instructions are received." (The war is over, but in many labor camps it is not even allowed to go to the registration office to ask when the release will be released. The reason is that there was a shortage of manpower in the archipelago for a period after the war, and even Moscow had already approved the release, while many local administrations issued their own releases. "Special Instructions" to prevent the outflow of labor. E? M? From the very beginning of the war (probably following the mobilization order mentioned above), the food rations in the labor camps were reduced.The food itself was getting worse every year: vegetables were replaced by fodder turnips, and arrow peas and bran instead of oatmeal. (Kolyma is supplied by the United States, where the opposite is the case, and white bread appears in some places.) But in important branches of production, the decline in production due to the infirmity of the prisoners has reached such a degree (decline 80 to 90 percent), so that they think it is more beneficial to restore the pre-war ration.Many production units in labor camps have received defense orders, and the managers of such small factories, who are good at running, sometimes find ways to provide more food to the prisoners from the non-staple food base.In some places wages are paid, but according to the market price during the war, this little money (30 rubles) can't buy a kilogram of potatoes a month. If you ask a wartime prisoner: what is his highest, ultimate, and totally unattainable goal?He will answer you: "If you eat a full meal of black bread, you will be willing to die." During the war, the number of dead people buried in labor camps was no less than that of the front lines, but they were not praised by poets.Komogor worked in the "weak labor squad" and did such light work throughout the winter of 1941-42; Pack thirty boxes every day. (Apparently a labor camp close to the city, hence the need for boxes.) The first few months of the war have passed, and the whole country has adapted to the pace of wartime life: Those who should fight go to the front, those who should stay behind soak in the rear, and those who should be officials lead there and leave after drinking. The face was washed clean.The same is true in labor camps.It turned out that it was all a false alarm, and everything was still stable.The clockwork that was wound up in 1937 will still be strong in the future.Those who used to curry favor with the prisoners in the beginning have now become vicious and capable of doing anything without borders.Now they saw that the form of camp life, once properly established, would be the same a hundred years from now. Seven epochs in camp history will argue with each other before you, which of them is the most tormenting?Now I ask you to listen carefully to the situation in the time of war.There is a saying that whoever served his sentence in the absence of war does not know what it was like to be in a labor camp. Take a look at the conditions of a labor camp in the Vyatka labor camp in the winter of 1941-42: there is only a little life in the engineering and technical personnel's work sheds and the machine shop, and the rest of the work sheds It was a frozen cemetery (and the task of the Vyatka labor camp was precisely to collect firewood for the Perm Railway). This is wartime labor camps: more labor and less food and less fuel and worse clothes and harsher laws and harsher punishments...but that's not all.Prisoners were already deprived of the right to protest externally, and war also deprived them of the internal.Any rogue with epaulettes hiding in the rear pointed and taught them: "Do you know how people are dying at the front? ... Do you know how people outside are working? The Leningrad people lead How much rations?..." The prisoners had no words to refute.Indeed, at the front, people lay dead in the snow.Indeed, outside, people were squeezed out to the last mile, and still close to Russia. (The labor front line of the free people is comparable to any labor camp. Mobilize some unmarried girls from the countryside to the so-called "labor front line", let them do logging work, seven hundred grams of bread a day, use dish water as Soup.) Indeed, the rations issued during the siege of Leningrad were less than the rations for the solitary cells of the labor camps.During the war, that cancerous tumor of the archipelago became (or passed off to be) what appeared to be an important and useful organ in the Russian body, which also seemed to be serving the war!Victory also depends on it!All this casts a false and justifiable radiance on the wires of the barbed wire, on the dictating Chief Citizen.And when you die as one of its rotten cells, you lose even the joy of cursing it before dying. 对于"五十八条"说来，战时劳改营最叫人难受的地方就是随时会给你缠上第二个刑期，这比悬在头上的任何斧子都更利害。行动特派员们因为担心被送到前线上去，就在他们安了家的边远地区，在各个采伐派遣点，接二连三地破获有世界资产阶级参与的阴谋、武装暴动和大批越狱的计划。像乌赫塔伯朝拉劳改营营长莫罗兹一类的古拉格头目特别鼓励自己劳改营内部的侦审活动。在乌赫塔伯朝拉劳改营里，"为唆使越狱"、"为怠工"的死刑及二十年徒刑的判决书多得整麻袋地往外倒。还有多少人，连审判也不需要，他们的命运取决于星辰的起落：西戈尔斯基"惹恼了斯大林--于是一夜之间在艾尔根捉了三十名波兰妇女，运到别处去枪毙了。 有许多犯人--这不是凭空想出来的，这是真事--从战争爆发的最初几天起就提出上前线的申请。他们尝过了最恶臭的劳改营的猪狗食，而现在却请求派遣他们上前线去保卫这个劳改营的制度，并且为了它情愿到惩戒连里去送死！（"如果我能活下来，我将回来服完我的刑期……"）今天正统分子们向我们保证说，当时申请上前线的是他们。也有他们（以及没有枪毙完的托洛茨基分子），但是并不太多：他们大部分被安插在劳改营的某些安静的场所（靠了劳改营的共产党员首长们的照顾），在那种地方他们可以思索、议论、回忆和等待。要知道，在惩戒连里是活不了三天以上的。这样的申请并不是基于思想意识，而是发自心灵。俄罗斯人的性格就是这样：宁愿死在干净的田野里，不愿死在霉烂的小屋里！松快一下；短时间内成为一个"和大家一样的人"，不低人一等的人。摆脱这里的永恒的走投无路的感觉、新刑期的纠缠、无声无息的灭亡。有的人想的还要简单，但是绝非可耻：死还是后头的事，可是眼下就给你发军装，让你吃饱喝足，上火车，可以从车厢里往窗外看，可以在车站上和姑娘们逗笑。而且这里面还包含着一种好心的宽恕：你们对我们这么坏，可是瞧瞧我们是怎样对待你们的！ 然而进行这种多余的对调--把一些人从劳改营运到前线，再把一些人从前线运进劳改营--对于国家没有任何经济的和组织的意义。每个人的生与死的圈子都是划定了的；一旦被划分到山羊群里，那就该做为山羊而死掉。有时候吸收刑期不长的普通犯上前线，不是放进惩戒连，而是编入普通的作战部队。有时候也吸收"五十八条"，但很不常见。一九四三年弗拉基米尔?谢尔盖耶维奇?戈尔舒诺夫从劳改营里被送到前线，可是到战争快结束的时候又带着附加的刑期回到了劳改营。他们都是有了记号的。部队里的行动特派员给他们缠上新刑斯比给新人容易得多。 但是劳改营当局对于这种爱国激情也不是完全不看在眼里。这些标语口号在伐木场上不很适用，但是你不妨听听："保证出煤超计划--为列宁格勒送光明！""用迫击炮弹支援近卫军战士！"--据目击者们说，这些话是扣人心弦的。阿尔谢尼?法尔马科夫，一个老成持重的人，讲过他们的劳改营当时是怎样地陶醉于支援前方的工作，他打算把这些情形描写出来。犯人们要求为命名为"治达人"的坦克纵队募捐，但未获准许，他们感到这是莫大的屈辱。 至于奖赏，那是众所周知的，战争结束不久就宣布了：对逃兵、流氓、扒手是大赦，对"五十八条"是送进特种营。 战争越接近尾声，对"五十八条"的待遇越残酷。还用到治达和科雷马等远地劳改营去找例子吗？就在莫斯科近郊的霍夫里诺，差不多是在市区之内，有一个隶属内务人民委员部总务局的破破烂烂的小厂子，它附设着一座严管劳改营。在这座营里当头的是马穆洛夫。此人有无限的权力，因为他的兄弟是贝利亚的秘书处长。马穆洛夫想要什么人就能从红色普列斯尼亚递解站要来什么人，爱在自己的小小的劳改营里规定什么制度就能规定什么制度。例如，犯人接见亲属（莫斯科近郊的劳改营一般都准许接见亲属），他让他们隔着两道铁丝网见面，和在监狱里一样。他这个劳改营里的宿舍，实行的也是监狱里的规则：有许多通宵不关的明亮的灯泡；对犯人睡觉的情况进行不间断的监视，不许人们在寒冷的夜晚把棉坎肩压在身上（把这样做的人叫醒）；他这个营里的禁闭室除了干净的水泥地以外一无所有，这也和正经的监狱里一样。但是，如果除了他规定的惩罚之外并在执行这个惩罚之前，他本人没有亲自动手把受罚的人打得脸青鼻肿的话，任何一种惩罚都不能给他带来快感。在他的劳改营里还实行着由看守人员（男性）对四百五十人的女犯工棚的深夜突击检查。他们粗野地吼叫着突然闯进工棚，命令："站在床边！"没有穿好衣服的妇女们赶快爬起来，看守员们以搜出缝衣针和情书所必需的一丝不苟的精神搜查着她们的身上和她们的床铺。发现谁有一件违禁品就要关禁闭。上夜班的时候，总机械师办公室主任什克林尼克在各个车间来回巡视。他像大猩猩似地弯着腰，只要发现谁打瞌睡，脑袋冲了个吃几，用手捂了捂眼睛--马上抄起钢坯、手钳、废铁朝他猛扔过去。 这就是霍夫里诺的劳改犯们以他们支援前线的工作（他们在整个战争期间一直生产迫击炮弹）争取来的管理制度。为转入军火生产做好工艺安排的是一名犯人工程师（可惜已经回忆不起他的姓名，但他当然是不会泯灭的）。他还建立了一个设计室。他是根据五十八条服刑的，属于马穆洛夫最讨厌的决不放弃自己的观点和信念的那一种人。对这个坏种虽然不得不暂且容忍一下，但是我们这里决没有不可代替的人！当生产已经走上轨道以后，就在一个大白天，当着科室人员的面（是故意当着他们的面！有意让他们知道，有意让他们去张扬！也正因为如此，我们现在才能讲得出来），马穆洛夫带着两个帮手闯进这个工程师的办公室，拽住他的胡须，撂倒在地上，用皮靴踢得鲜血直流，然后押送到布蒂尔卡去接受为他的政治言论而判处的新的刑期。 到这座可爱的小劳改营去，从列宁格勒车站"乘郊区电气列车只需走十五分钟。不是辽远的地方，却是悲惨的地方。 （新入狱的犯人被分到莫斯科近郊的劳改营，总是死赖在这里不想离开，如果他们有亲戚在莫斯科的话。即使没有亲戚也一样：总归觉得你不是掉进了那个有去无回的辽远的深渊。在这里你毕竟是站在文明世界的边缘。但这是自我欺骗。这里连伙食一般地也比其他地方坏些--因为他们算计到大多数犯人都能得到外面送进来的牢饭。这里连床单也不发。而主要的是永远弥漫在这些劳改营空气中的叫人心烦意乱的关于往远地遣送的"茅房小道消息"。生活好像站在锥子尖上那样岌岌可危，连一天也不能保险能在同一个地方过完。） 群岛的各个岛屿就在这样的模型中硬结着，但是不要以为它们在硬结的同时不再扩散出癌细胞。 一九三九年，芬兰战争爆发前，古拉格的母校索洛维茨由于距离西方太近，因而便通过北方海路转移到叶尼赛河口，在那里并入了正在建立中的话里尔斯克劳改营，这个营很快达到了七万五千人。索洛维茨这块肿瘤的恶性程度是这样严重，当它临死的时候还产生了最后一次转移，而且是怎样的转移啊！ "群岛"对杳无人迹的哈萨克斯坦荒原的征服属于战前年代。卡拉干达劳改营群的巢穴像章鱼一样朝四面伸展，把增生力极强的癌细胞远远地散布到水中含亚铜毒的哲兹卡兹甘，到莫因蒂，到巴尔哈什湖。哈萨克斯坦北部一带，劳改营网也在撒开。 在诺沃西比尔斯克省（马里因斯克劳改营群），在克拉斯诺雅尔斯克边疆区（坎斯克、克拉斯诺雅尔斯克劳改营群），在哈卡斯，在布里亚特一蒙古，在乌兹别克斯坦，甚至在戈尔那亚琐里亚，增生物都在渐渐地肿大。 被"群岛"所宠爱的俄罗斯北方（乌斯特维姆拉格，内罗勃拉格，乌索里拉格）以及乌拉尔（伊甫杰里拉格），癌细胞的增生一刻也没有停顿。 上面的名单仅是挂一漏万。当你看到北方的"乌索里拉格"这个字的时候，请不要忘记，在伊尔库茨克的乌索里耶地方也有一个劳改营。 简单地说，没有一个省，不管是切利亚宾斯克省还是古比雪夫省，没有繁殖出自己的劳改营群。 把日尔曼族人迁出伏尔加流域之后，便开始采用一种建立劳改营群的新方法：把若干整个的村庄原封不动地划进隔离区--这就变成了农业劳改地段（卡梅申市和恩格斯市之间的卡明斯克农业劳改营）。 我们为本章的许多遗漏之处恳请读者原谅。在"群岛"的整整一个时代的长河上，我们只架设了一座脆弱的小桥--这是因为更多的材料没有来到我们手上。而通过广播电台征求材料，我们又做不到。 纳夫塔利?弗连克尔这颗血红色的星宿这时又在"群岛"的天际划出了一个神秘的圆圈。 专整自己人的一九三七年也没有饶过他：当时他已经是贝阿拉格的长官、内务人民委员部的将军，再一次被关进了他已经领略过滋味的卢宾卡，作为对他的功劳的酬答。但是弗连克尔的渴望效忠之心并未厌倦，英明导师求访效忠者的心也没有厌倦。可耻的和接连失利的对芬战争开始了，斯大林发现了自己没有准备好，投到辽远的卡累利阿雪原上的军队没有供应线。于是他想起了很有办法的弗连克尔。亲自召见：要求他马上，在凛冽的严冬，不做任何准备，在一无计划二无仓库三无汽车路的条件下，在卡累利阿建成三条铁路--一条与前线平行，两条是后方运输线，并且必须在三个月之内建成，因为这样一个泱泱大国跟芬兰这么一只小哈巴狗磨烦这么长时间是很丢人的。这纯粹是童话中的情节：坏国王命令坏魔术师去做一件完全做不到和不可想象的事。社会主义的领袖问道："能做到吗？"兴高采烈的商人和外币投机者答道："能！" 但是这时他也提出了自己的条件： 1）使他完全脱离古拉格，建立一个新的犯人帝国，新的自治群岛古尔热代斯--铁道建设劳改营管理总局，任命他--弗连克尔为这个新群岛的主人； 2）他所选中的一切国内资源都应归他使用（这已经非白波运河可比了！）； 3）在大会战阶段，古尔热代斯还要退出有着麻烦的核算制的社会主义体系。弗连克尔的任何开支都不需要报帐。他不架设帐篷，也不建立劳改点。他那里没有任何口粮规定，不分"桌"，不分"灶"。（按不同待遇等级分"桌"和"灶"的一套办法是他首创的！天才的法则只有天才才能取消！）他把最好的食物、皮袄、毡靴成堆成难地卸在雪地里，每一个犯人想穿什么就穿什么，想吃多少就吃多少。只有马合烟和酒精掌握在他的助手们手里，只有这些东西才需要靠劳动表现去挣来。 伟大的战略家同意了。于是古尔热代斯成立了！群岛被劈成两半了吗？不，群岛只是更强大了，规模倍增了，它将更迅速地接管这个国家。 弗连克尔的卡累利阿铁路终于没有赶上使用：斯大林匆忙地以和局收兵了。但是古尔热代斯日益巩固和生长。它不断地接到新任务（已经有了正常的核算和手续）：与伊朗边境平行的铁路线，然后是由塞兹兰到斯大林格勒的沿伏尔加河铁路，然后是从萨勒哈尔德到伊卡尔卡的"死亡之路"，特别是贝阿干线：从泰谢特到布拉茨克以远。 进一步说：弗连克尔的思想还使古拉格本身的发展获得了更丰富的内容：按经济部门管理系统建立古拉格的必要性得到了承认。就跟人民委员会是由各人民委员部组成一样，古拉格也为自己的帝国建立了各部：木材劳改营管理总局，工业建设总局，矿山冶金工业劳改营管理总局。 这时候战争开始了。这些古拉格的各部全都疏散到了不同城市。古拉格本身撤到了乌发市，古尔热代斯到了维亚特卡。各个省城之间的联系已经不像以莫斯科为中心的辐射状的联系那样可靠，因而战时的整个上半期古拉格好像分解了：它已经不操纵整个群岛。群岛国的每一州的地界分别归入内迁到该地的各总局的管辖。于是坐镇在基洛夫市的弗连克尔便得到了管辖整个俄罗斯东北部的大权（因为那里除了群岛之外几乎一无所有）。然而如果谁把这个局面看成是罗马帝国的解体，那就错了--这个帝国在战争结束后将会聚合成一个更为强大的整体。 弗连克尔不忘旧时的友谊；他把布哈尔采夫--他革命前在马里乌波尔办的黄色报纸《一戈比》的编辑--叫来，让他在古尔热代斯里面担任了一个重要职位，而此人的共事者们或者早已被枪决或者早已流散到各地。 弗连克尔的杰出才能不仅表现在经商和组织工作方面。好几排数字他只需过一次目，就能用心算加出来。他喜欢夸口说，他能记住四万名犯人的面孔和他们每个人的姓、名、父名、条款和刑期（在他的劳改营里有这个规矩，当高级首长走过来的时候，犯人要报告这些事项）。他从来不要总工程师。他看到呈阅的铁路车站设计图，就急于在里面发现错误，一旦发现，他就会把这张图纸揉成一团，朝部下的脸上摔过去，并且对他说："你应当明白，你是一头驴，不是设计师！"他的话声带着难听的鼻音，语调一般是平静的。弗连克尔身材矮小，带着铁道将军的羊羔皮高筒帽，蓝项，红里子。在各个年代一直穿着军服式的弗列奇上装。这种装束表明他是国家领导干部同时又表明他不是知识分子。他像托洛茨基一样，永远住在列车里，经常巡视分散在各地的建设战场。从群岛上著的简陋环境里被召到他的车厢里来开会的人们见到维也纳式的椅子，软垫的家具，都深感惊讶，因而在他们的首长的申斥和命令面前更加不胜惶恐了。他本人可从来没有走进过任何一间工棚，没有闻过那里的恶臭，他过问和要求的只是工作。他特别喜欢半夜打电话给工地，借以维持关于他从来不睡觉的传说。（不过，在斯大林时代许多大官们也习惯于这么干。） 他此后再也没有被关过。他成了卡冈诺维奇的负责铁路基建工程的副手。五十年代以中将的军衔，在高寿、尊荣和安闲中死于莫斯科。 我的感觉是--他痛恨这个国家。