A New Circle of Hell: The Postwar Gulag and the Rise of the Special Camps

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven A. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Social World ◽  
Political Institution ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Significant Life Experience ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Significant Life

This chapter takes the Gulag into the postwar era when authorities used the institution in an attempt to reassert social control. At the same time, arrivals from the newly annexed western territories and former Red Army soldiers dramatically altered the social world of the Gulag prisoner. New prisoner populations of war veterans, nationalist guerrillas, and peoples with significant life experience outside the Soviet Union provided a potentially combustible mix. The isolation and concentration of many of these prisoners in a small number of special camps raised even further the potential explosiveness of the population. The Gulag was a political institution, though, and it was only the death of the system's founder that would set off the explosions.

On the Radar

Outlaw Women ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 175-216
Author(s):  
Susan Dewey ◽  
Bonnie Zare ◽  
Catherine Connolly ◽  
Rhett Epler ◽  
Rosemary Bratton
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Psychological Stress ◽  
Social World ◽  
Life Changes ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
The Social ◽  
Significant Life ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Minor Children

This chapter explores the various forms of state, community, and interpersonal surveillance women experience during and after their incarceration to emphasize how women actively manage prison’s complex social world before transitioning to less intense, but still salient, forms of social scrutiny after their release. This chapter’s central argument is that rural life in remote areas offers women few opportunities to start over after their incarceration. Uniting the experiences of all five composite characters, this chapter discusses how women navigate gendered forms of rural social control and surveillance before, during, and after their time in prison. It documents the social organization of relationships among women in the prison, some of which present a chance for the women to critically examine or otherwise reconsider the competing narratives about their lives and choices. The chapter analyzes how the women’s caregiving obligations, particularly to their minor children, are both a source of motivation for making significant life changes and generators of financial and psychological stress prior to and after their incarceration. And it documents the parole and other stipulations the women confront following their release into the community and the special set of challenges facing women who have had multiple prison stays.

Soviet Technological Man Speaks: The Enemy is Everywhere

Worldview ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-8
Author(s):  
Victor C. Ferkiss
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Red Army ◽  
The Common ◽  
Ways Of Life

Since the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in the late summer of 1968 hopes for détente between East and West have ebbed. The ruthless suppression of internal political autonomy in that often overrun nation seems to have given the lie to all those who have asserted that under the common pressures of modern industrialized society the social systems of the United States and the Soviet Union were becoming more and more alike. The use of the naked force of the Red Army to destroy the Czech road to socialism has left in ruin not only immediate aspirations for a reduction of international tensions in Central Europe but the broader faith in a future peace based on a convergence of the democratic and the Communist ways of life.

The North Caucasus During Collectivisation

2018 ◽  
pp. 227-254
Author(s):  
Jeronim Perović
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
Mountain Communities ◽  
The North ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Ways Of Life

This chapter presents the first detailed account of the tragic impact of the collectivization and “de-kulakization” campaign in the North Caucasus based on Soviet archival sources. In 1929-30, under the slogan of “socialist transformation of the country,” the Soviet state reached out to the countryside, trying forcibly to change traditional economic ways of life and break up the existing social structures within the villages. In the eyes of the peasants, however, the state’s collectivization and “de-kulakization” campaign represented nothing less than a brutal assault, plunging the whole country into chaos and provoking large-scale rebellions. Resistance was especially fierce in the Muslim-dominated parts of the North Caucasus, where Soviet structures were weak and the social cohesion of mountain communities strong. Ultimately, the Red Army and the armed forces of the secret police crushed these rebellions ruthlessly. However, especially in Chechnia, Ingushetia, Karachai, and the mountainous parts of Dagestan, they were at least sufficiently violent for the Soviet leadership to decide to suspend their collectivization attempt altogether. In fact, it was not until mid-1930s, much later than in most other areas of the Soviet Union, that collectivization was formally completed.

RESTORATION OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF YALTA IN 1944

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (72) (4) ◽  
pp. 24-36
Author(s):  
N. D. Borshchik
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Southern Coast ◽  
Recreational Facilities ◽  
Soviet Leadership ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health Resorts ◽  
Post War ◽  
Short Time

The article considers little-studied stories in Russian historiography about the post-war state of Yalta — one of the most famous health resorts of the Soviet Union, the «pearl» of the southern coast of Crimea. Based on the analysis of mainly archival sources, the most important measures of the party and Soviet leadership bodies, the heads of garrisons immediately after the withdrawal of the fascist occupation regime were analyzed. It was established that the authorities paid priority attention not only to the destroyed economy and infrastructure, but also to the speedy introduction of all-Union and departmental sanatoriums and recreation houses, other recreational facilities. As a result of their coordinated actions in the region, food industry enterprises, collective farms and cooperative artels, objects of cultural heritage and the social and everyday sphere were put into operation in a short time.

The beginning of the great Patriotic war in the memoirs of military surveyors

2020 ◽  
Vol 955 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
A.V. Nikonov ◽  
T.V. Vashchalova ◽  
E.I. Dolgov ◽  
S.V. Sergeev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Border Zone ◽  
75Th Anniversary ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Red Army ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Military Units

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic war, the events of it continue to live in people’s memory, and its veterans are still the best examples of patriotism and true serving the Motherland. It seems relevant to take a look at the events of the first days of the war with the eyes of their witnesses. The authors describe the events of June and July 1941, presented in the memoirs of the militaries who served in the Red Army Military topographic service, and performed topographic works in the border zone in a significant separation from their military units and staffs. On the basis of the collected material the authors show the participation of topographic units in the fighting of the first days of the war, provide the data on the losses of the Red Army Military topographic service in the starting period of the war. The article is devoted to the memory of the officers and soldiers, who selflessly did their duty in the beginning of the Great Patriotic war.

Trust, confidence and social environment in post-communist societies

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Sapsford ◽  
Pamela Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Perceived Change

This paper looks at trust and confidence in people and institutions in eight of the countries that have undergone transformation since the breakup of the Soviet Union. While the questions are not identical to those asked in previous research in post-Soviet societies, our findings are comparable—greatest trust in relatives and friends, less in people in general and least in politicians and institutions of social control. Levels of trust are not high, and there are interesting differences between the countries, giving support to the view that trust and confidence are eroded by sudden and dramatic negatively perceived change.

Military Industry Evacuation at the Beginning of World War II and the NKVD

2020 ◽  
Vol 152 ◽  
pp. 142-151
Author(s):  
Uta G. Lagvilava ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Technical Equipment ◽  
World War ◽  
Military Industry ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Military Equipment ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Internal Affairs

A few months after the fascist Germany’s attack on the USSR, under harsh wartime conditions, at the end of 1941 military industry of the Soviet Union began to produce such a quantity of military equipment that subsequently was providing not only replenishment of losses, but also improvement of technical equipment of the Red Army forces . Successful production of military equipment during World War II became one of the main factors in the victory over fascism. One of the unlit pages in affairs of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) is displacement and evacuation of a huge number of enterprises and people to the east, beyond the Urals, which were occupied by German troops at the beginning of the war in the summer of 1941. All this was done according to the plans developed with direct participation of NKVD, which united before the beginning and during the war departments now called the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB, SVR, the Russian Guard, Ministry of Emergency Situations, FAPSI and several smaller ones. And all these NKVD structures during the war were headed by Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria.

The Challenges to Social Control in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, 1964-1982

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-173
Author(s):  
Fedor L. Sinitsyn
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Central State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Government ◽  
General Secretary

This article examines the development of social control in the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, who was General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1964 to 1982. Historians have largely neglected this question, especially with regard to its evolution and efficiency. Research is based on sources in the Russian State Archive of Modern History (RGANI), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) and the Moscow Central State Archive (TSGAM). During Brezhnevs rule, Soviet propaganda reached the peak of its development. However, despite the fact that authorities tried to improve it, the system was ritualistic, unconvincing, unwieldy, and favored quantity over quality. The same was true for political education, which did little more than inspire sullen passivity in its students. Although officials recognized these failings, their response was ineffective, and over time Soviet propaganda increasingly lost its potency. At the same time, there were new trends in the system of social control. Authorities tried to have a foot in both camps - to strengthen censorship, and at the same time to get feedback from the public. However, many were afraid to express any criticism openly. In turn, the government used data on peoples sentiments only to try to control their thoughts. As a result, it did not respond to matters that concerned the public. These problems only increased during the era of stagnation and contributed to the decline and subsequent collapse of the Soviet system.

scholarly journals Of Loss and Loot: Stalin-Era Culture, Foreign Aid, and Trophy Goods in the Soviet Union during the 1940s

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (02) ◽  
pp. 219-258
Author(s):  
Nathalie Moine
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
Foreign Objects ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Red Army

This article focuses on the influx and circulation of foreign objects in the Soviet Union during the 1940s in order to investigate the specific role of these objects during World War II. It reveals how the distribution of humanitarian aid intersected with both the (non)recognition of the genocide of Soviet Jews during the Nazi occupation, and with Stalinist social hierarchies. It explains why erasing the origins and precise circumstances through which these objects entered Soviet homes could in turn be used to hide the abuses that the Red Army perpetrated against their defeated enemies. Finally, it revises the image of a Soviet society that discovered luxury and Western modernity for the first time during the war by reconsidering the place and the trajectories of these objects in Stalinist material culture of the interwar period.

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