1950–1955

Formakov was rearrested in 1949 and sent to the Irkutsk region and to Omsk to serve a second ten-year term. Held in special labor camps (osobye lageria), he had much less opportunity to write to his family than in earlier periods. Much of the correspondence that survives from this second term was mailed to Formakov either by his children or by his wife, who, although she divorced Formakov during this period to escape political pressure at work, continued to correspond with him using a variety of aliases. Letters in this chapter detail the response of the Formakov family to a personal tragedy, the death of Formakov’s teenaged son by drowning, and the efforts of Formakov’s wife to make ends meet on a teacher’s salary.

1941–1944

After he was sent to a Siberian labor camp in 1941, Formakov lost contact with his family. They remained behind in Nazi-occupied Latvia, and he could not contact them by mail until Soviet forces recaptured Daugavpils and Riga in 1944. This chapter contains the letters that Formakov wrote to his family beginning in the summer of 1944 and also some poems, addressed to them, that he had composed in 1941-1943 and sent in early communications. The letters provide a detailed view of Formakov’s living conditions in Kraslag, a labor camp in Kansk in the Krasnoiarsk region. They offer information about the operations of Kraslag’s Cultural-Educational Sector, which put on film screenings, concerts, and theatrical productions in camp. They also describe a special cafeteria for inmates who exceeded production targets and Formakov’s efforts to secure adequate food for himself.

1946

The letters that Formakov sent home in 1946 describe his contributions to cultural work in camp and his return to indoor work assignments. In this year he worked in a needle-making workshop, where he had also been delegated in 1944-1945; he later went on to serve as a bread-cutter and a norm-setter. He also toured for a time with Kraslag’s Central Cultural Brigade, giving shows in other camp outposts and area collective farms. Such privileged assignments were hard to secure. They gave inmates better access to food and significantly increased their chances of survival. At various points in the correspondence, Formakov discusses his efforts to remain in favor with the camp authorities.

1945

Throughout 1945, Formakov wrote to his family regularly through the official, censored Gulag mail system and illicitly. Letters sent in this year detail Formakov’s efforts to smuggle mail out of the camp, his two-week stay at a “house of rest” that gave favored inmates a chance to rebuild their strength, and his transfer from a relatively privileged indoor work assignment to a general work detail outdoors. During this period, Formakov’s wife sent him regular parcels of newspapers, which he bartered for money and food. Formakov also writes about his efforts to celebrate personal and religious holidays in camp and about the holiday programs staged by the Cultural-Educational Sector of Kraslag. Formakov comments on war news periodically in the correspondence. A special letter sent on May 9, 1945, records Formakov’s reaction to the Nazi capitulation.

1947

Formakov’s letters from 1947 focus on his preparations for his release, the introduction of the zachet system of time-off for good work, and also his concerns about his wife’s health and his family’s economic situation. For much of this period Formakov was a “de-convoyed” inmate, authorized to move about outside the camp without a guard. This made it easier for him to mail illicit correspondence to his family. Letters also mention rumors preceding the 1947 currency reform, suggesting that even in distant labor camps knowledge of the coming devaluation of the ruble was widespread, despite the efforts of the authorities to keep plans secret.

Introduction

The introduction provides an overview of the history of the Soviet labor camp system, describes the way the Gulag postal and censorship systems operated, and offers extensive information about Formakov’s biography. It details Formakov’s career as a provincial writer and journalist and discusses the history of Dvinsk/Daugavpils, the city in which he lived and worked before his 1940 arrest and a center of Old Believer culture. It also places the story of Formakov’s arrest and imprisonment in the larger context of Latvian history, noting the purge that took place immediately after the Soviet invasion of Latvia in 1940, the horrors of the Nazi occupation, and the waves of arrests that occurred after the Soviet Union reoccupied the area in 1944. A final section considers Formakov’s relationship with Solzhenitsyn. Formakov served as one of the witnesses who provided testimony about the labor camp system for Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago.