For modern man, the word "concentration camp" is associated with Hitler's repressions. But, as documents show, in world practice, the first concentration camps appeared in the second half of the 19th century. For many people in the street, the mention of the fact of the creation of concentration camps in the early years of Soviet power evokes a feeling of surprise, although it was then that the foundations of the Soviet repressive machine were laid. Concentration camps were one of the ways to reeducate the unwanted. The idea of creating camps in the first years of Soviet power was proposed by V. I. Lenin, on August 9, 1918, in a telegram to the Penza Provincial Executive Committee, he wrote: “It is necessary to organize an increased security of selected reliable people, to carry out a merciless mass terror against the kulaks, priests and White Guards; the dubious to be locked up in a concentration camp outside the city”[8, p. 143]. On April 3, 1919, the collegium of the NKVD took the proposed F. E. Dzerzhinsky draft resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee "On concentration camps". In the course of finalizing the project, a new name was born: "forced labor camps". It imparted political neutrality to the concept of "concentration camp". On April 11, 1919, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee approved the draft resolution "On forced labor camps", and on May 12 adopted the "Instruction on forced labor camps". These documents, published in Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, on April 15 and May 17, respectively, laid the foundation for the legal regulation of the activities of concentration camps.
Brick factory in Penza. Photo of P. P. Pavlov. 1910s A concentration camp was located here after the revolution.
The initial organization and management of forced labor camps was entrusted to the provincial emergency commissions. It was recommended to set up camps taking into account local conditions "both within the city limits and in the estates, monasteries, estates, etc. located nearby." [6]. The task was to open camps in all provincial cities within the specified time frame, designed for at least 300 people each. The general management of all camps on the territory of the RSFSR was entrusted to the department of forced labor of the NKVD, the actual management of the forced labor camps was carried out by the Cheka.
It should be noted that the forced labor camp turned into a place where people began to end up who were somehow guilty before the Soviet government. The emergence of such a camp was a direct consequence of the policy of "war communism".
Forced labor camps were opened in all provincial cities of the RSFSR. The number of camps grew rapidly, by the end of 1919 there were 21 camps throughout the country, in the summer of 1920 - 122 [1, p. 167]. On the territory of the Volga region, camps began to be created in 1919. In the Simbirsk province, there were three camps (Simbirsky, Sengelevsky and Syzransky) [6, p. 13]. In Nizhegorodskaya there were two camps (Nizhegorodskiy and Sormovskiy) [10]. In the Penza, Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan and Tsaritsyn provinces there were one each. The infrastructure of the camps was similar to each other. So, in Penza, the camp was located on the Bogolyubovsky order, near the brick factory No. 2, the camp accommodated about 300 people [4, file 848, l.3]. The territory of the camp was fenced off with a three-meter wooden fence. Behind the fence there were three barracks, built according to the same type. Each barrack housed about 100 bunks. Adjacent to the camp territory was a kitchen, a firewood shed, a laundry room and two toilets [4, d.848, l.6]. According to the archives, in the Samara and Tsaritsyno camps there were blacksmiths, carpentry, carpentry, tin, shoemakers for prisoners [13, p.16].
It is rather difficult to speak about the number of prisoners, the number of those serving sentences constantly changed depending on the situation in a particular province. So, in the Nizhny Novgorod camp in February 1920, there were 1,043 men and 72 women prisoners. In the same year, 125 people escaped from the poorly organized guard of the camp [11]. In the Tsaritsyn camp in 1921 there were 491 prisoners, of whom 35 fled during the year [3, file 113, l.2]. In the Saratov camp in 1920, there were 546 prisoners [5, file 11, l.37]. The archival funds have preserved information about the number of those serving sentences in the Astrakhan forced labor camp for the period from January 1 to September 15, 1921 [15, p.22]. The constant growth of prisoners deserves close attention. So, if in January there were a little more than one and a half thousand, then by May their number had reached more than 30 thousand. The increase in the number of prisoners is undoubtedly connected with the crisis of the policy of "war communism".
Documents 1921-1922 talk about the frequent unrest of peasants and labor conflicts at the enterprises of the region [8, p.657]. Interesting statistics on the ratio of employees in enterprises and organizations. The bulk of the prisoners were used in enterprises. In the 1921-22 financial year, many previously operating enterprises suspended their work.
The workers recruited as a result of forced labor mobilization, having no material incentives to work, worked poorly. A strike took place at the Nobel plant in May, and the organizers and participants were sentenced to imprisonment in a camp.
The contingent of the camps was motley: criminals, representatives of the propertied classes, employees, workers, prisoners of war and deserters met here. In the Saratov camp in 1920, immigrants were serving their sentences: from workers - 93, peasants - 79, office workers - 92, intelligentsia - 163, bourgeoisie - 119 [5, file 11, l.37].
It was possible to get to a forced camp for completely different offenses. For example, in the Saratov camp in 1921, most of the prisoners served time for counter-revolutionary crimes (35%) (among them - prisoners of war, organizers of strikes, participants in peasant unrest). In the second place were crimes by office (27%), they included: negligence in the duties performed, truancy, theft. In third place were crimes related to speculation (14%). It should be noted that in this group the bulk of the prisoners were represented by workers engaged in sacking. The rest of the offenses were few (less than 10%) [5, d.11. l.48].
According to the length of stay in the camp, prisoners can be divided into two categories:
Short-term (from 7 to 180 days). People fell into this category for absenteeism, brewing moonshine, and spreading false rumors. As a rule, these prisoners lived and ate at home, and did the work indicated by the camp commandant. So, the Tsaritsyn worker Smolyaryashkina Evdatiya Gavrilovna was convicted of stealing a dress for 20 days. The laborers Mashid Serltay Ogly and Ushpukt Archip Aristar were sentenced for speculation to 14 days [3, file 113, sheets 1-5]. In 1920, in Nizhny Novgorod, a worker of the state workshop No. 6 Sh. Kh. Acker. Acker's fault was nine days' absence from work and disorganized work. The board of the union of the garment industry at the general meeting decided Akker Sh. Kh. put in a forced labor camp as a saboteur for three weeks, in the following order two weeks to work and spend the night in the forced labor camp, and for the third week to work in a workshop and spend the night in the camp [10].
Long-term (6 months or more). For this period they were punished for the following offenses: robbery - 1, 5 years; drunkenness, spreading rumors defaming the Soviet regime - 3 years; speculation, murder, sale of state property and the issuance of illegal documents for five years. For a period until the end of the civil war, the participants in the White Bohemian uprising, participants in the execution of workers in 1905, as well as former gendarmes were convicted. Along with the aforementioned prisoners, peasants - participants in anti-Soviet protests, as well as workers participating in strikes - were held in the camps. Thus, the Tsaritsyn workers of Kuryashkin Sergei Ermolaevich and Krylov Alexei Mikhailovich were sentenced to six months in a camp for calling for a strike at the regional oil refinery [3, file 113, l.13]. Worker Anisimov Alexander Nikolaevich (27 years old) was accused of conspiracy with the cadets and, by decision of the Revolutionary Tribunal, was punished by serving in a camp for a period of five years.
The bulk of the prisoners were sentenced to short terms. So, out of 1115 prisoners of the Nizhny Novgorod camp in February 1920, 8 people were sentenced to a term of over 5 years, 416 men and 59 women were sentenced to 5 years, and 11 people were sentenced without specifying the term [11]. In 1920, in the Saratov camp, it was possible to identify the frequency of mentioning punishments [5, file 11, l.37]. In the Saratov forced labor camp, the bulk of them served sentences of up to one year for petty unlawful acts (39%). The second place was taken by shooting (28%). During this period, in Bolshevik law, execution was understood not only as the termination of a person's life, but also a long-term imprisonment, sometimes with an indefinite period (before the start of the world revolution, until the end of the civil war, etc.). Often the execution was replaced by heavy physical labor for a long time.
Concentration camps in the first years of the existence of Soviet power were thought of as correctional and educational institutions. Occupational therapy was considered the main means of education. The prisoners were used both at work in the camps and outside them. Soviet institutions interested in obtaining a labor force had to submit applications to a specially created subdivision of public works and duties under the management department. Most of the demands came from the railway and food organizations. The prisoners in the camp were divided into three categories: malicious, non-malicious, and reliable. Prisoners of the first category were sent to heavier work under reinforced escort. Reliable prisoners worked in Soviet institutions and at enterprises of the city without security, but in the evening they had to appear in a concentration camp, they worked in hospitals, in transport and factories. If prisoners were sent to any organizations located outside the city, they were granted the right to reside in a private apartment. At the same time, they signed up for weekly registration and that they would not be campaigning against the Soviet regime. It should be noted that workers who were not interested in labor by economic incentives worked with extremely low labor productivity. Thus, the Saratov authorities constantly complained about the work of the prisoners in the camp. In the slaughter and cold room, where the concentration camp inmates worked, sabotage, discrediting of the Soviet regime and large thefts were noted [5, file 11, l.33].
In addition to the main work in the camp, various subbotniks and Sundays were held, for example, unloading firewood, etc. For prisoners, an 8-hour working day was set for physical work, and a little more for clerical work. Later, the working day was reduced to 6 hours. The prisoners were not trusted with any responsible work. By 6 o'clock in the evening, the prisoners were obliged to arrive at the camp. Otherwise, they were declared fugitive and were subject to punishment upon capture.
A feature of this time was the payment of wages to prisoners after release.
The daily routine in the camp looked like this:
05.30. Rise. The prisoners drank tea.
06.30. The prisoners went to work.
15.00. They fed me lunch.
18.00. Dinner was served, after which the end was announced [4, file 848, l.5].
The food for the prisoners was meager, only by 1921 did it stabilize. The food supply was carried out through a single consumer society, and vegetable gardens were cultivated by the prisoners to improve nutrition. Another means of education was declared to be art, for which a library was organized in the camps, lectures were given, educational programs, accounting, foreign languages worked, and even their own theaters existed. But cultural activity did not give a real result [3, file 113, l.3].
Amnesties were held in the concentration camp twice a year: May Day and November. Applications for early release were accepted by the commandant of the camps from prisoners only after half of the sentence had been served, and from administratively convicted persons - after a third of the term had been served.
Thus, a Saratov worker sentenced to three years for agitation against the Soviet regime was amnestied, and the sentence was reduced to one year [3, file 113, l.7]. In Nizhny Novgorod, 310 people were released under the amnesty of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of 4/11/1920 [12].
The camp was served by freelance personnel who received rear rations. In addition to rations, camp employees received wages. A salary list for the employees of the Astrakhan concentration camp is preserved, which mentions the following composition: commandant, supply manager, clerk, assistant clerk, bookkeeper, clerk, courier, storekeeper, cook, assistant cook, tailor, carpenter, groom, shoemaker, two senior overseers and five junior overseers. So, in the winter of 1921, the commandant of the Astrakhan camp, Semyon Mironov, combining the posts of commandant and treasurer, received 7330 rubles. The clerk received 3,380 rubles for his work, and the cook 2,730 rubles. [2, d.23, l.13]. Due to the shortage of qualified civilian labor, prisoners (bookkeeper, cook, groom, etc.) were involved in non-administrative positions. Around 30 prisoners were guarded per shift.
A doctor was to come to the camp twice a week to examine the arrested. At the same time, in January 1921, it was noted in the Nizhny Novgorod camp that there were no medical personnel at the present time, a doctor, a paramedic and a nurse were in the hospital. In connection with the growing epidemic of typhus, it was decided to suspend the work of the camp. The camp, designed for 200 people, accommodates - 371. Patients with typhus - 56 people, returnable - 218, dysentery - 10, died - 21. The authorities were forced to quarantine the camp [12].
After the end of the Civil War and the proclamation of NEP, the camps were transferred to self-sufficiency. In the conditions of market relations, they began to decline as unnecessary. Camps all over the country began to close, so in August 1922 the remaining prisoners from Penza were transferred to the Morshansk concentration camp, their further fate, unfortunately, is unknown [14].
It is unlikely that researchers will ever be able to fully document the picture of the creation and functioning of forced labor camps in the first years of Soviet power. The revealed materials allow us to conclude that the emergence of camps is directly related to the system of formation of non-economic compulsion to labor, as well as to attempts to isolate recalcitrant members of society with the power. The number and composition of prisoners depended on military operations at the fronts, as well as on the economic and political situation in a particular province. The bulk of the prisoners in the camps ended up for labor desertion, participation in peasant unrest and strikes. With the introduction of the NEP and the end of the civil war, forced labor showed its ineffectiveness, which forced the authorities to abandon non-economic compulsion to labor. It should be noted that the Soviet government continued to introduce the already approved system of forced labor in a later period.
