HIST 246 Lecture 15: The Gulag: Lecture 15; Mar. 6th
10 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Eugenia semyonovna ginzburg, journey into the whirlwind (part ii: 273-418) Picture: entrance to a vorkuta labour camp. Gulag means main administration of camps, and is much broader than the administration, refers to the whole vast network of camps, political camps, women camps, transit camps. Often presented as what soviet system is all about. Many historians see the deprivation of freedom as a defining aspect of soviet society, nowhere is the absence of freedom more striking than in the camps. The world outside the camp is the big zone, and the camps are the little zone, this is life, soviet life and is perhaps harsher but still parallel. The gulag served three main goals, first it was an integral element of creating a more purer socialist society. Seen as a way to cleanse to create a purer soviet society, and is prominent in this era. In specific moments it was a way of transforming and making socialists out of enemies.
