Camp uprisings in the Gulag: Why they were dangerous for the authorities and how they were suppressed

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The form of resistance of the GULAG prisoners changed not only depending on the camp, conditions of detention and the contingent of prisoners. The historical processes taking place in the country as a whole exerted their influence. Initially, since the inception of the GULAG as a system, the main form of resistance has been shoots. However, after the Great Patriotic War, riots among prisoners began to take place everywhere. Considering that people with combat experience were now behind bars, such uprisings were a real danger.

Ust-Usinsk uprising

This riot is considered to be the first armed riot among prisoners. It lasted ten days, starting at the end of January 1942. In total, 75 people were killed on both sides during the uprising.

Ust-Usa is a rural settlement located near the Usinsk oil field. Now it is a small settlement, but at that time almost 5 thousand people lived here, through this point there was a transfer to Vorkuta.

The uprising in this camp is also called Retyunin by the name of its organizer. He began planning a rebellion back in 1941, rumors about impending mass executions convicted of counter-revolutionary activities forced him to take such unpopular measures. According to another version, he was afraid to end up behind bars again, because it was planned to again close those who were serving sentences under certain articles to the camps. Mark Retyunin himself was an ambiguous person. A former prisoner, sentenced to 13 years for robbing a bank, after the end of his term, he remains to work in the camp, and then heads the camp point.

It was not difficult to organize an uprising in the camp. With the outbreak of World War II, the state of affairs in the camps became completely unbearable. The prisoners had to work even more in even more difficult conditions. The food has deteriorated markedly, as has the medical support. Most of the prisoners decided that it makes no difference how to die - from the bullet of the guards or from hunger in the camp dungeons.

Retyunin supported rumors that mass executions awaited the prisoners, allegedly he received confirmation on his radio. At that time, there were two hundred prisoners in "Lesoreid", half of them on political charges. The uprising was prepared by 15 people, they gathered at Retyunin's apartment and worked on a plan. They planned to initially release the prisoners, take away the weapons from the guards, block the actions of the local administration so that they would not call for reinforcements.

After that, some of the prisoners were to be transferred to the railway, the rest, remaining in the camp and holding power in it, issue an ultimatum - the release of all prisoners. Retyunin, in turn, conducted his underground training - he wrote off warm clothes and food products.

On the day of the riot itself, the head of the camp gave instructions that all the guards should go to the bathhouse, they say, it will work only until a certain hour and everyone needs to be in time. While the guards were taking water procedures, the main body of the conspirators freed the prisoners, distributed warm clothes, and offered to join the riot. More than 80 people agreed to join the conspirators, the rest simply fled.

The rioters came up with the name "Special Purpose Detachment" and reached the nearest settlement - Ust-Usa, where they took control of a telephone exchange, management of the local river shipping company, and a police station. During the shootings, the rioters shot and killed 14 people. The next point was the railway station, the "detachment" planned that prisoners from other camps would join them, but the uprisings in them were suppressed.

The NKVD learned about the uprising and the mass escape only on January 25, 24 hours were given to suppress and capture those who had escaped. But the fighters were sent to the capture practically in summer clothes. In the region at that time it was about minus forty degrees. They pursued Retyunin's detachment for four days, there was a shootout. The losses on both sides were approximately 15 people. After that, most of the guards complained of frostbite, and almost half refused to continue the operation.

Where did Retyunin plan to break through? There are not many options. He probably planned that prisoners from other regions would support him. But there were immediately taken measures to prevent any disturbances. It is possible that they wanted to go over to the enemy side, because there was a war in the country. But the rebels made a wrong decision, which killed them. They divided into groups, thanks to which the guards overtook and destroyed them. Retunin and several of his key assistants shot themselves.

Norilsk uprising

This uprising is considered the largest, since more than 16 thousand prisoners of the Mountain camp, located near Norilsk, took part in it. The uprising was not planned in advance, it began as a form of protest against the execution of prisoners by the guards. At first, thousands of prisoners refused to go to work. Later they organized their own self-government. The confrontation has so far been bloodless and silent.

However, the quiet rebels also had their own demands. They did not agree to go to work until the arbitrariness on the part of the guards stopped, the head of the camp was replaced and the conditions of detention improved in general. On the one hand, the camp leadership made concessions, allowing visits and correspondence with relatives, but the rest of the demands were ignored. The strike continued.

In total, the quiet strike lasted more than two months. In the summer of 1953, the camp was taken by storm, as a result 150 prisoners were shot dead. However, to some extent the prisoners achieved their goal. The Gorlag was disbanded the following year.

Despite the spontaneity, such a silent uprising did not surprise anyone. Rather, it was a logical reaction to the horror that people who went through the war, military and labor camps had to endure. The tundra, in which the construction is underway, there are six branches of the camps nearby, and the most dangerous one, in the very center, stands in an open field, next to only swampy moss. Winter lasts 10 months here. Temperatures often drop below 40 degrees, prisoners move around the area in the light of a searchlight, and their faces are hidden from the wind behind a piece of plywood.

Back in 1952, active nationalists were transported to Gorlag from Steplag (Kazakhstan). The head of the camp, wishing to disperse the activists, disbanded their association and distributed them to departments. As a result, the activists not only did not lose contact with each other, but were also able to spread rebellious sentiments among the rest of the prisoners.

Discontent in the camp was constantly encountered. The head of the camp went to the cunning, he deliberately provoked riots in the squads in order to have a justified reason to get rid of the instigators. In just one week, the guards killed and wounded a dozen prisoners for no reason or for minor reasons. This became the reason for an open confrontation - the prisoners kicked the guards out of the fence, refused to go to work, put forward demands. All the others, including the women, joined the insurgent division. The fact that the camp was under the control of prisoners was evidenced by the black flags flying over the departments.

The rebels established their own authority in the camp, and an audit of all available reserves was carried out. The camp demanded to send a check from Moscow, to reconsider the affairs of the so-called "political". A safe with personal files of informants was opened in one of the departments. Only a miracle saved them from reprisals. The camps tried to inform those who were free that there was a strike on this side of the barbed wire.

The commission has arrived. The prisoners thoroughly prepared for their meeting: they carried long tables outside the camp and covered them with a red tablecloth. On the one hand, the prisoners sat down at the negotiating table, on the other, the security forces. The conversation was difficult and lengthy. The camps were reassured, they say, they will reconsider the cases, the bars will be removed from the windows, and numbers from their sweatshirts. The mood in the camp was upbeat, local residents also remember this, that even when they walked in a column, it was noticeable that the general mood had changed. Smiles were visible on their faces.

The happiness did not last long. Less than two weeks later, they tried to send seven hundred prisoners into custody. When they refused to leave the camp, two were shot on the spot. It became clear that everything that was happening was fiction. The guards were again driven out of the territory, and a black flag was placed on the high-rise crane.

From that moment on, the camp divisions began to be taken by storm. Each squad resisted in its own way. The first and fifth squads were actually taken by storm with the dead. The women's department was poured with water from fire engines. Part surrendered without storming, in order to save the lives of themselves and their comrades.

But the third department was not so easy to take. Especially dangerous were kept here, they were planned to be taken last and during this time the prisoners had already managed to work out a strategy. The assault was all postponed, it became known about the arrest of Beria, a commission left Moscow. The prisoners created their own parliament during this time, everything was here, even the security department. The illiterate were assisted in writing complaints.

The prisoners, having learned that he was arrested and Beria, only strengthened their desire to stand to the last. They even had instructions on how to deal with government officials. Moreover, the memo was based on the constitution of the country, because the main demand of the strikers was the requirement to fulfill the constitution of the USSR.

On the evening when the armed assault took place, the prisoners were returning to the barracks from a concert (yes, this was also part of their statehood). Suddenly the squad was surrounded. The prisoners, who during this period were accustomed to various kinds of provocations, did not even pay due attention to this. Trucks with armed guards broke into the compound and started shooting indiscriminately.

They used grenades against the prisoners; they fought back with stones, sticks, and took out knives. The struggle was fierce, but the forces were unequal. Most of the prisoners were injured, a third were killed. Those who survived were finished off in punishment cells, added several years of imprisonment and disbanded in different camps.

Kengir uprising

If the previous uprisings went down in history as the very first and most ambitious, then this can be called the most international. The riot took place in the third section of the Steppe camp, located near the Kazakh Kengir. The reason for the uprising was the shooting of 13 prisoners who, under cover of night, tried to get into the women's department.

The rebels included many nationalities, even Americans and Spaniards. By tradition, they pushed the guards out of the camp, and took control of the territory into their own hands. For about a month, the territory was under their control, and the prisoners managed to build something like a republic. There were even intelligence and propaganda departments.

The rebels demanded that they be given the opportunity to meet with the country's leadership and improve their conditions of detention. All their demands were ignored. Five tanks broke into the territory and took the camp by storm. During the seizure, about 50 prisoners died.

Vorkuta uprising

By the 50s, when the Gulag had swelled to incredible proportions, uprisings were a natural process, now and then breaking out here and there. In Rechlag, uprisings broke out at the very beginning of the 50s, but the guards managed to extinguish them in time. After Stalin's death in 1953, revival began in the camp. The prisoners hoped for a speedy release or at least a softening of the conditions of detention. After it became known about the arrest of Beria and the uprisings in other camps, similar calls began to spread among the prisoners of this camp. The Poles were especially active.

Kendzerski - a former Polish captain was one of the leaders of the rebel movement. He was sentenced to 15 years for anti-Soviet agitation. His right hand was the Soviet Red Army soldier Edward Butz. He was imprisoned under a similar article for 20 years.

At first, as befits real revolutionaries, they carried out underground activities - they distributed leaflets with calls to refuse to work. Butz was especially successful, he was active among the prisoners, urging them not to waste time and energy on enmity with each other, but to unite against a common enemy.

The leaflets also contained the basic demands of the insurgent prisoners. However, the prisoners of Rechlag did not ask for anything new. Improving conditions of detention, the possibility of correspondence with relatives, an adequate attitude on the part of the guards - these were the main demands of the prisoners. The main demand was - a review of the cases of political prisoners and their release.

The prison administration knew about the upcoming uprising, but did not take it seriously. As it turned out, in vain. On the first day, 350 prisoners refused to go to work, and in a few days their number increased tenfold! A week later, nine thousand people refused to go to work.

The barracks established their own control system and maintained internal order. The rioters took control of the cafeteria and established a watch there. However, this seemed not enough, and the prisoners tried to storm the isolation ward. The guards shot two.

In early August, an armed confrontation took place, when fifty guards came out against the prisoners. The water cannon and firearms could not hold back the protest of the prisoners, breaking the fence, they went to storm the gate. Then fire was opened to kill. Fifty prisoners were killed and the same number were wounded. Kendzersky and Butz survived, and 10 more years were added to their terms.

The result of the uprising was the weakening of the regime. They allowed meetings and correspondence with relatives, and the special clothes of political prisoners were removed from their overalls.

By the time of Stalin's death, the GULAG was a huge bloated system in which enormous power could hardly be retained. Considering that after the war people with a military past got there, and the camp itself has raised more than one generation of those who are not afraid of anything, sooner or later the uprisings of prisoners would have swept the entire country. And who knows how they would behave in the wild, having got out there not under an amnesty, but thanks to a riot.