Children's GULAG: How the Soviet System Re-educated the Children of "People's Enemies"

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

The Soviet system, in principle working for averaging and depersonalization, was extremely willing to create state-owned houses, which contained a variety of categories of citizens. You can provide a person with food, shelter, clothing, and education. But at the same time to deprive the most important thing - close people. What did the USSR do with those who were born into the family of a "traitor to the Motherland" and what was the point of re-educating the children of enemies of the people?

Thanks to Comrade Stalin for a happy childhood - this is one of the most popular subjects for posters of the Soviet era and rather sounds like a mockery, given how many children of that period grew up in receivers, correctional camps in complete isolation from their parents and other loved ones. The reliable wing of the Soviet state meant a happy and cloudless childhood, but not for everyone. And the reverse side of the medal could be seen at the most unexpected moment, when the fate of entire families was literally derailed for nothing. If the head of the family was accused of treason, then most often this meant that the whole family would be destroyed.

In the summer of 1937, an order was signed, which spoke of the repression of the wives and children of those who are imprisoned for treason. Mass repressions of this period affected all segments of the population and "traitors to the Motherland" and "enemies of the people", and even "foreign spies" did not differ in any way from ordinary inhabitants of the country of the Soviets. They built families, raised children, went to work, exactly until the moment when the funnels came for them.

The document clearly defined the procedure for action, so the wives of the counter-revolutionaries were also subject to arrest, and children left without both parents at once were to be assigned to state institutions. In each city, special receivers were created, where children were assigned before being sent to an orphanage. They could stay there for several days or several months. There, children were most often shaved, fingerprints were taken, and a piece of a board with a number was hung around their necks. Brothers and sisters were most often separated, not allowing them to communicate with each other. What is the fundamental difference between the same GULAG? Unless the guards, or rather educators, were more often women. But the conditions of detention did not get any better from this.

As befits the children of enemies of the people

Haircutting was practiced in the future, not only during acceptance. Children, guilty of being born to their parents, were brought up in conditions of universal hatred, physical punishment and ridicule. The teacher could beat him for crumbs of bread in the pockets of his clothes, suspecting that the pupil was hiding bread for the subsequent escape. During their walks, ridicule and name-calling "enemies" rained down on them.

Children removed from such families were considered potential "enemies of the people", therefore, all-round pressure on them was perceived as an educational measure. It was simply impossible to preserve warmth, honesty and decency in such conditions. Little residents of orphanages were embittered and perceived the world as hostile. How could it be otherwise, if they were suddenly deprived of their parents, of their home and elevated to the ranks of outcasts just like that?

This gave rise to a new wave of crimes, then the term "socially dangerous children" appeared, they had to be re-educated. It is well known how they were re-educated in the Union then. Orphanages were also created with more severe discipline for such difficult teenagers. However, in order to become "socially dangerous", it was not at all necessary to be a teenager. Any child could fall into this category. However, the wave of crime swept over not only because of the children of the repressed, the general bedlam in the country, the low level of social support, dispossession and lack of prospects were doing their job.

Children's gulag

Later, another order appeared, which made it the responsibility of orphanage educators to spy on inmates in order to identify anti-Soviet sentiments. If children over 15 years old suddenly showed anti-Soviet sentiments, they were transferred to camps for correction. As usual, in the USSR they were extremely fond of shifting responsibility, therefore they could well have brought in an educator under the article, who did not report on the pupil in time.

The teenagers who ended up in the camp system, and therefore in the GULAG, were united into a certain group of prisoners. Moreover, before getting to the place of detention, children were transported in the same way as adults. The only difference was that the children were transported separately from the adults (why, if they were then placed in the same cells) and when trying to escape, it was impossible to use weapons against them.

The conditions of detention of minors in the Gulag were the same as for everyone. Often, children were placed in cells along with all other prisoners. In such conditions, children finally lost faith and hope for the best. It is no wonder that it was the "youngsters" who were the most cruel category, which was never able to return to ordinary life and take place in it. Most of them, who knew nothing but humiliation and imprisonment, became criminals, which only confirmed the theory of the children of “enemies of the people”.

Erase from memory

The law did not exclude the possibility of transferring children from such “enemy” families to the families of relatives who were more trustworthy. However, this meant exposing your own family and the well-being of your children as well. The NKVD officers carefully checked such families for their reliability: they were almost under surveillance, their interests, social circle and in general, where did they get such warm feelings for the children of "enemies of the people"?

Moreover, this could be done only before registration in an orphanage, that is, the bill went on for days. It was much more difficult to pick up the child from the orphanage, besides, many children changed their initial data - surnames, patronymics, so that nothing would connect them with their families and parents. In the end, the surname could simply be spelled incorrectly.

According to the same order, the mother of a child who had not yet turned one and a half years old could take him with her to the camp. Yes, a dubious prospect, but it was better than leaving him to his fate and separating him from his mother. Therefore, many forced labor camps set up a kind of kindergarten.

These places were by no means a comfortable place for a child to live, there were many factors. Correctional camps were most often located in regions with far from favorable climatic conditions. Many babies became seriously ill during the transfer, others already upon arrival at the place, the attitude of the camp staff and nurses to the children and their mothers played an important role. Outbreaks of disease among children were frequent in the camps, leading to high mortality. It was 10-50 percent.

Considering that children in such conditions practically fought for survival, there was no question of adequate development. Most children by the age of 4 did not even know how to talk, most often expressing emotions by screaming, crying and screaming, they grew up in unbearable conditions. And the nanny, one for 17-20 children, had to do all the work associated with looking after these children. Often this became the reason for the manifestation of inexplicable cruelty.

Those that were younger just lay in cribs, it was forbidden to pick them up and communicate with them. It is no wonder that learning to speak in such conditions was an extremely difficult task. Babies only changed diapers and fed - that's all communication, most of the time they were not needed by anyone. But what about the mother? The mothers were sent to forced labor camps for correction. And that was exactly what they were doing. Breastfeeding mothers could interact with their babies for 15-30 minutes every four hours. Moreover, such visits were allowed only to those who were breastfed, later the child was seen less and less often.

If the child was four years old, and the mother's term had not yet come to an end, he was sent to relatives or to an orphanage, where new tests awaited him. Later, the time spent with the mother was reduced to 2 years. Then, at all, the fact of the presence of children in the camps was considered a circumstance that reduced the working capacity of women and the term was reduced to 12 months.

Sending children to an orphanage or to relatives, their removal from the camp was a real secret operation. As a rule, they were taken away secretly, under cover of night, but this still did not save them from terrible scenes when mothers distraught with grief rushed at the guards and fences to prevent their child from being taken away. The screams and crying of children literally shook the camp.

In the mother's personal file, a note was made that the child was removed and sent to a special institution, but which one was not indicated. That is, even after being released, finding your own child was by no means an easy task.

Many "unnecessary" children

Children's centers and orphanages were full to overflowing. By 1938, almost 20 thousand children were confiscated from parents who fell under repression. This is not counting the homeless children, dispossessed peasants and actual orphans. Orphanages and other state institutions in which children found themselves were catastrophically overcrowded, which made them a place of survival and contributed to the development of criminal sentiments.

For example, in a room less than 15 square meters, there were 30 boys, there were not enough beds, and there were also 18-year-old repeat offenders who kept everyone else at bay. All their entertainment is cards, fights, swearing and loosening of bars. There is no lighting, no dishes (they ate from ladles and by hand), there are frequent interruptions in heating.

The food was not that unsatisfactory, but extremely meager. There is no fat, no sugar, not even bread. The children were mostly emaciated, often fell ill en masse, and tuberculosis and malaria predominated among the diseases.

Even before the beginning of all these events, the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On measures to combat juvenile delinquency" saw the light; in fact, it was an amendment to the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. So, based on this decree, all punishments for theft, murder and violence could be applied to a child from the age of 12. The published document did not mention this, but under the heading “top secret”, the prosecutors and judges were told that “all measures” meant, among other things, execution.

By 1940, there were already fifty colonies in the country where juvenile criminals were kept. According to the surviving descriptions, it was practically a branch of hell on earth. Younger children often ended up in such colonies, who, being caught for this or that offense, preferred to hide their age. And in the police protocol it was written: "the child is about 12 years old", despite the fact that he was no more than eight. Such a measure was considered prudent and correct, it was not for nothing that the camps were called corrective labor. Say, let him work better under supervision for the good of society, rather than commit illegal acts. Apparently the Bolsheviks remembered too well the strength of the youth, with whose hands, among other things, they started the revolution. Today they are 14-15, and tomorrow they are already adults and dangerous counter-revolutionaries and they have something to dislike the Soviet regime.

Until 1940, adolescents were kept with adults. They worked a little less than adult prisoners, for example, children from 14 to 16 years old, worked 4 hours a day, they had to spend the same amount of time on study and self-development. True, no special conditions were created for this. For those who have already turned 16, the working day was extended by 2 hours.

The reasons why the children ended up in the camp were very different, often the misconduct was as insignificant as that of the adults who were sitting right there in the Gulag system. Former prisoners recall that the 11-year-old girl Manya, a complete orphan (her father was shot, her mother died), turned out to be of no use to anyone and ended up in the camp for picking an onion. Green feathers. And for this she was charged for the article "embezzlement." True, they did not give it as it should be for ten years, but only a year. Other girls, they were already 16 years old, together with adults dug anti-tank ditches, the bombing began, from which they took refuge in the forest. There we met the Germans, who generously treated the girls to chocolate. The naive girls, when they went out to their own people, immediately told about it. For this, they were sent to the camp.

However, the children could get into the camp just like that, by the fact of their birth. The Spanish children who were taken out during the Civil War were brought up in Soviet orphanages, but still they were extremely uncomfortable in these realities. They often tried to go home. By the beginning of World War II, they were massively closed in camps, some were declared socially dangerous, others were even accused of espionage.

For children whose age at the time of the arrest of their parents was already more than 15 years old, different rules were determined. They, allegedly, had already managed to absorb the bourgeois and anti-Soviet sentiments that reigned in their family and were immediately recognized as socially dangerous and appeared before the court, and then were sent to the camp on a general basis.

To bring charges, it was necessary that the teenager confessed to something, for this they were tortured: they were forced to stand on a chair for several hours in a row, they were fed salty soup and did not give water, they were interrogated at night, not allowing them to sleep. The results of such interrogations were obvious - the NKVD officers closed children for long periods of time, for serious offenses.

It is not customary to talk about how many children have gone through the camp system over the years. Most of the data was classified, the other was never systematized or calculated. In addition, the change of surnames, names of parents and other methods of depriving a person of "roots" gave their results - it was impossible to know for certain that this child was the son or daughter of repressed parents. And the children themselves preferred to hide it all their lives, realizing that this is their stigma for the rest of their lives.