Amnesty 1945: The revolving door of Stalin's Gulag

Slavic Review

Volumn 64, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 274-306

  Alexopoulos, Golfo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA   (United States)

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EID: 33646463609     PISSN: 00376779     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3649985     Document Type: Article

References (259)

1. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, I-II (New York, 1973), 270-71.
2. Ibid., 278;
3. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, V-VII (New York, 1976), 437.
4. Eugenia Ginzburg, Journey into the Whirlwind (New York, 1967);
5. Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Tales (New York, 1994);
6. Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago.
7. J. Arch Getty, Gabor T. Rittersporn, and Viktor N. Zemskov warn against accepting these categories at face value, noting, for example, that that many common criminals were associated with "anti-Soviet" and "counterrevolutionary" groups. See their "Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence," American Historical Review 98, no. 4 (October 1993): 1030-33.
8. Similarly, Yoram Gorlizki and Oleg Khlevniuk point out that the ultraseverity of ordinary criminal laws in the postwar years meant that people arrested as criminals were in fact political victims of the regime. Yoram Gorlizki and Oleg Khlevniuk, Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945-1953 (Oxford, 2004), 125.
9. See also David Shearer, "Elements Near and Alien: Passportization, Policing, and Identity in the Stalinist State, 1932-1952," Journal of Modern History 76, no. 4 (December 2004): 835-82.
10. Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System," 1041.
11. As Steven Barnes points out, this important issue has been overlooked: "The assumption that releases from the Gulag were 'very rare' was one of the major mistakes of the first generation of Gulag historians." Steven Barnes, "Soviet Society Confined: The Gulag in the Karaganda Region of Kazakhstan, 1930s-1950s" (PhD diss., Stanford University, 2003), 33.
12. Edwin Bacon, The Gulag at War: Stalin's Forced Labour System in the Light of the Archives (New York, 1994), 167;
13. V. N. Zemskov, "Gulag (istoriko-sotsiologicheskii aspekt)," pt. 1, Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia 6 (1991): 14;
14. Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System," 1049-50. The figures provided probably include routine releases only since the 1945 amnesty is not reflected in the numbers for that year.
15. I am not the first to use the term "revolving door" with reference to the Soviet gulag system. See Nanci Adler, "Life in the 'Big Zone': The Fate of Returnees in the Aftermath of Stalinist Repression," Europe-Asia Studies 51, no. 1 (January 1999): 7;
16. Steven A. Barnes, "The Politics of Release from the Gulag" (paper, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Toronto, Canada, November 2003), 2;
17. David Nordlander, "Capital of the Gulag: Magadan in the Early Stalin Era, 1929-1941" (PhD diss., University of North Carolina, 1997), 179.
18. With the exception of the two years following the amnesty (1946-47) when the simultaneous exodus of criminal offenders and influx of POWs caused a proportional increase in the gulag's population of political prisoners, the latter constituted a minority of labor camp prisoners under Stalin. See Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System," 1030-39;
19. Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Cold Peace, 125;
20. John Keep, "Recent Writing on Stalin's Gulag: An Overview," Crime, History & Societies 1, no. 2 (1997): 100;
21. J. Otto Pohl, The Stalinist Penal System: A Statistical History of Soviet Repression and Terror, 1930-1953 (Jefferson, N.C., 1997), 22.
22. Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System," 1029-30;
23. Zemskov, "Gulag," pt. 1:18.
24. On Russian and early Soviet amnesties, see H. W. Dewey and A.M. Kleimola, "Old Muscovite Amnesties: Theory and Practice," Russian History/Histoire russe 3, no. 1 (1976): 49-60;
25. K. F. Khartulari, Pravo suda i pomilovaniia kak prerogativy Rossiiskoi derzhavnosti (St. Petersburg, 1899);
26. N. D. Durmanov, Osvobozhdenie ot nakazaniia po sovetskomu pravu (Moscow, 1957);
27. S. Fainblit, Amnistiia i sudebnyi prigovor (Moscow, 1928);
28. P. S. Romashkin, Amnistiia i pomilovanie v SSSR (Moscow, 1959);
29. B. S. Utevskii, Dosrochnoe osvobozhdenie i amnistiia (Moscow, 1927).
30. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 56-69;
31. "Amnistiia v oznamenovanie obrazovaniia SSSR i osnovnye zadachi organov sovetskoi iustitsii v bor'be s prestupnost'iu," Ezhenedel'nik sovetskoi iustitsii 36 (1923): 817-19.
32. Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Moscow (GARF), f. 3917 (All-Russia Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 12, d. 12, 11. 8-9.
33. On the 1938 amnesty on the anniversary of the Red Army, see Romashkin, Amnistiia, 69;
34. M. Savitskii, "Nekotorye voprosy primeneniia amnistii k XX godovshchine RKKA," Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost' 4 (1938): 46-48.
35. On the 1941 and 1944 amnesties for Polish citizens, see Romashkin, Amnistiia, 70;
36. General Sikorski Historical Institute, Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1939-1945, 2 vols. (London, 1961-67), 1:141-46.
37. Moreover, in 1936-37 no amnesties were issued and USSR Procurator A. Ia. Vyshinskii further restricted the application of the 1927 amnesty. See Romashkin, Amnistiia, 51, 64-65.
38. On the 1922 and 1927 amnesties for the anniversary of the October revolution, see Amnistiia 1922 goda k V-oi godovshchine Oktiabr'skoi revoliutsii (Moscow, 1922);
39. Fainblit, Amnistiia i sudebnyi prigovor, 29-31;
40. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 61-65.
41. On the 1957 and 1967 amnesties for the anniversary of the October revolution, see Romashkin, Amnistiia, 78-79;
42. GARF f. 7523 (Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1937-1970), op. 90, d. 146, 11. 37-47 (1967).
43. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 71-72. The amnesty law was issued on the day that it was approved by the party Politburo.
44. See G. M. Adibekov, K. M. Anderson, and L. A. Rogovaia, eds., Politbiuro TsK RKP(b)-VKP(b): Povestki dlia zasedanii 1919-1952 v trekh tomakh: katalog (Moscow, 2000-01), 3:392.
45. Special decrees of the State Defense Committee (GOKO) on 12 July 1941 and 24 November 1941 released prisoners and directed them into army service and into factory labor. See GARF, f. 9414 (Main Administration for Places of Detention under the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs), op. 1, d. 1228 (draft of the amnesty law and information on its implementation), 1. 2;
46. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1167 (30 August 1941 report to [Lavrentii] Beriia on the job skills of prisoners who are military personnel), 11. 17-18;
47. "Gulag v gody voiny: Doklad nachal'nika GULAGa NKVD SSSR V. G. Nasedkina, Avgust 1944 g." Istoricheskii arkhiv 3 (1994):64. In addition to the 420,000 prisoners who were released early in 1941, an additional 157,000 were freed before the completion of their sentences and directed into the Red Army in 1942-43. Many others were sent to military service after completing their sentences. The total flow of prisoners from the gulag into the Red Army throughout the war years is estimated at nearly a million.
48. Zemskov, "Gulag," pt 1:24.
49. See also John Barber and Mark Harrison, The Soviet Home Front, 1941-1945: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II (London, 1993), 116-19, 169-71;
50. Barnes, "Soviet Society Confined," 142-43;
51. Amir Weiner, Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution (Princeton, 2001) 148-49. This large exodus was comparable to the 1945 amnesty in that it did not apply to political prisoners. In addition, political prisoners who had completed their sentences at the start of the war were kept in the camps.
52. See also Galina Mikhailovna Ivanova, Labor Camp Socialism: The Gulag in the Soviet Totalitarian Systems (New York, 2000), 39;
53. Adler, "Life in the 'Big Zone,'" 7.
54. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 71-72.
55. Ibid., 30-35.
56. A few scholars do mention the 7 July 1945 amnesty. See Peter H. Solomon, Jr., Soviet Criminal Justice under Stalin (Cambridge, Eng., 1996), 421;
57. Elena Zubkova, Poslevoennoe sovetskoe obshchestvo: Politika povsednevnost', 1945-1953 (Moscow, 2000), 41, 93;
58. V. N. Zemskov, "Gulag (istoriko-sotsiologicheskii aspekt)," pt. 2, Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia 7 (1991): 6 -7;
59. Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System," 1039n;
60. Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History (New York, 2003), 292;
61. Donald Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism: Labour and the Restoration of the Stalinist System after World War II (Cambridge, Eng., 2002), 164-65.
62. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229 (Gulag instructions concerning implementation of the 7 July 1945 amnesty), 1. 33.
63. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246 (Reports to the USSR NKVD and Gulag leadership on the number of prisoners freed under the 7 July 1945 amnesty and the amnesty's implementation), 1. 230.
64. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 71-72.
65. On the 26 December 1941 law, see Filtzer, Soviet Workers, 161- 67;
66. Barber and Harrison, Soviet Home Front, 164-65. This law represents one of several "wartime decrees" that convicted nearly four million to detention between 1940 and 1952, the largest group of people sentenced in the war years.
67. See Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System," 1033-34;
68. Solomon, Soviet Criminal Justice, 299-334. Prior to publication of the 1945 amnesty, Stalin had already begun to reduce punishment of people sentenced under this law. In December 1944, the government issued an amnesty that applied only to people convicted under the 26 December 1941 law who had subsequently returned to their places of work.
69. See Romashkin, Amnistiia, 70.
70. Adibekov, Anderson, and Rogovaia, Politbiuro, 3:269, 274.
71. GARF, f. 7863 (Commission of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet for the Review of Complaints and Petitions for Clemency, 1938-1954), op. 7, d. 9439, 11. 1-5.
72. GARF, f. 7863, op. 14, d. 929, 11. 1-5.
73. GARF, f. 7863, op. 9, d. 866, 1. 4.
74. The party took measures to repeal the law in November 1945, the same month that the Gulag circulated its final report on implementation of the amnesty. See O. V. Khlevniuk, Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR, 1945-1953 (Moscow, 2002), 445.
75. This provision targeted soldiers only and not all persons whose sentences had been postponed until the end of hostilities. At the same time, officials were warned not to apply this category to all soldiers, as many had been sentenced for counterrevolution under article 58-10 of the Criminal Code or for theft of socialist property according to the law of 7 August 1932. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 149.
76. The military crimes identified included the following articles of the RSFSR Criminal Code: 193-2, 193-5, 193-6, 193-7, 193-9, 193-10, 193-10a, 193-14, 193-15 and 193-16. See Romashkin, Amnistiia, 71-72.
77. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246,11. 206-209.
78. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 81.
79. In 1945, there were 944 persons convicted of so-called counterrevolutionary crimes who were serving sentences of less than three years. See A. I. Kokurin and N. V. Petrov, eds., Gulag (Glavnoe upravlenie lagerei), 1917-1960 (Moscow, 2000), 434.
80. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 84.
81. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 11. 117, 209.
82. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 15.
83. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 233.
84. Shalamov, Kolyma Tales, 304.
85. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 71-72;
86. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 11. 5, 80-82. However, repeat offenders who were sentenced for less serious crimes did receive the benefits of the amnesty. For example, amnesty was extended to persons who had been sentenced repeatedly for desertion, or for violating the 26 December 1941 law against abandoning work at a military factory.
87. Filtzer, Soviet Workers, 13-14.
88. Solomon, Soviet Criminal Justice, 421. The 1927 amnesty on the tenth anniversary of the October revolution was declared, according to Peter Juviler, "simply because jails were stuffed with prisoners suffering from food shortages and epidemics due to unsanitary conditions."
89. Peter Juviler, Revolutionary Law and Order: Politics and Social Change in the USSR (New York, 1976), 34-35.
90. Oleg V. Khlevniuk, The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror (New Haven, 2004), 75;
91. A. B. Bezborodov and V. M. Khrustalev, eds., Istoriia stalinskogo Gulaga: Konets 1920-kh-pervaia polovina 1950-kh godov, vol. 4, Naselenie Gulaga.. Chislennost'i usloviia soderzhaniia (Moscow, 2004), 37.
92. Dmitri Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy (New York, 1988), 235-36.
93. Regarding the 1953 amnesty, A. I. Kokurin and N. V. Petrov state that "the main reason for this amnesty was, of course, not the humanity of the government, but the desire to free places of detention of invalids, women, and children who were practically incapable of work, and to replace them with valuable labor strength." Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 11.
94. It is important to note that this argument encountered some resistance within the ranks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1948, ministry officials objected to the principle of granting early release to unproductive or less productive prisoners, arguing that such releases undermine the gulag's primary function as a penal institution. See GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 358, 11. 92-95.
95. Oleg Khlevniuk, "The Economy of the Gulag," in Paul R. Gregory, ed., Behind the Façade of Stalin's Command Economy: Evidence from the Soviet State and Party Archives (Stanford, 2001), 111-29.
96. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1228, 1. 15.
97. Ibid., 1. 17.
98. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 231.
99. Ibid., 11. 235-36.
100. See Solomon, Soviet Criminal Justice, 421-22, 441-42;
101. Steven A. Barnes, "All for the Front, All for Victory! The Mobilization of Forced Labor in the Soviet Union during World War Two," International Labor and Working-Class History 58 (October 2000): 242.
102. Some Soviet amnesties in the mid-1930s and in the post-Stalin years explicitly singled out young people, pregnant women and women with small children, and the elderly for release. See Romashkin, Amnistiia, 24-25, 79.
103. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 6;
104. see also d. 1228, 1. 39; d. 1246, 1. 218.
105. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 231.
106. Ibid., 1. 223.
107. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 86.
108. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 223.
109. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 87;
110. see also d. 1246, 1. 223.
111. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 230.
112. "Gulag v gody voiny," 67-71;
113. Zemskov, "Gulag," pt. 1:21;
114. Ivanova, Labor Camp Socialism, 93-94.
115. Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System," 1041.
116. Zemskov, "Gulag," pt. 1:14.
117. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 232.
118. Ibid., 1. 214.
119. Ibid., d. 1229, 11. 6, 10, 109-10.
120. Ibid., 1. 11.
121. Ibid., 1. 33.
122. Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, 4-5, 217.
123. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 109.
124. Ibid., d. 1246, 11. 48-49.
125. Ibid., d. 1229, 11. 92, 94, 96, 103.
126. Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, 215.
127. V. A. Kozlov, ed., Istoriia stalinskogo Gulaga konets 1920-kh-pervaia polovina 1950-kh godov, vol. 6, Vosstaniia, bunty i zabastovki zakliuchennykh (Moscow, 2004), 179-80.
128. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1228, 1. 39;
129. see also d. 1246, 1. 219.
130. On ex-convicts and passports, see David Shearer, "Elements Near and Alien."
131. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 8.
132. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 39.
133. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 84; d. 1228, 1. 39.
134. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 220.
135. Ibid.
136. Ibid., 1. 213.
137. Ibid., 1. 111.
138. Ibid., 1. 221.
139. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 120.
140. Ibid., 1. 39.
141. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 20.
142. Ibid., 11. 20-21.
143. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 221.
144. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 113.
145. Ibid., 1. 113;
146. see also d. 1246, 1. 218.
147. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 113.
148. Ibid., d. 1246, 11. 238-39. d. 1246, 11. 113
149. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 215
150. Interestingly, it appears that many of the difficulties associated with the implementation of the 1945 amnesty remained largely hidden from the party leadership. In a report to Beriia on the implementation of the amnesty, Nasedkin stated: "The [process of] releasing [prisoners], issuing passports, supplying food and other items, money and transportation tickets, and taking [ex-prisoners] to their places of residence is proceeding normally." Ibid., 1. 55. see also 1. 55
151. Ibid. see also 1. 55
152. Ibid., d. 1229, 11. 74, 84. see also 1. 55 d. 1229, 11. 74, 84
153. Ibid., 1. 84. see also, 1. 84.
154. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 39; see also, d. 1228, 1. 39;
155. see also d. 1246, 1. 222.
156. See Golfo Alexopoulos, Stalin's Outcasts: Aliens, Citizens, and the Soviet State, 1926-1936 (Ithaca, 2003).
157. The Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Nikolai M. Shvernik, heard hundreds of appeals from ex-prisoners requesting a clean criminal record (o sniatii sudimosti), especially in the years 1946-1949. See GARF, f. 7523, op. 33.
158. Amnestied prisoners were supposed to receive a thorough medical examination (meditsinskoe osvidetel'stvovanie) to prevent the release of persons with such common infectious diseases as dysentery. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 219.
159. Filtzer, Soviet Workers, 172.
160. Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1:177.
161. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 101.
162. Zubkova, Poslevoennoe sovetskoe obshchestvo, 93. Apparently, areas that became home to ex-prisoners did witness a rise in crime. According to David Nordlander, "Magadan and other Gulag towns invariably experienced higher rates of robbery and assault per capita than most cities in the USSR up until the 1950s" as criminal offenders were released into communities across the country.
163. Apparently, areas that became home to ex-prisoners did witness a rise in crime. According to David Nordlander, "Magadan and other Gulag towns invariably experienced higher rates of robbery and assault per capita than most cities in the USSR up until the 1950s" as criminal offenders were released into communities across the country.
164. Nordlander, "Capital of the Gulag," 247.
165. The 11 July 1929 Sovnarkom decree "On the Use of Prison Labor" stipulated that ex-prisoners would be "given the necessary assistance" upon their release, but even aside from the 1945 amnesty, material support for released prisoners may have constituted a promise more than a practice. Molotov claimed that "specified categories of the persons discharged were given material assistance by the Soviet authorities (free railway and waterway tickets, journey allowances, etc.)" despite strong assertions by the Polish government to the contrary. See Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 64;
166. Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1:177, 199.
167. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1228, 1. 140.
168. This according to Articles 38 and 39 of the Regulations on Passports. See ibid., d. 1229, 1. 8.
169. Ibid., 1. 11.
170. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 222.
171. On the wartime settlement of ethnic Germans and others, see Weiner, Making Sense of War, 150-52;
172. Barnes, "All for the Front," 242-43.
173. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 97; d. 1246, 1. 222.
174. Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 113. In 1939, the government issued a law banning the early release of labor camp inmates and requiring that all prisoners complete the entire term of their sentences.
175. See Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 116.
176. On the impact of prohibiting preterm release, see Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Cold Peace, 128-29;
177. Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, 201-9.
178. Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, 202. Beriia stated that "as a rule" prisoners who worked well could expect to be freed halfway or one-third of the way through their sentences.
179. Zemskov, "Gulag," pt. 1:23.
180. For other examples, see Barnes, "Soviet Society Confined," 64-65, 90.
181. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 11. 83, 109-10.
182. Ibid., 11. 62, 130. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1229, 11. 62, 130
183. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 228. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 228
184. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 57; d. 1246, 1. 228. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 57; d. 1246, 1. 228
185. d. 1246, 1. 228. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 57; d. 1246, 1. 228
186. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 228. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 228
187. Ibid., 1. 229. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 229
188. Ibid., 11. 224-225. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 11
189. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 11. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 11, 1. 11
190. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 225. Given that camps were located in remote and inaccessible regions, such problems were typical. David Nordlander describes how Dal'stroi's transit camp in Vladivostok often held prisoners up to six months as they waited for the Sea of Okhotsk to thaw and permit transfer to Magadan. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 225. Given that camps were located in remote and inaccessible regions, such problems were typical. David Nordlander describes how Dal'stroi's transit camp in Vladivostok often held prisoners up to six months as they waited for the Sea of Okhotsk to thaw and permit transfer to Magadan
191. Nordlander, "Capital of the Gulag," 8.
192. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 142.
193. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 226. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 11, 1. 226
194. Ibid., 1. 111. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 11, 1. 111
195. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 100. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1228, 1. 100
196. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 227. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 227
197. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 130. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 130
198. Ibid., 1. 40. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 40
199. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 228. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 228
200. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 142. Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 142
201. Ibid.
202. M. B. Smirnov, ed., Sistema ispravitel'no-trudovykh lagerei v SSSR, 1923-1960: Spravochnik (Moscow, 1998), 192-93, 229-30.
203. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 227.
204. Barnes, "All for the Front," 252-53;
205. Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Cold Peace, 124-25;
206. Weiner, Making Sense of War, 186-88.
207. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 233.
208. Ibid., 1. 238.
209. Ibid., 1. 234.
210. Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 416, 418. In 1939, 30 percent of the gulag population was serving ten-year sentences.
211. Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 726.
212. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 232.
213. Ibid., 1. 11.
214. Ibid., 1. 232.
215. Ibid.
216. Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 434.
217. Ugolovnyi kodeks RSFSR (Moscow, 1950), 142-43.
218. Ivanova, Labor Camp Socialism, 49.
219. On the 1947 theft decrees, see Filtzer, Soviet Workers, 28-29, 251-56;
220. Yoram Gorlizki, "Rules, Incentives and Soviet Campaign Justice after World War II," Europe-Asia Studies 51, no. 7 (November 1999): 1245-65;
221. Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Cold Peace, 125.
222. Zemskov, "Gulag" pt. 2:10.
223. Ibid., 12.
224. Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 435, 438;
225. Zemskov, "Gulag," pt. 2:12.
226. On the breakdown of sentences in March 1953 just prior to Beriia's amnesty, see V. Naumov and Iu. Sigachev, eds., Lavrentii Beriia, 1953: Stenogramma iiul'skogo plenuma TsK KPSS i drugie dokumenty (Moscow, 1999), 19.
227. Applebaum, Gulag, 579;
228. Barnes, "Soviet Society Confined," 212-13;
229. Zemskov, "Gulag" pt. 1:11;
230. Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System," 1040.
231. On Beriia's amnesty, see Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Cold Peace, 131-33;
232. Ivanova, Labor Camp Socialism, 124-26;
233. Applebaum, Gulag, 478-83;
234. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 72-74;
235. A. Artizov, Iu. Sigachev, I. Shevchuk, and V. Khlopov, eds., Reabilitatsiia: Kak eto bylo (Moscow, 2000), 16-18.
236. Naumov and Sigachev, Lavrentii Beriia, 21.
237. "Ukaz Prezidiuma Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR: Ob amnistii v sviazi s pobedoi nad gitlerovskoi Germaniei," Pravda, 8 July 1945;
238. Izvestiia, 8 July 1945.
239. Durmanov, Osvobozhdenie, 4;
240. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 4;
241. Utevskii, Dosrochnoe osvobozhdenie, 3-4.
242. Even under Stalin, the regime never abandoned its ideological commitment to the reforging (perekovka) or the rehabilitation of criminal offenders. On reforging, see Barnes, "Soviet Society Confined," 9-16, 70-83;
243. Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 8;
244. Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley, 1995), 231. The August 1933 decree "On Granting Privileges to Participants in the Construction of the White Sea Canal Named for Comrade Stalin" states explicitly that people were being freed from their criminal sentences because they proved themselves to be completely rehabilitated (vpolne ispravivshchiesia).
245. See Romashkin, Amnistiia, 65-66.
246. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 226. At one camp, officials distributed ten thousand copies of the amnesty law to prisoners, conducted lectures and newspaper readings, and established worker competitions in order to increase labor productivity. According to Gulag officials, these measures apparently worked in raising the productivity of prisoners. The camp exceeded its production quotas in the months July-October despite the fact that it lost a significant number of prisoners during the same period as a result of the amnesty.
247. Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Cold Peace, 128-30.
248. Interestingly, USSR Procurator Vyshinskii and People's Commissar of Justice N. M. Rychkov opposed the original 1939 ban on early release "because it had a positive effect on discipline and the productivity of labor." Khlevniuk, History of the Gulag, 206.
249. Ivanova, Labor Camp Socialism, 52.
250. Solomon, Soviet Criminal Justice, 400.
251. The 12 August 1941 amnesty "for Polish citizens held in places of detention on the territory of the USSR" represented part of a Polish-Soviet agreement that restored diplomatic relations and declared mutual aid and support between the two countries following the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Polish and British authorities complained repeatedly that the Soviet government failed to execute the amnesty, and took their complaints to Stalin who affirmed disingenuously that "our amnesty has no exceptions." Yet Soviet deception did not prevent Stalin from enjoying the benefits of his original promise in the form of good press with the British and the Americans. Stalin declared another amnesty for "Polish citizens sentenced for committing crimes on the territory of the USSR" on 10 August 1944, shortly after the failed Warsaw uprising. He may have issued this concession to the Poles as a way of reducing tensions with the Allies in the aftermath of the uprising. Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1:177, 211;
252. Romashkin, Amnistiia, 70;
253. on another Soviet propaganda initiative during the war that was directed at the Anglo-American audience, see Steven Merritt Miner, Stalin's Holy War: Religion, Nationalism, and Alliance Politics, 1941-1945 (Chapel Hill, 2003).
254. Bezborodov and Khrustalev, Istoriia stalinskogo Gulaga, 34.
255. Keep, "Recent Writing on Stalin's Gulag," 98. The instability of the gulag labor force is also described by Zemskov who notes the dynamic nature (dinamika dvizheniia) of the gulag population given the large numbers of escapes as well as releases.
256. Zemskov, "Gulag," pt. 1:13.
257. Applebaum, Gulag, xvii.
258. For an assessment of the numbers, see David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," Slavic Review 57, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 809-10.
259. Bezborodov and Khrustalev, Istoriia stalinskogo Gulaga, 38-39.