Kolyma
Dates and Facts
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In its spatial dimensions, the enormous number of prisoners and dead, and the extremely harsh prison conditions, the camp region in Kolyma takes an extraordinary place among the “islands” of the archipelago Gulag. In order to secure the economic success of the state construction combine Dal’stroi, the labour force – prisoners from Sevvostlag, the correctional labour camp north-east – was systematically expanded, starting in the early 1930s. The consequences of the political terror of 1937 were felt all the way out to Kolyma. The numbers of those imprisoned and murdered, which the archives in Magadan began divulging in the early 1990s, may be lower than those circulated previously, but they bear true witness to the tragic reality of Kolyma. But speculation about the numbers provided in the camp literature and the media cannot do justice to the victims.
(Osteuropa 6/2007, pp. 267–288)