Gulag History

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When the term “gulag” is mentioned, an image of labor camps commonly comes to mind. While this is partly true, the actual term Gulag is an acronym which translates into “Main Camp Administration.” It was a Soviet institution opened during the Lenin era that controlled a network of labor camps aimed at demonstrating absolute control over Russia. Even though the Gulag system had been around since the 1920s, it only became a prominent part of Russian society during Stalin’s rule, when anybody who opposed him was sent to a prison camp or killed. At first, the Gulag was only a fraction of the penal system in Russia, but after the publication of The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1973, it came to represent the entire forced labor administration of the Soviet Union. Stalin’s Gulag resulted in anywhere from twenty to sixty million deaths; the exact number is unknown. In the camps, prisoners were subject to starvation, sickness, and hard labor in unfavorable weather conditions. As it happened, many of the construction projects in Russia were completed due to the work of Gulag prisoners. Yet, despite the fact that Stalin’s Gulag is one of the most gruesome genocides to ever occur, with a death rate higher than that of the Holocaust, it is also one of the most overlooked events in history.
Although commonly known as Stalin’s Gulag, the Russian Gulag was in actuality started by Vladimir Lenin, Stalin’s predecessor, in 1918. Lenin, considered one of the most influential revolutionary leaders in history, established Soviet Russia. He was the head of the Bolshevik Party, which he eventually renamed the Communist Party, and also the creator of Leninism, which later combined with Marxisim; Marxisim-Leninism is the basis of Communis...

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As a main part of the de-Stalinization process, Khrushchev decided to rename all the names Stalin had changed to their original ones, and to alter any symbolic gesture of Stalin. In 1961, the city of Stalinabad, capital of one of the SSRs, was reverted back to its original name of Dushanbe. That same year, Stalin’s “hero city” was reverted back to its previous name of Volgograd to reduce the personality of Stalin throughout the city. During Stalin’s reign, the National Anthem of the Soviet Union had been a reference to Stalin, but this was changed by Khrushchev (britannica.com). Due to his work in de-Stalinization, Khrushchev is considered one of the greatest leaders that the Soviet Union has ever seen. The Soviet Union improved significantly under his leadership, and his decision to begin de-Stalinization was a significant turning point in Soviet Union history.

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