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One Day in the Life of Educator Khrushchev: Labour and Kul'turnost' in the Gulag NewspapersAuthor(s): Wilson T. Bell
Source: Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, Vol. 46, No. 3/4 (September-December 2004), pp. 289-313Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40860044Accessed: 18-07-2015 02:07 UTC
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7/25/2019 One Day in the Life of Educator Khrushchev Labour and Kul_turnost_ in the Gulag Newspapers
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WilsonT. Bell
One
Day
in
theLife of
Educator
Khrushchev:
Labour and
KuVturnost*
n
the
Gulag Newspapers
Abstract:
Using
the
recently
ublished
microfiche
ollection,
The GULAG
Press,
1920-
1937,
the
author examines the
newspapers
of
BAMlag,
a
Gulag
camp system
n the
Soviet Far East.
Although
the
papers
were
in
manyrespectspropaganda,
the authorviews
them as a
blueprint
orreeducation
n
the
camps
in
the
early-
o mid-1930s.
They
were a
part
of a broad discourse
of
transformation both
personal
and societal that
existed
within
the Soviet Union at that time. Whetheror not the inmates would
have followed
and believed
the
blueprint
s a difficult ut
important uestion,
which the author
grapples
with but
ultimately
eaves unanswered.
Regardless
of
this, however,
the
newspapers
represent
n
attempt
o instill the Bolshevik values of reeducation
through
abour
and
kul'turnost' nto
the
prison camp population,
and thus show
the interconnected
ole of
both of these
values'
in
the
re-)forging
f individuals.
With the
publication
of Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn's
One
Day
in the
Life of
Ivan
Denisovich
in
1962,
the
Gulag
became
a
topic
at least
partially
open
for
discussion
within
he
Soviet Union.
In
this
novella,
we follow
Ivan Denisovich
Shukhov,
Gulag
inmate,
s he
progresses
hrough
day
in
the
camps.
Although
we see
typically
Soviet
motifs
e.g., pride
in
labour)
as central
to Shukhov's
character,
ultimately olzhenitsynpresents
a
spiritual
key
to
survival.
In the
beginning,
he
searchlights
nd
camp
lights
make
the stars
nvisible,
point
that
Solzhenitsyn
arefully
makes
more than
once.1
Yet
in
the
evening,
he moon
and
stars hine
so
brightly
hat he
"lights
n the
camp
didn't seem
very
trong
ow.'
Earlier Shukhovtells theCaptain,another nmate, f his beliefthatGod breaks
up
the moon
into stars
every
fourweeks.
The
Captain
asks
Shukhov
why
God
would do such
a
thing,
nd
Shukhov
replies,
"The
stars
keep
falling
down,
so
you've got
to have
new ones
in
their
place."3
The
stars,
blocked
by
the
camp
lights
in the
early
morning,
hine
brightly
along
with the
moon)
at
night.
I
would
like to
thank the editors
and outside
readers
of Canadian
Slavonic
Papers,
as
well as
Lynne
Viola,
Thomas
Lahusen,
Michael
David-Fox,
Steven
Maddox,
and
Martha
Solomon for
heir
helpful
comments
nd
suggestions
on various
drafts f
this
paper.
1 Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn,
One
Day
in the
Life
of
Ivan Denisovich, trans. Max
Hayward
and
Ronald
Hingley
1963;
New York:
Bantam
Books,
1990)
8 and
18.
2
Solzhenitsyn,
One
Day
1
0.
3
Solzhenitsyn,
One
Day
1
8-29.
Canadian
lavonic
Papers/Revue
anadienne
es slavistes
Vol.
XLVI,
Nos.
3-4,
September-December
004
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290
Wilson T.
Bell
Solzhenitsynhus uggests hatno matter owmany ouls fall to the Soviet
regime,
herewillbe new
ones
that
hine n.
This s
both
message
f
hope
and
a
message
hat
spiritualourney,
epresented
y
the
ight,
s vitalfor
urviving
the
ampregime.
In
June 934
the
Gulag newspaper
troiteV
ama
('Builder
of the
BAM')
published
lengthy
rticle
itled,
One
day
n
the
ife f
educator
hrushchev."4
Khrushchev
first
ame
not
given)
worked
n
theCultural-Educational
ection
(KVCh)
at
BAMlag,
a
Gulag camp system
entred
n
the far-eastern
own f
Svobodnyi meaning
free').
BAMlag
was
nominally
n
charge
f
building
he
Baikal-AmurMainlinerailroad; he nmates, owever, evotedmuchof their
labour o
the onstructionf theTrans-Siberian
ailway's
econd rack
n those
areas where ne
was
lacking.5
hrushchev's
ay
consists
f several
lements
central
o the
BAMlag
newspapers
s a
whole,
as found
n the microfiche
collection,
heGULAG
Press,
1920-1937.
A
significant
ortion
evolves
round
camp
labour:
for
example,
he
gives
motivational
peeches
about
work
production
nd
checks tatistics
n norm-fulfillment.
n
the
evening,
e
makes
sure
that ulturalwork
occurs
n the
barracks,
nd notes
with atisfaction
he
music f a
balalaika,
he ehearsal
f a drama
ircle,
ndthefastidiousness
fthe
lagkory
camp correspondents
singular, agkor)
as
they
work
away
in the
"red
corner."
nterestingly,
e also
pays
ttention
o mattersf
personal
ygiene.
At
breakfast,
he ducator
gave
the
ook a
pat
on the
houlder"
khlopal ovara
po plechu)
for
"tasty"
meal,
but
would ecture
im
f
t
did not
turn ut
well.
Later,
ducator
hrushchev
atches
ow he ailroad
oldiers6
rush
heir
eeth.
In
Ivan
Denisovich's
ay,
we see
an
inmate
homust eal
with
xcruciating
work
onditions,
istreatment
y guards,
nd
the easeless
uest
o
find
nough
nourishment.
ducator
hrushchev's
ay,
f
course,
aints
different
icture
f
4
"Denf
vospitatelia
hrushcheva,"
n
StroiteV
ama
44(139) (27
June
934),
fiche
606,
in The
GULAG
Press,
1920-1937
(The
Netherlands:
DC
Publishers,
000).
Henceforth
ll citations
rom
he
microfiche
ollection
will
simply
ist the
article,
newspaper
StroiteV
ama
will
be
cited s
SB),
number
nd
date
f
publication,
nd
fiche
number
n TheGULAG
Press
collection.
5
Solzhenitsyn,
heGULAG
Archipelago:
n
Experiment
n
Literary
nvestigation,
vols.,
volumes
ne and
two translated
y
Thomas
P.
Whitney,
olume
hree
y
Harry
Willetts
New
York:
Harper
Row,
1973-1978)
I:
80;
Sistema
spraviteVno-Trudovykh
Lagerei
v
SSSR,
comp.
M.B.
Smirnov,
ds. N.G.
Okhotin
nd
A. B.
Roginskii
Moscow:
Zven'ia,
1998)
153 and
154,
note
3;
and
O. P.
Elantseva,
brechennaia
oroga:
BAM:
1932-1941Vladivostok:zdatel'stvoal'nevostochnogoniversiteta,994)4. Elantseva
reports
hat
most f
thework one
on the
BAM as
opposed
o the
econd
rack
from
1
33-1
37 was
research
elated.
6
The
BAMlag
nmates re
often eferred
o as railroad
oldiers,
utearmeetsy,
n the
BAMlag
papers.
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The
Gulag Newspapers 29 1
life nthe
Gulag,
one inwhich the nmates
participate
ncultural nd educational
work and have time to
worry
about cultural activities. Recent
scholarship
indicates that the
experience
of the
Gulag
varied
considerably
depending
on
time,
place, type
of
camp,
and
type
of
sentence.7 van Denisovich
represents
prisoner
n
one of the so-called
special regime camps,
established
n 1948 as a
place
of incarceration
for
political
prisoners
seen as
especially
dangerous.
Educator
Khrushchev,
on the other
hand,
was involved
in
one of the
Gulag's
early major
construction
projects,
which
in
the rhetoric at
least,
placed
considerable
emphasis
on reeducation.
But
is Educator Khrushchev's
day simply propaganda?
The authorities
were,
after
ll,
in
charge
of the
production
of
the
newspapers
papers
that fed
images
of
robust,
healthy
workers o inmates
who felt
nything
ut robust and
healthy.
Thus
perhaps
the
Gulag press'
is
simply
nother
xample
of the Soviet
regime's hypocrisy.
On the other
hand,
the authorities
clearly
devoted
considerable
resources to
the
camp newspapers,
which in
quality
oftenreached
the level of
the
regular
Soviet
dailies.8 These
papers
were also
designed
solely
for nternal
amp
consumption.
Why
did the
NKVD
(People's
Commissariat
f
InternalAffairs,nchargeof therunning ftheGulag) use valuable
resourceson
the
publication
of
something
that,
seemingly,
would
only
breed resentment
among
the
ntended udience?
The
papers,
on their
own,
cannot
answer this
question
completely,
and
further
tudy
of Soviet archival
documents
on
the
Gulag
will be
necessary.
A
critical
examination
f the
newspapers
and their
ontext,
owever,
reveals
much
about
Soviet
subjectivity,
s the current
aper
will
try
o demonstrate.
In the context
of
the
early-
to mid-
930s,
the
most obvious
explanation
for
the
papers
relates
to
the
camps'
economic
production.
The vast
majority
of
articles are in some way relatedto production,
whether
hey
are
statistics
on
norm
fulfillment,
escriptions
of
competitions
between
the
various
camp
departments
r
work
brigades,
biographies
of
the best
workers,
tories
about
workers nd
projects
to
emulate,
r
articles
haming
nproductive
ndividuals.
Most of
the
remaining
rticles
relate
to
personal
transformation,
articularly
kul'turnost'
as understood
by
Vadim
Volkov.
Kul'turnost',
or,
roughly,
'culturedness,'
nvolved not
ust
education
in
'high'
culture,
but
knowledge
of
7
For
a brief
iscussion
f the
different
ypes
f
camps
and
their
volution
n
the
Gulag system,ee Paul R. Gregory,An Introductiono the Economics f theGulag,"
TheEconomics
f
Forced
Labor:
TheSoviet
Gulag,
ds.
P.
Gregory
nd
Valry
azarev
(Stanford:
oover
nstitution
ress,
003)
6-20.
8
A brief
ntroduction
o the
Gulag
newspapers
y
Leo
van
Rossum
ppears
n the
"Guide
o
the
microform
ollection"
n TheGULAG
Press
et.
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The Gulag
Newspapers
293
focuses n this ransformation.cholarshave discussed arious
programs
or
identity
n
the 1930s" and have
also
linked ultural evolutionnd
reeducation,
arguing
hatthe
over-archingoal
was the creation
f
new
human
beings.
Stephen
Kotkin's seminalwork
Magnetic
Mountaindiscusses
the
"positive
integration"
f citizens nto Soviet
society
hrough
he
process
of
learning
o
"speak
Bolshevik":
Through
self-identification
ith
labour
shock-work,
Stakhanovism,
nd so on
individuals
earned
o work nd
survive
within
Bolshevik ramework.ochen ellbeck
akes his ne
step
further,
rguing
hat
'Stalinist oul' was
fashioned'
uring
his
eriod;
or Hellbeck
nd
gal
Halfin,
a
"key aspect
of Bolshevism"was "itsdesire o
engage
ndividuals ith heir
soul."
Evgenyi
Dobrenko
provocatively
rgues
that
both writers
nd readers
internalized
nd created oviet
values,
nd thus
e-created
hemselves,
hrough
the
formationf the SocialistRealisttext.
The
secondary
iterature
n
Soviet
culture
nd the nature
f
the Soviet
self thus
demonstrates
widespread
personal
ransformationiscourse
uring
his
eriod.
The dea that common riminal
ouldbe re-made
nto new
Sovietman
r
woman
would not have
struck
ontemporaries
s
strange,
ither.
Nikolai
Pogodin's popular
1930s
play, Aristokraty"Aristocrats")
escribes
the
reeducation
f nmates
t theWhite ea-Baltic
anal
Camp
BelBaltlag).
A
film
version
of the
play appeared
in 1936.
Aleksandr
Avdeenko
wrote
an
autobiographical
ovel
in
the
early
thirties
bout an
orphan
nd
thief
who
becomes
shock-worker
n
Magnitogorsk
fter
eeducation
n
a
Commune
or
FormerHomeless
Waifs.Avdeenko
himself
ccompanied
he
writers'
rigade
that
went o
theWhite ea-Baltic
Canal
in
order
o
gather
nformation
or
he
13
Lynne
Atwood
nd Catriona
elly, Programmes
or
dentity:
he
New
Man' and
'New
Woman,'" Constructing
ussian
Culture,
ds.
Kelly
and
Shepherd
256-90;
Michael
David-Fox,
What s CulturalRevolution?" he RussianReview58
(1999):
181-201;
tephen
otkin,
Magnetic
Mountain:
talinism
s a Civilization
Berkeley
nd
Los
Angeles:
University
f
California
Press,
1995)
235-37;
Jochen
Hellbeck,
"Fashioning
he Stalinist
oul:
The
Diary
of
Stepan
Podlubnyi,"
n
Fitzpatrick,
d.,
Stalinism:
New
Directions',
nd Hellbeck
and
Igal
Halfin,
Rethinking
he
Stalinist
Subject:
Stephen
Kotkin's
Magnetic
Mountain'
and the
State of
Soviet
Historical
Studies,"
ahrbcher
r
Geschichte
steuropas,
4
(1996):
456-63;
Evgeny
obrenko,
The
Making
f
the tate
Writer:ocial
and
Aesthetic
rigins
f
Soviet
iterary
ulture,
trans.
esse
M.
Savage
Stanford:
tanford
niversity
ress,
001).
For
more n
personal
transformation
nd
the Soviet
'self,'
see
also
Laura
Engelstein,
Culture,
Culture
Everywhere:
nterpretations
f Modern
Russia,
Across
the
1991
Divide,"
Kritika
.2
(2001):
363-93; Fitzpatrick,d., Stalinism:NewDirections; itzpatrick,he Cultural
Front: Power
and Culture
n
Revolutionary
ussia
(Ithaca:
Cornell
University
ress,
1992);
Kelly
and
Shepherd,
ds.,
Constructing
ussian
Culture;
Kelly
and
Volkov,
"Directed
Desires";
Anna
Krylova,
The Tenacious
Liberal
ubject
n Soviet
Studies,"
Kritika
.1
2000):
1
19-46;Volkov,
Concept
fkul'turnost1."
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294
Wilson T.
Bell
book,Belomorsko-Baltiiskiianal imeni tatina: storiia troitel'stva,931-
1934gg,
dited
y
Maksim
GorTdi,
ith
eeducation
s itsmain
heme. ne
of
the
book's
contributors,
ergei
Alymov,
ad evenbeen a
prisoner
f the
amp.
The Soviet Union also
exported
eeducation broad.
All
three
f the above
works
ppeared
n
English
ranslation
n
the
arly-
o mid- 930s.14
According
o
early
Bolshevik
heory,
rimewas a
product
f the social
conditions reated
by capitalism,
nd
it
would therefore
hither
way
under
communism.15he
Bolsheviks,
who
soon
discovered hat
rime ontinued o
occur,
t
first
mphasized
he
ducative,
nstead
f
punitive,spect
ftheir
enal
system.
n the1920s, he
People's
CommissariatfJustice an
fairly
fficient
education
ystem
n its
prisons.16
ven
during
he First ive-
ear-Plan,
when
labour nd
productivity
ere
clearly
he
main
focus,
many
within he
regime
argued
hat
y including
nmates
n
the
building
f
socialism,
ormer
riminals
would
earn olshevik alues
nd take
pride
n
theirabour.
The rhetoric
fre-
forging
ccurred ot
only
n the
public
discourse,
moreover.
t a closed
party
meeting
n the
Gulag
as late as
April
1937,
wrecking
i.e., sabotage),
he
inefficienciesf
Gulag
abour,
nd even
poor iving
onditions
ominated
he
discussion,
ut at least
one
participant
eminded
hose
present
f
the
Gulag's
economic nd educative
unctions:
Our main ask
s not
only
o use
people
and
their
hysical trength
ut
lso to reeducate
hem."
This cultureof
transformation
eakened
as time
went
on,
however.
Belomorsko-Baltiiskii
anal
disappeared
rom
he shelves
n
1937;
Pogodin's
14
Nikolai
Pogodin,
Aristocrats,"
our Soviet
Plays,
trans
Anthony
Wixley
New
York:
International
ublishers,
937;
film
version:
Zakliuchennye,
irected
by
E
CherviakovMoscow: Mosfil'm,1936); AleksandrAvdeenko, a liubliu Moscow:
Sovietskaia
iteratura,
933);
M.
Gor'kii,
.
Averbach,
nd S.
Finn,
eds.,
Belomorsko-
Baltiiskii anal imeni talina:
storiia
troitel'stva
931-1934
g
(Moscow,
1998;
first
published
n
Moscow:
OGIZ,
1934).
Formore n
Belomorsko-Baltiiskii
anal,
ncluding
brief
iographies
f
contributors,
ee
Ruder,
Making
Historyor
Stalin.
For the
English
translationsf Avdeenko
nd Belomorsko-Baltiiskii
anal
(not
n exact
ranslation)
ee
Avdeenko, Love,
trans
Anthony
Wixley
New
York: nternational
ublishers,
935),
and
Gor'kii t
al, eds.,
The White ea Canal.
15
Michael
Jakobson,
rigins
f
theGULAG:
The
Soviet rison
Camp
System
917-
1934
Lexington:
he
University
ress f
Kentucky,
993)
5.
1
Jakobson,rigins f heGULAG 63
1
See
Jakobson,
rigins
f
he
GULAG
88.
i8
Quoted
in
Galina
Ivanova,
Labor
Camp
Socialism:
The GULAG
in the Soviet
Totalitarian
ystem,
d. Donald
Raleigh,
rans.
arol
Flath
Armonk
nd London:
M. E.
Sharpe,
000)
89.
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The
Gulag Newspapers
295
play
no
longer
ran
in
theatres;
Avdeenko himselfwas
subject
to
persecution.19
Peter
H.
Solomon,
Jr. describes
a "conservative
shift" n
criminal
ustice
that
took
place gradually
during
the
1930s. Punishmentmoved
away
from
reform
orientation"
o
lengthier
rison
sentences nd other
epressive
measures,
uch as
the elimination f
parole
in
1938.20
Workday
credits,
whereby
prisoners
ould
earn reduced sentences
by fulfilling
orms,
were abandoned
in
the late- 930s
and reinstated
officiallyonly
in
1948.21 This shiftdid not mean a
complete
abandonment
f reeducation
s
part
of
the
camp system,
however.
The
concept
played an important
ole
duringWorld
War II
and nevercompletelyfaded,
as
the KVCh continued
o function.
The
extent
o
which
this shift ffected
he
day-to-day
ives of inmates
n the
Gulag
is unclear. Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn forcefully
documents
oppression
withinthe
Gulag
from
beginning
to
end,
and
therecan be no doubt that
most
prisoners
suffered
immensely
due
to
high mortality
rates,
malnutrition,
overwork,
nadequate
facilities,
and inhumane
treatment.23 istorians
of the
Gulag
mustbe mindful
f
chronology.
Technically speaking,
the
Gulag
was not
formally
stablished
until
April
1930.24
And,
indeed,
although
forestry
layed
a
largerole in life at the Solovki (themajor prisoncampof the 1920s), production
was not
particularly
he
camp's
raison d'tre?5
This
contrasts
harply
with
the
economic
orientationof the enormous
camp complexes
set
up
in
the
early
19
See the
note from he
publisher,
K chitateliu toi
knigi,"
Belomorsko-Baltiiskii
Kanal;
following
hemid-
930s,
Aristocrat/'
id not
ppear
n
stage gain
until
956
when
it was less well-received
see
Ruder,
Making History or
Stalin
169-171;
Avdeenko
was
prevented
rom
ublishing
n
1939;
Stalin
ersonally
ehabilitated
im
n
1
43,
however see
Ruder,
Making
istoryor
Stalin 5.
20 See Part II: The Conservativehift f PeterH. Solomon,Jr., oviet Criminal
Justice nder
talin
Cambridge:
ambridge niversity
ress,
996)
153-334,
sp.
227.
21
Leonid
Borodkin nd Simon
Ertz,
CoercionVersus
Motivation:
orced
Labor
n
Norilsk,"
heEconomics
f
ForcedLabor:
TheSoviet
Gulag,
ds. Paul
R.
Gregory
nd
Valry
azarev
Stanford:
oover
nstitution
ress,
003)
92-93.
22
For the
oleof reeducation
uring
he
war,
ee Steven
A.
Barnes,
All for he
Front,
All
for
Victory :
he
Mobilization f
ForcedLabor
n the Soviet
Union
during
World
War
Two,"
International
abor and
Working-Class
istory
8
(2000):
239-260,
esp.
244-249.
23
See
Solzhenitsyn,
he GULAG
Archipelago
nd
J. Otto
Pohl,
The
Stalinist
enal
System:A StatisticalHistory f SovietRepressionnd Terror, 930-1953 Jefferson:
McFarland
Company,
997)
47-49.
24
Pohl,
talinist
enal
System
.
25
Natalia
Kuziakina,
heatre
n the olovki
rison
Camp,
rans. oris
M.
Meerovich
(Luxembourg:
arwood
Academic
ublishers,
995)
14-15.
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296
Wilson T. Bell
thirties,uch s BelBaltlag, AMlag,andDmitlag, series fcampsdedicated
to
the
uilding
ftheMoscow-
olga
Canal.
Scholars
ave
highlighted
ther
urningoints
n
the
volution f the
Gulag
system.26
ntil
1937,
for
xample,
he
regime
id not
call the
camp
nmates
'prisoners';
nstead,
they
were
referred
o
as
'Stakhanovites' r 'shock-
workers'
linguistically,
t
least,
integrating
he
camp population
nto the
greater
oviet
society.
Robert
Conquest's Kolyma
also views 1937 as a
watershed
ear.
According
o
Conquest,
t this
oint
n
time
but
notbefore
terroror error's
ake
began
n the
oviet ar East:
Previous
ears
ad
seen,
n
occasion,
massive asualties. utthesehad been due to
inefficiencies
n
supply, ttempts
o
carry
ut
ssignments
n
mpossible
onditions,
and
in
fact
if in
exaggerated
orm
the normal
ncompetence
nd
brutality
f
Soviet ife... But above
all,
prisoners
ere not
subjected
o lethal onditions n
purpose.
The
camp
newspapers
ent
hrough
heir
wn
evolution,
s
secrecy
ecame
more and more
mportant
s time went
on,
particularly
ith
1941
and the
outbreak f
the
war.29 he
camppopulation
luctuated
onsiderably,eaching
ts
peak in 1953,theyearofStalin'sdeath.30 s scholars, herefore,e must e
careful
o
specify
he
ime
eriod
nder iscussion.
The
collection,
he
GULAG
Press,
1920-1937 ontains
large
number f
BAMlag newspapers
or
he
years
1933-37.
We have themain
paper,
troiteV
Bama,
and
supplemental apers
called bulletins from several different
departments.31
here re also
publications
n
literacy
Stanem ramotnymi,
r
"Becoming
Literate");
literaryupplement
o
StroiteV ama and
a
literary
26
See
Applebaum, ulag
xv-xviii. he refers o
the
period
1917-1939
s an "era of
trials ndexperiments,"14-15.For more n the volutionf theGulagsystem,ee the
introductiono Sistema
spravitel'no-Trudovykh
agerei,
10-74,
ummary
1-62,
written
by
Jakobson,mirnov,
.P.
Sigachev,
nd
D.V.
Shkapov.
27
Ivanova,
abor
Camp
Socialism 0.
28
Robert
onquest,
Kolyma:
The Arctic eath
Camps
London:
MacMillan,
1978)
47.
29
A.Iu.
Gorcheva,
ressa
Gulaga,
1918-1955
Moscow:
Izdatel'stvo
Moskovskogo
Universiteta,
996)
53-56.
30
It s
not
my
ntention
o enter nto
hedebate
oncerning
henumbers
f nmates
n
the
Gulag.
For tatisticsee
Pohl,
The talinist
enal
System
0-11. ee also
Applebaum,
Gulag578-586.
31
In
1928 control f the
amp
nd
prison
resses
hifted
o
the
enter nd
eventually
the
camp publications
ecame
tandardized:
herewouldbe one main
paper,
with
ach
departmentotdeleniie)
ublishing
tsown
supplement.
ee
Gorcheva,
ressa
Gulaga
28
and
41.
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The
Gulag
Newspapers
297
journal
(Putearmeets,
or "Railroad
Soldier");
two
papers published only
forthe
camp guard
(Zorkii
strelok,
"Sharpshooter,"
and Za
tempy
kachestvo,
"For
Tempo
and
Quality");
and several smaller
publications.
In
other
words,
the
collection for
BAMlag
is
very
rich.Stroitel Bama
frequently
eached
a
print-run
of
10,000
copies
(and
peaked
at
20,000)
-
far
greater
than that
of the other
publications.
t
is for hisreason that he
present
iscussion of the
BAMlag press
will focus on
Stroitel'
Bama
and its
departmental
ulletins.
BAMlag
was established 10 November
1932
and
closed
22
May
1938,
having
been
reorganized
into several
smaller
camps.
As noted
above,
BAMlag's
main economic
purpose
was
railway
construction,
n
particular
he
Trans-Siberian's second track. The Baikal-Amur
Mainline was not
completed
until the 1970s.33 The
regime obviously
felt
strongly
bout the
building
of
the
BAM,
for t sentNaftalii
FrenkeF,
Works Chief on the construction
f the
White
Sea-Baltic
Canal,
to oversee
construction
t
BAMlag.34
Frenkel1
himself was
living proof
that one could be
'reeducated,'
as
he had first
xperienced
the
camps
as
a
prisoner
at
Solovki.35
BAMlag
became one of the
largest camp
complexes
in
the
Gulag system,reaching
a
peak population
of over
200,000
inmates nJanuary 938.36 O. P. Elantseva emphasizestheconsiderable amount
of material
relating
to
re-forging
nd reeducation
within the documents
on
BAMlag.37
The
BAMlag newspapers,
withtheir ocus
on labour and
kuVturnost'
provide
a vivid
blueprint
or
hisreeducation.
On 5
May
1935 a
retrospective
rticletitled
The
BAMlag
Press"
appeared
in
Stroitel'
Bama. After
description
f
the various
BAMlag publications,
the
article
nds with he
following aragraph:
The
literary-artistic
trength
f the railroad
oldiers
s a reflection
f the
zeal and
heroism f this era
of
construction,
elated
o shock-
ork abour
and
mass
re-
forgingn thebuildingf the econd rack. t s tothemobilizationf shock-work
forces
nd the
re-forging
f
the
psyches
f
former
ffenders,
o the
organization
or
32
See Sistema
Ispravitel'nO'Trudovykh
agerei,
153-55.
On
BAM
in the
thirties,
ee
Elantseva,
Obrechennaia
dorogo.
33
Thomas
Lahusen,
How
Life
Writes he
Book: Real
Socialism
and
Socialist
Realism
in Stalin
s Russia
(Ithaca:
Cornell
University
ress,
1997)
14.
34
Solzhenitsyn,
Gulag Archipelago
vol.
II,
80;
and
Pohl,
Stalinist
Penal
System
1
.
35
See Lahusen
50-51. Lahusen refers
o Frenkel'
as the
"supreme
model"
(51)
for
the
BAMlag
inmates.
36
Sistema
Ispravitel'no Trudovykh agerei
153.
37
Elantseva,
Obrechennaia
doroga
19.
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298
Wilson
T. Bell
victory n thegreatest onstruction f the Second Five-Year Plan that ll the forces
of the
camp press
are
directed.
This
passage
contains
many
of the elements that are characteristic
f the
BAMlag press
as a whole. One is
immediately
truck
y
the
emphasis
on labour
and
construction,
s well as the
strong
ense of
urgency
nd
change.
This is not
merely
he
building
of a
railroad,
for t s linkedboth to
the
creation
of socialism
in the Soviet
Union
(the
reference o the Second
Five-
Year-Plan)
and the
re-
forging
r
reeducation
f "former ffenders."
hese
offenders,moreover,
re not
referred
o as
criminals,
prisoners,
or
inmates,
but
as "railroad
soldiers"
who
conduct "shock-work labour." The "zeal" and "heroism" needed for a final
victory
s linked to the nmates'
"literary-artistic
trength."
hrough
heir
abour,
in
theory,
the
inmates
are
building
a
railroad,
socialism,
and
re-building
themselves.
This theme reached
its zenith
n the Stakhanovite
movement,
nation-wide
labour movement
hat
ncluded the
Gulag.
As
is well
known,
n
August
1935
a
Donbas
miner,
Aleksei
Stakhanov,
n
six
hours hewed fourteen
imes
the norm
set
forcoal
by
his
enterprise.39
his
sparked
the Stakhanovite
movement,
which
awarded
great privileges
to those who
over-fulfilled
heir
norms.
One
BAMlag
Stakhanovite,
gorov,
of the twelfth
epartment,
3rd
halanx40,
ave
an account
of
his own "conversion"
experience
to
the readers
of
StroiteV
ama.
The article
is
titled,
"How
I Became
a Stakhanovite:
About
the collective
and about
myself."41
gorov
was a
gambler.
At
first,
is collective
had
only
fulfilled
5-20
per
cent of
its work-norms.
One
day
on his
way
back
from
work,
however,
Egorov
saw
the
slogan,
"Yesterday
a
bandit and
thief
today
a
hero of
labour."
He later
discovered
that
former
hirker
nd
member
of his
collective,
Sharov,
had
written
he
slogan.
Sharov
was
now
fulfilling
is norms
t a
rate
of 220
per
cent. Inspiredby Sharov, Egorov
followed
an order
prikaz)
issued
by
Genrikh
Iagoda,
head of the
NKVD,
which
"proved
to
[him]
that he
correct
nd
quickest
38
"Pechaf
Bamlaga,"
StroiteV
Bama
20(210)
(5
May
1935),
fiche
252.
Thank
you
to
Denis Kozlov
for he translation
f the second
sentence.
39
For
more
on
Stakhanovism,
see
Kotkin,
Magnetic
Mountain
207-14.
On
Stakhanovism
n the
Gulag,
see
Borodkin
and
Ertz,
"Coercion
vs.
Motivation"
91.
40
A
phalanx
was
a work unit
in the
Gulag.
See
Jacques
Rossi,
The GULAG
Handbook,
trans.
William
Burhans
New
York:
Paragon
House,
1989)
475,
and
Lahusen,
How
Life
Writes
the
Book
218
n. 18.
Interestingly,
he
term
phalanx'
is
replaced
by
kkolonna' n 1936, apparently o avoid an analogywithfascism.This again pointsto the
evolution
of the
Gulag
system
nd its
interconnectedness
ith the
rest
of Soviet
society.
See
Lahusen,
How
Life
Writes
he
Book
220 n. 38.
41
"Kak ia
stai stakhanovtsem:
O kollektive
o
sebe,"
in
SB
No.
4
(257):
21
January
1936,
fiche 589.
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The
Gulag
Newspapers
299
road to freedom was
through
conscious labour and one's own
re-forging."
Gradually Egorov
worked his
way up
to
the
point
of
fulfilling
00-350
per
cent
of his
daily
norm,
nd
thus
helped
the
whole
collective.
Of
course,
the extent hat uch an articlewould have been
believed
remains
an
important uestion.
The
Gulag
was
chronically
nder-supplied
nd its nmates
under-fed
nd over-worked.42 et it is
important
o understand he
strength
f
labour
in
self-identification
uring
he
early
Stalin
period.
This is a
major
theme
of Kotkin's
work.4 Scatteredreferences an
also be found
n
Gulag
memoirs.
Eugenia Ginzburg,after several years
in
prison, actually
looked
forwardto
physical
labour
in Siberia.
Ginzburg
describes the
reaction
n her train
wagon
when those
inside learned
they
were headed
for Vladivostok:
"The
wagon
hummed
with
oy
and
relief. From
Vladivostok,
no
doubt,
we should
go
on to
Kolyma,
with ts
opportunities
orheroic
work and
early
release.'
Ginzburg's
Kolyma
experience quickly
dispelled any
illusions
she
may
have had
concerning
Gulag
labour,46
ut it is
important
o note
that hese llusions existed
n
the
first
place.
Olga
Adamova-Sloizberg
recounts
thatthe
"main
punishment"
f
prison
"had been
to
deprive
of us
of
dignity
by giving
us no
work,"
showing
the
identificationf Soviet citizenswith abour.47 t should notbe discountedthat
some,
at
least
in
the
Gulag's
formative
years,
would
have taken
promises
of
42
The
shortage
f
provisions
ecame
specially
cute
during
WorldWar
I.
43
See
Kotkin,
Magnetic
Mountain
8-23
.
44
Along
with he
xamples
ited
elow, ee,
for
xample,
adezhda
Grankina,
Notes
By
Your
Contemporary,"
ill
My
Tale Is Told:
Women
s Memoirs
f
the
Gulag,
ed.
Simeon
Vilensky,
rans.John
Crowfoot,
MarjorieFarquharson,
atriona
Kelly,
Sally
Laird,
nd
Cathy
orter
Bloomington
nd
ndianapolis:
ndiana
University
ress,
1999).
Onp. 1 8, she relates hatmany risoners
sked
that ime
n labour
ampsreplace
heir
prison
entences;
ava
Volovich
egins
her
memoir,
My
Past,"
n
Vilensky,
d,
Till
My
Tale
s Told
242,
expressing
erdesire
s a
child o
grow
p
as a
factory
orker;
ater
p.
259)
she states
hat
amp
nmates
ouldhave
been able
to feel
pride
n their abour
had
conditions
ot been so
terrible,
evealing
n
underlying
onging
or
meaningful
ork.
Simon
Ertz,
n his
article,
Building
orilsk,"
n
Gregory
nd
Lazarev,
ds,
Economics
f
Forced
Labor
147,
states
that while
the memoirists
niversally
cknowledged
he
extremely
arsh
working
onditions,
ome
also related
with
pride
their
labour
achievements,
ncluding aving
heir
ames
isted n the
redboards'
also
see
p.
302
of
this
rticle,
elow).
45
Eugenia
emyonovna
inzburg,
ourney
nto he
Whirlwind,
rans. aul
Stevenson
andMaxHaywardNewYork:Harvest, BJ, 967)295.
46
See
Ginzburg,
Within
he
Whirlwind,
rans. an
Boland,
ntro.
Heinrich
oll
(New
York
nd London:
HBJ,
1981)
331.
47
Olga
Adamova-Sloizberg,My
Journey,"
n
Vilensky,
d,
Till
My
Tale
s Told
48-
49.
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300
Wilson T.
Bell
privilegesand rewards forproductive abour seriously,particularlyonsidering
the
policy
of
workday
credits nd the mass-release of
prisoners
from
BelBaltlag
following
he canal's construction.
Nikolai
Pogodin's play,
"Aristocrats,"
uggests
some
plausible
reactionsto
the idea of reeducation
hrough
abour. The character
onya,
who laterbecomes
a hero of
construction,
irst ismisses reeducation
ompletely:
It's all
claptrap,
lies
every
bit of it to hell with ll this
talk
about
mouldingpeople's
characters
over
again, making
new
people
out
of
'em,
training
em it's
newspaper
bunk...."
Some also
try
o use 'reeducation'
to their wn
advantage.
One inmate
tells Sonya, "There's nothing eforged r reformed bout me and all thisplay-
acting
isn't worth
god-damn...
Let's admit
straight
ut to each
other
we're
working
o
get
our sentences
reduced."
StroiteVBama
and the
departmental apers
made the
privileges
for shock-
workers nd Stakhanovites
well
known.
n
one
issue,
a
correspondent
hares
the
experience
of
visiting
the Stakhanovite
residence.49
The
correspondent
eems
particularly
mpressed
by
the cleanliness
and orderliness
f the
barracks,
s
well
as one Stakhanovite's
description
f the
food
cookies,
sausage,
and
more
that
he was able
to
buy
with the
money
he had earned.
A
bulletin
fromthe
third
department
contains a
story linking
work
output
to rations
received.
Competitions
etween
departments
r
phalanxes
could
result
n
great
rewards
for
the
winners,
and
the
papers
do
not
shy
away
from
making
these
rewards
known.51
On several
occasions,
the
papers
also indicate
that
hard,
productive
labour
would result
n
early
release.52
One
major privilege
was
to have
a
photograph
r sketch nd/or
nformation
about
oneself
appear
in the
pages
of StroiteV
ama or a
departmental
aper.
The
entire
back
page
of the
1
May
1934 issue
of StroiteV
ama
features
n article
titled, "The best of the best in the strugglefor the early completion of
construction."53
his
page
contains
fifteen
ketches
of different
orkers,
with a
short
blurb
on each
one.
Love of
work and
plan
fulfillment
igure
rominently.
48
Pogodin,
Aristocrats"
02 and
279.
49
"V
gostiakh
stakhanovtsa,"
n
SB
No. 15
268):
2 March
936,
fiche 90.
50
"Udarniki
e
v
sehet,
lodyriam
ochet,"
n SB: biulleten'
-go
otdeleniia,
o.
211
(343):
15 October
934,
fiche 58.
51
See,
for
xample,
Konkurs,"
n
SB: biulleten'
-go
otdeleniia,
o.
21
(201):
14
March1935,fiche 20.
52
See,
for
xample,
Luchshim-
'gota,"
n SB No.
55
(243):
7 November
935,
fiche
255.
53
"Luchshie
z
luchshikh
bor'be
a
dosrochnoe
konchanie
troitel'stva,"
n SB
No
20(120):
1
May
1
34,
fiche 04.
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The
Gulag
Newspapers
30
1
The
BAMlag press
thus
employed
xamples
s a means of motivationnd
reeducation.
t s worth
oting
hat hisholds
rue ot
nly
or
amp
nmates,
ut
also for the
militarized
uard
VOKhR
voenizirovannaia
khrana).
Zorkii
strelok,
ublished
nly
for he
VOKhR,
contains
regular
ection
itled,
follow
the
xample"
berite
rimer).54
he inmates
erenot he
onlygroup
n
need
of
reeducation.55
When one
speaks
of corrective'abour
n
the
USSR,
the
building
f the
White ea-Baltic
Canal
provides
he
xample.
tories f
the anal's
construction
litter
he
earlyBAMlag press.
The
canal
workers
ompleted
he
227 km
ong
canal
in less than
two
years
September
931
May
1933).56
Soviet
leaders
praised
the
canal construction
or
ts educational
ffects.
ndeed,
the
Gulag
released
2,484
prisoners
ndhanded
9,516
others
educed
entences
ollowing
the anal's
completion.57
romises f
early
elease or
ood
work
hus ontained
some
truth.
he
BAMlag press
treated
hecanal
workers
more s
heroes
han
prisoners.
he 15
August
933
headline
n StroiteV
ama
reads,
Work
harder
and
better han
efore:
work s
the
White ea-Baltic
Canal
workers
id."58
he
article
iscusses
ew
qualifications
any
anal
workers
eceived,
nd
calls
upon
BAMlag inmates o bring he "enthusiasm"nd "tempos" f theWhiteSea-
Baltic Canal
camp
to their wn
labour.
Shock-workers"
rom
he canal
were
sent o
BAMlag
following
he anal's
completion.
ront-page
rticles
ppear
n
StoiteV
ama
and the
departmental
apers
welcoming
hese
workers
with
n
"ardent
hello,"
a
"railroad-soldier
ello,"
and
heralding
hem
s the
shock-
59
workers
or he
onstruction
fthe
BAM.
One
also
had
to learn
what
ehaviour
o avoid.
Shaming
ituals
'ritual'
n
the
sense
of a
prescribed
orm)
layed
an
important
ole
in
this educative
54
Zorkii
trelok,
iche
5.
55
See
Ivanova,
Labor
Camp
Socialism,
hapter
hree,
Gulag
Personnel"
27-84.
Ivanova
frequently
entions
he
ow educational
evels
ofthe
amps'
taff
nd
notes
hat
the
Gulag
was
a reeducation
ystem
ot
only
for
nmates,
ut also
for
deviant
NKVD
members
see
141).
56
Pohl,
talinist
enal
System
. See
Also
Ruder,
Making
Historyor
Stalin
or
more
on
the onstruction
f the
White ea-Baltic
Canal.
57
Pohl,
talinist
enal
System
3.
58
"Rabott1
ol'she
luchshe,
hem
an'she:
abott'
ak,
ak
rabotali
elmorstroevtsy,"
in SBNo. 55: 15August 933, iche 98.
59
"Udarnomu
triadu
elbaltkombinata
lamennyi
rivet "
n SB na
trasse
No.
12:
11
March
1934,
fiche
18;
"Putearmeiskii
rivet,"
n
SB
No. 10
(105):
19
February
934,
fiche
03;
"Privet
darnym
alangam
elmorstroevtsev,"
n
SB
No. 48:
17
July
933,
fiche
97.
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302 Wilson T.
Bell
process. In theBAMlag press,such rituals onsistedof "black boards" (chernaia
doska),
sometimescalled
"black
boards
of shame" as well as other
rticles and
cartoons
casting
shame
on individuals. One's name would
appear
in
such
instances
usually
for
he under- ulfillmentf work-norms
ut oftenfor
not
iving
up
to
Bolshevik
values of
hard work
and
proper iving.
A black board
appearing
in
the fifth
epartment's
aper
makes
explicit
the
types
of behaviour
thatwould
not
be tolerated: One
inmate,
L. M.
Pliushchev,
appeared
on
the board as
a
"truant nd
drunkard."
nmates
Belokhvostov,
Muzykantov,
Dashkov, Fedorov,
and Tsarev
are listed as
"loafers,
slackers
[lezheboki],
deserters
from he work
front,and enemies of construction."An educator is admonished for the
"inactivity"
and
"breakdown"
of
cultural-educational
work.
In this
particular
issue,
the black board
appears
next to
a "red board"
at the bottomof the
front
page.
The red board
lists the "best shock-workers."
his
type
of
juxtaposition
between
proper
and incorrect ehaviour
gave
the
readership
clear idea of
how
to act. The
black boards often
nclude lists
of
phalanx
leaders and
educators,
who have
in
some
way
failed
in
their duties.61
The inclusion
of
workers
and
educators
indicates
that abour was
not the
only
means
of
reeducation,
despite
several
articles
claiming
this to be
the case.62
Indeed,
leading
a cultured
way
of
life was a
key aspect
of the
educative
process.
The
BAMlag press
endeavored to
instillvalues
of kul'turnost'
n
the
camp
population.
In order to become
reeducated,
one
needed
knowledge
of
three
separate
subjects:
(1)
high
culture,
2)
the
USSR,
and
(3)
how
to
lead a
proper
way
of
life. In order
to
prove
one's
mastery
over such
subjects,
one
could
become
an
active
participant
n the KVCh
and the
camp press,
usually
as a
lagkor
pl. lagkory),
r
camp-correspondent.
Although
high'
culture s
not featured
rominently
n the
BAMlag press,
t
appears frequentlynough
to
warrant
ttention.
he
presence
of a
wide
variety
of cultural
material indicates
that
during
the
1930s,
at
least,
economic
exploitation
was
not the
press' only purpose.
In
1936,
the KVCh
published
the
paper,
Literatura
i
iskusstvo
Bamlaga
("Literature
nd
Art of
BAMlag"),
as
a
supplement
to Stroitel1
Bama.
This
two-page
paper
appeared
at least
twelve
60
"Chernaia
oska,"
n SB: biulleten
-go
otdeleniia
No.
21: 23 March
1934,
fiche
574.
61 See,"Chernaia oskapozora,"n SB: biulleten'-gootdeleniia o 80 (260): 9 June
1935,
fiche
23.
62
See,
for
xample,
Perevospityvat1
orko herez
rud,
SB:
biulleten'
-go
otdeleniia
No. 80
(260):
9 June
935,
fiche
23.,
nd
"V trude
ozhdaetsia
ovyi
helovek,"
n SB:
biulleten'
-go
otdeleniia
o
127
262):
22 June
934,
iche 54.
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The
Gulag
Newspapers
303
times,
usually
with a
print-run
f
5,000
copies.63
The
April
1936 issue
(no. 2)
lets readers
n
on current ebates on
literature
within he
greater
oviet
society.
Page
two contains
lengthy
rticle,
riginally ublished
n
Literaturnaia
gazeta,
with the
title,
On formalism nd
naturalism
n
literature." iteratura
iskusstvo
Bamlaga
also features
rominent
ussian
literary igures, ast
and
present.
The
July
1936 issue
is
devoted
to
Pushkin;
ssue number wo contains everal
poems
by
Vladimir
Maiakovskii;
and issue number
seven focuses on
the life and
writings
f
Gor'kii.
Throughout, oetry ppears
about events
within he Soviet
Union,mostnotably
he 1936 Constitution.
Other
evidence of
'high'
culture
n
the
Gulag
can be found
n the
regular
camp press.
Two
fascinating
rticles
appear
in the 5
August
1936 issue of
StroiteV
Bama.65
The first iscusses
the
evolution
of a
"string
ircle"
(strunnyi
kruzhok)
nto
a "decent"
(neplokho)
percussion
band
(shumovoi
orkestr)
s
it
expanded.
Although
the author of
the article and
leader of the
band
complains
about
the insufficient umber f
instrumentsnd
lack of sheet
music,
the
group
had been able
to
play
concertsfor
heir
halanx,
a
village
of
collective
farmers,
nd for the
headquarters
of
the fifteenth
epartment.
Most
of the
musicians seem to have been self-taughtsamouchki), but had managed to
become
musically
literate.
The second
article relates
the difficulties
n
establishing
a
symphony
orchestra
n
BAMlag.
Although
such
an ensemble
"would
be a valuable
contribution
o the
cultural life"
in the
camp,
the
instruction
rdering
ts
completion
had
long
been
ignored.
This seems
to have
been
due
in
part
to
a recalcitrant
onductor,
who had
recently
ed
a smaller
group
in
a
successful
concert
tour of "almost
all
of the
departments
n the
railroad."
Eventually,
however,
a small
(nebol'shoi)
orchestra
was
established,
nd at the
time
of the
article's
publication
t
had
begun
its
"painstaking
work...
to become
themostexemplary nd best in theregion."Articleson dramagroupsand theatre
performances
lso
occasionally
turn
p
in
the
papers
of the
BAMlag press.
63
See
Literatura
iskusstvo
amlaga,
fiche327.
The
GULAG
Press,
1920-1937
contains
ssues
1-12;
it is
unclear
whether
ublications
ontinued
ollowing
ssue
12
(August,
936).
Issues
1
and
10 have a
print-run
f
10,000,
ssues
2
and
3:
1,000,
nd
issue4:
1,500;
he
emaining
ach
have
print-run
f
5,000
copies.
64
See
especially
iteratura
iskusstvo
amlaga
No.
9 and
No.
1
,
fiche 27.
65 "Shumovoi rkestr"nd "Simfonicheskiirkestr,"n SB No. 87 (340): 5 August
1936,
fiche 86.
66
See,
for
example,
O rabote
dramkruzhka
sen'evskoi,"
n
SB:
biulleten'
-ogo
otdeleniiaNo.
147
(282):
16
July
934,
fiche
55.
For
moreon
BAMlag
culture,
ee
Lahusen,
ow
Life
Writeshe
Book
44-50.
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304
Wilson
T. Bell
Perhaps heepitome f high'culture n theBAMlag press s the iterary
journal,
utearmeets67 t had
a
print-run
f 3000
copies per
ssue,
nd
usually
contained 5-50
pages.
The
ournal
onsists
mainly
f socialist-realist
oetry
nd
short
tories,
written
y
the nmates. t is
beyond
he
scope
of this
paper
to
discuss these
literary
ontributions
n
detail,
but suffice t to
say
that,
not
surprisingly,
ostof the stories nd
poems
take abour r the
building
f the
railroad
s their
ubject.
ssue number
hree,
or
xample,
ontains
oems
on
shock-work
abour,
he
building
f the second
track,
song
of
the railroad
workers,
nd so on. Vasilii
Azhaev,
uthor f the 1948 Stalin-Prize
inning
novel, ar FromMoscow,
ublished
is firsttoriesnthe
ages
oPutearmeets,
as
a
BAMlag
inmate
n
the mid-
930s.69
homas
Lahusen,
n
his
study
f
Azhaev's life and
writings,
howshow Far
FromMoscow was based
on real
occurrences
n
the Soviet Far
East,
and
the
protagonists
ased on
persons
n
Azhaev's
ife,70
lurring
hedistinctionsetween
rt nd
reality.'
The secondkul'turnost'-related
eansof reeducation
nvolved
nformation
about
he ovietUnion.
n order o becomenewSoviet
men nd
women,
nmates
had to know
something
bout their
ountry.
ncluded
n this
category
re
speechesby importantoliticalfigures
nd information
bout
key
events nd
movements
such
as Stakhanovism
nd the debates
betweenformalism
nd
naturalism,
s noted
above)
both
within he Soviet
Union,
nd
occasionally,
beyond
tsborders.
ll of this
uggests
hat
he
regime,
t least
n the
rhetoric,
considered
ts
prisoners
o
be
part
of
Soviet
society.
The
papers
inked he
inmates o the
utsideworld.
There
re
many peeches
y
Soviet
eaders
ncluded
n
the
pages
of
StroiteV
Bama.
A
six-page
eport
doklad)
by
Molotov
itled,
The Plan and
Our Tasks"
monopolizes
he
8
January
936 ssue.71
Molotov's
words
race
he
pages
once
again n Decemberna long peech n the 1936Constitution.7. Vyshinsky's
(the
procurator
f
the
USSR)
1936
speech
n the
Trotskyite-Zinovievite
errorist
67
See
Putearmeets,
iche
15-19,
nd
Lahusen,
How
Life
Writes
he
Book
44-54,
for
more
n the
ournal
68
See
"Udarnyi
rud,"
Na
stroike
torykh
utei,"
nd
"Pesnia
putearmeitsev,"
n
Putearmeets
o. 3:
October,
935,
fiche
6-17.
69
Lahusen,
ow
Life
Writes
heBook
16
70
See
Lahusen,
ow
Life
Writeshe
Book,
sp.
5.
71
"Plan nashi
adachi,"
n
SB
No. 5
(258)
28
January
936,
iche
89.
72
"Rech' tov.
V.M.
Molotova
o novoi
Konstitutsii,"
n
SB
No.
117
(370):
17
December
936,
fiche
16.
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The
Gulag
Newspapers
305
centre an be foundnStroiteV ama's
pages.
And
although
peeches y
other
key figures
ften
ppear,74
he
figure
f Stalin
s,
not
surprisingly,
he most
exalted. talin's
peech
from hefirstll-union
takhanoviteonference
ppears
in
the28 November 935
ssue;
earlier hat
ear,
is
address o the
graduates
f
theRed
Army cademy
an be
found;
AMlag
inmates
ould
also
read
Stalin's
words on the 1936 Constitution.75
four-page iography
f
Stalin was
published
n
21
December 936.76
Reeducation
lso
involved
t
least a
rudimentarynderstanding
f current
affairs. he Stakhanovite ovement nd the 1936 Constitutionave already
beenmentioned.
ndeed,
arge
ortions
f
theConstitutionere
ublished
n two
1936
issues.77 he
4
July
ssue's
headline,
aken
from
ravda,
reads,
"The
78
Soviet
Constitution:n inexhaustibleource
of
political
ducation."
Lagkory
made
xplicit
he
ink
etween heConstitution
ndthe
e-forgingrocess.
n
the
same
4
July
ssue,
which ontains umerous rticles
nd blurbs
praising
he
Constitutionnd
the
USSR,
one
lagkor
wrote
f his
experience
tudying
he
Constitution.
e
quotes
his fellow ailroad
workers:
Every ursuit
n
the
tudy
of the
Constitution
roject...
is for us an
amazing
school
[experience]
[zamechatel'naiahkola]"79n itsreportingn theConstitution,troiteVama
differedittle
rom he
regular
oviet
press.
n
July
936,
for
xample,
here
re
73
"Protsess
Trotskistogo-zinov'evskogo
errori
ticheskogo
sentra,"
n SB No.
100
(353),
fiche
15.
74
See,
for
xample,
Plenum
sentral'nogo
omiteta
KB(b),"
in SB No.
2
(255):
8
January
936,
fiche
89;
and
a
speech
y
a.
lakovlev,
Vpered,
dol'neishemu
od"emu
zhivotnovodstva "
n
SB No.
16(269):
3 March
1936,
fiche 90.
I
have
not ncluded
ere
the numerous
rders
prikazy)
hat make
their
way
into StroiteV
ama and the
departmentalulletins. heseprikazyften omefromagoda,BermanheadofGulag),
or
Frenkel'.
75
"Rech1
ovarishcha talina
na
pervom
sesoiuznom
oveshchanii
takhanovtsev,"
n
SB
No. 56
(245):
28 November
1935,
fiche
256;
"Rech' Tovarishcha
talina
v
kremlevskoi
vortse a
vypuski
kadamikov
rasnoi rmii
maia 1935
roda,"
n SB No.
22
(212):
17
May
1935,
fiche
252;
and
"Doklad tovarishcha
talina
. V. o
proekte
konstitutsiioiuza
SSR,"
in
SB
No.
11
(368):
4
December
936,
fiche
16.
76
"Zhizn1 osifa
Vissarionovicha
talina,"
n
SB
No. 118
(371):
21 December
936,
fiche 17.
77
See "Konstitutsiia
Osnovnoi zakon)
Soiuza Sovetskikh
Sotsialisticheskikh
Respublik," B No. 54 (307): 20 June1936, fiche593 and SB No. 116 (368): 14
December
936,
fiche 16.
78
"Sovetskaia
Konstitutsiia
neischerpaemyi
stochnik
oliticheskogo
ospitaniia"
n
SB No. 63
(316):
4
July
936,
fiche 84.
79
See "Konstitutsiia
trany
otsializma,"
n SB No. 63
(3
1
):
4
July
36,
fiche
84.
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7/25/2019 One Day in the Life of Educator Khrushchev Labour and Kul_turnost_ in the Gulag Newspapers
19/26
306 Wilson
T. Bell
fewerssueswith rticles elatingo theConstitutionhan nPravda or zvestiia,
but
slightly
more than
in
neighbouring
Khabarovsk's
major paper,
80
Tikhookeanskaia
azeta.
Inmateswere lso made
well
aware
f other
mportant
vents f
this
eriod.
The
threat f war nd events
n
Germany igure rominently
n several ssues
of
Stroitel'
ama;
Litvinov's isit
o theUnited
tates,
vents
n
China
nd
Japan,
and a
lengthy
rticle
omparing
ocialist
nd
capitalist
ountries,
ith
material
8
1
takenfrom
ravda and
Izvestiia,
lso
appear.
In
several
ssues,
one finds
section
titled,
Around
the Soviet
Union,"
Po
Sovetskomu
oiuzu)
which
contains rticles f ntereston
anything
rom occer o
ndustry
fromarious
82
Soviet
newspapers.
The
third nd final
spect
f
education
hrough
ul'turnost'
elates
o
eading
a
proper
way
of life.
ncludedhere
re conduct
hygiene,
ood
manners,
tc.),
literacy,
nd
physical
ulture.
Many
articles
make t clear
that he
regime mphasized
he
mportance
f
leading
healthy ay
of life
zdorovyi yt).
Often hese tems
ink
healthy
lifestyle
o ncreased
roduction.
ne
supplement
prilozhenie)
o Stroitel'
ama
carries he logan:
To
struggle
or
healthy ay
of
ife
means
o
struggle
or
healthy roduction."84
n
article
rom 7
August
934 titled
The
struggle
or
80
See Pravda
(Moscow), July
1936,
nos 179
(6785)-
209
(6815);
Izvestiia
(Moscow),
July
1936,
nos 152
(6009}-
176
(6033);
Tikhookeanskaia
azeta
(Khabarovsk),
os 150
3325)-
174
3349)
and
SB,
July
936,
nos 62
(315)-
83
(336),
fiche 84-585.
Looking
t the
July
936 issues
for ll
four
apers,
found
hat
ravda
contained
rticles
nd/or
ections
irectlyelating
o theConstitution
n
all
of ts
ssues;
Izvestiia
n all but
one;
Tikhookeanskaia
azeta
in
roughly
alf
12
out
of 23
available
issues);
nd
SB
in
roughly
wo-thirds
14
out
of
22
available
ssues).
I See
"Sobytiia
Germanii,"
nSB No. 51
(146):
13
July
934,fiche 07;
"Sekretnye
vooruzheniia
Germanii,"
n
SB
No. 78
(331):
25
July
1936,
fiche
585;
"Voina
imperialisticheskoi
oine "
n SB No.
62
(157):
13
August
934,
iche
08;
"K
priznaniiu
SSSR
Amerikoi:
ov.
Litvinov
Amerike,"
n SB No. 88:
7 December
933,
fiche
01;
"Sobytiia
Kitae,"
n SB No.
51
(304):
14
June
1936,
fiche
93;
"Teradtsi,
agano
Anta obsuzhdaiut
neshniuiu
olitiku
aponii,"
n SB
No. 51
(304):
14 June
936,
fiche
593.
82
See,
for
xample,
Po Sovetskomu
oiuzu,"
n
SB
No.
2
(255):
8
January
936,
fiche
89.
83
See,
for
xample, Uspekhi
piatidnevnika
ul'tury
akrepit'
o
kontsa
troiki,"
n
SB: biulleten' -ogootdeleniiaNo. 89 (269): 27 June 935,fiche 23; "Kakmyvedem
bor'bu
a
zdorovyi
yt,"
n SB na
vtorykhutiakh
No.
4
(139):
6
January
934,
fiche
547;
and "Chtob
ne
byl
bytom rotsent
obit
daesh'
na stroike
dorovyi
yt,"
n
SB
na
vtorykhutiakh
o. 65: 28
August
933,
fiche 40.
84
"Za
zdorovyi
yt,"
n Prilozhenie
gazete
"Stroitel'
ama,
July
34,
fiche
07.
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7/25/2019 One Day in the Life of Educator Khrushchev Labour and Kul_turnost_ in the Gulag Newspapers
20/26
The
Gulag Newspapers
307
Of
[proper] way
of life is the
struggle
or
the
plan" provides
another
xample
of
this link. The article
mentions the fifth
department's
31st
phalanx,
which
"reached storm
tempos"
(nachali shturmovymiempami)
n
part
because of
its
simultaneousefforts
n
improving uality
of life for ts members.
Such efforts
included
cleaning
the
barracks nd
eating
rea
and
engaging
n
"cultural"
work.
As
indicated
above,
there s much
thatcan be
subsumed under the
heading
"proper
way
of life."
A "red corner"
n
each of
the barracks
was a
necessity.86
The
numerous
newspaper
blurbs and cartoons
about
alcoholism
suggest
that
abstinence played a role in one's re-forging. The KVCh also placed
tremendous
mportance
n
literacy.
Among
BAMlag's
manypublications
an
be
found Startern
ramotnymi
"Becoming
Literate").88
This
newspaper
appeared
three
times
per
month
with a
print-run
f
between
one
and three
thousand.
A
variety
of articles
appear
in
its
pages,
from
nformation
bout the
Russian
language,
to
general
news
items,
to mathematical
problems.
The effort
t
creating
and
maintaining
ibraries
n the
camps
some
were
more
successful
89
than
others
also indicates
the
mportance
f
literacy
n the
educative
process.
Physical
culture
an be
seen as
another
way
of
life"
category.
One
finds
n the
pages of Putearmeets instructions n how to play tetherball, and several
references
o
volleyball
matches
in
the
pages
of Stroitel'
Bama.
One
article,
which
speaks
of
the
need
to "instill
a
sanitary
minimum"
nto the
lives of
the
inmates,
ncludes
diagrams
nd
instructions
n
calisthenics.
85
"Bor'ba
a
byt-
bor'ba
a
plan,"
n SB
No. 64
(
1
9):
1
August
34,
fiche
09.
86
For
a
description
f a "red
corner,"
ee
"Krasnye golki
ochagi
kul'tury,"
n