Gulag Advantages

The Gulag was the correctional system of the previous Soviet Union. Prisoners were shipped to labor camps and were required to work without pay. Citizens could be sent to the Gulag for serious crimes, but also for petty violations like showing up late for work, missing work, or stealing food for your hungry family. Many prisoners were also there for political reasons. If you spoke out against the government, or if party administrators saw you as a threat to their authority, you could be condemned to forced labor in the Gulag. The Gulag was very efficient at building allegiance to the state and also for crushing dissent. The purpose of its effectiveness was because of the cruel circumstances in the camps. Fear can be a powerful instrument for …show more content…
Violence upon the workers was very common. Because of this, you did not do anything to attract the suspicion of the soviet party administrators. The economic advantages for the party are clear: the use of free labor to draw profit. Gulags completed many necessary economic capacities such as deforested areas for lumber, mining for coal and copper, and sometimes large scale projects like construction of canals. Their first major undertaking was the White Sea Canal, which was estimated to have been full built in 18-20 months between 1931 and early 1933. The canal connects the White Sea to Lake Omega. Although there was access to modern tools, this was still a massive project. The canal was mostly dug with simple tools like shovels and wheelbarrows. The death toll of this project is not known but many historians estimate between 20,000 to 1000,000 lives were lost while constructing the canal. Nevertheless, while the camps were advertised as making significant contributions to the economy, it is not unexpected, knowing the severely deficient conditions, that prison labor did not make a firm contribution to the