Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, known as one of the most murderous dictators in history, transformed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) from being a benighted country to a world superpower, at the cost of millions of lives. Stalin’s regime was solely based upon the ideology of Marxist Communism, dogmatically asserting utilitarian beliefs in all policies formed. Stalin’s need for total power over the Soviet states brought him great paranoia and insecurity, ultimately resulting in the execution of perceived political threats and the formation of forced labour camps, incarcerating anyone thought to be a threat to the Soviet State. The term Gulag, an acronym for the Soviet administrative organisation, Glavnoe Upravlenie ispravitel’no-trudovykh
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Women were also incarcerated in labour camps, and so were children. Anne Applebaum reflects upon the experience of women in the labour camp system, revealing the failure of the Soviet ideology, as men and women become held in camps together. Due to the low number of women being sent to the camps, with 22 per cent of Gulag prisoners in 1948 being women, falling to 17 per cent in 1951 and 1952, women became of important value to male prisoners, the guards and the camps free workers, further promulgating the sexual and immoral nature of labour camp and its administration, particularly in the late 1940s-early 1950s. She describes the horrific nature of women in camps as follows: “In those camps where there were more or less open contacts between male and female prisoners - or where, in practice, certain men were allowed access to women’s camps - they were frequently propositioned, accosted and, most commonly, offered food and easy work in exchange for sex…[A 1999 Amnesty International report] uncovered cases of male guards and male prisoners raping female prisoners; of male inmates bribing guards for access to women prisoners; of women being strip-searched and frisked by male guards. Nevertheless, the strange social hierarchies of the Soviet camp system means that women were tortured and humiliated to an extent unusual even for a prison system.” This systemic humiliation and torture of women in labour camps is completely unacknowledged by Solzhenitsyn, a crucial aspect of the Soviet system required to gain a thorough understanding of the cruel and corrupt nature of the Stalinist regime. Furthermore, Applebaum disseminates that 52,830 children were sent to “labour-educational colonies,” a palatable interpretation of an adolescent concentration camp, with 4,305 juveniles sent to adult camps, where they began to
Women were also incarcerated in labour camps, and so were children. Anne Applebaum reflects upon the experience of women in the labour camp system, revealing the failure of the Soviet ideology, as men and women become held in camps together. Due to the low number of women being sent to the camps, with 22 per cent of Gulag prisoners in 1948 being women, falling to 17 per cent in 1951 and 1952, women became of important value to male prisoners, the guards and the camps free workers, further promulgating the sexual and immoral nature of labour camp and its administration, particularly in the late 1940s-early 1950s. She describes the horrific nature of women in camps as follows: “In those camps where there were more or less open contacts between male and female prisoners - or where, in practice, certain men were allowed access to women’s camps - they were frequently propositioned, accosted and, most commonly, offered food and easy work in exchange for sex…[A 1999 Amnesty International report] uncovered cases of male guards and male prisoners raping female prisoners; of male inmates bribing guards for access to women prisoners; of women being strip-searched and frisked by male guards. Nevertheless, the strange social hierarchies of the Soviet camp system means that women were tortured and humiliated to an extent unusual even for a prison system.” This systemic humiliation and torture of women in labour camps is completely unacknowledged by Solzhenitsyn, a crucial aspect of the Soviet system required to gain a thorough understanding of the cruel and corrupt nature of the Stalinist regime. Furthermore, Applebaum disseminates that 52,830 children were sent to “labour-educational colonies,” a palatable interpretation of an adolescent concentration camp, with 4,305 juveniles sent to adult camps, where they began to