Production and terror: The operation of the Karelian Gulag, 1933-1939

Abstract

This is the second of two papers surveying the origins, expansion and operation of the Karelian 'special' camp system between 1923 and 1939. Together, they aim to offer an extended and detailed case study of the development of the Gulag at regional level. In June 1933, the OGPU completed construction of the Belomor Canal and established an extensive network of prison camps in central and northern Karelia and on the Kola Peninsula to exploit regional economic resources. The camp authorities envisaged the transformation of the Belomorsko-Baltiiskii Kombinat (BBK) into "a Urals-Kuznetsk Combine on a smaller scale." The Soviet centre, however, refused to allocate sufficient funding to realise this vision, and the camp instead specialised in timber felling and processing. This paper first considers how the BBK regulated the lives and labour of its prisoner population in these activities, and how it interacted with the regional civil, party and security authorities. It then investigates the BBKs role in the Great Terror of 1937-1938, which focused the camp on its core productive and repressive functions. In conclusion, it describes Beria's efforts to rationalise andfurther retrench the camp's operations on the eve of war.