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The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin's Special Settlements
One of Stalin's most heinous acts was the ruthless repression of millions of peasants in the early 1930s, an act that established the very foundations of the gulag. Solzhenitsyn barely touched upon this brutal episode in his magisterial Gulag Archipelago and subsequent writers passed over the
subject in silence. Now, with the opening of Soviet archives, an entirely new dimension of Stalin's brutality has been uncovered. The Unknown Gulag is the first book in English to explore this untold story.
Historian Lynne Viola reveals how, in one of the most egregious episodes of Soviet repression, Stalin drove two million peasants into internal exile, to work as forced laborers. The book shows how entire families were callously thrown out of their homes, banished from their villages, and sent to
the icy hinterlands of the Soviet Union, where in the course of a decade, almost a half million would die as a result of disease, starvation, or exhaustion. Drawing on pioneering research in the previously closed archives of the central and provincial Communist Party, the Soviet state, and the
secret police, Viola documents the history of this tragic episode. She delves into what long remained an entirely hidden world within the gulag, throwing new light on Stalin's consolidation of power, the rise of the secret police as a state within the state, and the complex workings of the Soviet
system. But first and foremost, she movingly captures the day-to-day life of Stalin's first victims, telling the stories of the peasant families who experienced one of the twentieth century's most horrific instances of mass repression.
A compelling story of human suffering and survival in Stalin's Soviet Union, here is a new chapter in the history of the gulag, virtually hidden from sight until now.
subject in silence. Now, with the opening of Soviet archives, an entirely new dimension of Stalin's brutality has been uncovered. The Unknown Gulag is the first book in English to explore this untold story.
Historian Lynne Viola reveals how, in one of the most egregious episodes of Soviet repression, Stalin drove two million peasants into internal exile, to work as forced laborers. The book shows how entire families were callously thrown out of their homes, banished from their villages, and sent to
the icy hinterlands of the Soviet Union, where in the course of a decade, almost a half million would die as a result of disease, starvation, or exhaustion. Drawing on pioneering research in the previously closed archives of the central and provincial Communist Party, the Soviet state, and the
secret police, Viola documents the history of this tragic episode. She delves into what long remained an entirely hidden world within the gulag, throwing new light on Stalin's consolidation of power, the rise of the secret police as a state within the state, and the complex workings of the Soviet
system. But first and foremost, she movingly captures the day-to-day life of Stalin's first victims, telling the stories of the peasant families who experienced one of the twentieth century's most horrific instances of mass repression.
A compelling story of human suffering and survival in Stalin's Soviet Union, here is a new chapter in the history of the gulag, virtually hidden from sight until now.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published April 16, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 6, 2009
This is yet another grim, sad, horrifying tale of the former Soviet Union. While other books have touched on the liquidation of the so-called kulaks, few have delved into such detail over their ultimate fate. This book does that, in sometime painstaking detail.
One day, Stalin and his henchmen decided that there were too many peasants who owned too much land or employeed too many people. These dangerous subversives undermined the socialist cause, and therefore had to be destroyed. They were labeled kulaks. Between one and two million of these poeple, who committed no crime, were yanked from their homes, often with just the clothes on their back, and shipped by rail and barge to various godforsaken wilderness outposts in the Soviet Union, where many of them were left to starve and die. Others were put to work while starving and dying. Others were given no access to fresh food or clean water. Thousands of children either died from various diseases, or were left alone when their parents died and sent to godforsaken filthy orphanages, where many became sick and died. Many tried to escape and return to their homes, and died trying, or were caught and returned.
At one point, Stalin became convinced that many of them were so dangerous that they couldn't be around anyone else in their settlements, so thousands were rounded up and disappeared. One girl's father was taken suddenly, with no warning, leaving her with no parents and younger siblings to care for. For years, she searched for her dad, and was told he was in a labor camp somehwere or other. Finally, not until after communism died a deserved death, did she learn the truth: Her father had been summarily executed shortly after his arrest.
The book relates several of these stories, but also described the bureacratic structure that was set up to support the settlements, at each layer of government. At times, these descriptions got a bit dense and boring.
But four stars overall for shedding additional details on yet another sad chapter in the terror tale that was Soviet communism.
One day, Stalin and his henchmen decided that there were too many peasants who owned too much land or employeed too many people. These dangerous subversives undermined the socialist cause, and therefore had to be destroyed. They were labeled kulaks. Between one and two million of these poeple, who committed no crime, were yanked from their homes, often with just the clothes on their back, and shipped by rail and barge to various godforsaken wilderness outposts in the Soviet Union, where many of them were left to starve and die. Others were put to work while starving and dying. Others were given no access to fresh food or clean water. Thousands of children either died from various diseases, or were left alone when their parents died and sent to godforsaken filthy orphanages, where many became sick and died. Many tried to escape and return to their homes, and died trying, or were caught and returned.
At one point, Stalin became convinced that many of them were so dangerous that they couldn't be around anyone else in their settlements, so thousands were rounded up and disappeared. One girl's father was taken suddenly, with no warning, leaving her with no parents and younger siblings to care for. For years, she searched for her dad, and was told he was in a labor camp somehwere or other. Finally, not until after communism died a deserved death, did she learn the truth: Her father had been summarily executed shortly after his arrest.
The book relates several of these stories, but also described the bureacratic structure that was set up to support the settlements, at each layer of government. At times, these descriptions got a bit dense and boring.
But four stars overall for shedding additional details on yet another sad chapter in the terror tale that was Soviet communism.
September 15, 2018
Lynn Viola has, overall, done a superb job of filling in the Western historical blank on the "less than free" settlers exiled to Stalinist Siberia, to beef up the labor pool of the Russian hinterland. It is, of course, a continuation of Russian administrative exile as practiced under the Tzars. But in scope it also resembles the "kidnapping regime" of Georgian Britain, in peopling the labor-starved American colonies with indentured servants. Like their counterparts of two centuries previous, the descendents of Soviet "special settlers" stayed on to become the majority population in their "adopted" new homes.
Ms. Viola is on target as dismissing the "Leviathan state" image of Western cold war lore. Soviet Russia remained Russia, a rather ramshackle place that tried - as per Trotsky's unacknowledged theory - a great leap forward over the missing links of historic evolution. This rationalized a ruthless exploitation of workers free, enslaved, and those in between. But she misses the continuity between the Tzarist state and its "need" to repress and exploit, for parallel reasons. To make of the Russian peasant a "colonial native," as Ms. Viola does, misses the point that such native peoples under external rule were to remain forever subject; while the Soviet peasant was to be transformed and integrated into a proletarian citizen - a project largely succesful by the USSR's end. This occurred despite the Stalinist bureaucracy, however: the OGPU's police "kidnappers" can no more take credit for any longterm success out of their devastating methods, than English "soul stealers" for peopling their own realm with "useful subjects."
A useful and interesting take for those interested in its time and place.
Ms. Viola is on target as dismissing the "Leviathan state" image of Western cold war lore. Soviet Russia remained Russia, a rather ramshackle place that tried - as per Trotsky's unacknowledged theory - a great leap forward over the missing links of historic evolution. This rationalized a ruthless exploitation of workers free, enslaved, and those in between. But she misses the continuity between the Tzarist state and its "need" to repress and exploit, for parallel reasons. To make of the Russian peasant a "colonial native," as Ms. Viola does, misses the point that such native peoples under external rule were to remain forever subject; while the Soviet peasant was to be transformed and integrated into a proletarian citizen - a project largely succesful by the USSR's end. This occurred despite the Stalinist bureaucracy, however: the OGPU's police "kidnappers" can no more take credit for any longterm success out of their devastating methods, than English "soul stealers" for peopling their own realm with "useful subjects."
A useful and interesting take for those interested in its time and place.
May 14, 2015
This book nicely complements Robert Conquest's book, Harvest of Sorrow. Conquest's book describes what happened in the Ukraine when the kulaks were removed. The kulaks were the more prosperous peasants. Most of them were poor, but not quite as poor as the other peasants. Viola's book describes what happened to the kulaks in their places of exile. The special settlements that were created with these exiles were located in underpopulated parts of Russia. The exiled peasants were used as forced labor, mainly in forestry, but also mining and agriculture. The special settlements were forerunners of the Gulag.
July 10, 2014
About the worst gulag book I've seen,
200 pages and on almost every page:
the people are hungry, sick, badly treated...
A bunch of statistics that don't mean much,
and the author likes to spell names differently than other authors.
Yagoda is Iagoda
his replacement is likewise otherwise spelled.
Given that Russian doesn't use the Latin alphabet,
I have no doubt that translations are flexible,
but please, lets not be a dilettante to make up for a weak story.
200 pages and on almost every page:
the people are hungry, sick, badly treated...
A bunch of statistics that don't mean much,
and the author likes to spell names differently than other authors.
Yagoda is Iagoda
his replacement is likewise otherwise spelled.
Given that Russian doesn't use the Latin alphabet,
I have no doubt that translations are flexible,
but please, lets not be a dilettante to make up for a weak story.
January 30, 2017
Scholarly review of the USSR's mass exile (and forced encampment) of the Kulaks and other "classes" in the 1920s and 1930s. These were known as "special settlements" but also could be "the other Gulag." Fairly short -- 200 pages plus notes and bibliography -- and pretty dry, but good info.
May 3, 2013
Who is worse: Stalin or hitler. Both equally evil n kill millions of ppl during their dictatorship. This book is about Special settlement of gulag. Lots of heartbreaking stories.
September 12, 2019
Important text about the dekulakization of the Soviet Union and the forced relocation of the kulaks and poor implementation of Soviet policy and planning to deal with their relocation. While the general story is well known to the public, this text provides more detail. Not a literary text, but clear and to the point.
June 5, 2021
100011)
November 20, 2021
The Gulag was the Soviet system of prison labour that housed millions of people. However as Viola shows in this book, it was not just convicted prisoners who were sent to the far reaches of Siberia and Central Asia, but people whose only crime was to be the wrong class: kulaks, or well-off peasants. Millions of them were deported to the Gulag as well, and this chronicles their experiences. She shows the entire journey of them, from Politburo declarations ordering their arrest and deportation, to the rounding up of people, their journey to the regions, and the lives they had to adapt to in an unfamiliar environment. It is an important work in this way, as it covers an overlooked topic, but also feels like it could have been a little more comprehensive. Still a valuable book to read about Soviet repression though.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews