The research for this essay was supported by grants from the Office of Research Administration, University of Toronto, from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council, and from the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies of The Wilson Center. Part of the research was conducted while the author was a fellow at the Kennan Institute. The author is grateful to Stephen F. Cohen for helpful comments on an earlier draft of the present article.

1. Aleksandr, Solzhenitsyn, Arkhipelag GULag 1918-1956: Opyt khudoshestvennogo isslcdovaniia, III-IV (Paris, 1974), p. 9–23.Google Scholar

2. Radzinowicz, See Leon, Ideology and Crime (New York, 1966), p. 14–28.Google Scholar

3. Stephen F. Cohen, “Bolshevism and Stalinism,” in Tucker, Robert C., ed., Stalinism: Essays in Historical Interpretation (New York, 1977), p. 3–29.Google Scholar

4. Dallin, David and Nicolaevsky, Boris, Forced Labor in Soviet Russia (New Haven, 1947), pp. 149–205 Google Scholar; Carr, Edward Hallett, Socialism in One Country, vol. 2 (New York, 1960), pp. 421–54 Google Scholar; Carr, E. H., Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926-1929, vol. 2 (London and Basingstoke, 1971), pp. 356–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Apart from these works, I know of only two other scholarly studies which touch on early Soviet penal history. As background for his study of the camps in Soviet fiction, Michael Geller provides a balanced brief account, especially of the civil war experience (see Mikhail, Geller, Kontsentratsionnyi mir i sovetskaia literatura [London, 1974], pp. 49–83).Google Scholar Peter Juviler, in assessing NEP penal institutions, relies on Dallin and Nicolaevsky (see Juviler, Peter H., Revolutionary Law and Order: Politics and Social Change in the USSR [New York, 1976], pp. 33–36).Google Scholar

5. Max, Grunhut, Penal Reform: A Comparative Study (London, 1948).Google Scholar See also Evelyn Ruggles-Brise, Prison Reform at Home and Abroad (London, 1924)Google Scholar ; Teeters, Negley K., Deliberations of the International Penal and Penitentiary Congresses, Questions and Answers, 1872-1935 (Philadelphia, 1949).Google Scholar

6. See, for example, Liublinskii, P. I., Meshdunarodnye s “esdy po voprosam ugolovnogo prava sa 10 let (1905-1915) (Petrograd, 1915)Google Scholar ; Khrulev, S. S., Otchet nachal'nika Glavnogo tiuremnago upravleniia S. S. Khruleva o pocsdke v S cvero-Amerikanskie Soedinennye Shtaty i v Angliiu v 1910 godu (St. Petersburg, 1910)Google Scholar ; Poznyshev, S. V., Ocherki tiur'movedeniia (Moscow, 1912).Google Scholar

7. Poznyshev, Ocherki tiur'movedeniia, especially pp. 23-31.

8. The draft criminal code produced by Narkomiust under Shteinberg defined punishment and its purpose in the classical manner, included none of the new kinds of noncustodial penalties the Bolsheviks were to promote, and reproduced the prison terms for most crimes which had been specified in the 1903 draft criminal code (see Shvekov, G. V., Pervyi sovetskii ugolovnyi kodeks [Moscow, 1970], pp. 105–14).Google Scholar

9. See Leonard, Gerson, The Secret Police in Lenin's Russia (Philadelphia, 1976).Google Scholar

10. “Rukovodiashchie nachala po ugolovnomu pravu RSFSR,” Postanovlenie NKIu, 12 dekabria 1919, in Sbornik dokumentov po istorii ugolovnogo zakonodatel'slva SSSR i RSFSR, 1917-1952, ed. I. T. Goliakov (Moscow, 1953), pp. 57-60; Tarnovskii, E, “Sudebnaia repressiia v tsifrakh za 1919-1922 gg.,” Eshenedcl'nik sovetskoi iustitsii, 1922, no. 45-46, p. 45 Google Scholar (hereafter cited as ESIu).

11. “Ugolovnyi kodeks RSFSR” (1922), in Sbornik dokumentov, pp. 116-42; Shargorodskii, M. D., Nakasaniia po sovetskomn ugolovnomu pravu (Moscow, 1956), p. 60.Google Scholar

12. Shargorodskii, Nakasaniia, p. 60; “Stenogrammy IV Vserossiiskogo s” ezda deiatelei sovetskoi iustitsii (26-30 ianvaria 1922 g.),” Materialy Narodnogo komissariata iustitsii, 17 vols. (Moscow, 1918-22), 16-17: 19 (hereafter cited as Materialy Narkominsta).

13. Starovoitov, F, “Ispravitel'no-trudovye raboty bez lisheniia svobody,” in Krylenko, N. V., ed., Sovetskaia ugolovnaia repressiia (Moscow, 1934), pp. 158–91 Google Scholar; “Les systemes pénitentiares en vigeur dans divers pays,” Recueil des documents en matière pénale et pénitentiarc, vol. 4 (Bern, 1935) and vol. 6 (Bern, 1937).

14. V. P., Iakubson, “Ugolovnaia repressiia v pervye gody revoliutsii,” ESIu, 1922, no. 4, p. 3;Google Scholar Shargorodskii, Nakasaniia, pp. 78-80.

15. “Ugolovnyi kodeks RSFSR” (1922) ; Rusche, George and Kirchheimer, Otto, Punishment and Social Structure (New York, 1938), p. 145–57.Google Scholar

16. Svod sakonov ugolovnykh, comp. Ozeretskovskii, N., 2nd ed. (St. Petersburg, 1915) ; Tagantsev, N. S., ed., Ugolovnoe ulozhenie, 22 marta 1903 (St. Petersburg, 1904)Google Scholar ; “Ugolovnyi kodeks RSFSR” (1922).

17. Gertsenzon, A. A., Bor'ba s prcstapnost'iu v RSFSR (Moscow, 1928), pp. 105–16 Google Scholar; Iakubson, V, “Dosrochnoe osvobozhdenie v RSFSR za 1921 god,” ESIu, 1922, no. 46-47, pp. 7–10Google Scholar; S., Fainblit, Amnistiia i sudebnyi prigovor (Moscow and Leningrad, 1928).Google Scholar

18. Shargorodskii, Nakasaniia, pp. 63-70, 110-11.

19. “Ugolovnyi kodeks RSFSR” (1922), article 25; “Rukovodiashchie nachala,” article 12; “Osnovnye nachala ugolovnogo zakonodatel'stva SSSR i soiuznykh respublik,” Postanovlenie TsIK SSSR ot 31 oktiabria 1924 g., in Sbornik dokumentov, pp. 191-207, articles 31 and 32.

20. “Protokoly Pervogo Vserossiiskogo s” ezda zaveduiushchikh gubernskimi karatel'- nymi otdelami, 20-23 sentiabria 1920,” Materialy Narkomiusta, 7: 39-70; “Stenogrammy IV Vserossiiskogo s” ezda,” p. 98.

21. On problems of implementing the progressive stage system, see, for example, “Stenogrammy IV Vserossiiskogo s” ezda,” p. 34. For regulations on the progressive stage system, see “Polozhenie ob obshchikh mestakh zakliucheniia RSFSR,” Postanovlenie NKIu ot IS noiabria 1920, in Sbornik normativnykh aktov po sovetskomu ispravitel'no-trudovomu pravu (1917-1959 gg.), comp. P. M. Losev and G. I. Ragulin (Moscow, 1959), pp. 54-94.

22. Solzhenitsyn, Arkhipelag GULag, III-IV, pp. 9 and 14.

23. Khristianovich, , “Karatel'naia politika v Rossii,” Vlasf sovetov, 1922, no. 1-2, pp. 8–10Google Scholar; “Obzor deiatel'nosti Glavnogo upravleniia prinuditel'nykh rabot za vtoroe polugodie 1921 g.,” Vlasf sovetov, 1922, no. 1, pp. 41-44.

24. According to the first chief of Soviet prisons, L. Savrasov, one-half of the convicts serving in the forced labor camps “lived out in apartments” ( “Stenogrammy IV Vserossiiskogo s” ezda,” p. 121). See also Solzhenitsyn, Arkhipelag GULag, III-IV, p. 16.

25. “Stenogrammy IV Vserossiiskogo s” ezda,” pp. 116-20.

26. “V Narodnom komissariate vnutrennikh del,” Vlast’ sovetov, 1922, no. 11-12, pp. 55-62.

27. “Stenogrammy IV Vserossiiskogo s” ezda,” p. 121.

28. E. G., Shirvindt, “Ispravitel'no-trudovoi kodeks,” Isvestiia, October 18, 1923, p. 3.Google Scholar Discussion of the draft corrective-labor code is found in Vserossiiskii s “esd rabotnikov penitentsiarnogo dela v Moskve 18-24 okt. 1923 goda: Stenograficheskii otchet plenarnykh zasedanii s” ezda (Moscow, 1923). For the text as promulgated, see Sbornik normativnykh aktov, pp. 127-69.

29. Boris, Cederhom, In the Clutches of the Tcheka (London, 1929), especially pp. 271–315Google Scholar; Boris Sapir, “The Journey to the Northern Camps,” in Dallin and Nicolaevsky, Forced Labor in Soviet Russia, pp. 170-88; Alexander, Berkman, ed., Letters from Russian Prisons (New York, 1925), pp. 159–221 Google Scholar; Malsagoff, S. A., An Island Hell (London, 1926)Google Scholar; Andreev, G, “Solovetskie ostrova,” Grani, no. 18 (1950), pp. 42–90Google Scholar; Red Goals: A Woman's Experience in Russian Prisons (London, 1935). See also Pamiaf: Istoricheskii sbornik, vol. 1 (Moscow, 1976; New York, 1978), for recent material on the early camps and on newspapers in Soviet prisons and camps (1921-35).

30. Gertsenzon, A. A., Bor'ba s prestupnost'iu v RSFSR (Moscow, 1928), p. 104 Google Scholar; Dallin and Nicolaevsky, Forced Labor in Soviet Russia, p. 52.

31. Iakubson, V, “Biudzhetnye perspektivy gosbiudzhetnykh mest zakliucheniia,” Administrativnyi vestnik, 1927, no. 9, pp. 35–37Google Scholar (hereafter cited as AV) ; Robert, Slusser, “The Budget of the OGPU and the Special Troops from 1923-24 to 1928-29,” Soviet Studies, 10, no. 4 (April 1958): 382.Google Scholar

32. V. Zenkovich, “Nizovaia set’ suda, sledstviia i prokuratury (Po materialam NK RKI SSSR),” part 2, ESIu, 1927, no. 36, pp. 1109-14; Dallin and Nicolaevsky, Forced Labor in Soviet Russia, p. 53. The 70, 000 figure for the rest of the USSR includes 40, 000 in Ukrainian prisons (see “Disput k voprosu ob izuchenii prestupnosti,” Revoliutsiia prava, 1929, no. 3, p. 67), 8, 500 in Belorussian ones, assuming an average population of 600 for each of its ten prisons and of 200 for each of its twelve agricultural colonies (see Istoriia gosudarstva i prava Belorusskoi SSR, vol. 1, 1917-1936 [Minsk, 1970], p. 448), and about 20, 000 for the other republics, including autonomous republics. Although the autonomous republics had eighty-two prisons, as a rule these were very small, and prison authorities there and in the other republics tried repeatedly to transfer their prisoners to the RSFSR system (see Vtoroi Vserossiiskii s “ezd administrativnykh rabotnikov 23-30 aprelia 1928 goda [Sokrashchennaia stenogramma] [Moscow, 1929], p. 105).

33. Gertsenzon, Bor'ba s prestupnost'iu, pp. 84-94.

34. See, for example, Malsagoff, An Island Hell, pp. 117-27; Alan Pirn and Edward, Bateson, Report on Russian Timber Camps (London, 1931) p. 76 Google Scholar; Solzhenitsyn, Arkhipelag GULag, IU-1V, p. 72; Zh., S. P., “Opyt rabot ispravitel'no-trudovykh lesozagotovitel'nykh kolonii,” AV, 1930, no. 6, pp. 41–45.Google Scholar

35. E. G., Shirvindt and B. S., Utevskii, Sovetskoe penitentsiarnoe pravo (Moscow, 1927), pp. 156–66 Google Scholar; Poznyshev, Ocherki tiur'movedeniia, pp. 132-48.

36. Iakubson, V, “Mesta zakliucheniia i mestnyi biudzhet,” AV, 1927, no. 7-8, pp. 5–8Google Scholar; Vserossiiskii s “ezd rabotnikov penitentsiarnogo dela, pp. 49-74.

37. Iakubson, “Biudzhetnye perspektivy,” p. 35.

38. Shirvindt and Utevskii, Sovetskoe penitentsiarnoe pravo, pp. 175-89; Bekhterev, Iu, “Itogi i perspektivy uchebno-vospitatel'noi raboty v mestakh zakliucheniia RSFSR (Po materialam trekh Vserossiiskikh konferentsii),” AV, 1928, no. 9, pp. 15–22.Google Scholar

39. Kornblit, L, “Moskovskie ispravitel'no-trudovye uchrezhdeniia i desiatiletiia Oktiabria,” AV, 1927, no. 10-11, pp. 76–87;Google Scholar Bekhterev, lu, “Eksperimental'nyi penitentsiarnyi institut,” Sovetskoe pravo, 1926, no. 6, pp. 119–24.Google Scholar

40. Vtoroi Vserossiiskii s “esd administrativnykh rabotnikov, pp. 108-99. Fragmentary testimony from prisoners who served in Narkomvnudel institutions in the 1920s presents the same contrast between central and provincial prisons as the official sources describe. A nurse reported vile conditions in prisons in Vologda and Viatka in 1922 (see Berkman, Letters from Russian Prisons, pp. 28-32), but a Finnish businessman found a Moscow prison in 1928 to be ” quite acceptable as prisons go” and “paradise compared with prisons of the OGPU” ; and a peasant escapee praised an agricultural colony in the Ukraine (see George, Kitchin, Prisoner of the OGPU [London, 1935], p. 22;Google Scholar and Pirn and Bateson, Report, p. 76).

41. Zenkovich, “Nizovaia set’ suda,” p. 1114.

42. A. Solts, “Nasha karatel'naia politika (Obsledovanie moskovskikh tiurem),” Pravda, August 22, 1923, p. 1; Solts, A. and Fainblit, S., Revoliutsionnaia sakonnosf i nasha karatel'naia politika (Moscow, 1925)Google Scholar ; Gertsenzon, Bor'ba s prestupnost'iu, p. 22.

43. Gertsenzon, Bor'ba s prestupnosfiu, pp. 31-44, 69-93; V. P. Iakubson, “Reforma ugolovnogo zakonodatel'stva i prinuditel'nye raboty bez soderzhaniia pod strazhei,” in three parts, in AV, 1929, no. 1, pp. 35-39; AV, 1929, no. 2, pp. 42-48; AV, 1929, no. 3, pp. 31-34; Shargorodskii, Nakazaniia, p. 60.

39. Kornblit, L, “Moskovskie ispravitel'no-trudovye uchrezhdeniia i desiatiletiia Oktiabria,” AV, 1927, no. 10-11, pp. 76–87Google Scholar; Bekhterev, lu, “Eksperimental'nyi penitentsiarnyi institut,” Sovetskoe pravo, 1926, no. 6, pp. 119–24.Google Scholar

40. Vtoroi Vserossiiskii s “esd administrativnykh rabotnikov, pp. 108-99. Fragmentary testimony from prisoners who served in Narkomvnudel institutions in the 1920s presents the same contrast between central and provincial prisons as the official sources describe. A nurse reported vile conditions in prisons in Vologda and Viatka in 1922 (see Berkman, Letters from Russian Prisons, pp. 28-32), but a Finnish businessman found a Moscow prison in 1928 to be ” quite acceptable as prisons go” and “paradise compared with prisons of the OGPU” ; and a peasant escapee praised an agricultural colony in the Ukraine (see George, Kitchin, Prisoner of the OGPU [London, 1935], p. 22 Google Scholar; and Pirn and Bateson, Report, p. 76).

41. Zenkovich, “Nizovaia set’ suda,” p. 1114.

42. A. Solts, “Nasha karatel'naia politika (Obsledovanie moskovskikh tiurem),” Pravda, August 22, 1923, p. 1; Solts, A. and Fainblit, S., Revoliutsionnaia sakonnosf i nasha karatel'naia politika (Moscow, 1925)Google Scholar ; Gertsenzon, Bor'ba s prestupnost'iu, p. 22.

43. Gertsenzon, Bor'ba s prestupnosfiu, pp. 31-44, 69-93; V. P., Iakubson, “Reforma ugolovnogo zakonodatel'stva i prinuditel'nye raboty bez soderzhaniia pod strazhei,” in three parts, in AV, 1929, no. 1, pp. 35–39Google Scholar; AV, 1929, no. 2, pp. 42-48; AV, 1929, no. 3, pp. 31-34; Shargorodskii, Nakazaniia, p. 60.

48. E. G., Shirvindt, “Voprosy prestupnosti i ‘problema tiurem’ v RSFSR,” AV, 1926, no. 6, pp. 1–6; E.Google Scholar Shirvindt, “ ‘Pereproizvodstvo nakazanii’ i bor'ba s nim,” Izvestiia, December 31, 1926; “V Gosudarstvennom institute po izucheniiu prestupnosti,” ESIu, 1927, no. 34, pp. 1062-63; Shirvindt, E, “Neobkhodimye sdvigi v sudebno-ispravitel'noi politike,” AV, 1927, no. 9, pp. 1–6.Google Scholar

49. “Direktivnoe pis'mo NKIu i Verkhsuda,” p. 43.

50. Gertsenzon, Bor'ba s prestupnost'iu, p. 4; Vtoroi Vserossiiskii s “ezd administrativnykh rabotnikov, pp. 108-9; ” Postanovlenie ob “edinennogo zasedaniia kollegii NK RKI SSSR i RKI RSFSR po teme plana NK RKI SSSR ‘Nizovaia set’ sudebno-sledstvennykh organov i prokuratury, ’ ” part 2, ESIu, 1927, no. 40, p. 1257.

51. “O karatel'noi politike i sostoianii mest zakliuchenii,” Postanovlenie VTsIK i SNK RSFSR ot 26 marta 1928 g. po dokladam NKIu and NKVD, in ESIu, 1928, no. 14, pp. 417-19; also in Sbornik dokumcntov, pp. 302-5.

52. The wholesale embracing of noncustodial compulsory work as the way to reduce the prison population was misinterpreted by Dallin and Nicolaevsky and not mentioned by Solzhenitsyn. The former thought that the replacement of prisons with compulsory labor meant that prisoners would be transferred to labor camps where such work would be performed (Dallin and Nicolaevsky, Forced Labor, pp. 205-6). In Arkhipelag GULag, Solzhenitsyn described only those aspects of the decisions of March 26, 1928, which seemed to have a bearing on the development of the camps (Solzhenitsyn, Arkhipelag GULag, III-IV, pp. 69—70). Thus, Solzhenitsyn dealt with the proposed extended sentences for persons not undergoing correction (usually recidivists) and with the recommendation that Narkomvnudel expand the capacity of its labor colonies. Although this latter directive might sound like an order to erect camps in anticipation of new arrests, it was actually offered as another way of reducing prison congestion, and the colonies referred to at that time were the lenient agricultural and factory colonies, not the timber colonies which resembled camps.

53. Gaiks, K, “Prinuditel'nye raboty i drugie mery sotsial'noi zashchity vmesto kratkosrochnogo lisheniia svobody,” ESIu, 1929, no. 7, pp. 158–61Google Scholar; “Doklad Narodnogo komissara iustitsii tov. Iansona—Otchet NKIu RSFSR,” ESIu, 1929, no. 9-10, p. 209.

54. See, for example, N. V., Krylenko, “Osnovy peresmotra U. K. RSFSR” (with debate), Revoliutsiia prava, 1929, no. 2, pp. 105–30Google Scholar; “Deiatel'nost’ Gosudarstvennogo instituta po izucheniiu prestupnosti i prestupnika (Sostavlenie proekta Ugolovnogo kodeksa),” in Shirvindt, E. G. et al., eds., Problemy prestupnosti, vol. 4 (Moscow, 1929), p. 109–32.Google Scholar

55. The basis for the charge of “failing to observe a class policy” was the awarding of parole to some “class hostile persons” and the use of literate prisoners of such backgrounds to instruct illiterate toilers. Examples of the attacks on Narkomvnudel include Fainblit, S, “Tiuremnyi rezhim i dosrochnoe osvobozhdenie (Po materialam Tsentral'noi raspredelitePnoi komissii),” ESIu, 1928, no. 11, pp. 326–28;Google Scholar S. Fainblit, “Liberal'naia boltovnia” (Otvet t. Utevskomu), ESIu, 1928, no. 35, pp. 955-56.

56. Lagovier, N, “Nabolevshie voprosy ugolovno-sudebnoi i ispravitel'no-trudovoi praktiki,” ESIu, 1928, no. 40-41, p. 1079 Google Scholar; “Ob ispravitel'no-trudovoi politike (Tezisy k dokladu tov. Traskovicha na VI S” ezde prokurorskikh, sudebnykh, i sledstvennykh rabotnikov RSFSR),” ESIu, 1928, no. 46-47, pp. 1194-97.

57. For example, see Utevskii, B, “ ‘Tiur'my’ ili ‘mesta zakliucheniia, '” AV, 1928, no. 6, pp. 35–38Google Scholar; Iakubson, V, “Ispravitel'no-trudovoi rezhim i dosrochnoe osvobozhdenie,” AV, 1928, no. 8, pp. 7–12Google Scholar; Shirvindt, E, “Protiv iskazhenii i izvrashchenii” (Otvet t. Fainblitu), ESIu, 1928, no. 48, pp. 1224–25Google Scholar; “VI S” ezd prokurorskikh, sudebnykh, i sledstvennykh rabotnikov RSFSR,” ESIu, 1929, no. 9-10, pp. 193-232.

58. During the winter of 1929, when judges started replacing short prison terms with ((compulsory work, the prison population of the RSFSR did decrease—from 118, 888 on [January 1, 1929, to 104, 510 on April 1, 1929 ( Iakubson, V, “Kak nakhoditsia v mestakh iiakliucheniiakh,” AV, 1929, no. 4, pp. 40–48)Google Scholar.

59. “Postanovlenie SNK po dokladu NKIu o rezul'tatakh vypolnenii postanovlenii VTsIK i Sovnarkoma RSFSR ot 26 marta 1928 g. o karatel'noi politike,” Sobranie Uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii raboche-krest'ianskogo pravitel'stva RSFSR, 1929, no. 37, pp. 527-29.

60. “Postanovlenie SNK SSSR ot 11 iiulia 1929,” cited and described in Menshagin, V. D., “Ispravitel'no-trudovaia politika,” Ezhegodnik sovetskogo stroitel'stva i prava na 1931 god za 1929/1930 god (Moscow and Leningrad, 1931), pp. 429–49 Google Scholar; “Plan raboty NKVD na I kvartal 1929/1930,” AV, 1929, no. 9, pp. 56-57; “Ob ukreplenii Narkomvnudela i mestnykh administrativnykh organov,” Postanovlenie soveshchanii nachal'nikov kraevykh (oblastnykh) admupravlenii ot 29/VII-l/VIII 1930 (po dokladu t. Shirvindt), AV, 1930, no. 7, p. 5; B. S., Utevskii, “Ob ukreplenii Narkomvnudela po linii mest zakliuchenii,” AV, 1930, no. 7, pp. 28–36.Google Scholar

61. On problems in the timber industry, see Kessler, M, “Organizatsiia v severnom krae trudovykh kolonii dlia lisheniia svobody i ocherednye zadachi razvitiia narodnogo khoziaistva SSSR,” AV, 1930, no. 6, pp. 41–45.Google Scholar

62. Bateson, Pirn and, Report on Russian Timber Camps; and Out of the Deep: Letters from Soviet Timber Camps (London, 1933).Google Scholar

63. S., Swianiewicz, Forced Labour and Economic Development: An Enquiry into the Experience of Soviet Industrialisation (London, New York, and Toronto, 1965).Google Scholar

64. See note 34.

65. Tolmachev, V, “Instruktsiia k sostavleniiu piatiletnego plana administrativnogo stroitel'stva,” Biulleten’ Narodnogo komissariata vnutrennikh del, 1929, no. 22, pp. 426–46Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Biulleten’ NKVD) ; B. S., Utevskii, “K voprosu ob organizatsii kolonii v otdelennykh mestnostiakh,” AV, 1929, no. 6-7, pp. 39–45Google Scholar; Kessler, “Organizatsiia v severnom krae.”

66. Shirvindt, E, “'Rezhim ekonomii’ v karatel'noi politike,” AV, 1927, no. 1, pp. 1–14.Google Scholar

67. Shirvindt, E, “K itogam s” ezda administrativnykh rabotnikov,” AV, 1928, no. 6, pp. 4–9Google Scholar; Kessler, M, “Kak sostavlen piatiletnii plan samookupaemosti mest zakliucheniia,” AV, 1929, no. 4, pp. 37–40.Google Scholar

68. Cherner, Chernush, “Reforma ispravitel'no-trudovogo dela,” Sovctskaia iustitsiia, 1930, no. 1, p. 24 Google Scholar (hereafter cited as SIu)-

69. Menshagin, “Ispravitel'no-trudovaia politika,” p. 435; Dallin and Nicolaevsky, Forced Labor, pp. 52-54.

70. Shirvindt, E, “K dvenadtsatiletiiu sovetskoi ispravitel'no-trudovoi politiki,” ESIu, 1929, no. 46, pp. 1087–89Google Scholar; Utevskii, B, “Na oktiabr'skom soveshchanii nachal'nikov admotdelov i ikh pomoshchnikov po ispravitel'no-trudovoi chasti,” AV, 1929, no. 12, pp. 9—15.Google Scholar

71. “O reforme Ispravitel'no-trudovoi kodekse,” AV, 1929, no. 9, pp. 21-27. As a rule, during the 1920s better conditions and more lenient regimes prevailed in the agricultural and factory colonies than in the prisons, not to mention the camps. But most of the timber and construction colonies formed in 1929-30 seemed to be different, more like OGPU camps than like agricultural colonies. The new colonies were many times larger than the older ones, were often located in remote areas, and called for hard physical labor. Even so, the word “colony” did not take on the overtones of the word “camp,” and because of its neutral connotation it was adopted after Stalin's death to describe the bulk of Soviet penal institutions. Today, as in the 1930s, corrective-labor colonies in the USSR vary greatly in severity, depending upon the regime, the location, and the work.

72. Shirvindt, E, “Obostrenie klassovoi bor'by i ugolovnaia repressiia,” in Shirvindt, E. G., ed., Klassovaia bor'ba i prestupnosf (Moscow, 1930), pp. 3–11 Google Scholar; Shirvindt, E. and Utevskii, B., Sovetskoe ispravitcl'no-trudovoe pravo (Moscow, 1931), p. 90 Google Scholar. To dispose of the peasant convicts whom the OGPU and Narkomvnudel could not handle a new type of exile was devised, “exile combined with compulsory work” (see “O vysylke i ssylke, primeniaemykh po sudebnym prigovoram,” Postanovlenie VTsIK i SNK 10 ianvaria 1930 g., in Sbornik dokamentov, pp. 348-50). It was eliminated in 1933.

73. “Prikaz no. 138 Glavnogo upravleniia mestami zakliucheniia RSFSR ot 19 ianvaria 1930 g.,” Biulleten’ NKVD, 1930, no. 4, p. 58; “Tsirkuliar no. 147 GUMZ ot 13 fevralia [1930,” Biulleten’ NKVD, 1930, no. 5; “Tsirkuliar no. 234 GUMZ ot 20 aprelia 1930,” \ Biulleten’ NKVD, 1930, no. 14, p. 257; Shirvindt, E, “Zadachi NKVD i ego mestnykh iorganov v rekonstruktivnom periode,” AV, 1930, no. 2, pp. 1–5.Google Scholar

74. Utevskii, B, “Nabliudatel'nye komissii i pervye shagi ikh deiatel'nosti posle reformy,” AV, 1930, no. 5, pp. 9–18Google Scholar; “Tsirkuliar no. 468 GUMZ ot 25 sentiabria 1930 g.,” Biulleteri NKVD, 1930, no. 31, pp. 644-47; Shirvindt, E. G., ed., Administrativnye organy v novykh usloviiakh (Moscow, 1930), pp. 18–19, 116–17 Google Scholar; “Ob ukreplenii Narkomvnudela i mestnykh administrativnykh organov,” p. 5; B. S., Utevskii, “Ob ukreplenii Narkomvnudela po linii mest zakliuchenii,” AV, 1930, no. 7, pp. 28–36.Google Scholar

75. “Postanovlenie pravitel'stva o likvidatsii NKVD,” Biulleten’ NKVD, 1930, no. 41, pp. 839-42; Vasil'ev, V., “Likvidatsiia narodnykh komissariatov vnutrennikh del,” Sovetskoe stroitel'stvo, 1931, no. 1, pp. 25–32.Google Scholar

76. On the initiative, see “Preds” ezdovskoe soveshchanie kommunal'nykh rabotnikov,” Kommunal'noe delo, 1930, no. 2, pp. 117-18; B. Gurevich and B. Tikhomirov,” Nuzhny li narkomvnudely?,” Pravda, December 30, 1929; and T., , “Nuzhny li narkomvnudely ? (Mezhduvedomstvennoe soveshchanie pri NK RKI),” SIu, 1930, no. 6, pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

77. Upon losing his position as chief of the Narkomvnudel penal system, Shirvindt went to work in the Commissariat of Water Transport. He returned to penal affairs in 1933 as the senior inspector of places of confinement for the newly created USSR Procuracy, where he remained until his arrest in 1937. In 1955, Shirvindt returned to help revive penological research inside the Ministry of Internal Affairs (see Solomon, Peter H. Jr., Soviet Criminologists and Criminal Policy: Specialists in Policy-making [New York and London, 1978], pp. 45, 180-81).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

78. The administrative orders of the penal administration (GUITU) and the discussions of its operation in Narkomiust's collegium reveal this bias (SIu, 1931-34, passim).

79. “Osnovnye printsipy ispravitel'no-trudovoi politiki NKIu i tipy mest lisheniia svobody i organov ispravitel'no-trudovykh rabot bez soderzhaniia pod strazhei,” SIu, 1931, no. 18, pp. 23-26; B. Utevskii, “Chto dal smotr administrativnoi raboty ITU,” SIu, 1933, no. 23, pp. 13-15.

80. A., “Ispravitel'no-trudovye organy na novom etape,” SIu, 1932, no. 3, pp. 10-18; A. Bystrova, “Ispravitel'no-trudovye kolonii,” in Sovetskaia ugolovnaia repressiia, pp. 152—57; Volkov, G, “Nakazanie v sovetskom ugolovnom prave,” Problemy ugolovnoi politiki, vol. 1 (Moscow, 1935), p. 67–69.Google Scholar

81. Already in 1933, four times as many prisoners were released through the zachety as by parole (A., “Ispravitel'no-trudovye organy”). In 1938 parole was eliminated entirely, but the system of zachety continued.

82. See, for example, Vyshinskii, A. la., ed., Ot tiurem k vospitatel'nym uchrezhdeniiam (Moscow, 1934).Google Scholar

83. The transfer took place in October, three months after the formation of NKVD SSSR ( Utevskii, B. S., Sovetskaia ispravitel'no-trudovaia politika [Moscow, 1935], p. 8).Google Scholar

84. Moshe, Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power (London, 1968), pp. 219, 389-90.Google Scholar

85. Shirvindt, “Obostrenie klassovoi bor'by,” pp. 5-7.

86. See Sbornik dokumentov, items 295, 314, 325, 326, 327, 328, 332, 333.

87. “Ob okhrane imushchestva gosudarstvennykh predpriiatii, kolkhozov i kooperatsii i ukreplenii obshchestvennoi (sotsialisticheskoi) sobstvennosti,” Postanovlenie TsIK i SNK SSSR 7 avgusta 1932 g., in Sbornik dokumentov, pp. 335-36.

88. Sbornik dokumentov, items 342 and 351.

89. Shirvindt, “Obostrenie klassovoi bor'by.”

90. Sbornik raz “iasncnii Verkhovnogo suda RSFSR, 3rd ed. (Moscow, 1932), p. 260. According to Shirvindt, 20.8 percent of persons convicted of counterrevolutionary crimes in the first months of 1930 were shot (see Shirvindt,” Obostrenie klassovoi bor'by,” p. 9).

91. I have calculated these relationships using Iakubovich's data on punishments and Shliapochnikov's on convictions. Note that the 1933 conviction rates are artificially low due to the omission of autonomous republics which were included in 1928 and 1929 ( Iakubovich, M, “O pravovoi prirode instituta uslovnogo osuzhdeniia,” Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo, 1946, no. 11-12, p. 55 Google Scholar; A. S., Shliapochnikov, “Prestupnost’ i repressiia v SSSR [Kratkii obzor],” Problemy ugolovnoi poliiiki, vol. 1, pp. 75–100).Google Scholar

92. Shargorodskii shows that in 1931 one-quarter of the prisoners held in the colonies of Narkomiust (1) had received terms of three years or more (Shargorodskii, Nakascmiia, p. 84).

93. Ibid.

94. Gertsenzon, A, “Klassovaia bor'ba i perezhitki starogo byta,” SIu, 1934, no. 1, pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

95. Sbornik raz “iasnenii Verkhovnogo suda RSFSR, pp. 259, 284, 235.

96. Moreover, during 1932-33 some judges were prone to extend the law of August 7, 1932, through analogy beyond its intended scope (see Shliapochnikov, “Prestupnost1 i repressiia v SSSR,” pp. 75-100).

97. Shvets, N, “O prinuditel'nykh rabotakh po mestu sluzhby,” Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost'y 1939, no. 5, pp. 6–7Google Scholar (hereafter cited as SZ).

98. Tadevosian, , “Politika i praktika primeneniia ispravitel'no-trudovykh rabot,” Za sotsialisticheskuiu zakonnost', 1935, no. 3, pp. 17–22.Google Scholar

99. Mankovskii, “Voprosy ugolovnogo prava,” p. 94; Shargorodskii, Nakazaniia, pp. 100 and 108.

100. Tadevosian, “Politika i praktika” ; Kirzner, A, “Prinuditel'nye raboty ili denezhnyi shtraf,” SZ, 1936, no. 10, p. 56 Google Scholar; Menshagin, V, “O prinuditel'nykh rabotakh po mestu sluzhby,” SZ, 1938, no. 12, pp. 72–73Google Scholar; and ensuing discussion in SZ, 1939, nos. 3, 5, 6, 10-11.

101. Solomon, Schwarz, Labor in the Soviet Union (New York, 1951), p. 86–105.Google Scholar

102. “O perekhode na vos'michasovoi rabochii den', na semidnevnuiu rabochuiu nedeliu i o zapreshchenii samovol'nogo ukhoda rabochikh i sluzhashchikh s predpriatii i uchrezhdenii,” Ukaz Prezidiuma Verkhovnogo soveta SSSR ot 26 iiunia 1940, Sbornik dokumentov, pp. 405-6; “Ob ugolovnoi otvetstvennosti za melkie krazhi na proizvodstvo i za khuliganstvo,” Ukaz Prezidiuma Verkhovnogo soveta SSSR ot 10 avgusta 1940, Sbornik dokumentov, pp. 407-8.

103. Shargorodskii, Nakazaniia, pp. 75 and 108.