Editing Gulag (section)

=== During World War II ===
==== Political role ====
On the eve of World War II, Soviet archives indicate a combined camp and colony population upwards of 1.6 million in 1939, according to V. P. Kozlov.<ref name="Kozlov">See, for example, Gulaga, Naselenie. 2004. " sobranie dokumentov v 7 tomakh." ''Istorija stalinskogo Gulaga: konec 1920-kh – pervaia polovina 1950-kh godov'', vol. 4, edited by V. P. Kozlov et al. Moskva: [[ROSSPEN]].</ref> [[Anne Applebaum]] and [[Steven Rosefielde]] estimate that 1.2 to 1.5 million people were in Gulag system's prison camps and colonies when the war started.<ref name="rosenf">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4s1H9v2yOwC&pg=PA95 |title=The Russian economy: from Lenin to Putin| first= Steven |last=Rosefielde|isbn=978-1-4051-1337-3|date=2007-02-12|publisher=Wiley }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8fIfmxAs_T0C&pg=PA446 |title=Gulag: a history |first= Anne |last= Applebaum|isbn=978-0-7679-0056-0 |year=2003 |publisher=Doubleday }}</ref>

After the [[Invasion of Poland|German invasion of Poland]] that marked the start of World War II in Europe, the [[Soviet invasion of Poland|Soviet Union invaded and annexed eastern parts]] of the [[Second Polish Republic]]. In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Bessarabia]] (now the Republic of Moldova) and [[Bukovina]]. According to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens<ref>Franciszek Proch, Poland's Way of the Cross, New York 1987 P.146</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/poland_WWII_casualties.htm |title=Project In Posterum |publisher=Project In Posterum |access-date=December 19, 2011 |archive-date=November 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114152931/http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/poland_WWII_casualties.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> and inhabitants of the other annexed lands, regardless of their ethnic origin, were arrested and sent to the Gulag camps. However, according to the official data, the total number of sentences for political and anti-state (espionage, terrorism) crimes in the USSR in 1939–41 was 211,106.<ref name="organy1"/>

Approximately 300,000 [[Polish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union (after 1939)|Polish prisoners of war]] were captured by the USSR during and after the [[Soviet invasion of Poland|"Polish Defensive War"]].<ref name="PWN_KW">[[Internetowa encyklopedia PWN|Encyklopedia PWN]] [http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/33490_1.html 'KAMPANIA WRZEŚNIOWA 1939'] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050927194547/http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/33490_1.html |date=September 27, 2005 }}, last retrieved on December 10, 2005, Polish language</ref> Almost all of the captured officers and a large number of ordinary soldiers were then murdered (see [[Katyn massacre]]) or sent to Gulag.<ref name="Chodakiewicz">{{cite book| author =Marek Jan Chodakiewicz | title =Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939–1947 | year =2004  | publisher =Lexington Books | isbn =978-0-7391-0484-2| author-link =Marek Jan Chodakiewicz }}</ref> Of the 10,000–12,000 Poles sent to [[Kolyma]] in 1940–41, most [[prisoners of war]], only 583 men survived, released in 1942 to join the [[Polish Armed Forces in the East]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://my.telegraph.co.uk/beanbean/beanbean/4054641/A_Polish_life_5_Starobielsk_and_the_transSiberian_railway/ |title=A Polish life. 5: Starobielsk and the trans-Siberian railway |author=beanbean |date=May 2, 2008 |work=[[My Telegraph]] |access-date=May 8, 2012 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531104804/http://my.telegraph.co.uk/beanbean/beanbean/4054641/A_Polish_life_5_Starobielsk_and_the_transSiberian_railway/ |archive-date=May 31, 2014}}</ref> Out of [[Władysław Anders|General Anders]]' 80,000 evacuees from Soviet Union gathered in Great Britain only 310 volunteered to return to Soviet-controlled Poland in 1947.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wajszczuk.v.pl/english/drzewo/czytelnia/michael_hope.htm |first=Michael |last=Hope |title=Polish deportees in the Soviet Union |publisher=Wajszczuk.v.pl |access-date=January 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408081337/http://www.wajszczuk.v.pl/english/drzewo/czytelnia/michael_hope.htm |archive-date=April 8, 2009}}</ref>

During the [[Great Patriotic War]], Gulag populations declined sharply due to a steep rise in mortality in 1942–43. In the winter of 1941, a quarter of the Gulag's population died of [[starvation]].<ref>[http://www.anneapplebaum.com/gulag-a-history/ GULAG: a History], Anne Applebaum</ref> 516,841 prisoners died in prison camps in 1941–43,<ref>Zemskov, ''Gulag'', Sociologičeskije issledovanija, 1991, No. 6, pp. 14–15.</ref><ref name="gulag1">{{cite web|url=http://publicist.n1.by/articles/repressions/repressions_gulag1.html |title=Repressions |publisher=Publicist.n1.by |access-date=January 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419222914/http://soviet-history.com/doc/prison/gulag_info1.php |archive-date=April 19, 2009 }}</ref> from a combination of their harsh working conditions and the famine caused by the German invasion. This period accounts for about half of all gulag deaths, according to Russian statistics.

In 1943, the term ''[[katorga]] works'' ({{lang|ru|каторжные работы}}) was reintroduced. They were initially intended for [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|Nazi collaborators]], but then other categories of political prisoners (for example, members of [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|deported peoples]] who fled from exile) were also sentenced to "katorga works". Prisoners sentenced to "katorga works" were sent to Gulag prison camps with the most harsh regime and many of them perished.<ref name="gulag1" />

==== Economic role ====
[[File:Central shop in Norilsk in 1957.jpg|thumb|Central shop in [[Norilsk]] built by prisoners of the [[Norillag]]]]
[[File:Logging at Small Ungut (no border).jpeg|thumb|Lithuanian deportees preparing logs for rafting on the [[Mana (Russia)|Mana River]]]]
Up until World War II, the Gulag system expanded dramatically to create a Soviet "camp economy". Right before the war, forced labor provided 46.5% of the nation's [[nickel]], 76% of its [[tin]], 40% of its [[cobalt]], 40.5% of its [[Chromite|chrome-iron ore]], 60% of its [[gold]], and 25.3% of its [[Lumber|timber]].<ref name="Ivanova: labor camps"/> And in preparation for war, the NKVD put up many more factories and built highways and railroads.

The Gulag quickly switched to the production of arms and supplies for the army after fighting began. At first, transportation remained a priority. In 1940, the NKVD focused most of its energy on railroad construction.<ref name=khlev>{{cite book | last= Khevniuk | first= Oleg V. |title= The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror|year= 2004|publisher= Yale University Press|pages= 236–286}}</ref> This would prove extremely important when the German advance into the Soviet Union started in 1941. In addition, factories converted to produce ammunition, uniforms, and other supplies. Moreover, the NKVD gathered skilled workers and specialists from throughout the Gulag into 380 special colonies which produced tanks, aircraft, armaments, and ammunition.<ref name="Ivanova: labor camps">{{cite book|last= Ivanova|first= Galina Mikhailovna|title= Labor Camp Socialism: The Gulag in the Soviet Totalitarian System|year= 2000|publisher= Sharpe|location= Armonk, New York|pages= 69–126}}</ref>

Despite its low capital costs, the camp economy suffered from serious flaws. For one, actual productivity almost never matched estimates: the estimates proved far too optimistic. In addition, scarcity of machinery and tools plagued the camps and the tools that the camps did have quickly broke. The Eastern Siberian Trust of the Chief Administration of Camps for Highway Construction destroyed ninety-four trucks in just three years.<ref name="Ivanova: labor camps" /> But the greatest problem was simple – forced labor was less efficient than free labor. In fact, prisoners in the Gulag were, on average, half as productive as free laborers in the USSR at the time,<ref name="Ivanova: labor camps" /> which may be partially explained by malnutrition.

To make up for this disparity, the NKVD worked prisoners harder than ever. To meet rising demand, prisoners worked longer and longer hours, and on lower food-rations than ever before. A camp administrator said in a meeting: "There are cases when a prisoner is given only four or five hours out of twenty-four for rest, which significantly lowers his productivity." In the words of a former Gulag prisoner: "By the spring of 1942, the camp ceased to function. It was difficult to find people who were even able to gather firewood or bury the dead."<ref name="Ivanova: labor camps" />

The scarcity of food stemmed in part from the general strain on the entire Soviet Union, but also the lack of central aid to the Gulag during the war. The central government focused all its attention on the military and left the camps to their own devices. In 1942, the Gulag set up the Supply Administration to find their own food and industrial goods. During this time, not only did food become scarce, but the NKVD limited rations in an attempt to motivate the prisoners to work harder for more food, a policy that lasted until 1948.<ref name=ebacon>{{cite book|last= Bacon|first= Edwin|title= The Gulag at War: Stalin's Forced Labor System in the Light of the Archives|year= 1994|publisher= New York University Press|location= New York|pages= 42–63, 82–100, 123–144}}</ref>

In addition to food shortages, the Gulag suffered from labor scarcity at the beginning of the war. The [[Great Purge|Great Terror]] of 1936–1938 had provided a large supply of free labor, but by the start of World War II the purges had slowed down. In order to complete all of their [[project]]s, camp administrators moved prisoners from project to project.<ref name=khlev /> To improve the situation, laws were implemented in mid-1940 that allowed giving short camp sentences (4 months or a year) to those convicted of petty theft, hooliganism, or labor-discipline infractions. By January 1941, the Gulag workforce had increased by approximately 300,000 prisoners.<ref name=khlev /> But in 1942, serious food shortages began, and camp populations dropped again. The camps lost still more prisoners to the war effort as the Soviet Union went into a total war footing in June 1941. Many laborers received early releases so that they could be drafted and sent to the front.<ref name=ebacon />

Even as the pool of workers shrank, demand for outputs continued to grow rapidly. As a result, the Soviet government pushed the Gulag to "do more with less". With fewer able-bodied workers and few supplies from outside the camp system, camp administrators had to find a way to maintain production. The solution they found was to push the remaining prisoners still harder. The NKVD employed a system of setting unrealistically high production goals, straining resources in an attempt to encourage higher productivity. As the Axis armies pushed into Soviet territory from June 1941 on, labor resources became further strained, and many of the camps had to evacuate out of Western Russia.<ref name=ebacon />

From the beginning of the war to halfway through 1944, 40 camps were set up, and 69 were disbanded. During evacuations, machinery received priority, leaving prisoners to reach safety on foot. The speed of [[Operation Barbarossa]]'s advance prevented the evacuation of all prisoners in good time, and the NKVD [[NKVD prisoner massacres|massacred many to prevent them from falling into German hands]]. While this practice denied the Germans a source of free labor, it also further restricted the Gulag's capacity to keep up with the Red Army's demands. When the tide of the war turned, however, and the Soviets started pushing the Axis invaders back, fresh batches of laborers replenished the camps. As the Red Army recaptured territories from the Germans, an influx of Soviet ex-POWs greatly increased the Gulag population.<ref name=ebacon />