Editing Gulag (section)

==== 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" />