A cooperative farm Giant organized in the Kazakh prairie in 1931 occupied 17 thousand hectares of land. That was an enterprise that broke the fates of 6 million political and military prisoners called People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD).
The cross is installed 25 km away from the city of Karaganda at the border of the camp where thousands of political and later military prisoners were kept in extremely bad conditions. According to official data, over 5 000 of them were buried in a collective grave.
There is no place for lie and oblivion. The place is quite and scary.
‘A monument to oppressed people from Belarus’
NKVD consumed people without considering what their nationality is.
The grim silence is eventually broken by the bell.
The camp included different camps and special zones. The camps for military prisoners and camps for wifes of the Motherland’s traitors were the largest ones.
Its total area is equal to that of France. After the camp was closed all the buildings were destroyed, a military unit was dislocated here.
A monument to a soldier of the military unit.
The prisoners were engaged in excavation of stones used in road construction. The work had to be done manually. People died of hunger, cold and physical exhaustion. Others were killed by the guards.
The walls are very firm. People who died during construction were buried under the walls.
Following the decision of camp construction local population was evicted from the territory. They were also deprived of their cattle which meant starvation for most of them.
The valley was surrounded with a barbed wire. Up to 1980 entry was allowed by pass.
After the camp was eliminated just the wire was left.
The magnificent building embraced control center of the camp.
The museum of political repression victims is located right here today.
These are all genuine documents that remind us of the routine and inhuman system aimed at turning the people into faceless mass.
A guilty verdict of another famous writer and patriot who was accused of being a nationalist working for Japanese intelligence agency.
The Kazakh intelligents who used to strive for independence of their country after the Revolution were all claimed guilty.
The guards of the camp were cruel people without any principles. They could kill prisoners just to get another bonus. A bonus for massive escape prevention exceeded any other bonus twice.
You help our enemies by talking too much.
Many people entered the camp in the result of some anonymous information sent to officials.
A prisoner was allowed to sleep on the icy floor of the disciplinary cell for 4 hours. He had to spend standing the rest of time.
Those who dared to disobey were put into the hole where they spent several days without food and water.
Some prisoners who were also scientists worked in laboratories.
Nobody could say for sure how many died those days.
The camp was filled with Russian intellectuals.
Interrogations lasted 24 hours a day.
Many people lost their minds after them.
NKVD officials treated their work as regular responsibilities and orders from above that need to be followed.
Thousands of prisoners were tortured in the chamber. They were hit by electricity. Their bones were destroyed.
This is a shooting place.
This old man was one of the prisoners. He was arrested for reading a wrong book about the history of Ukraine. In spite of the fact he was just 19 then he had to stay at the camp for 25 years.
‘Guards were very cruel. They killed prisoners without any reasons. Once after another similar incident we refused to work. Criminals were sent to kill us but we resisted. 15 people were killed that time in the fight’
‘In 1954 we asked to change the guards. They used tanks to get people smashed for that and killed everyone including children. The entire ground was all in blood’
When we asked him how he managed to survive the old man cried.
‘They wanted to kill us by throwing in a mine. We were hanging above the abyss for 15 minutes while they waited for an order but suddenly changed their minds. That’s how I survived’
Prison for women.
Women were never shot though.
This woman was collecting money for a government loan. As people had nothing to eat after the war she allowed a widow with 4 children to keep the money and was arrested for that.
They didn’t allow her to sleep for a week and she confessed being an American spy.
She became a painter there.
She remembers how many people died that time. The coffins were light as people were exhausted. She can’t believe that the time is over.
She likes to sing. They used to organize concerts while in prison.
After the camp I learned to appreciate every minute of my life.
Women were separated from their kids and suffered a lot. The children’s lives were also far from being easy.
As soon as a child grew up he was taken to the orphanage. Many women could never see their children again.
But the children were constantly reminded of who they are.
This woman was 8 years old when she was sent to an orphanage. ‘We never saw enough bread, the rooms weren’t heated in winter. ‘ A plenty of kids died that time. Nobody felt pity for them as their parents betrayed the Motherland.
These children died of hunger.
The children are buried at the cemetery.
Its area is equal to 20 stadiums.
Barracks for guards.
This person’s father spent 18 years at the camp. He says that the land here is covered with bones.
Hospital.
Another descendant of prisoners.
The hospital works till now.
We have no right to forget about broken lives of these people.
via voxpopuli
Stories like these must be told so that we can prevent them from ever happening again!
Finally a post that details the horrors that was the soviet system. Still, they leave the staute of Lenin intact. Amazing. You’d think they would want to eliminate every vestige of the Soviets.
Not quite. We don’t to wipe off the memory of the USSR because, somethings were better in those days than now. And it wasn’t Lenin that did this. It was Stalin.
Stalin that Georgian muth… fu..er
Murdering children? Not lenins fault? Who killed the royals?
I said somethings were better, not everything. No country, no religion, no society, no anything is perfect.
As for the royals, it happens everywhere when unpopular regimes are toppled. Take Nicolae Ceaușescu, or Saddam Hussain for instance.
And their kids too? Ceausescu and Hussein I understand. The whole family was into murdering and torture. Czar’s kids were to little to be considered guilty.
Fortunately the Americans won the Cold War instead of the Russians, so this can be a museum, instead of real life across the world.
“won the Cold War”? Do you REALLY think $14,290,000,000,000 debt belongs to the winner? America simply held out longer in a game of chicken!
WE ALL LOST THAT WAR !!!
Nobody won that war, but everybody on this planet suffer during that war!
What can you say after seeing something like this. It’s beyond disturbing. I just hope all who suffered this place rest in peace.
All I see is a bunch of pictures. If the field is covered with bones if I go and dig there will I find them? If I tear down that wall will I find human bones? Too bad you people aren’t using hard evidence and critical thought. That of course is a lot to expect of you.
And somehow, America is the bad guy.
Go figure. They hate America more than the system that created and fuled places like this.
Extremely poignant! Must have been living hell. This must always be remembered…the horrors of the communist regime, especially under Stalin must never be forgotten.
This is one of the most powerful things I have ever seen here. I am sure Stalin, Lenin and their Chekists are burning in hell for their deeds. The Communists were worse than the Nazis. Even if you opposed the Nazis politically, your family wasn’t imprisoned and your children weren’t starved to death. Yes, if you were Jewish, that was a different matter. But when you see the pictures of all these people, the lives the Soviet Union just wasted, it is clear the USSR richly deserved its’ demise.
How is it that this is classified as ‘Funny’?!?!?!? This is a sad legacy of Stalin. My heart goes out to those who had to go through this.
Harrowing. Man’s cruelty to one another can be a shock. In this age, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Unfortunately the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, the 1990s Rwandan genocide, Dem. Congo today, Somalia today, S.Sudan/Darfur today demonstrate it is happening in this age. Depressing…
To open a debate on this subject, I feel, would be disrespectful. It was monstrous. Every family in the USSR suffered.
If you feel such a post is presented here to make the country look bad you are wrong. Young people must learn of these events, God willing, it won’t happen again.
I fear Putin is dragging Russia back in to the soviet mentality.
i’m sorry. i can’t stop crying. i do not understand why such instructions were handed down. we are all people of the same soil and we all breathe the same air. such behavior shows me that even though we are all humans, it is just as easy to become unhuman and do unhuman things. my prayers are with their families and for the dead.
Comminism had to destroy anything that questioned it’s moral or intelectual supposed superiority.
I feel sorry for the old man. I wish that seeing the best years of your life wasted in prison over something so trivial rarely hapened in the USSR, but sadly it was common…
May those unfortunate victims rest in peace. Guess it’s too late to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Even today the Wiesenthal Center finds WW2 war criminals to bring to justice.
But those GULAG camp guards and other staff are lot younger.
I guess it is a matter of will. After all Putin warships Stalin …
Horrible situations like this can happen anywhere not just in Russia or Germany.Wherever people who prefer power over humanity and would keep it with suspicion and cruelty to retain their power then it will exist.The United States is veering toward this direction.As human beings in the brotherhood of man we are capable of great good and conversely as human beings we are capable of great evil.It all depends on the circumstances and situations that will determine the outcome.There will always be evil men as well as good men of any nationality but it seems to me that greed and ambition will always overtake common good and civility.
This was not communism. Just like slavery was not Americanism; just like the elimination of Native Peoples was not Americanism. Powerful people can alter, warp, or subvert ideas. But you can’t destroy a “good” idea.
Although this in inhumane, and a stain on Russia, I agree with you. This isn’t Communism, this is Stalinism.
Thank you.
You brought up a very good point.
Hughes’ Law: Any system of belief or action will inevitably fulfill its total potential for evil.
Allow power to begin to concentrate in one set of hands, and a Stalin or Caligula or Torquemada is inevitable.
The question to ponder then, is how does power begin to concentrate into one set of hands? Which is why the idea of communism led to what you call stalinism. So what is communism? Economically it is the central planning of industry, albeit for the supposed “good” of the people. Thus to have communism on a national level you must let a few individuals plan the economy, which centralizes power since the control of money and resources must go through those few individuals in charge of planning. Any type of central planning has the potential to lead to the road to serfdom which russia (ussr), germany, and italy all experienced in the early 20th century. It’s central planning which should make people worry. The opposite side of the spectrum economically from central planning is the Free-Market which the US currently stays away from and is at the heart of the rich getting richer and the middle class dying. We are following the same path as all the central planners before. Once enough power is located centrally it isn’t hard for one man or group of men to take control. So yes communism economically isn’t very different than stalinism, they are only different on the social level not the economical level.
‘A monument to oppressed people from Belarus’ – it is wrong caption
‘A monument to oppressed people from Belarus WILL BE HERE’
Firstly, no, this is not a hoax, plot, or prank. This really did happen. Scrat, go and dig, my friend. Go and dig. But be prepared. Better still, how about going to one of the abandoned camps inside of the arctic circle? Minus 30/30 C? Then, how could it happen? It happened because of the confluence of multiple events, attitudes and situations. Solzhenitsyn describes it in his works, and in great detail in “The GULAG Archipelago”. I am wondering exactly which camp this was? The old mans talks of an uprising. A.S. describes such an uprising in his book. He also describes the reign of terror the criminals had over the “zeks” (political prisoners). He describes how, in one of the camps, some zeks just simply started putting a stop to the criminals rule by standing up to them. And therein lies part of the means of preventing this. Simply say “NO”. Say it loud. say it always. Not saying it is condoning this horror. And that is, partly, how it happened. Not enough people said “NO”.
Good to see the Southern parts of “The archipelago” are remembered as well.
Like it or not we must forgive the oppressors. I know this is not a popular answer but we must forgive them like we forgave Germany and Japan.
Sad but necessary post. Maybe we have to forgive, but for sure to NOT FORGET such humans tragedy.
Man’s worst enemy is the man…
Al least until we find another enemy from another planet to fight.
This same will happen again soon at a greater scale.
That would be impressive logistically. To have something on the same scale would take a lot of organization, capital, and media cooperation.
sramota proslosti
After all that i still wonder why communist parties are still allowed around the world in democratic countries. They banned the nazis around the world (which is normal), why not the communists? Not that all communists are monsters like stalin, but IMO if something leads to the death of thousands because of their opinions, it should be banned from the face of the earth (that includes religions, but that’s just my opinion).
Because it wasn’t communism, it was Stalinism.
sorry but communism and stalinism resulted from the same economic machinery. When you have a centrally planned economy ie socialism, fascism, dictatorships,communism, monarchy, you are on a road to serfdom. Because with centralized economic authority, centralized social authority is easy to put into place. Its not hard to understand because many social activities require money (to read someone must purchase a book, to write someone must purcahse a pen and paper, music requires instruments and these things don’t just manifest themselves they require economic activity) thus social activity are directly tied to economic activity. If the power of economic activity is centralized like in communism it just takes a person like Stalin to abuse it because all the power is already centralized, the centralizing of nazi germany was taking place before Hitler or even Nazism (national socialists) ever became. You are probably right it isn’t communism that killed these people it was Stalinism, but Stalinism was the result of the Communist Ideology or Socialist Ideology of Central Planning. Don’t be fooled the US is on a similar path to serfdom because of this central planning mentality giving the government more control of economic activity always results in the centralizing of power just because Americans say they are Free-Market and Capitalistic does not make it so, a furth investigation into their economy would lead one to realize they are not Free-Market or Capitalistic at all, if anything they are in a state of a mixed economy. Central planning is the foe of the people of the world whether you call it Communism, Socialism, Market-Socialism, Fascism, Kings, Monarchies, Queens, or Dictatorships.
This is all so sad. Everyone must be vigilent and not allow this to happen anywhere. Whenever we can raise our voice and keep our eyes open, we must. It has occurred too often all over the world.
Thanks for make enable to digging it. I will dig it as eng-rus.com did.
It’s very good article.
“…The United States is veering toward this direction….”
Yes,it certainly is…. Despite the huge numbers of firearms privately held ,many of our citizens don’t have the courage to turn against a coordinated effort such as this…