In the

law of the Soviet Union The Law of the Soviet Union was the law as it developed in the Soviet Union (USSR) following the October Revolution of 1917. Modified versions of the Soviet legal system operated in many Communist states following the Second World War—including ...

, katorga labor was a severe category of

penal labor Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of Sentence (law), sentence involving penal labour hav ...

. "

Katorga Katorga (, ; from medieval and modern ; and Ottoman Turkish: , ) was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisoners were sent to remote penal colonies in vast uninhabited a ...

" was a system of penal labor in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, hence the term. It was introduced during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

by the April 22, 1943, decree of the

Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet () was the standing body of the highest body of state authority in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).The Presidium of the Soviet Union is, in short, the legislative branch of the great Soviet ...

"О мерах наказания изменникам Родине и предателям и о введении для этих лиц, как меры наказания, каторжных работ". ("On the Types of Punishment for the Treasoners and Traitors and on the Introduction of Katorga Labor as a Type of Punishment for Such Persons"). By this decree, katorga units were established in

Vorkutlag The Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp (), commonly known as Vorkutlag (Воркутлаг), was a major Gulag labor camp in the Soviet Union located in Vorkuta, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. ...

and

Sevvostlag Sevvostlag (, North-Eastern Corrective Labor Camps) was a system of forced labor camps set up to satisfy the workforce requirements of the '' Dalstroy'' construction trust in the Kolyma region in April 1932. Organizationally being part of ''Dal ...

. Katorga labor was characterized by the longer workday and hard workplace conditions, such as underground coal mining, gold and

tin mining Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm. History Tin extraction and use ca ...

. The abbreviation for the corresponding convicts was "з/к КТР" ( z/k KTR). Katorga labor was initially intended for

Nazi collaborators In World War II, many governments, organizations and individuals collaborated with the Axis powers, "out of conviction, desperation, or under coercion". Nationalists sometimes welcomed German or Italian troops they believed would liberate their ...

, but other categories of political prisoners (for example, members of deported peoples who fled from exile) were also sentenced to "katorga labor". Later in 1943, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued the decree "О мерах наказания для немецко-фашистских злодеев, виновных в истязаниях советского гражданского населения и пленных красноармейцев, для шпионов, изменников родины из числа советских граждан и для их пособников", in which section 2 provided punishment with katorga works for 15 to 25 years. By data for July 1944, there were 5,200 ''katorzhniks''. In September 1947 they numbered over 60,000.Viktor Zemskov,
(историко-социологический аспект)
("GULAG (Historical-Sociological Aspect)"), ''Социологические исследования'' (''Sociological Research'') 1991, nos. 6, 7

References

{{reflist Gulag Penal labour Settlement schemes in the Soviet Union