Norillag, Norilsk Corrective Labor Camp (russian: Норильлаг, Норильстрой, Норильский ИТЛ) was a

gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (espec ...

set by

Norilsk Norilsk ( rus, Нори́льск, p=nɐˈrʲilʲsk, ''Norílʹsk'') is a closed city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located south of the western Taymyr Peninsula, around 90 km east of the Yenisey River and 1,500 km north of Krasnoyarsk. Norilsk ...

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Si ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

and headquartered there. It existed from June 25, 1935 to August 22, 1956.Norilsky ITL
Initially, the Norillag labor force was responsible for the construction of the Norilsk mining-metallurgic complex and for mining

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

and

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow t ...

. Its activities gradually expanded into virtually all economical functions of the region, from

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

to "reconstruction of the house where lived Comrade

I.V. Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

in exile". Starting from 1,200 inmates in 1935, its numbers jumped to 9,000 in 1937 (the onset of the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

) and peaked in 1951 at 72,500, housed in 30 camp sections. ''

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...

'' estimates the total number of its inmates over the history of the camp at 400,000, with about 300,000 being

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...

s. The geography of this camp system included the Norilsk area, including

Dudinka Dudinka (russian: Дуди́нка; Nenets: Тут'ын, ''Tutꜧyn'') is a town on the Yenisei River and the administrative center of Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It used to be the administrative center of Ta ...

and

Kayerkan Kayerkan (russian: Кайерка́н), located in the northern part of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia and in the southern part of the Taymyr Peninsula, was a town under jurisdiction of Norilsk Norilsk ( rus, Нори́льск, p=nɐˈrʲilʲsk, ''N ...

, as well as more remote places, including

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Y ...

and some agricultural camps in Kureika (village), Atamanovo and

Shushenskoye Shushenskoye ( rus, Шу́шенское, p=ˈʂuʂɨnskəjɛ) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Shushensky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located at the confluence of the Yenisei and Big S ...

. Initially the construction activities were handled by the Norilstroy (Норильстрой), while Norillag supplied the workforce and some infrastructure. In 1953, shortly after the death of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

, the Gorlag camp of Norillag system was the place of the major Gulag revolt, known as the

Norilsk uprising The Norilsk uprising was a major strike by Gulag inmates in Gorlag, a special camp mostly for political prisoners, and later in the two camps of Norillag TL Norilsk, USSR, now Russia, in the summer of 1953, shortly after Joseph Stalin's death. A ...

. It was closed in 1957, together with most of the Gulag system.«Система исправительно-трудовых лагерей в СССР». Составитель М. Б. Смирнов М.: ''Звенья'', 1998.
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Selected notable inmates

* Aleksei Balandin *

Dmitri Bystrolyotov Dmitri Aleksandrovich Bystrolyotov (January 4, 1901 – May 3, 1975) (russian: Дмитрий Александрович Быстролётов) was a Soviet Russian intelligence officer, a polyglot, a writer and a Gulag prisoner. One of the most o ...

Herbert Brede Herbert Lorentz Brede (25 April 1888 in Püssi – 6 October 1942 in Norilsk) was an Estonian soldier and general. Brede fought in World War I as an officer of the Imperial Russian Army against the Central Powers. After World War I he fought ...

(1888–1942), Estonian military commander *

Walter Ciszek Walter Joseph Ciszek, S.J. (November 4, 1904 – December 8, 1984) was a Polish-American Jesuit priest of the Russian Greek Catholic Church who conducted clandestine missionary work in the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1963. Fifteen of ...

(1904–1984), Polish-American Jesuit priest * Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya (1908–1994), writer and artist * Grigoriy Kirdetsov (1880–1938), journalist and translator * Jānis Medenis (1903–1961), Latvian poet and writer * Isaiah Oggins (1898–1947), American communist and Soviet spy * Jacques Rossi (1909–2004), Polish-French writer and polyglot * Nikolay Urvantsev (1893–1985), geologist and explorer * Nikolai Vekšin (1887–1951), Estonian sailor *

Karlo Štajner Karlo Štajner (15 January 1902 – 1 March 1992) was an Austrian-Yugoslav communist activist and a prominent Gulag survivor. Štajner was born in Vienna, where he joined the Communist Youth of Austria, but emigrated to the Kingdom of Serbs, C ...

(1902-1992), Croatian writer

References

*Ertz, Simon Chapter 7, ''"Building Norilsk"'' In ''"The Economics of Forced Labor: The Soviet Gulag"'', Paul R. Gregory, Valery V. Lazarev (eds.). Stanford:

Hoover Institution Press The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and ...

, 2003

External links

Norillag: Internet Resources

Norillag: twitter

Norillag: facebook page

Norillag: blogger

Norillag: wordpress

Norillag: livejournal

Norillag: livejournal community
{{coord missing Norillag Buildings and structures in Krasnoyarsk Krai

Selected notable inmates

See also

References

External links