
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
Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...
region in April 1932. Organizationally being part of ''Dalstroy'' and under the management of the
Labor and Defence Council of
Sovnarkom, these camps were formally subordinated to
OGPU
The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...
later the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
directorate of the
Far Eastern Krai. On March 4, 1938, Sevvostlag was resubordinated to the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
GULAG
The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
. In 1942 it was resubordinated back to Dalstroy. In 1949 it was renamed to the Directorate of Dalstroy Corrective Labor Camps (Управление исправительно-трудовых лагерей Дальстроя). In 1953, after the death of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
, with the reform of the Soviet penal system, it was again resubordinated to Gulag and later reformed into the Directorate of Far Eastern Corrective Labor Camps Управление Северо-восточных исправительно-трудовых лагерей, УСВИТЛ (USVITL).
The inmates served on all Dalstroy projects, the major ones being
gold mining
Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining.
Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...
and road construction, including the infamous
Kolyma Highway
The R504 Kolyma Highway (, ''Federal'naya Avtomobil'naya Doroga «Kolyma»,'' "Federal Automobile Highway 'Kolyma'"), part of the M56 route, is a road through the Russian Far East. It connects Magadan with the town of Nizhny Bestyakh, located ...
.
Structure and prisoners
Sevvostlag was the sole administration for the whole system of the forced labor of Dalstroy. The numerous labor camps usually mentioned for Kolyma and Dalstroy were formally referred to as subcamps ("camp subdivisions", лагерные подразделения) attached (but not subordinated) to the corresponding production units. Until the 1950s the only exceptions were camps on the periphery of Kolyma, which while servicing Dalstroy, were either detached from or attached to Sevostlag at various times.
[History of Dalstroy]
From 1945 to 1949 there was a subcamp for
Japanese prisoners of war in Magadan, which held 3,479 prisoners by January 1, 1949.
[
]
Notable inmates
* Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian academic, teacher and author of Journey into the Whirlwind
* Nina Gagen-Torn, Russian poet, writer, historian and ethnographer
* Pavlo Khrystiuk, Ukrainian cooperator, historian, journalist, political activist, and statesman
*Sergei Korolev
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (14 January 1966) was the lead Soviet Aerospace engineering, rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He invented the R-7 Sem ...
, lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer
* Osip Mandelshtam, poet
* Vladimir Narbut, poet
*Boris Ruchyov
Boris Aleksandrovich Ruchyov, real surname Krivoshchyokov (; – 24 October 1973) was a Soviet and Russian poet, most of whose life and work was related to the city of Magnitogorsk. He is an author of about 30 books of poetry and a recipient of ...
, poet (1938–1947)
* Varlam Shalamov, author of the Kolyma Tales
* Thomas Sgovio, American artist, ex-Communist
* Vsevolod Zaderatsky, Russian and Ukrainian composer and pianist
Management and headquarters
The management was initially headquartered in the Srednikan settlement (now Ust-Srednekan, Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East, Far East region of the country, and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Magadan ...
). It was moved to the Nagayev Bay, and eventually to Magadan
Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...
.
Prominent camp officials included:
* Rodion Vaskov (Родион И. Васьков) – (11.03.32 – 09.28.34)
* Ivan Filippov (Иван Г. Филиппов) – captain of state security (09.28.34 – 12.21.37)
* (Гаранин, Степан Николаевич) – (12.21.37 – 09.27.38)
* A. Vishnevetsky (А. А. Вишневецкий) – captain of state security (02.16.40 – 02.19.41)
* Yevekl Drabkin (Евекль Иделевич Драбкин) – colonel of state security (05.19.41 – 03.13.45)
* N. Titov (Н.Ф. Титов) – Major General (03.13.45 – 07.27.48)
* A. Derevianko (А. А. Деревянко) – Major General (07.27.48 – 05.03.51)
See also
*
References
External links
Дальстрой
* Documentary ''*** GOLD*** - lost in Siberia'
by Gerard Jacobs and Theo Uittenbogaard (VPRO/The Netherlands/1994) was filmed in the summer of 1993 in Magadan, along the ''Road of Bones'', through Ust-Umshug and Susuman and at the Sverovostok Zoloto gold mine, Siberia, by the first foreign film crew ever.
Рудник «Хениканджа»
{{Authority control
History of Magadan Oblast
Camps of the Gulag