Vorkutlag was established on May 10, 1938 by splitting it from
Ukhtpechlag. In 1937 the construction of the Pechora Mainline railway started. The new railway was an addition to the
Northern Railway (Russia) which connected Moscow to Vorkuta,
Konosha,
Kotlas, the camps of
Inta and other Northern parts of
European Russia. It was completed in 1941. The first train arrived at Vorkuta on 28 December 1941. This important event was attended by residents of Vorkuta and photographed by Yakov Yakovlevich Fomin, who was in charge of constructing the railway. From 1939,
Polish prisoners were held at Vorkuta following the
occupation of Poland. Following the
German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Vorkuta was then also used to hold German
prisoners of war captured on the
Eastern Front in World War II as well as criminals,
Soviet citizens and those from Soviet-allied countries deemed to be dissidents and
enemies of the state. US soldiers were also held in the camp, a majority of whom were captured during the
Korean War. Many prisoners did not survive their internment and died by freezing to death in the cold climate, starvation (food was scarce) or being worked to death. Prisoners were fed rye bread, buckwheat, meat, fish and potatoes but in very small amounts. Prisoners resorted to killing rats or stray dogs for food. Self-harm was common in the camp: if an inmate sustained an injury they would be sent to the hospital where conditions were better. The average amount of working time in the camp was 16 hours a day for every inmate. The guards who protected and managed the Gulag were a part of the NKVD, MVD and the
Red Army. Guards were most often recruited on three-year contracts after completing their basic military service. Regulations allowed guards to shoot without warning any prisoner who strayed outside the designated work zone or too near a camp fence.
World War II Working conditions Working conditions in the camp during World War II were especially brutal. Working hours were increased from eight to ten hours for non-prisoners, and from ten to twelve hours for prisoners. A nationwide lack of food, due to compromised farmland and the mass diversion of food to the Red Army, meant that feeding Gulag prisoners was not a high priority. In 1943 and 1944, the majority of Vorkutlag prisoners lived on the cusp of starvation. The death rate of the Gulag system as a whole rose as well. In 1939 and 1940, the death rates were 38.3 and 34.7 per thousand prisoners respectively. In 1941, this rose to 67.3/thousand, in 1942 to 175.8/thousand, and in 1943, 169.7/thousand.
Coal production As a significant coal production center, Vorkutlag played a major role in the Soviet Union's war economy, supplying the factories of the war machine. Because of Germany's initial strides in the war, the Soviet Union's major coal supplier was Ukraine. By the end of 1941, the Nazi army had occupied virtually all of Ukraine, cutting Soviet coal production in half. The rebels successfully attacked the town's communication office, state bank, NKVD office, and jail, freeing prisoners in the process. However, they were repelled at the airfield and faced a fierce battle at the local militia office. Reinforcements, including militarized guards from the nearby Polia-Kur'ia camp section, forced the rebels to retreat from Ust-Usa. For a week following the initial strike the camp administration apparently did nothing; they increased perimeter guards but took no forceful action against inmates. The mines were visited by State Attorney of the USSR,
Roman Rudenko,
Internal Troops Commander,
Ivan Maslennikov, and other top brass from Moscow. The generals spoke to the inmates who sat in the camp courtyards, peacefully. However, on July 26, a mob stormed the maximum security punitive compound, releasing 77 of its inmates. The commissars from Moscow remained in Vorkuta, planning their response. The inmates demanded lower production targets, wages and to be allowed to write more than two letters a year. Concessions were made, including being allowed to write more than two letters a year and one visitor a year but the inmates demanded more. On July 31 camp chief
Kuzma Derevyanko started mass arrests of "saboteurs"; inmates responded with
barricades. The next day, on August 1, after further bloodless clashes between inmates and guards, Derevyanko ordered direct fire at the mob resulting in the deaths of at least 53 prisoners and injuring 135 (many of them, deprived of medical help, died later) although estimates vary. According to
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, there were 66 killed. Among those shot was the Latvian Catholic priest
Jānis Mendriks.
Closing of Vorkuta camp, 1962 The Vorkuta camp was liquidated by order of the
USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and eventually closed in 1962. Closure of Gulag camps started when
Nikita Khrushchev came to power. Khrushchev started a series of reforms known as
De-Stalinization which resulted in the closure of most camps. Vorkuta became one of the most well known camp of the Gulag, gaining a reputation of being one of the worst in the Soviet Union. About two million prisoners were sent to Vorkutlag from 1932 until the closure in 1962. The number of deaths in the camp was estimated to be 200,000. Most prisoners were released after the closure but large numbers of Soviet citizens who were former prisoners settled in Vorkuta, either due to the restrictions on their settlement elsewhere, their poor financial situation or simply having nowhere to go. Russian human rights organization
Memorial estimates that of the 40,000 people collecting
state pensions in the Vorkuta area, 32,000 are former Gulag inmates or their descendants. == Recent history ==