Kengir uprising
The Kengir uprising was a prisoner uprising in the Soviet criminal and special camp of the MWD in Kengir , which lasted from May 16 to June 26, 1954. It was one of three major rebellions in the Gulag's penal and labor camp system . The camp in Kengir was officially called Special Camp No. 4 or Steppe Improvement Camp , or StepLag for short ; it was located in Kazakhstan near the city of Sheqasghan and had space for over 10,000 prisoners at the time.
history
In the summer of 1954, the inmates overwhelmed the camp guards and took control. During the 40-day uprising, a separate camp government was elected under the leadership of a former colonel in the Soviet Army , and it created its own administrative departments such as agitation and propaganda , services, catering, internal security, defense and technical services. Priests in prison held weddings. Many Soviet veterans of World War II as well as internees from the Baltic States and western Ukraine played a leading role in the uprising . The uprising was temporarily accompanied by a hunger strike in which inmates of several barracks participated. Solzhenitsyn reports in his book The Gulag Archipelago about a kind of propaganda war, which was waged on both sides with radio transmitters, leaflets and even with written paper kites.
In the end, the Soviet guards regained control of the camp with the help of units from the Soviet army that had been brought in through the use of tanks . According to information from uprising veterans, six to seven hundred people were killed or injured.
See also
literature
- Steven A. Barnes, "In a Manner Befitting Soviet Citizens": An Uprising in the Post-Stalin Gulag . In: Slavic Review . tape 64 , no. 4 , 2005, ISSN 0037-6779 , p. 823-850 .
Coordinates: 47 ° 50 ′ 28 " N , 67 ° 36 ′ 54" E