RetschLag (warehouse)

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RetschLag , built in 1948 in the Vorkuta mining district , which was part of the large system of Gulag camps, was a special camp of the MWD for political prisoners with up to 38,000 prisoners. These special camps with a tightened regime were special facilities in the general Gulag system in the Soviet Union created in the post-war period by the Interior Ministry MWD (formerly NKVD) .

designation

RetschLag, Russian Речлаг, was originally called Ossoblag No. 6 , d. H. Special camp No. 6 (from особый лагерь № 6, особлаг № 6). The abbreviation RetschLag is derived from Речной лагерь, d. H. River camp . These designations for the originally numbered special bearings were only assigned later and mostly randomly, as a kind of code; Although there are numerous rivers in the area of ​​the camp, it is believed that the name was first derived from the telegraph code of the camp, which was first «Река» (river), then «Речка» (river) and finally «Речной» (adjective to river) read. The full full name was Речной ИТЛ for Речной исправительно-трудовой лагерь - correctional and labor camp river camp.

History, activity

The RetschLag camp was established on August 27, 1948 on the basis of Decree No. 00219 of the MWD Ministry of the Interior of February 21, 1948, on the area of ​​some branch offices (warehouse departments) of the Vorkuta labor camp (Workuta- ITL , also WorkutLag) and the ITL of Karaganda coal (combine of the Ministry of the Interior MWD “Vorkuta-Ugol”) in the then ASSR Komi in the northwest of the RSFSR . The main camp administration was in Vorkuta . Although RetschLag was set up as an independent camp, the Ministry of the Interior decided by order no. 754 of the MWD of December 9, 1948 that the management of the camp would be taken over by the head of the Vorkuta-ITL, who passed it on to one of his deputies. The camp was closed on May 26, 1954 when it was re-affiliated with the Vorkuta ITL.

The camp inmates were used, among other things, for the following work:

  • Industrial and civil construction
  • Operation and construction of objects of the Vorkuta-Ugol combine , including coal mining in shafts 1, 8 and numerous others
  • Working in agriculture
  • Working in the brickworks
  • Construction of the heating power plant-2 of the MWD (station Ajatsch-Jaga of the combine railway),
  • Work in the gravel plant for traffic route construction

The 1953 uprising

In 1953 there were major revolts in the Gulag system in some special camps : in GorLag (→ Uprising of Norilsk ), Vorkuta (RetschLag) (→ Uprising of Vorkuta (Retschlag)) and in StepLag (→ Kengir Uprising ).

The prisoners in RetschLag learned of Stalin's death, of Beria's arrest, and also of the suppressed uprising in East Berlin on June 17, 1953 through self-help . The first 3,000 or so prisoners struck on July 22, 1953, and on July 29, 1953 15,654 prisoners (from 6 of the camp's 17 departments), the most active of which included Ukrainians , Balts and Poles ; the uprising lasted about ten days. The strike committee formulated a number of demands (relaxation of the camp regime, reporting of arbitrariness, torture and ill-treatment in the camp, review and lifting of convictions including an amnesty , etc.) to be presented to an expected commission from Moscow . Although the prisoners were negotiated first, the decision was later made to suppress the uprising by force, which in some cases was brutal - the information about the shot and wounded prisoners ranges from a few dozen to a few hundred. Nevertheless, the situation in the Gulag labor camps eased in the following period.

Occupant Numbers

According to the Memorial portal, the following numbers of inmates could be determined for the camp:

November 1948 6,654
January 1, 1949 7,474
January 1, 1950 25,024
January 1, 1951 27,547
January 1, 1952 35,459
January 1, 1953 35,451
August 1, 1954 37,654

About 40 percent of the prisoners were Ukrainians.

Known inmates

See also

literature

  • Anne Applebaum: The Gulag . Translated from the English by Frank Wolf. Siedler Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-88680-642-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vladimír Bystrov: Únosy československých občanů do Sovětského Svazu v letech 1945–1955 (kidnapping of Czechoslovak citizens in the Soviet Union 1945–1955). Edition Svědectví , ed. from Úřad dokumentace a vyšetřování zločinů komunismu ÚDV, an institution of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic, Prague 2003, ISBN 80-7312-027-5 , section REČLAG. P. 267. (online at: szcpv.org/ )
  2. ↑ a b c d Д. Шкапов: РЕЧНОЙ ЛАГЕРЬ. In: MB Smirnow (ed.): Система исправительно-трудовых лагерей в СССР (The system of corrective labor camps in the USSR 1923–1960). Zwenja, 1998. (online on portal Мемориал (Memorial.ru) memo.ru/ ; German version on portal MEMORIAL Deutschland e.V. Dmitri Schkapow : FLUSSLAGER . Online at: gulag.memorial.de/ )
  3. ↑ Приказ МВД СССР № 00219 “Об организации особых лагерей МВД” (Law No. 00219 on the Organization of Special Storage Centers of the MWD). (online at: alexanderyakovlev.org/ )
  4. ↑ On the uprising of 1953 see in particular: Anne Applebaum: Der Gulag . Translated from the English by Frank Wolf. Siedler Verlag, Berlin, 2003, ISBN 3-88680-642-1 , here in particular p. 511 ff .; Wladislaw Hedeler, Horst Hennig: Black pyramids, red slaves: the strike in Vorkuta in the summer of 1953 . Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-86583-177-4 , here in particular pages 75 ff. (Online (excerpts) at: books.google.de/ ) (Review of the book: Peter Erler: Der Strik der Forced laborers. In: Horch und Guck. 8/2008. (Online at: www.horch-und-guck.info/ ))

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