The THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO IN SAKHA REPUBLIC until

The THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO IN SAKHA REPUBLIC until the 1950 s The Sakha Republic, formerly known as Yakutia, covers over 3, 1 million sq km (the size of India) of the most inhospitable terrain in the whole Russian Federation. Almost half of it is within the Arctic Circle. Only one million people live there (Russians, Yakuts and small communities of Evenki and Chukchi), mainly in Yakutsk (the regional capital with more than 200000 inhabitants) and small settlements, mostly along the 4400 km-long Lena and its tributaries. The Gulag was the government agency that administered the Soviet forced labor camp system during the Stalin era from the 1930 s until the 1950 s. The Communist version of the Nazi concentration camps consisted of at least 50 major camps and 500 labor ‘colonies’ all over the Soviet Union. About 15 million people were in the Gulag labor camps. It has been established for certain that at least 1, 6 million people died in the Gulag camp archipelago, as it was named by Solzhenitsyn who won the 1970 Nobel prize, but the death toll is probably higher and might go beyond 10 million. The majority of the Gulag camps were located in extremely remote areas of Northeastern Siberia (Yakutia, Chukotka, Kolyma …) where escape was close to impossible due to the harsh climate. Dominique LAURENT Meet me on mosttraveledpeople. com or thebesttravelled. com AUTOMATIC

Sakha Republic -> Many camps were located in the Sakha Republic. Inmates were forced to build roads and bridges or worked in mines. The infamous Kolyma road, also named now ‘Road of Bones’, built by the prisoners (the ‘zeks’) linked over 2000 kms Yakutsk and Magadan in the Kolyma. <-The Gulag Archipelago

Topolinoe Gulag camp Topolinoe is a small Evenki settlement of about 2000 inhabitants on the Tompo River, a subsidiary of Aldan River and Lena River. It is the major village of a district covering some 250 000 sq km (half of France !). It lies some 200 kms north of the Kolyma road linking Yakutsk and Magadan. Several labor camps are located in this area.

Guards house

A watch post

Watch post

Prisoners’ shack

Prisoners shacks

Prisoners’ shack

<- Door of a prisoners shack Inscription left by a zek (prisoner) in 1971 : in 1963, nearly all the Gulag camps were closed but the prisoners were often not allowed to leave the region or simply could not afford to go away. The last camp for political prisoners (Perm 36) was closed in 1987.

BRIDGES ON THE ‘ROAD OF BONES’ AND SIDE ROADS The ‘Road of Bones’ is litterally speaking built on bones : when a prisoner died while working for building the road and its bridges, his body was used for filling up the road … When works are done nowadays, it is not uncommon to find bones in the earth of the roads …

A bridge south of Oltchanski pass

A bridge south of Menkule River

Remains of a bridge (south of Menkule River)

A GULAG CAMP IN INNEVKAN VALLEY This camp lies deep North on a tributary river of the Delinei River and is reached by sled in winter.

Watchtower

Barbed wires and a prisoners’ shack

Barbed wires

A prisoners’ shack

Prisoners’ shack

Bunks for prisoners

Canteen

Inside the canteen (‘Dining hall’ and cooking place)

‘Jail in the prison’ This was the jail for inmates inside the camp (conditions were of course even harder than those of the inmates of the camp)

Cells in the jail

<- a cell A moving testimony : a pan in a cell ->

Workshop, guards post and a prisoners’ shack

Workshop

Guards post

Administration house

Inside the administration house : Of course, it was more confortable than the inmates’ shacks ! There was heating !

An oven (for officers cooking)

GULAG IN THE GULAG The area of Tomtor and Oimyakon, along the Road of Bones, is the coldest inhabited place on Earth (the lowest temperature ever recorded is – 71, 2°). As such, it was very much feared and called the ‘Gulag in the Gulag’

Bridge on Tiriakyuriak River

Bridge on the way to Kyubyume

- Bridge south of Menkule River - Bridge on Agaiakan River - Mile post on the Road of Bones (kms to Khandyga – on the way to Yakutsk – and to Magadan)

Watchtowers <- Teplyy Khynch South of Oltchansky pass ->

A GULAG CAMP (NEAR TOMPO RIVER VALLEY)

Watchtower

Barbed wire around the camp

Barbed wire around a prisoners’ shack

Prisoners’ shack

Inside prisoners’ shack

MEMORIALS TO THE GULAG AND COMMUNIST MONUMENTS Although some memorials have been built honoring the sufferings of the Gulag inmates, a lot of monuments (Lenin statues for instance) honoring the Communist regime responsible for the Gulag are still in place in Yakutia ….

A cross honoring the victims of the Gulag on the Road of Bones (take notice of the barbed wire)

A Gulag museum in Tomtor

A communist slogan in Teplyy Khunch

<- Communist monument in Tomtor at sunset Communist memorial in Oimyakon ->

<- Communist memorial in Oimyakon A plaque with Lenin head reminding the airlift between Alaska and Siberia during WW 2 ->

Lenin statue on Lenin Square in Yakutsk -> <- A USSR emblem on Yakutsk post office