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Amnesty 1945: The Revolving Door of Stalin's Gulag

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Golfo Alexopoulos
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Abstract

Memoir literature suggests that Iosif Stalin's gulag was largely populated by political prisoners and that release from detention was extremely rare. In this article, Golfo Alexopoulos notes that most gulag inmates represented criminal offenders who cycled through Stalin's labor camps and colonies in vast numbers. She argues that the gulag formed a dynamic system in which the majority of prisoners came and went and uses Stalin's largest single release of gulag prisoners to expose the movement and tension of this revolving door. Surprisingly, Stalin's amnesty occurred over the objections of the NKVD leadership and despite great cost to the gulag system; the law was not designed to address postwar labor shortages, relieve overcrowded facilities, or remove less productive prisoners. Rather, the postwar prisoner exodus constituted a political act, and one consistent with Stalinist penal practice in which most prisoners cycled through the camps, connecting the world of the gulag with the larger society.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , Summer 2005 , pp. 274 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2005

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References

The author gratefully acknowledges critical remarks, suggestions, and assistance from Sheila Fitzpatrick, James Heinzen, Mark Kramer, Peter Solomon, Ronald G. Suny, as well as Diane Koenker and the anonymous reviewers for Slavic Review. I also thank the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research for funding the larger project on which this work is based. Epigraph taken from Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I., The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, I-II (New York, 1973), 273 Google Scholar.

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5. Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, “Victims of the Soviet Penal System,” 1041. As Steven Barnes points out, this important issue has been overlooked: “The assumption that releases from the Gulag were ‘very rare’ was one of the major mistakes of the first generation of Gulag historians.” Barnes, Steven, “Soviet Society Confined: The Gulag in the Karaganda Region of Kazakhstan, 1930s-1950s” (PhD diss., Stanford University, 2003), 33 Google Scholar.

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7. I am not the first to use the term “revolving door” with reference to the Soviet gulag system. See Adler, Nanci, “Life in the ‘Big Zone': The Fate of Returnees in the Aftermath of Stalinist Repression,” Europe-Asia Studies 51, no. 1 (January 1999): 7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Steven A. Barnes, “The Politics of Release from the Gulag” (paper, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Toronto, Canada, November 2003), 2; Nordlander, David, “Capital of the Gulag: Magadan in the Early Stalin Era, 1929-1941” (PhD diss., University of North Carolina, 1997), 179 Google Scholar.

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12. Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Moscow (GARF), f. 3917 (All-Russia Central Executive Committee Commission on Individual Amnesty Cases, 1921-1938), op. 12, d 12,11.8-9.

13. On the 1938 amnesty on the anniversary of the Red Army, see Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 69 Google Scholar; Savitskii, M., “Nekotorye voprosy primeneniia amnistii k XX godovshchine RKKA,” Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost’ 4 (1938): 46–48 Google Scholar. On the 1941 and 1944 amnesties for Polish citizens, see Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 70 Google Scholar; General Sikorski Historical Institute, Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1939-1945, 2 vols. (London, 1961-67), 1:141-46. Moreover, in 1936-37 no amnesties were issued and USSR Procurator A. la. Vyshinskii further restricted the application of the 1927 amnesty. See Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 51, 64-65Google Scholar.

14. On the 1922 and 1927 amnesties for the anniversary of the October revolution, see Amnistiia 1922 goda k V-oi godovshchine Oktiabr'skoi revoliutsii (Moscow, 1922); Fainblit, , Amnistiia i sudebnyiprigovor, 29–31 Google Scholar; Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 61–65 Google Scholar. On the 1957 and 1967 amnesties for the anniversary of the October revolution, see Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 78–79 Google Scholar; GARF f. 7523 (Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1937-1970), op. 90, d. 146,11. 37-47 (1967). 15. Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 71–72 Google Scholar. The amnesty law was issued on the day that it was approved by the party Politburo. See Adibekov, G. M., Anderson, K. M., and Rogovaia, L. A., eds., Politbiuro TsKRKP(b)-VKP(b): Povestki dlia zasedanii 1919-1952 v trekh tomakh: katalog (Moscow, 2000-01), 3:392 Google Scholar.

16. Special decrees of the State Defense Committee (GOKO) on 12 July 1941 and 24 November 1941 released prisoners and directed them into army service and into factory labor. See GARF, f. 9414 (Main Administration for Places of Detention under the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs), op. 1, d. 1228 (draft of the amnesty law and information on its implementation), 1. 2; GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1167 (30 August 1941 report to [Lavrentii] Beriia on the job skills of prisoners who are military personnel), 11. 17-18; “Gulag v gody voiny: Doklad nachal'nika GULAGa NKVD SSSR V G. Nasedkina, Avgust 1944 g.” Istoricheskii arkhiv 3 (1994): 64. In addition to the 420,000 prisoners who were released early in 1941, an additional 157,000 were freed before the completion of their sentences and directed into the Red Army in 1942-43. Many others were sent to military service after completing their sentences. The total flow of prisoners from the gulag into the Red Army throughout the war years is estimated at nearly a million. Zemskov, “Gulag,“ pt. 1:24. See also Barber, John and Harrison, Mark, The Soviet HomeFront, 1941-1945: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II (London, 1993), 116-19, 169-71Google Scholar; Barnes, “Soviet Society Confined,” 142-43; Amir Weiner, Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution (Princeton, 2001), 148-49. This large exodus was comparable to the 1945 amnesty in that it did not apply to political prisoners. In addition, political prisoners who had completed their sentences at the start of the war were kept in the camps. See also Ivanova, Galina Mikhailovna, Labor Camp Socialism: The Gulag in the Soviet Totalitarian System (New York, 2000), 39 Google Scholar; Adler, “Life in the ‘Big Zone,'” 7.

17. Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 71–72 Google Scholar.

18. Ibid., 30-35.

19. A few scholars do mention the 7 July 1945 amnesty. See Solomon, Peter H. Jr, Soviet Criminal Justice under Stalin (Cambridge, Eng., 1996), 421 Google Scholar; Zubkova, Elena, Poslevoennoe sovetskoe obshchestvo: Politika ipovsednevnost', 1945-1953 (Moscow, 2000), 41, 93Google Scholar; Zemskov, V N., “Gulag (istoriko-sotsiologicheskii aspekt),” pt. 2, Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia 7 (1991): 6–7 Google Scholar; Rittersporn, Getty, and Zemskov, , “Victims of die Soviet Penal System,” 1039nGoogle Scholar; Applebaum, Anne, Gulag: A History (New York, 2003), 292 Google Scholar; Filtzer, Donald, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism: Labour and the Restoration of the Stalinist System after World War II (Cambridge, Eng., 2002), 164-65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229 (Gulag instructions concerning implementation of the 7July 1945 amnesty), 1. 33.

21. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246 (Reports to the USSR NKVD and Gulag leadership on the number of prisoners freed under the 7 July 1945 amnesty and the amnesty's implementation), 1. 230.

22. Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 71–72 Google Scholar.

23. On the 26 December 1941 law, see Filtzer, , Soviet Workers, 161-67Google Scholar; Barber, and Harrison, , Soviet Home Front, 164-65Google Scholar. This law represents one of several “wartime decrees” that convicted nearly four million to detention between 1940 and 1952, the largest group of people sentenced in the war years. See Getty, Rittersporn, and Zemskov, “Victims of the Soviet Penal System,” 1033-34; Solomon, , Soviet Criminal Justice, 299–334 Google Scholar. Prior to publication of the 1945 amnesty, Stalin had already begun to reduce punishment of people sentenced under this law. In December 1944, the government issued an amnesty that applied only to people convicted under the 26 December 1941 law who had subsequently returned to their places of work. See Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 70 Google Scholar.

24. Adibekov, , Anderson, , and Rogovaia, , Politbiuro, 3:269, 274Google Scholar.

25. GARF, f. 7863 (Commission of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet for the Review of Complaints and Petitions for Clemency, 1938-1954), op. 7, d. 9439, 11. 1-5.

26. GARF, f. 7863, op. 14, d. 929, 11. 1-5.

27. GARF, f. 7863, op. 9, d. 866, 1. 4.

28. The party took measures to repeal the law in November 1945, the same month that the Gulag circulated its final report on implementation of the amnesty. See Khlevniuk, O. V, Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR, 1945-1953 (Moscow, 2002), 445 Google Scholar.

29. This provision targeted soldiers only and not all persons whose sentences had been postponed until the end of hostilities. At the same time, officials were warned not to apply this category to all soldiers, as many had been sentenced for counterrevolution under article 58-10 of the Criminal Code or for theft of socialist property according to the law of 7 August 1932. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 149.

30. The military crimes identified included the following articles of the RSFSR Criminal Code: 193-2, 193-5, 193-6, 193-7, 193-9, 193-10, 193-lOa, 193-14, 193-15 and 193-16. See Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 71–72 Google Scholar.

31. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 11. 206-209.

32. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 81. In 1945, there were 944 persons convicted of so-called counterrevolutionary crimes who were serving sentences of less than three years. See Kokurin, A. I. and Petrov, N. V., eds., Gulag (Glavnoe upravknie lagerei), 1917-1960 (Moscow, 2000), 434 Google Scholar.

33. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 84.

34. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 11. 117, 209.

35. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 15.

36. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 233.

37. Shalamov, , Kolyma Tales, 304 Google Scholar.

38. Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 71–72 Google Scholar; GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229,11. 5, 80-82. However, repeat offenders who were sentenced for less serious crimes did receive the benefits of the amnesty. For example, amnesty was extended to persons who had been sentenced repeatedly for desertion, or for violating the 26 December 1941 law against abandoning work at a military factory.

39. Filtzer, , Soviet Workers, 13–14 Google Scholar.

40. Solomon, , Soviet Criminal Justice, 421 Google Scholar. The 1927 amnesty on the tenth anniversary of the October revolution was declared, according to Peter Juviler, “simply because jails were stuffed with prisoners suffering from food shortages and epidemics due to unsanitary conditions.” Juviler, Peter, Revolutionary Law and Order: Politics and Social Change in the USSR (New York, 1976), 34–35 Google Scholar.

41. Khlevniuk, Oleg V., The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror (New Haven, 2004), 75 Google Scholar; Bezborodov, A. B. and Khrustalev, V M., eds., Istoriia stalinskogo Gulaga: Konets 1920-kh-pervaia polovina 1950-kh godov, vol. 4, Naselenie Gulaga: Chislennost’ i usloviia soderzhaniia (Moscow, 2004), 37 Google Scholar.

42. Volkogonov, Dmitri, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy (New York, 1988), 235-36Google Scholar. Regarding the 1953 amnesty, A. I. Kokurin and N. V Petrov state that “the main reason for this amnesty was, of course, not the humanity of the government, but the desire to free places of detention of invalids, women, and children who were practically incapable of work, and to replace them with valuable labor strength.” Kokurin and Petrov, Gulag, 11. It is important to note that this argument encountered some resistance within the ranks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1948, ministry officials objected to the principle of granting early release to unproductive or less productive prisoners, arguing that such releases undermine the gulag's primary function as a penal institution. See GARF, f. 9414, op. l, d. 358, 11.92-95.

43. Khlevniuk, Oleg, “The Economy of the Gulag,” in Gregory, Paul R., ed., Behind the Façade of Stalin's Command Economy: Evidence from the Soviet State and Party Archives (Stanford, 2001), 111-29Google Scholar.

44. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1228, 1. 15.

45. Ibid., 1. 17.

46. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 231.

47. Ibid., 11. 235-36.

48. See Solomon, , Soviet Criminal Justice, 421-22, 441-42Google Scholar; Barnes, Steven A., “All for the Front, All for Victory! The Mobilization of Forced Labor in the Soviet Union during World War Two,” International Labor and Working-Class History 58 (October 2000): 242 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Some Soviet amnesties in the mid-1930s and in the post-Stalin years explicitly singled out young people, pregnant women and women with small children, and the elderly for release. See Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 24–25, 79Google Scholar.

49. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 6; see also d. 1228, 1. 39; d. 1246, 1. 218.

50. Ibid., d. 1246,1.231.

51. Ibid., 1. 223.

52. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 86.

53. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 223.

54. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 87; see also d. 1246, 1. 223.

55. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 230.

56. “Gulag vgody voiny,” 67-71; Zemskov, , “Gulag,” pt. 1:21 Google Scholar; Ivanova, , Labor Camp Socialism, 93–94 Google Scholar.

57. Getty, , Rittersporn, , and Zemskov, , “Victims of the Soviet Penal System,” 1041 Google Scholar.

58. Zemskov, , “Gulag,” pt. 1:14 Google Scholar.

59. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 232.

60. Ibid., 1. 214.

61. Ibid., d. 1229, 11. 6, 10, 109-10.

62. Ibid., 1. 11.

63. Ibid., 1. 33.

64. Khlevniuk, , History of the Gulag, 4-5 , 217 Google Scholar.

65. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 109.

66. Ibid., d. 1246, 11. 48-49.

67. Ibid., d. 1229, 11. 92, 94, 96, 103

68. Khlevniuk, , History of the Gulag, 215 Google Scholar.

69. Kozlov, V. A., ed., lstoriia stalinskogo Gulaga konets 1920-kh-pervaiapolovina 1950-kh godov, vol. 6, Vosstaniia, bunty i zabastovki zakliuchennykh (Moscow, 2004), 179-80Google Scholar.

70. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1228, 1. 39; see also d. 1246, 1. 219. On ex-convicts and passports, see David Shearer, “Elements Near and Alien.“

71. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 8.

72. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 39.

73. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 84; d. 1228, 1. 39.

74. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 220.

75. Ibid.

76. Ibid., 1. 213.

77. Ibid., 1. 111.

78. Ibid., 1. 221.

79. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 120.

80. Ibid., 1. 39.

81. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 20.

82. Ibid., 11. 20-21.

83. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 221.

84. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 113.

85. Ibid., 1. 113; see also d. 1246, 1. 218.

86. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 113.

87. Ibid., d. 1246, 11. 238-39.

88. Ibid., 1.215.

89. Interestingly, it appears that many of the difficulties associated with the implementation of the 1945 amnesty remained largely hidden from the party leadership. In a report to Beriia on the implementation of the amnesty, Nasedkin stated: “The [process of] releasing [prisoners], issuing passports, supplying food and other items, money and transportation tickets, and taking [ex-prisoners] to their places of residence is proceeding normally.“ Ibid., 1. 55.

90. Ibid.

91. Ibid., d. 1229, 11. 74, 84.

92. Ibid., 1. 84.

93. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 39; see also d. 1246,1. 222.

94. See Alexopoulos, Golfo, Stalin's Outcasts: Aliens, Citizens, and the Soviet State, 1926— 1936 (Ithaca, 2003)Google Scholar.

95. The Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Shvernik, Nikolai M., heard hundreds of appeals from ex-prisoners requesting a clean criminal record (o sniatii sudimosti), especially in the years 1946-1949Google Scholar. See GARF, f. 7523, op. 33.

96. Amnestied prisoners were supposed to receive a thorough medical examination (meditsinskoe osvidelel'stvovanie) to prevent the release of persons with such common infectious diseases as dysentery. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 219.

97. Filtzer, , Soviet Workers, 172 Google Scholar.

98. Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1:177.

99. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229,1. 101.

100. Zubkova, , Poskvoennoe sovetskoe obshchestvo, 93 Google Scholar. Apparently, areas that became: home to ex-prisoners did witness a rise in crime. According to David Nordlander, “Magadan and other Gulag towns invariably experienced higher rates of robbery and assault per capita than most cities in the USSR up until the 1950s” as criminal offenders were released into communities across the country. Nordlander, “Capital of the Gulag,” 247.

101. The 11 July 1929 Sovnarkom decree “On the Use of Prison Labor” stipulated that ex-prisoners would be “given the necessary assistance” upon their release, but even aside from the 1945 amnesty, material support for released prisoners may have constituted a promise more than a practice. Molotov claimed that “specified categories of the persons discharged were given material assistance by the Soviet authorities (free railway and waterway tickets, journey allowances, etc.)” despite strong assertions by the Polish government to the contrary. See Kokurin, and Petrov, , Gulag, 64; Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1:177, 199Google Scholar.

102. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1228,1. 140.

103. This according to Articles 38 and 39 of the Regulations on Passports. See ibid., d. 1229, 1. 8.

104. Ibid., 1. 11.

105. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 222. On the wartime settlement of ethnic Germans and others, see Weiner, , Making Sense of War, 150-52Google Scholar; Barnes, , “All for the Front,“ 242-43Google Scholar.

106. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229,1. 97; d. 1246,1. 222.

107. Kokurin, and Petrov, , Gulag, 113 Google Scholar. In 1939, the government issued a law banning the early release of labor camp inmates and requiring that all prisoners complete the entire term of their sentences. See Kokurin, and Petrov, , Gulag, 116 Google Scholar. On the impact of prohibiting preterm release, see Gorlizki, and Khlevniuk, , Cold Peace, 128-29Google Scholar; Khlevniuk, , History of the Gulag, 201-9Google Scholar.

108. Khlevniuk, , History of the Gulag, 202 Google Scholar. Beriia stated that “as a rule” prisoners who worked well could expect to be freed halfway or one-third of the way through tiieir sentences.

109. Zemskov, , “Gulag,” pt. 1:23 Google Scholar. For other examples, see Barnes, , “Soviet Society Confined,“ 64–65, 90Google Scholar.

110. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 11. 83, 109-10.

111. Ibid., 11. 62, 130.

112. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 228.

113. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 57; d. 1246, 1. 228.

114. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 228.

115. Ibid., 1. 229.

116. Ibid., 11. 224-225.

117. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 11.

118. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 225. Given that camps were located in remote and inaccessible regions, such problems were typical. David Nordlander describes how Dal'stroi's transit camp in Vladivostok often held prisoners up to six months as they waited for the Sea of Okhotsk to thaw and permit transfer to Magadan. Nordlander, “Capital of the Gulag,” 8.

119. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1229, 1. 142.

120. Ibid., d. 1246, 1.226.

121. Ibid., 1. 111.

122. Ibid., d. 1228, 1. 100.

123. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 227.

124. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 130.

125. Ibid., 1. 40.

126. Ibid., d. 1246, 1. 228.

127. Ibid., d. 1229, 1. 142.

128. Ibid.

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130. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246,1. 227.

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132. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 233.

133. Ibid., 1. 238.

134. Ibid., 1. 234.

135. Kokurin, and Petrov, , Gulag, 416, 418Google Scholar. In 1939, 30 percent of the gulag population was serving ten-year sentences.

136. Kokurin, and Petrov, , Gulag, 726 Google Scholar.

137. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246, 1. 232.

138. Ibid., 1. 11.

139. Ibid., 1. 232.

140. Ibid.

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142. Ugolovnyi kodeks RSFSR (Moscow, 1950), 142-43.

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145. Ibid., 12.

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150. “Ukaz Prezidiuma Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR: Ob amnistii v sviazi s pobedoi nad gitlerovskoi Germaniei,” Pravda, 8 July 1945; Izvestiia, 8 July 1945.

151. Durmanov, , Osvobozhdenie, 4 Google Scholar; Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 4 Google Scholar; Utevskii, Dosrochnoe osvobozhdenie, 3-4. Even under Stalin, the regime never abandoned its ideological commitment to the reforging (perekovka) or the rehabilitation of criminal offenders. On reforging, see Barnes, , “Soviet Society Confined,” 9–16, 70-83Google Scholar; Kokurin, and Petrov, , Gulag, 8 Google Scholar; Kotkin, Stephen, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley, 1995), 231 Google Scholar. The August 1933 decree “On Granting Privileges to Participants in the Construction of the White Sea Canal Named for Comrade Stalin” states explicitly that people were being freed from their criminal sentences because they proved themselves to be completely rehabilitated (vpolne ispravivshchiesia). See Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 65–66 Google Scholar.

152. GARF, f. 9414, op. 1, d. 1246,1. 226. At one camp, officials distributed ten thousand copies of the amnesty law to prisoners, conducted lectures and newspaper readings, and established worker competitions in order to increase labor productivity. According to Gulag officials, these measures apparently worked in raising the productivity of prisoners. The camp exceeded its production quotas in the months July-October despite the fact that it lost a significant number of prisoners during the same period as a result of the amnesty.

153. Gorlizki, and Khlevniuk, , Cold Peace, 128-30Google Scholar. Interestingly, USSR Procurator Vyshinskii and People's Commissar ofjustice N. M. Rychkov opposed the original 1939 ban on early release “because it had a positive effect on discipline and the productivity of labor.“ Khlevniuk, , History of the Gulag, 206 Google Scholar.

154. Ivanova, , Labor Camp Socialism, 52 Google Scholar.

155. Solomon, , Soviet Criminal Justice, 400 Google Scholar.

156. The 12 August 1941 amnesty “for Polish citizens held in places of detention on the territory of the USSR” represented part of a Polish-Soviet agreement that restored diplomatic relations and declared mutual aid and support between the two countries following the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Polish and British authorities complained repeatedly that the Soviet government failed to execute the amnesty, and took their complaints to Stalin who affirmed disingenuously that “our amnesty has no exceptions.” Yet Soviet deception did not prevent Stalin from enjoying the benefits of his original promise in the form of good press with the British and the Americans. Stalin declared another amnesty for “Polish citizens sentenced for committing crimes on the territory of the USSR” on 10 August 1944, shortly after the failed Warsaw uprising. He may have issued this concession to the Poles as a way of reducing tensions with the Allies in the aftermath of the uprising. Documents on Polish-Soviet Relations, 1:177, 211; Romashkin, , Amnistiia, 70 Google Scholar; on another Soviet propaganda initiative during the war that was directed at the Anglo-American audience, see Miner, Steven Merritt, Stalin's Holy War: Religion, Nationalism, and Alliance Politics, 1941-1945 (Chapel Hill, 2003)Google Scholar.

157. Bezborodov, and Khrustalev, , Istoriia stalinskogo Gulaga, 34 Google Scholar.

158. Keep, , “Recent Writing on Stalin's Gulag,” 98 Google Scholar. The instability of the gulag labor force is also described by Zemskov who notes the dynamic nature (dinamika dvizheniia) of the gulag population given the large numbers of escapes as well as releases. Zemskov, , “Gulag,” pt. 1:13 Google Scholar.

159. Applebaum, , Gulag, xvii Google Scholar. For an assessment of the numbers, see Nordlander, David J., “Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s,“ Slavic Review 57, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 809-10Google Scholar.

160. Bezborodov, and Khrustalev, , htoriia stalinskogo Gulaga, 38–39 Google Scholar.