COCO 39 Red Terror: History and Culture of the Stalin Labor Camps
The destruction of human beings in the Soviet labor camps (GULAG) is one of the most tragic chapters in the history of the twentieth century. Between the early 1920s and the early 1950s, some 25 million people were arrested and sent to the so-called “correction-labor” camps to perform back breaking work under the most inhumane conditions. The focus of this course is on the history and culture of the Stalin labor camps. Beginning with the violence inflicted by the young Bolshevik regime on the Russian people, we will examine the creation of a network of camps during the “great terror” of 1937-1938 and the economic, political, and cultural features of the camps, through such topics as work, food, camp administration and guards, the relationship between the “political prisoners” and the common criminals, the special plight of women, the hardening of conditions in the camps during and after World War II and the zenith of the GULAG in the early 1950s. Finally, the course will examine the GULAG’s demise and the experience of dissidents in the camps of the 1960s-1980s; the way modern-day Russia deals with the memory of the camps; and GULAG-style camps in several socialist countries.
Cross Listed Courses
GOVT 40.31