Response#6: The Unknown Gulag by Lynne Viola

Part 1: Lynne Viola’s The Unknown Gulag seeks to shed light on the long ignored history of the “special settlements.” The dekulakization campaign in the Soviet Union resulted in large land expropriations and mass deportation of thousands of “kulaks” to the outer most reaches of the country. Plans were drawn up to use these deportees as free labor for resource mining. However, bureaucratic inefficiencies, lack of resources, and plain neglect meant that such grand visions often failed to live up to expectations. All the while, the deportees suffered from all the miseries of deprivation: hunger, homelessness, disease, and death.

Part 2: Lynne Viola finds herself prime territory to make her mark on the historiography of the Soviet Union. Her basic argument of wanting to tell the story of the special settlements and its first inhabitants is perfect new ground untouched by other studies. She is “discovering” new history to add to the world’s collection of knowledge. There is some confusion over what this new knowledge is. When people think of the Soviet Union’s forced labor camps they imagine the gulags. However, the special settlements are NOT gulags because they were developed within a narrow focus. How do the special settlements differ from the gulag? They differ in that the system of special settlements was developed separately for “kulaks” of the collectivization and dekulakization campaign. Ignoring the differences of time and place, the special settlements were the specific result of schemes by upper echelons of Moscow Central (specifically Iagoda and Bergavinov) to colonize the remote expanses of Russia. These laborers were sent to the expanse for a purpose of permanent settlement, not just prison labor.

The preparations for colonizing Russia’s wide expanse were practically nonexistent. Too much effort was being focused on rounding up the “kulaks,” enemies of the people. In fact, the main focus of dekulakization was to remove the troublesome peasant inhabitants from the countryside to make room for the collective farms. Soviet historian attempts to whitewash collectivization can reliably find comfort in that upper echelons made careful instructions for plenipotentiaries. Thus, blame can be placed on the plenipotentiaries for use of “excessive force” (Sound familiar). Stalin uses this excuse masterfully with his “Dizzy with success” speech. However, the truth of the matter is that superiors are responsible for the acts of their subordinates. The reality is that plenipotentiaries rounded up innocent peasants and deported them to their deaths. Regardless of whether or not such acts were ordered, the blood remains on the hands of all those who participated in this act of injustice.

Once again we see that poor state planning and lack of resources has led to the misery and death of thousands. The image of an omnipotent and omnipresent totalitarian state fades away and to replace it is the image of an incompetent state improvising at every turn. The death of thousands remains tragic whether it is by force or neglect. Yet as the numbers keep climbing ever higher and as the horror stories just keep stacking up I become ever more jaded. Perhaps there was truth in the statement that the death of one person is a tragedy, but the death of millions is a statistic. I’ve already become quite used to the death count climbing past the thousand mark.