The Camp Economy in the USSR: on Historiography of Forced Labor Efficiency

Abstract

The article intends to review the scientific literature, devoted to economic activity of GULAG in the late 1920s and in the early 1940s. Comparative analysis of the existing approaches to the issue of the camp economy efficiency is presented in the paper. The efficiency of the camp economy is usually based on the use of forced labor. Some researchers suppose that GULAG existence allowed the ruling top to achieve their political goals while bearing significant economic losses. Other scholars emphasize the special importance of GULAG for the state administration, which included its ability to concentrate the labor force in the necessary production sites and fulfill the plan in the shortest possible time, achieving the needed results. As for the correlation between the expenses and the outcomes, it was of lower priority. In other words, the state government made more emphasis on attaining production effect rather than on increased economic efficiency. This point of view was found in most publications made by Russian and foreign researchers of GULAG. The author of the present article supposes this approach to be reasonable and most optimal, as it considers the camp economy in reliance to the conditions and functions, created specifically for its needs, but not as an isolated phenomenon. The paper also provides some ideas concerning to the present problem and its potential for future research.