The History of the Gulag: From Collectivisation to the Great Terror by Oleg V. s> Khlevniuk (review)

Abstract

170 SEER, 84, I, 2006 growthin membership from28,ooo in I945 to 1.4 million in late I947, and popular demonstrations of support for Klement Gottwald (a photograph of which occupies the front cover), but the degree to which these matters are connected to the intellectualdiscussionis not sufficientlyexplored. Overall, this is an excellent book, meticulously researched and well organized, it succeeds in settinga new agenda for Czechoslovak historyin the Cold War-free world. There is, however, one telling downside. Like other historiansof Czechoslovakia,Abramshas chosen to focus on Czechs only and the Slovak story is omitted. Given the different experience of Czechs and Slovaksduring the Second WorldWar and the emphasisAbramsgives to the war in crystallizingCzech disenchantment, much more might have been said about the Slovakcase. Department ofHistory SAMJOHNSON University ofSheffield Khlevniuk, OlegV. 7heHistogy oftheGulag. From Collectivisation totheGreat Terror. Annals of Communism. Translatedby VadimA. Staklo.YaleUniversity Press, New Haven, CT and London, 2004. xix + 4I8 pp. Map. Tables. Illustrations.Notes. Appendices. Indexes. $39.95: 925.00. INhis excellent and importantcontributionto this distinguishedseries,which presents 'previously inaccessible documents from former Soviet state and partyarchivesin a narrativethat develops a particulartopic', Oleg Khlevniuk publishes Io6 documents, and many other extracts are included in his commentary. His selection and interpretationof this material, like his other work,demonstrateshisplace in the forefrontof the new generationof Russian historians of the Communist era. The sources he prints are mainly 'official documents' from the state archive: confidential correspondence, circular lettersand memoranda, officialreportsand resolutions,individualtestimonies and tabulated statistics, but this does not prevent him from presenting a poignant and heart-rendingportraitof the prisonersand theircondition. The notorious torture of the punishment system is vividly portrayed in reports from officials trying to make their superiors conform to central guidelines. The range of documents is extensive.At opposite extremesthereis, on the one hand, a 1932 letter to Molotov from a casual visitor, describing the pitiable condition of prisoners in a Siberian camp (pp. 30-32); on the other, a 1938 letter to Molotov from Ezhov, requestingfundsfor the mass repressionof the 'kulak operation' (pp. I63-64). There is also a considerable amount of material on less well-known aspects of the history of the Gulag, for instance children's colonies. A final chapter reviews the evidence on the scale of the repressionsand the data on the size of the camp population. Khlevniuk'sfocus is on the development of the gulag system(ratherthan on the camps), and the title does not reveal an importantdimension of this book: his examination of the repressionsof the I930S and of the Great Terror. He also discussesBeria's'reforms'which ended the Terror,and 'Mobilisationand Repression' 1939-4I (pp. I86-286), including the mass deportations from territorythe USSR acquired afterAugust 1939 in 'the bloody liquidation of REVIEWS 171 the "fifth column"' and the Katyn massacre (pp. 236-37). In this groundbreaking study, which contains a considerable amount on policymaking , Khlevniuk depicts the Gulag systemas a 'direct reflection' of the development of Stalinist dictatorship in the I930S (p. 8). He correlates the evolution of the Gulag with the stagesin the political and economic historyof the decade. The Politburo decision of June I929 to create a network of selfsupportingcamps , which coincided with mass repressionsassociatedwith the adoption of the policies of forced collectivization and rapid industrialization, led to a more rapid growth of the camps than projected (p. i o). Another decision in May I930 to build the White Sea-Baltic Canal using convict labour, establisheda pattern of large camps servicinggiant constructionsites. Stalin'ssupportfor the OGPU, and the policy of transferringprisonersto the camps was decisive in making the camps one of the main elements of the Soviet penal systemand the Gulag 'an integralpart of Soviet life' (p. 28). The pattern of large camps was reinforcedby a tragicallyunsuccessfulexperiment with labour exile in remote regions, in response to repression to control the famine crisis of 1932-33. This was followed by a period of stabilizationuntil I936 when repressionranat a lowerlevel, but new economic taskswere added to the OGPU's existingprojects. Khlevniuk consolidates the case he has made elsewhere that 'the Great Terrorwas a centrallyorganized punitive action, planned in Moscow, against a potential fifth column perceived as capable of stabbing the country in the back in case...