The ‘perimeter’ prisoners of Russian secret cities: the case of ZATO Krasnoyarsk-26

Abstract

Since the 1930s, the Gulag system of labour camps was a driving force behind the main geopolitical projects of the Soviet Union, playing a critical role in mega-infrastructural projects to colonise hitherto unexploited territories. Among these was the network of secret cities built at the dawn of the Cold War. Whilst outwardly appearing like ordinary cities — with their green boulevards, central squares, and civic facilities — they were fully controlled and managed by the state; over decades elite scientists and technicians were brought together in these new settlements to work and live in total dedication to the Soviet atomic bomb project. These secret cities were known as Zakrytoye Administrativno-Territorial’noye Obrazovaniye [Closed Administrative-Territorial Formations], abbreviated as ZATOs. The research campuses, production and test zones, and civic and residential districts of the ZATOs were secured with walls, fences, watchtowers, and checkpoints. Beyond the secured perimeters, which still exist to regulate access to and from the outside world, lies the governmental and legislative apparatus which shaped the ZATOs’ economic, social, and psychological characteristics. For the inhabitants of ZATOs, the perimeter symbolised their connection to a higher purpose and would later evoke feelings of nostalgia and a sense of protection. Focusing primarily on one of these settlements, namely ZATO Krasnoyarsk-26, this paper links the story of the imprisoned labourers who constructed the ZATOs to that of the civilians who surrendered their liberty for a loftier cause. It will reveal a tight correlation between the Gulag infrastructure and the spatial arrangement of ZATOs showing how, in many aspects, ZATOs took on characteristics of carceral isolation, coercion, and immobility that are still relevant when addressing their contemporary condition.