The political, economic and social changes accompanying the departure from the GULAG radically affected the North-East of the Soviet Union, the Kolyma- or Magadan-region. Until 1953, the local camp system did not only have a combined economic and punitive function (through the exploitation of the great resources of the area, especially gold, by means of forced labour), it also served as the basic structure for ruling the area. Therefore, the release of the biggest part of the regional camp-population (from 169.000 prisoners in March 1953 to 24.000 at the end of 1956) must be understood as the most distinctive mark of the changes which turned an isolated region, kept as a secret and militarily ruled area by the Ministry of the Interior (MVD), into a regular Soviet periphery. The changes were motivated by the decline of Berija and his MVD, as well as by enormous economic and social problems which had drawn the attention of the Politburo to the region. In December 1953, the extraordinary status of the area was replaced by a normal civilian administrative form, the Magadanskaja oblast'. This was the starting point for the establishment of the usual structures of Soviet- and Party-organisations, which eventually allowed the Communist party to win a power struggle against the former leaders of the area, the MVD-officers. In the course of these changes, the area was integrated into the bureaucratic framework of the Soviet system, creating a civilian economic and social infrastructure. The rule of the new elite was orientated towards bargaining-processes which involved institutions and experts focusing on a more stable exploitation of the local gold. Many thousands of free workers and mobilized members of the Party's youth organisation, the Komsomol, were called to replace the forced labourers. They were subject to a broad ideological campaign emphasizing the young oblast'as their new home. Nevertheless, their living conditions were poor, social tensions and crime rates high. Therefore, the De-Stalinization of the Kolyma region meant the appropriation of an almost inaccessible area, the formation of a regular periphery, as well as the adjustment to a Soviet system, which was itself undergoing dramatic changes.