presentation for the book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

1. Siberian
Prison Camps
By: Lauren,
Lindsey, Shawna,
Stephanie

2. Siberia Map

3. What are prison camps?
 A prison camp is a place where people are
taken against their will and held prisoner in
inhuman conditions.
 First Siberian Prison camps were set up after
the October Revolution in 1917
 Used in civil war from 1918 to 1920
 From 1918 through the mid-1950’s, millions of
innocent Soviet citizens, criminals, and
political opponents of Stalin were sent to
these labor camps and treated as slaves.

4. What is a Gulag?
 Gulag is an acronym for Chief Administration
of Correctional Labor Camps
 A system of labor camps maintained in the
Soviet Union from 1930 to 1955 in which as
many as 20 million people died in the camps
and more than 40 million were repressed
 By 1952, these camps had about 12 million
people living in them

5. Different Types of Camps
 Sharashka-secret research laboratories
where arrested/convicted scientists
developed new technologies
 Psikhushka-forced medical treatment in
psychiatric imprisonment; break down
political opponents

6. Living in the prison camps
 Life was brutal and being there was a
death sentence for most people.
 Competed with others for access of life’s
necessities
 Lots of violence!
 During non-working hours, prisoners would
live in a camp zone surrounded by fence
or barbed wire
 Overlooked by armed guards in watch
towers

7. Forced Labor in the Camps
 Sentenced to hard labor
 Work done: built dams, canals, factories,
worked in mines & cut timber
 Some prisoners helped build the Trans-
Siberian Railway

8. Men Cutting Down Timber

9. The Trans-Siberian Railway
 1891-1916
 Built mostly by convict
labor
 The Trans-Siberian Railway
was the largest in the
world based on
construction
sped, length, and difficulty
of building.
 Goes all the way across
Russia
 Today it crosses 10
different time zones

10. The Trans- Siberian Railway

11. Benefits for Stalin
 Without slaves the construction of
railroads, factories, and the mining of gold
and coal would not have happened
 Therefore Stalin’s industrial revolution
would not fall short of its goal

12. Food Rations
 Received food based on how much work
they did
 If they did not fulfill their duty, they
received even less food
 Barely enough food for survival

13. Pictures of Food Rations/
Utensils

14. Punishment
 If
you did not work hard enough, they
would be
 Whipped to death
 Chained up in an underground black hole
 45 lb. wood chained to them for several
years
 Once sentence was completed, the
punishment was taken off

15. Prisoners Chained as
Punishment

16. One Prison Camp- Kolyma
 There were 5,000 prisoners and 436 of
them were Polish
 7 to 11 men died daily due to:
 Famine
 Exhaustion
 Beatings at work
 Frost/ thermic shock

17. Where is Kolyma?

18. Discussion Questions
 If you knew you were heading to a prison
camp what would be your first plan of
action? Would you try to escape or would
you fear the consequences?
 If you were in a prison camp with your
family, would you put yourself in front of
them when it comes to food distribution?

19. Discussion Questions cont.
 What does Gulag mean?
 What are Psikhushkas?
 What is your interpretation of the camp?
What would you compare it too?
 Based on your previous knowledge what
sounds worse Nazi or Siberian camps?

20. Videos
 Gulags Overview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6y2CT
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