Due to the fact that a memo to Khrushchev on the number of convicted people from 1921 to 1953 has once again come to light, I cannot ignore the topic of repression.

The memo itself and, most importantly, the information it contains, became known to many people interested in politics for quite a long time. The note contains absolutely accurate numbers of repressed citizens. Of course, these numbers are not small and they will frighten and terrify a person who knows the topic. But as you know, everything is learned by comparison. This is what we will do, we will compare.

Those who have not yet managed to remember the exact numbers of repressions by heart - you now have such an opportunity.

So, from 1921 to 1953, 642,980 people were executed; 765,180 people were exiled

Placed in detention - 2,369,220 people.

Total - 3,777,380

Anyone who dares to say a figure even somewhat large about the scale of repression is blatantly and shamelessly lying. Many people have questions: why are the numbers so large? Well, let's figure it out.

Amnesty of the Provisional Government.

One of the reasons why so many people were repressed by the Soviet government was the general amnesty of the provisional government. And to be more precise, Kerensky. You don’t have to go far to find this data, you don’t have to rummage through the archives, just open Wikipedia and type “Provisional Government”:

A general political amnesty has been declared in Russia, and the prison terms of persons held in custody under court sentences for general criminal offenses have been reduced by half. About 90 thousand prisoners were released, among whom were thousands of thieves and raiders, popularly nicknamed “Kerensky’s chicks” (Wiki).

On March 6, the Provisional Government adopted a Decree on political amnesty. In total, as a result of the amnesty, more than 88 thousand prisoners were released, of which 67.8 thousand were convicted of criminal offenses. As a result of the amnesty total number prisoners from March 1 to April 1, 1917 decreased by 75%.

On March 17, 1917, the Provisional Government issued a Resolution “On easing the fate of persons who have committed criminal offenses,” i.e. on amnesty for those convicted of ordinary crimes. However, only those convicts who expressed their readiness to serve their Motherland on the battlefield were subject to amnesty.

The Provisional Government's hopes of recruiting prisoners into the army did not materialize, and many of those released fled from their units when possible. - Source

Thus, a huge number of criminals, thieves, murderers and other asocial elements were released, with whom the Soviet government would have to fight directly in the future. What can we say about the fact that all the exiled people who were not in prison quickly fled all over Russia after the amnesty.

Civil War.

There is nothing more terrible in the History of people and civilization than civil war.

A war in which brother goes against brother and son against father. When citizens of one country, subjects of one state kill each other on the basis of political and ideological differences.

We still haven't recovered from this civil war, let alone the state of society right after the civil war ended. And the realities of such events are such that after a civil war, in any, even the most democratic country in the world, the winning side will repress the losing side.

For the simple reason that in order for society to continue to develop, it must be holistic, unified, it must look forward to a bright future, and not engage in self-destruction. It is for this reason that those who have not accepted defeat, those who have not accepted the new order, those who continue direct or hidden confrontation, those who continue to incite hatred and encourage people to fight - are subject to destruction.

Here you have political repression and persecution of the church. But not because pluralism of opinions is impermissible, but because these people actively participated in the civil war and did not stop their “struggle” after its end. This is another reason why so many people ended up in the Gulags.

Relative numbers.

And now we come to the most interesting thing, to comparison and the transition from absolute numbers to relative numbers.

Population of the USSR in 1920 - 137,727,000 people Population of the USSR in 1951 - 182,321,000 people

An increase of 44,594,000 people despite the civil war and the Second World War, which claimed far more lives than repression.

On average, we get that the population of the USSR in the period from 1921 to 1951 was 160 million people.

In total, 3,777,380 people were convicted in the USSR, which is two percent (2%) of the total average population of the country, 2% - in 30 years!!! Divide 2 by 30, it turns out that per year, 0.06% of the total population was repressed. This is despite the civil war and the fight against fascist collaborators (collaborators, traitors and traitors who sided with Hitler) after the Great Patriotic War.

This means that every year 99.94% of law-abiding citizens of our Motherland quietly worked, worked, studied, received treatment, gave birth to children, invented, rested, and so on. In general, we lived the most normal human life.

Half the country was sitting. Half the country was guarded.

Well, the last and most important thing. Many people like to say that we supposedly sat half a third of the country, guarded a third of the country, and knocked on a third of the country. And the fact that in the memo only counter-revolutionary fighters are indicated, but if you add up the number of those who were imprisoned for political reasons and those who were imprisoned for criminal reasons, the numbers will be generally terrible.

Yes, the numbers are scary until you compare them with anything. Here is a table that shows the total number of prisoners, both repressed and criminals, both in prisons and in camps. And their comparison with the total number of prisoners in other countries

According to this table, it turns out that on average, in the Stalinist USSR there were 583 prisoners (both criminal and repressive) per 100,000 free people.

In the early 90s, at the height of crime in our country, only in criminal cases, without political repression, there were 647 prisoners per 100,000 free people.

The table shows the United States during the Clinton era. Quite calm years even before the global financial crisis, and even then, it turned out that in the United States there were 626 people imprisoned per 100 available.

I decided to do a little digging into modern numbers. According to WikiNews, there are currently 2,085,620 prisoners in the United States, which is 714 prisoners per 100,000.

And in Putin’s stable Russia, the number of prisoners has sharply decreased compared to the dashing 90s, and now we have 532 prisoners per 100,000.

The history of Russia, like other former post-Soviet republics in the period from 1928 to 1953, is called the “era of Stalin.” He is positioned as a wise ruler, a brilliant statesman, acting on the basis of “expediency.” In reality, he was driven by completely different motives.

Talking about the beginning political career leader who became a tyrant, such authors bashfully hush up one indisputable fact: Stalin was a repeat offender with seven “walks.” Robbery and violence were the main form of his social activity in his youth. Repression became an integral part of the government course he pursued.

Lenin received a worthy successor in his person. “Having creatively developed his teaching,” Joseph Vissarionovich came to the conclusion that the country should be ruled by methods of terror, constantly instilling fear in his fellow citizens.

A generation of people whose lips can speak the truth about Stalin’s repressions is leaving... Are not newfangled articles whitening the dictator a spit on their suffering, on their broken lives...

The leader who sanctioned torture

As you know, Joseph Vissarionovich personally signed execution lists for 400,000 people. In addition, Stalin tightened the repression as much as possible, authorizing the use of torture during interrogations. It was they who were given the green light to complete chaos in the dungeons. He was directly related to the notorious telegram of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated January 10, 1939, which literally gave the punitive authorities a free hand.

Creativity in introducing torture

Let us recall excerpts from a letter from Corps Commander Lisovsky, a leader bullied by the satraps...

"...A ten-day assembly-line interrogation with a brutal, vicious beating and no opportunity to sleep. Then - a twenty-day punishment cell. Next - forced to sit with your hands raised up, and also stand bent over with your head hidden under the table, for 7-8 hours..."

The detainees' desire to prove their innocence and their failure to sign fabricated charges led to increased torture and beatings. The social status of the detainees did not play a role. Let us remember that Robert Eiche, a candidate member of the Central Committee, had his spine broken during interrogation, and Marshal Blucher in Lefortovo prison died from beatings during interrogation.

Leader's motivation

The number of victims of Stalin's repressions was calculated not in tens or hundreds of thousands, but in seven million who died of starvation and four million who were arrested (general statistics will be presented below). The number of those executed alone was about 800 thousand people...

How did Stalin motivate his actions, immensely striving for the Olympus of power?

What does Anatoly Rybakov write about this in “Children of Arbat”? Analyzing Stalin's personality, he shares his judgments with us. “The ruler whom the people love is weak because his power is based on the emotions of other people. It's another matter when people are afraid of him! Then the power of the ruler depends on himself. This is a strong ruler! Hence the leader’s credo - to inspire love through fear!

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin took steps adequate to this idea. Repression became his main competitive tool in his political career.

The beginning of revolutionary activity

Joseph Vissarionovich became interested in revolutionary ideas at the age of 26 after meeting V.I. Lenin. He was engaged in robbery of funds for the party treasury. Fate sent him 7 exiles to Siberia. Stalin was distinguished by pragmatism, prudence, unscrupulousness in means, harshness towards people, and egocentrism from a young age. Repressions against financial institutions - robberies and violence - were his. Then the future leader of the party participated in the Civil War.

Stalin in the Central Committee

In 1922, Joseph Vissarionovich received a long-awaited opportunity for career growth. The ill and weakening Vladimir Ilyich introduces him, along with Kamenev and Zinoviev, to the Central Committee of the party. In this way, Lenin creates a political counterbalance to Leon Trotsky, who really aspires to leadership.

Stalin simultaneously heads two party structures: the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee and the Secretariat. In this post, he brilliantly studied the art of party behind-the-scenes intrigue, which later came in handy in his fight against competitors.

Positioning of Stalin in the system of red terror

The machine of red terror was launched even before Stalin came to the Central Committee.

09/05/1918 The Council of People's Commissars issues the Resolution “On Red Terror”. The body for its implementation, called the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK), operated under the Council of People's Commissars from December 7, 1917.

The reason for such radicalization domestic policy was the murder of M. Uritsky, chairman of the St. Petersburg Cheka, and the attempt on V. Lenin by Fanny Kaplan, acting from the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Both events occurred on August 30, 1918. Already this year, the Cheka launched a wave of repression.

According to statistical information, 21,988 people were arrested and imprisoned; 3061 hostages taken; 5544 were shot, 1791 were imprisoned in concentration camps.

By the time Stalin came to the Central Committee, gendarmes, police officers, tsarist officials, entrepreneurs, and landowners had already been repressed. First of all, the blow was dealt to the classes that are the support of the monarchical structure of society. However, having “creatively developed the teachings of Lenin,” Joseph Vissarionovich outlined new main directions of terror. In particular, a course was taken to destroy the social base of the village - agricultural entrepreneurs.

Stalin since 1928 - ideologist of violence

It was Stalin who turned repression into the main instrument of domestic policy, which he justified theoretically.

His concept of intensifying class struggle formally becomes the theoretical basis for the constant escalation of violence by state authorities. The country shuddered when it was first voiced by Joseph Vissarionovich at the July Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1928. From that time on, he actually became the leader of the Party, the inspirer and ideologist of violence. The tyrant declared war on his own people.

Hidden by slogans, the real meaning of Stalinism manifests itself in the unrestrained pursuit of power. Its essence is shown by the classic - George Orwell. The Englishman made it very clear that power for this ruler was not a means, but a goal. Dictatorship was no longer perceived by him as a defense of the revolution. The revolution became a means to establish a personal, unlimited dictatorship.

Joseph Vissarionovich in 1928-1930. began by initiating the fabrication by the OGPU of a number of public trials that plunged the country into an atmosphere of shock and fear. Thus, the cult of Stalin’s personality began its formation with trials and the instillation of terror throughout society... Mass repressions were accompanied by public recognition of those who committed non-existent crimes as “enemies of the people.” People were brutally tortured to sign charges fabricated by the investigation. The brutal dictatorship imitated class struggle, cynically violating the Constitution and all norms of universal morality...

Three global trials were falsified: the “Union Bureau Case” (putting managers at risk); “The Case of the Industrial Party” (the sabotage of the Western powers regarding the economy of the USSR was imitated); “The Case of the Labor Peasant Party” (obvious falsification of damage to the seed fund and delays in mechanization). Moreover, they were all united into a single cause in order to create the appearance of a single conspiracy against Soviet power and provide scope for further falsifications of the OGPU - NKVD organs.

As a result, the entire economic management of the national economy was replaced from old “specialists” to “new personnel”, ready to work according to the instructions of the “leader”.

Through the lips of Stalin, who ensured that the state apparatus was loyal to repression through the trials, the Party’s unshakable determination was further expressed: to displace and ruin thousands of entrepreneurs - industrialists, traders, small and medium-sized ones; to ruin the basis of agricultural production - the wealthy peasantry (indiscriminately calling them “kulaks”). At the same time, the new voluntarist party position was masked by “the will of the poorest strata of workers and peasants.”

Behind the scenes, parallel to this “general line,” the “father of peoples” consistently, with the help of provocations and false testimony, began to implement the line of eliminating his party competitors for supreme state power (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev).

Forced collectivization

The truth about Stalin's repressions of the period 1928-1932. indicates that the main object of repression was the main social base of the village - an effective agricultural producer. The goal is clear: the entire peasant country (and in fact at that time these were Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic and Transcaucasian republics) was, under the pressure of repression, to transform from a self-sufficient economic complex into an obedient donor for the implementation of Stalin’s plans for industrialization and maintaining hypertrophied power structures.

In order to clearly identify the object of his repressions, Stalin resorted to an obvious ideological forgery. Economically and socially unjustifiably, he achieved that party ideologists obedient to him singled out a normal self-supporting (profit-making) producer into a separate “class of kulaks” - the target of a new blow. Under the ideological leadership of Joseph Vissarionovich, a plan was developed for the destruction of the social foundations of the village that had developed over centuries, the destruction of the rural community - the Resolution “On the liquidation of ... kulak farms” dated January 30, 1930.

The Red Terror has come to the village. Peasants who fundamentally disagreed with collectivization were subjected to Stalin's “troika” trials, which in most cases ended with executions. Less active “kulaks”, as well as “kulak families” (the category of which could include any persons subjectively defined as a “rural asset”) were subjected to forcible confiscation of property and eviction. A body for permanent operational management of the eviction was created - a secret operational department under the leadership of Efim Evdokimov.

Migrants to the extreme regions of the North, victims of Stalin's repressions, were previously identified on a list in the Volga region, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Siberia, and the Urals.

In 1930-1931 1.8 million were evicted, and in 1932-1940. - 0.49 million people.

Organization of hunger

However, executions, ruin and eviction in the 30s of the last century are not all of Stalin’s repressions. A brief listing of them should be supplemented by the organization of famine. Its real reason was the inadequate approach of Joseph Vissarionovich personally to insufficient grain procurements in 1932. Why was the plan fulfilled by only 15-20%? The main reason was crop failure.

His subjectively developed plan for industrialization was under threat. It would be reasonable to reduce the plans by 30%, postpone them, and first stimulate the agricultural producer and wait for a harvest year... Stalin did not want to wait, he demanded immediate provision of food to the bloated security forces and new gigantic construction projects - Donbass, Kuzbass. The leader made a decision to confiscate grain intended for sowing and consumption from the peasants.

On October 22, 1932, two emergency commissions under the leadership of the odious personalities Lazar Kaganovich and Vyacheslav Molotov launched a misanthropic campaign of “fight against the fists” to confiscate grain, which was accompanied by violence, quick-to-death troika courts and the eviction of wealthy agricultural producers to the Far North. It was genocide...

It is noteworthy that the cruelty of the satraps was actually initiated and not stopped by Joseph Vissarionovich himself.

Well-known fact: correspondence between Sholokhov and Stalin

Mass repressions of Stalin in 1932 -1933. have documentary evidence. M.A. Sholokhov, the author of “The Quiet Don,” addressed the leader, defending his fellow countrymen, with letters exposing lawlessness during the confiscation of grain. Substantively, indicating the villages, names of the victims and their tormentors, he presented the facts famous resident Veshenskaya village. The abuse and violence against the peasants is horrifying: brutal beatings, breaking out joints, partial strangulation, mock executions, eviction from houses... In his response Letter, Joseph Vissarionovich only partially agreed with Sholokhov. The real position of the leader is visible in the lines where he calls the peasants saboteurs, “secretly” trying to disrupt the food supply...

This voluntaristic approach caused famine in the Volga region, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Siberia, and the Urals. A special Statement of the Russian State Duma published in April 2008 revealed previously classified statistics to the public (previously, propaganda did its best to hide these repressions of Stalin.)

How many people died from hunger in the above regions? The figure established by the State Duma commission is terrifying: more than 7 million.

Other areas of pre-war Stalinist terror

Let's also consider three more areas of Stalin's terror, and in the table below we present each of them in more detail.

With the sanctions of Joseph Vissarionovich, a policy was also pursued to suppress freedom of conscience. A citizen of the Land of Soviets had to read the newspaper Pravda, and not go to church...

Hundreds of thousands of families of previously productive peasants, fearing dispossession and exile to the North, became an army supporting the country's gigantic construction projects. In order to limit their rights and make them manipulable, it was at that time that passporting of the population in cities was carried out. Only 27 million people received passports. The peasants (still the majority of the population) remained without passports, did not enjoy the full scope of civil rights (freedom to choose a place of residence, freedom to choose a job) and were “tied” to the collective farm at their place of residence with prerequisite fulfillment of workday norms.

Antisocial policies were accompanied by the destruction of families and an increase in the number of street children. This phenomenon has become so widespread that the state was forced to respond to it. With Stalin's sanction, the Politburo of the Country of Soviets issued one of the most inhumane regulations - punitive towards children.

The anti-religious offensive as of 04/01/1936 led to a reduction Orthodox churches up to 28%, mosques - up to 32% of their pre-revolutionary number. The number of clergy decreased from 112.6 thousand to 17.8 thousand.

For repressive purposes, passportization of the urban population was carried out. More than 385 thousand people did not receive passports and were forced to leave the cities. 22.7 thousand people were arrested.

One of Stalin’s most cynical crimes is his authorization of the secret Politburo resolution of 04/07/1935, which allows teenagers from 12 years of age to be brought to trial and determines their punishment up to capital punishment. In 1936 alone, 125 thousand children were placed in NKVD colonies. As of April 1, 1939, 10 thousand children were exiled to the Gulag system.

Great Terror

The state flywheel of terror was gaining momentum... The power of Joseph Vissarionovich, starting in 1937, as a result of repressions over the entire society, became comprehensive. However, their biggest leap was just ahead. In addition to the final and physical reprisals against former party colleagues - Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev - massive “cleansings of the state apparatus” were carried out.

Terror has reached unprecedented proportions. The OGPU (from 1938 - the NKVD) responded to all complaints and anonymous letters. A person's life was ruined for one carelessly dropped word... Even the Stalinist elite - statesmen: Kosior, Eikhe, Postyshev, Goloshchekin, Vareikis - were repressed; military leaders Blucher, Tukhachevsky; security officers Yagoda, Yezhov.

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, leading military personnel were shot on trumped-up cases “under an anti-Soviet conspiracy”: 19 qualified corps-level commanders - divisions with combat experience. The cadres who replaced them did not adequately master operational and tactical art.

It was not only the shopfront facades of Soviet cities that were characterized by the personality cult of Stalin. The repressions of the “leader of the peoples” gave rise to a monstrous system of Gulag camps, providing the Land of Soviets with free labor, mercilessly exploited labor resources to extract the wealth of the underdeveloped regions of the Far North and Central Asia.

The dynamics of the increase in those kept in camps and labor colonies is impressive: in 1932 there were 140 thousand prisoners, and in 1941 - about 1.9 million.

In particular, ironically, the prisoners of Kolyma mined 35% of the Union's gold, while living in terrible conditions. Let us list the main camps included in the Gulag system: Solovetsky (45 thousand prisoners), logging camps - Svirlag and Temnikovo (43 and 35 thousand, respectively); oil and coal production - Ukhtapechlag (51 thousand); chemical industry- Bereznyakov and Solikamsk (63 thousand); development of the steppes - Karaganda camp (30 thousand); construction of the Volga-Moscow canal (196 thousand); construction of the BAM (260 thousand); gold mining in Kolyma (138 thousand); Nickel mining in Norilsk (70 thousand).

Basically, people arrived in the Gulag system in a typical way: after a night arrest and an unfair, biased trial. And although this system was created under Lenin, it was under Stalin that political prisoners began to enter it en masse after mass trials: “enemies of the people” - kulaks (essentially effective agricultural producers), and even entire evicted nationalities. The majority served sentences from 10 to 25 years under Article 58. The investigation process involved torture and the breaking of the will of the convicted person.

In the case of the resettlement of kulaks and small peoples, the train with prisoners stopped right in the taiga or in the steppe and the convicts built a camp and a special purpose prison (TON) for themselves. Since 1930, the labor of prisoners was mercilessly exploited to fulfill five-year plans - 12-14 hours a day. Tens of thousands of people died from overwork, poor nutrition, and poor medical care.

Instead of a conclusion

The years of Stalin's repressions - from 1928 to 1953. - changed the atmosphere in a society that has ceased to believe in justice and is under the pressure of constant fear. Since 1918, people were accused and shot by revolutionary military tribunals. The inhumane system developed... The Tribunal became the Cheka, then the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, then the OGPU, then the NKVD. Executions under Article 58 were in effect until 1947, and then Stalin replaced them with 25 years in camps.

In total, about 800 thousand people were shot.

Moral and physical torture of the entire population of the country, essentially lawlessness and arbitrariness, was carried out in the name of the workers' and peasants' power, the revolution.

The powerless people were terrorized by the Stalinist system constantly and methodically. The process of restoring justice began with the 20th Congress of the CPSU.

WHAT WAS THE SCALE OF “STALIN’S REPRESSIONS”?

Introduction - How much was repressed - Number of prisoners - How many of the prisoners were “political” - Mortality among prisoners

All kinds of exposers of “Stalin’s crimes,” starting from A. Solzhenitsyn with E. Radzinsky and ending with R. Conquist, name an absolutely fantastic number of “victims of repression”: 60, 80, finally 100 million dead. However, this is not the limit. Recently, in a speech by Yuri Karyakin, we talked about 120 million. It is easy to see the absurdity of these figures. It is enough to open any demographic directory and make simple calculations. And for those who are too lazy to do this, we will give a small illustrative example.

According to the population census conducted in January 1959, the population of the USSR was 208.827 thousand Human.

By the end of 1913, people lived within the same borders 159.153 thousand person (1).

Thus, the average annual population growth of our country

between 1914 and 1959 was 0.60%.

For comparison, we present data on how the population of England, France and Germany grew during this period - countries that also took an active part in both world wars (2).

1913 1959 Annual increase

RUSSIA 160 million 210 million 0,60

1920, thousand 1960, thousand annual growth, %

England 43718 52559 0,46

France 38750 45684 0,41

Germany 61794 72664 0,41

(GDR: 17241, West Berlin: 2199, Germany: 53224)

So what do we see? The population growth rate in the Stalinist USSR is almost one and a half times higher than in the “Western democracies”, although for these countries we excluded extremely unfavorable demographically, the years of the 1st World War.

Could this have happened if under Stalin half the country’s population (100 million) or at least a third (60 million) had been destroyed?

Almost all publications addressing the issue of the number of repressed people can be classified into two groups. The first of them includes the works of accusers “ totalitarian regime", calling astronomical multi-million dollar figures shot and imprisoned. At the same time, the “truth seekers” are trying hard ignore archived data, including and published, pretending that they do not exist. However, it has long been known that in addition to “eyewitness memories” there is a lot of documentary sources. In the funds of the Central State Archive of the October Revolution, the highest bodies of state power and government bodies of the USSR (TsGAOR USSR) it was revealed several thousand document storage units related to the activities of the Gulag.

Having studied archival documents, the researcher is surprised to discover that the scale of repression, which we “know” about thanks to the media, not only diverges from reality, but inflated tenfold. After this, he finds himself in a painful dilemma: professional ethics demands to publish the data found, on the other hand, he does not want to be known as a defender of Stalin. The result is usually some kind of “compromise” publication, containing both a standard set of anti-Stalinist epithets and curtsies addressed to Solzhenitsyn and Co., and information about the number of repressed people, which, unlike publications from the first group, is not taken out of thin air and not pulled out of thin air, and are confirmed by documents from the archives.

How much has been repressed?

In connection with signals received by the Central Committee of the CPSU from a number of persons about illegal convictions for counter-revolutionary crimes in past years by the OGPU Collegium, NKVD troikas, the Special Meeting, the Military Collegium, courts and military tribunals and in accordance with your instructions on the need to review the cases of persons convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes and currently held in camps and prisons, we report: for the time from 1921 to present for counter-revolutionary crimes

was convicted 3,777,380 people, including

to VMN (to execution - NM) - 642,980 people,

Of the total number of convicts, approximately the following were convicted:

2,900,000 people- Collegium of the OGPU, troikas of the NKVD and the Special Meeting and

877.000 people - by courts, military tribunals, the Special Board and the Military Board.

It should be noted that created on the basis of the Resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR from November 5, 1934 Special meeting at the NKVD USSR that lasted before September 1, 1953,

was convicted 442.531 people, including

to VMN - 10,101 people,

to imprisonment — 360.921 Human,

to other penalties (credit of time spent in custody, deportation abroad, compulsory treatment) - 3,970 people …

Prosecutor General R. Rudenko

Minister of Internal Affairs S. Kruglov

Minister of Justice K. Gorshenin

So, as is clear from the above document, total from 1921 to early 1954% were sentenced on political charges

642,980 people to death penalty,

It should also be borne in mind that not all sentences were carried out. For example, from July 15, 1939 to April 20, 1940 for disorganizing camp life and production he was sentenced to capital punishment 201 prisoners, but then for some of them the death penalty was replaced by imprisonment for terms of 10 to 15 years (3). Prisoners were kept in the camps sentenced to capital punishment with the replacement of imprisonment: in 1934― 3849, in 1935 ― 5671 , in 1936 - 7303, in 1937 - 6239, in 1938 - 5926 , in 1939 - 3425, in 1940 - 40374.

Number of prisoners

“Are you sure that the information from this memo is true?” the skeptical reader will exclaim. Well, let’s turn to more detailed statistics, especially since, contrary to the assurances of dedicated “fighters against totalitarianism,” such data is not only available in the archives, but also published several times.

Let's start with data on the number of prisoners in the Gulag camps. Let me remind you that those sentenced to a term of over 3 years, as a rule, served their sentence in forced labor camps(ITL), and those sentenced to short terms - in correctional labor colonies(ITK).

However, those who are accustomed to accepting the opuses of Solzhenitsyn and others like him as Holy Scripture are often not convinced even by direct references to archival documents. “These are NKVD documents, and therefore they are falsified. - they say. “Where did the figures given in them come from?” Two specific examples, where “these numbers” come from. So, year 1935:

Year of Prisoners Year of Prisoners Year of Prisoners

1930 179.000 1936 839.406 1942 1.415.596 1948 1.108.057

1931 212.000 1937 820.881 1943 983.974 1949 1.216.361

1932 268.700 1938 996.367 1944 663.594 1950 1.416.300

1933 334.300 1939 1.317.195 1945 715.505 1951 1.533.767

1934 510.307 1940 1.344.408 1946 746.871 1952 1.711.202

1935 725.483 1941 1.500.524 1947 808.839 1953 1.727.970

NKVD camps, their economic specialization

Camp Economic specialization Number of workers

DMITROVLAG Construction of the Moscow-Volga canal 192.649

BAMLAG Builds the second tracks of Transbaikal

and Ussuriyskaya railway and Baikal-Amur Mainline 153.547

White Sea-Baltic Combine. Construction of Belomor. channel 66.444

SIBLAG Construction in the Gorno-Shorskaya railway. d.;

coal mining in the mines of Kuzbass; construction of the Chuisky and Usinsky tracts;

provision of labor to the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant,

Novsibles and others; own pig farms 61.251

DALLAG(later Vladivostoklag ) Construction railway

"Volochaevka-Komsomolsk"; coal mining at the Artem mines and

"Raichikha"; construction of the Sedan water pipeline and oil storage facilities

"Benzostroya"; construction work of “Dalpromstroy”, “Reserves Committee”,

aircraft buildings No. 126; fisheries 60.417

SVIRLAG. Procurement of firewood and commercial timber for Leningrad 40.032

SEVVOSTLAG Trust "Dalstroy", work in Kolyma 36.010

TEMLAG, Mordovian ASSR Procurement of firewood and industrial timber for Moscow 33.048

SAZLAG (Central Asian) Providing labor to Tekstilstroy, Chirchikstroy, Shakhrudstroy, Khazarbakhstroy, Chuisky Novlubtrest, and the Pakhta-Aral state farm; own cotton state farms 26,829

Karaganda camp (Karlag) Livestock state farms 25.109

Ukhtpechlag. Works of the Ukhto-Pechora trust: coal mining,

oil, asphalt, radium, etc. 20.656

Prorvlag (later Astrakhanlag) Fishing industry 10.583

Sarov camp NKVD Logging and sawmilling 3.337

Vaygach. Mining of zinc, lead, platinum spar 1.209

Okhunlag. Road construction 722

On the way to camps 9.756

Total 741,599

1939

Number of prisoners in NKVD camps

See the table in the book

Total 1,317,195

However, as I wrote above, in addition to ITL there were also ITK - correctional labor colonies. Until the fall of 1938, they, together with the prisons, were subordinate to the Department of Places of Detention (OMP) of the NKVD. Therefore, for the years 1935-1938 we have so far managed to find only joint statistics:

Year of Prisoners Year of Prisoners Year of Prisoners

1930 179.000 1936 839.406 1942 1.415.596 1948 1.108.057

1931 212.000 1937 820.881 1943 983.974 1949 1.216.361

1932 268.700 1938 996.367 1944 663.594 1950 1.416.300

1933 334.300 1939 1.317.195 1945 715.505 1951 1.533.767

1934 510.307 1940 1.344.408 1946 746.871 1952 1.711.202

1935 725.483 1941 1.500.524 1947 808.839 1953 1.727.970

Year of the Prisoners

Since 1939, penitentiary colonies were under the jurisdiction of the Gulag, and prisons were under the jurisdiction of the Main Prison Directorate (GTU) of the NKVD.

Year of Prisoners Year of Prison. Year of the Prisoners

1939 335.243 1944 516.225 1949 1.140.324

1940 315.584 1945 745.171 1950 1.145.051

1941 429.205 1946 956.224 1951 994.379

1942 361.447 1947 912.704 1952 793.312

1943 500.208 1948 1.091.478 1953 740.554

Number of prisoners in prisons (10 )

MARCH: 350.538 190.266 487.739 277.992 235.313 155.213 279.969 261.500 306.163 275.850

MAY 281.891 195.582 437.492 298.081 237.246 177.657 272.113 278.666 323.492 256.771

JULY 225.242 196.028 332.936 262.464 248.778 191.309 269.526 268.117 326.369 239.612

SEPTEMBER: 185.514 217.819 216.223 217.327 196.119 218.245 263.819 253.757 360.878 228.031

DECEMBER 178.258 401.146 229.217 201.547 170.767 267.885 191.930 259.078 349.035 228.258

186.278 434.871 247.404 221.669 171.708 272.486

235.092 290.984 284.642 230.614

The information in the table is given for the middle of each month. In addition, again for particularly stubborn anti-Stalinists, a separate column provides information for January 1 of each year (highlighted in red), taken from an article by A. Kokurin posted on the Memorial website. This article, among other things, contains links to specific archival documents. In addition, those interested can read an article by the same author in the magazine “Military Historical Archive” (11).

SUMMARY TABLE

number of prisoners in the USSR under Stalin:

Year of the Prisoners

1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

965.742 1.296.494 1.196.369 1.881.570 2.004.946

Year of the Prisoners

1940 1941 1942 1943 1944

1.846.270 2.400.422 2.045.575 1.721.716 1.331.115

Year of the Prisoners

1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

1.736.186 1.948.241 2.014.678 2.479.909 2.587.732

Year of the Prisoners

1950 1951 1952 1953

2.760.095 2.692.825 2.657.128 2.620.814

It cannot be said that these figures are some kind of revelation. Since 1990, this type of data has been presented in a number of publications. Yes, in the article L. Ivashova And A. Emelin, published in 1991, it is stated that the total number of prisoners in camps and colonies

on 1.03. 1940 was 1,668,200 people,

on June 22, 1941 - 2.3 million( 12);

as of July 1, 1944 - 1.2 million (13).

V. Nekrasov in his book “Thirteen “Iron” People’s Commissars” reports that

"in places of deprivation of liberty"

in 1933 there was 334 thousand prisoners, prisoners

in 1934 - 510 thousand, in 1935 - 991 thousand,

in 1936 - 1296 thousand14;

According to A. Kokurina and N. Petrova(especially significant, since both authors are associated with the Memorial society, and N. Petrov is even an employee of Memorial), at 1.07. 1944. in the camps and colonies of the NKVD they were kept about 1.2 million. prisoners (17), and in NKVD prisons on the same date - 204. 290 (18).

As of 12/30/1945 There were about 640 thousand prisoners in NKVD forced labor camps, about 730 thousand in forced labor colonies, about 250 thousand in prisons, about 38 thousand in correctional centers, about 21 thousand in juvenile colonies ., in special camps and prisons of the NKVD in Germany - about 84 thousand (19).

Finally, here are data on the number of prisoners in places of deprivation of liberty subordinate to the territorial bodies of the Gulag, taken directly from the already mentioned Memorial website:

January 1935 307.093

January 1937 375.376

1.01.1939 381.581

1.01.1941 434.624

1.01.1945 745.171

1.01.1949 1.139.874

So, let's summarize. During the entire period of Stalin's reign, the number of prisoners simultaneously held in places of deprivation of liberty never exceeded 2 million 760 thousand (naturally, not counting German, Japanese and other prisoners of war). Thus, there can be no talk of any “tens of millions of Gulag prisoners.”

Number of prisoners per capita.

On January 1, 1941, as can be seen from the table above, the total number of prisoners in the USSR was 2,400,422 people. The exact population of the USSR at this time is unknown, but is usually estimated at 190-195 million.

We get from 1230 to 1260 prisoners for every 100 thousand population.

In January 1950, the number of prisoners in the USSR was 2,760,095 people. This the maximum figure for the entire period of Stalin's reign. The population of the USSR at that time was 178 million 547 thousand (20).

We get 1546 prisoners per 100 thousand population.

Now let's calculate similar figure for modern USA.

Currently, there are two types of prisons:

jail is an approximate analogue of our temporary detention centers; jails house those under investigation, as well as serve sentences for those sentenced to short terms, and

prison - the prison itself.

As of mid-1998 (when this article was first published) per 100 thousand American population accounted for 693 prisoners. N and the end of 1999 kept in prisons 1.366.721 man in jails - 687.973 (see: Bureau of Law Statistics website), which adds up to 2.054.694. US population at the end of 1999: approx. 275 million(see: US population), therefore, we get 747 prisoners per 100 thousand population.

Average annual 1990-1998 the increase in the number of inhabitants was in jails — 4,9%, in prisons - 6,9%. So, at the end of 1999 this figure in the USA half as much as in the USSR under Stalin, but not tenfold. And if we take into account the growth rate of this indicator , then, you see, in ten years the USA will catch up and overtake the Stalinist USSR.

By the way, here in one Internet discussion an objection was raised - they say that these figures include all arrested Americans, including those who were detained for several days. Let me emphasize again: by the end of 1999, there were more than 2 million prisoners in the United States who were serving time or in pre-trial detention. As for the arrests, they were made in 1998 14.5 million(see: FBI report).

Now a few words about the total number of visitors under Stalin in places of detention. Of course, if you take the table above and add up the rows, the result will be incorrect, since Most Gulag prisoners were sentenced to more than a year. However, to a certain extent, the following note (21) allows us to estimate the number of people who went through the Gulag:

To the head of the Gulag of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Major General Egorov S.E.

In total, the GULAG units store 11 million units of archival materials, of which 9.5 million make up personal files of prisoners.

Head of the Gulag Secretariat of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Major Podymov

How many of the prisoners were “political”?

It is fundamentally wrong to believe that the majority of those imprisoned under Stalin were “victims of political repression”:

Number of people convicted of counter-revolutionary and other crimes

especially dangerous state crimes (22)

Years 1921 to 1953 capital punishment, camps, colonies and prisons, exile and expulsion other measures total convicted %

Total 799 455 2 634 397 413 512 215 942 4 060306

capital punishment 799 455

camps, colonies and prisons 2 634 397

other measures 215 942

Total convicted 4 060 306

By “other measures” we mean credit for time spent in custody, forced treatment and deportation abroad.

For 1953, information is provided only for the first half of the year.

From this table it follows that there were slightly more “repressed” than indicated in the above report addressed to Khrushchev - 799.455 sentenced to death instead of 642.980 and 2,634,397 sentenced to imprisonment instead of 2,369,220. However, this difference is relatively small - the numbers are of the same order.

In addition, there is one more point - it is very possible that a fair number of criminals were included in the above table. The fact is that on one of the certificates stored in the archives, on the basis of which this table was compiled, there is a pencil note:

"The total number of people convicted of 1921–1938 - 2,944,879 people, of them 30% (1,062 thousand) are criminals” (23). In this case the total number of “repressed” does not exceed 3 million. However, to definitively clarify this issue, additional work with sources is necessary.”

PERCENTAGE of “repressed” from the total number of GULAG inhabitants:

Composition of the NKVD Gulag camps for counter-revolutionary crimes (240)

Year quantity % to the entire composition of the camps

1939 34.5

1940 33.1

1941 28.7

1942 29.6

1943 35.6

1944 40.7

1945 41.2

1946 59.2

1947 54.3

1948 38.0

1949 34.9

* In camps and colonies.

The composition of the inhabitants of the Gulag at some moments of its existence.

Composition of prisoners in correctional labor camps for the crimes charged

Charged crimes Number %

Counter-revolutionary crimes 417381 32,87

including:

Trotskyists, Zinovievites, rightists 17,621 1.39

treason 1,473 0.12

terror 12,710 1.00

sabotage 5,737 0.45

espionage 16,440 1.29

sabotage 25,941 2.04

manager counter-rev. organizations 4,493 0.35

anti-Soviet propaganda 178 979 14.10

other counter-rev. crimes 133 423 10,51

family members of traitors to the Motherland 13,241 1.04

without instructions 7,323 0.58

Particularly dangerous crimes

against the order of government 46374 3,65

including:

banditry and robbery 29514 2.32

defectors 13924 1.10

other crimes 2936 0.23

Other crimes

against the order of government 182421 14,37

including:

hooliganism 90291 7.11

speculation 31652 2.50

violation of the law on passporting 19747 1.55

other crimes 40731 3.21

Theft of social property Quantity %%

Official and economic crimes 96193 7.58

Crimes against the person 66708 5.25

Property crimes 152096 11.98

Social harmful and socially dangerous element 2 20835 17.39

Military crimes 11067 0.87

Other crimes 41706 3.29

Without instructions 11455 0.90

Total 1269785 100.00

REFERENCE on the number of people convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes and banditry held in camps and colonies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as of July 1, 1946(26)

By nature of crime In camps In colonies % Total %

Total number of convicted 616.731 755.255 1.371.986

Of these, for counter-revolutionary crimes, 354,568 26%

including:

58–1. Treason to the Motherland (Article 58-1)

Espionage (58-6)

Terrorism

Sabotage (58-7)

Sabotage (58-9)

Kr sabotage (58-14)

Participation in an anti-Soviet conspiracy (58 - 2, 3, 4, 5, 11)

Anti-Soviet agitation (58 -10)

Political banditry (58-2, 5, 9)

Illegal border crossing

Smuggling

Family members of traitors to the Motherland

Socially dangerous elements

Head of the Gulag Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR Aleshinsky

Pom. Head of the Gulag Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR Yatsevich

Composition of Gulag prisoners by nature of crimes

Counter-revolutionary crimes:

Treason to the Motherland(Art. 58- 1a, b)

Espionage(Art. 58- 1a, b, 6; Art. 193-24)

Members of the families of traitors to the Motherland (Art. 58-1v)

Participation in a/c conspiracies, a/c organizations and groups (Article 58, paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 5, 11)

Insurgency and political banditry(Article 58, paragraph 2; 59, paragraphs 2, 3, 3b)

Sabotage(Art. 58- 7 )

Terror and terrorist intent(Art. 58- 8 )

Sabotage(Art. 58- 9 )

Anti-Soviet agitation(Art. 58- 10, 59 -7)

Counter-revolutionary sabotage(vv. 58-14)

sabotage (for refusing to work in the camp) (vv. 58-14)

sabotage (for running away from places of detention) (Article 58-14)

Socially dangerous element

Other counter-revolutionary crimes

Total number of people convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes: in 1951― 334 538

in 1948― 103942

Criminal offenses

Speculation

Banditry and armed robbery(Article 59-3, 167), committed not in places of detention

Banditry and armed robberies (Articles 59-3, 167), committed while serving a sentence

Premeditated murders(Articles 136, 137, 138), committed outside of prison

Intentional murders (Articles 136, 137, 138) committed in places of detention

Illegal border crossing(vv.59-10, 84)

Smuggling activities(vv.59-9, 83)

Cattle stealing(Article 166)

Repeat thieves(Article 162-c)

Property crimes(vv. 162-178)

Violation of the passport law(Article 192-a)

For harboring deportees, fleeing places of compulsory settlement, or complicity

Socially harmful element

Desertion(Article 193-7)

Self-harm(Article 193-12)

Marauding(vv. 193-27)

Other military crimes (Article 193, except paragraphs 7, 12, 17, 24, 27)

Illegal possession of weapons (Article 182)

Official and economic crimes (Article 59-3c, 109-121, 193 paragraphs 17, 18)

According to the Decree of June 26, 1940(unauthorized departure from enterprises and institutions and absenteeism)

According to the Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (except for those listed above)

Other criminal offenses

Total criminal convictions

Total: 2.528146 1.533767 994.379

Thus, among the prisoners held in the Gulag camps, the majority were criminals, and As a rule, there were less than 1/3 of the “repressed”.

The exception is 1944-1948 years when this category received a worthy addition in the person of Vlasovites, policemen, elders and other “fighters against communist tyranny.” The percentage of “political” ones in correctional labor colonies was even smaller.

Mortality among prisoners

Available archival documents make it possible to illuminate this issue.

Mortality of prisoners in Gulag camps28

Year Average number

Prisoners Died %

The average number of prisoners is taken as the arithmetic mean between the figures for January 1 and December 31.

Mortality in the colonies on the eve of the war was lower than in the camps. For example, in 1939 it was 2.30% (30).

Mortality of prisoners in Gulag colonies (31)

Year Wed. number of s/c Died %

1949 1.142.688 13966 1,22

1950 1.069.715 9983 0,93

1951 893.846 8079 0,90

1952 766.933 7045 0,92

Thus, the mortality rate of prisoners under Stalin was kept at a very low level. However, during the war the situation of Gulag prisoners worsened. Nutritional standards were significantly reduced, which immediately led to a sharp increase in mortality. By 1944, the nutritional standards for Gulag prisoners were slightly increased, but even after this they remained approximately 30% lower in caloric content than pre-war nutritional standards (32).

However, even in the most difficult years of 1942 and 1943, the death rate of prisoners was about 20% per year in camps and about 10% per year in prisons, A not 10% per month, as stated, for example , A. Solzhenitsyn. By the beginning of the 1950s, in camps and colonies it fell below 1% per year, and in prisons - below 0.5%.

In conclusion, a few words should be said about the notorious Special Camps (special camps). They were created by resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 416-159ss dated February 21, 1948 In these camps, as well as in the Special Prisons that already existed by that time, all those sentenced to imprisonment were to be kept for espionage, sabotage, terror, as well as Trotskyists, right-wingers, Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchists, nationalists, white emigrants, members of anti-Soviet organizations and groups and “persons who pose a danger due to their anti-Soviet connections.” Prisoners of special prisons were to be used for heavy physical work (33).

February 15, 1952 Certificate of the presence of a special contingent held in special camps on January 1, 1952.

No. Name of special camp

1 Mineral 4012 284 1020 347 7 36 63 23 11688 46 4398 8367 30292

2 Gorny 1884 237 606 84 6 5 4 1 95 46 24 2542 5279 20218

3 Dubravny 1088 397 699 278 5 51 70 16 7068 223 4708 9632 24235

4 Stepnoy 1460 229 714 62 — 16 4 3 10682 42 3067 6209 22488

5 Beregovoi 2954 559 1266 109 6 - 5 - 13574 11 3142 10363 31989

6 Rechnoy 2539 480 1 429 164 — 2 2 8 14683 43 2292 13617 35459

7 Ozerny 2350 671 1527 198 12 6 2 8 7625 379 5105 14441 32342

8 Sandy 2008 688 1203 211 4 23 20 9 13987 116 8014 12571 38854

9 Kamyshevy 174 118 471 57 1 1 2 1 3973 5 558 2890 8251

Spies: 18475

Saboteurs: 3663

Terror 8935

Trotskyists 1510

Mensheviks 41

Right Socialist Revolutionaries 140190

Anarchists 69

Nationalists 93026

Beloeitgrants 884

Antisov participants. organizations 33826

Dangerous element 83369

TOTAL: 244,128

Deputy Head of the 2nd Department of the 2nd Directorate of the Gulag, Major Maslov (34)

As can be seen from the table, in 8 special facilities according to which information is given, out of 168,994 prisoners died in the fourth quarter of 1950 487 (0,29%), which, in annual terms, corresponds to 1,15%. That is, only slightly more than in ordinary camps. Contrary to popular belief, special camps were not “death camps” in which dissident intellectuals were supposedly exterminated, and the largest contingent of their inhabitants were “nationalists” are forest brothers and their accomplices.

Notes

1. A. Dugin. Stalinism: legends and facts // Slovo. 1990, no. 7. P.24. 2. Ibid. P.26.

3. V.N.Zemskov. GULAG (historical and sociological aspect) // Sociological research. 1991, no. 6. P.15.

4. V.N.Zemskov. Prisoners in the 1930s : socio-demographic problems // Domestic history. 1997, no. 4. P.67.

5. A. Dugin. Stalinism: legends and facts // Slovo. 1990, no. 7. P.23;

Stalin's order Mironin Sigismund Sigismundovich

How many people were repressed?

“Repression” is punitive measures taken by government agencies. This is according to the explanatory dictionary. In Stalin's time, they were used as punishment for what they had done, and not as a punishment adequate to the gravity of the crime.

How many people were repressed? Anti-Stalinists are still trumpeting about tens of millions of people executed. But let's see how justified this opinion is. When analyzing this issue, it is useful to know the population of the USSR. For information: in 1926 the USSR had 147 million inhabitants, in 1937 - 162 million, and in 1939 - 170.5 million.

According to Yu. Zhukov, the victims were not tens of millions, but one and a half million. This opinion is confirmed by the data of Doctor of Historical Sciences Zemskov. At the same time, according to Zhukov, he checked and double-checked the documents a hundred times; they were analyzed by his colleagues from other countries. The results of studies on the number of repressed people, carried out based on archival data of the CPSU Central Committee by Zemskov, Dugin and Klevnik, began to appear in scientific journals since 1990. These results completely contradicted the statements of the “free press” - they say that the number of victims would exceed all expectations. However, the reports were published in hard-to-find scientific journals, virtually unknown to the vast majority of society.

For a long time, these figures were completely hushed up by “democrats” and “liberals.” Books by these researchers have appeared today. The reports became known in the West as a result of collaboration between researchers in different countries and refuted the fabrications of early Sovietologists such as Conquest. For example, it was established that in 1939 the total number of prisoners was close to 2 million. Of these, 454 thousand were convicted of political crimes. But not 9 million, as R. Conquest claims. There were 160 thousand who died in labor camps from 1937 to 1939, and not 3 million, as R. Conquest claims. In 1950, there were 578 thousand political prisoners in labor camps, but not 12 million.

Contrary to popular belief, the bulk of those convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes were in the Gulag camps not in 1937–1938, but during and after the war. For example, there were 104,826 such convicts in the camps in 1937, and 185,324 in 1938. I. Pykhalov convincingly proved that during the entire period of Stalin’s reign, the number of prisoners simultaneously imprisoned never exceeded 2 million 760 thousand (naturally, not counting German, Japanese and other prisoners of war). He clearly demonstrated that the mortality rate in the camps was relatively low.

Yes, at the peak moments of history, especially after the war, about 1.8 million people were in prisons and camps of the USSR, which amounted to a little more than one percent: in other words, every hundredth citizen was imprisoned. Let me note that today in the “citadel of democracy” - the USA - almost every 100th American (more than 2 million people) is also behind bars. By the way, every 88th Svidomo now sits in “democratic and free” Ukraine.

The most interesting thing is that until today, essentially the only source about the number of those executed and repressed in 1937 and 1938. is the “Certificate of the special department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR on the number of those arrested and convicted by the bodies of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD of the USSR in 1921–1953,” which is dated December 11, 1953. The certificate was signed by the acting. the head of the 1st special department, Colonel Pavlov (the 1st special department was the accounting and archival department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs). In 1937, 353,074 people were sentenced to death, in 1938 - 328,618. About one hundred thousand people were sentenced to death in all other years from 1918 to 1953 - of which the absolute majority were during the war years. These figures are used by serious scientists, “memorial” activists, and even such outright traitors to Russia as academician. A. N. Yakovlev comrades.

In February 1954, Rudenko et al., in a memo addressed to Khrushchev, named the number of 642,980 people sentenced to capital punishment (CM) for the period from 1921 to February 1954. This number has already entered the history books and has not yet been disputed by anyone. The collection “Military Historical Archives” (number 4 (64) for 2005) provides data that in 1937–1938, 1,355,196 people were convicted by all types of judicial bodies, of which 681,692 were sentenced to military violence. In the future, this the number tended to increase. Already in 1956, the Ministry of Internal Affairs certificate listed 688,238 people executed (not sentenced to military punishment, but executed) from among those arrested on charges of anti-Soviet activity in the period 1935–1940 alone. In the same year, Pospelov's commission put the number at 688,503 executed during the same period. In 1963, the report of the Shvernik Commission named an even larger number - 748,146 sentenced to VMN for the period 1935–1953, of which 631,897 in 1937–1938. by decision of extrajudicial authorities. In 1988, a certificate from the USSR KGB presented to Gorbachev listed 786,098 people executed in 1930–1955. Finally, in 1992, signed by the head of the department of registration and archival forms of the IBRF for 1917–1990. information was reported on 827,995 people sentenced to VMN for state and similar crimes.

Although the above numbers seem to be accepted by most researchers, doubts remain about their accuracy. A. Reznikova tried to analyze 52 publications containing information about prisoners in 24 regions of Russia. The sample included 41 Books of Memory from the Library of the Moscow Scientific Information and Educational Center "Memorial", 7 books from the State Public Historical Library and 4 books from the State Public Library named after. Lenin. And I found that in total 275,134 people were included in these memory books.

Let me bring you long quote from an article by P. Krasnov, who analyzes the figures of repression.

“According to a certificate provided by the Prosecutor General of the USSR Rudenko, the number of people convicted of counter-revolutionary crimes for the period from 1921 to February 1, 1954 by the OGPU Collegium, the NKVD troikas, the Special Meeting, the Military Collegium, courts and military tribunals was 3,777,380 people , including capital punishment - 642,980. Zemskov gives slightly different numbers, but they do not fundamentally change the picture: “In total, there were 1,850,258 prisoners in camps, colonies and prisons by 1940... There were about 667 thousand." As a starting point, he apparently took Beria’s certificate presented to Stalin, so the number is given with an accuracy of one person, and “about 667,000” is a number rounded with incomprehensible precision. Apparently, these are simply rounded data from Rudenko, which relate to the entire period 1921–1954, or include data on criminals who are recorded as criminal. The statistical assessments that I carried out showed that Rudenko’s numbers are closer to reality, and Zemskov’s data are overestimated by about 30–40%, especially in the number of people executed, but I repeat, this does not change the essence of the matter at all. The significant discrepancy in the data of Zemskov and Rudenko (approximately 200–300 thousand) in the number of those arrested may occur because a significant number of cases were revised after the appointment of Lavrentiy Beria to the post of People's Commissar. Up to 300 thousand people were released from places of detention and temporary detention (the exact number is still unknown). It’s just that Zemskov considers them victims of repression, but Rudenko does not. Moreover, Zemskov considers “repressed” everyone who has ever been arrested by state security agencies (including the Cheka after the revolution), even if he was released shortly after that, as Zemskov himself directly states. Thus, the victims include several tens of thousands of tsarist officers, whom the Bolsheviks initially released on the “officer’s word of honor” not to fight against Soviet power. It is known that then the “noble gentlemen” immediately broke the “officer’s word”, which they did not hesitate to declare publicly.

Please note that I use the word “convicted” and not “repressed”, because the word “repressed” implies a person innocently punished.”

P. Krasnov also writes: “At the end of the 80s, by order of Gorbachev, a “rehabilitation commission” was created, which in an expanded form continued its work in “democratic Russia”. Over the decade and a half of her work, she rehabilitated 120 thousand people, working with extreme bias - even obvious criminals were rehabilitated. The attempt to rehabilitate Vlasov, which failed only because of the massive indignation of veterans, speaks volumes. Excuse me, where are the “millions of victims”? The mountain gave birth to a mouse."

Further, P. Krasnov very convincingly refutes the fictitious figures of repression by using common sense. I quote his text in its entirety. Judge for yourself. He writes: “Where did such an incredible number of prisoners come from? After all, 40 million prisoners are the population of the then Ukraine and Belarus combined, or the entire population of France, or all urban population USSR of those years. The fact of the arrest and transportation of thousands of Ingush and Chechens was noted by contemporaries of the deportation as a shocking event, and this is understandable. Why was the arrest and transportation of many times more people not noted by eyewitnesses? During the famous “evacuation to the east” in 41–42. 10 million people were transported to the rear. The evacuees lived in schools, temporary shelters, wherever. All the older generations remember this fact. It was 10 million, what about 40 and even more so 50, 60 and so on? Almost all eyewitnesses of those years note the massive movement and work of captured Germans on construction sites; they could not be ignored. People still remember that, for example, “this road was built by captured Germans.” There were about 3 million prisoners on the territory of the USSR - this is a lot, and it is impossible not to notice the fact of the activities of such a large number of people. What can we say about the number of “prisoners,” which is approximately 10–20 times greater? Only that the very fact of moving and working on construction sites of such an incredible number of prisoners should simply shock the population of the USSR. This fact would be passed on from mouth to mouth even after decades. Was it? No.

How to transport such a huge number of people off-road to remote areas, and what type of transport available in those years was used? Large-scale construction of roads in Siberia and the North began much later. Moving huge multi-million (!) masses of people across the taiga and without roads is generally unrealistic - there is no way to supply them during a multi-day journey.

Where were the prisoners housed? It is assumed that in the barracks, hardly anyone will build skyscrapers for prisoners in the taiga. However, even a large barracks cannot accommodate more people than an ordinary five-story building, which is why multi-story buildings are built, and 40 million is 10 cities the size of Moscow at that time. Traces of gigantic settlements would inevitably remain.

Where are they? Nowhere. If such a number of prisoners are scattered across a huge number of small camps located in inaccessible, sparsely populated areas, then it will be impossible to supply them. In addition, transport costs, taking into account off-road conditions, will become unimaginable. If they are placed close to roads and large populated areas, then the entire population of the country will immediately become aware of the huge number of prisoners. In fact, around cities there should be a large number of very specific structures that are impossible to miss or confuse with anything else.

The famous White Sea Canal was built by 150 thousand prisoners, the Kirov hydroelectric complex - 90,000. The whole country knew that these objects were built by prisoners. And these numbers are nothing compared to the tens of millions. Tens of millions of “prisoner slaves” must have left behind truly cyclopean buildings. Where are these structures and what are they called? Questions that will not be answered can be continued.

How were such huge masses of people supplied in remote, difficult areas? Even if we assume that the prisoners were fed according to standards besieged Leningrad, this means that to supply prisoners a minimum of 5 million kilograms of bread per day is needed - 5000 tons. And this is assuming that the guards do not eat anything, do not drink anything and do not need weapons or uniforms at all.

Probably everyone has seen photographs of the famous Road of Life - one and a half and three-ton trucks go one after another in an endless line - practically the only vehicle of those years outside railways(it makes no sense to consider horses as a vehicle for such transportation). The population of besieged Leningrad was about 2 million people. The road across Lake Ladoga is approximately 60 kilometers, but delivering goods even over such a short distance has become a serious problem. And the point here is not the German bombing - the Germans did not manage to interrupt supplies for a day. The trouble is that throughput the country road (which, in essence, was the Road of Life) is small. How do proponents of the “mass repression” hypothesis imagine supplying 10–20 cities the size of Leningrad, located hundreds and thousands of kilometers from the nearest roads?

How were the products of the labor of so many prisoners exported, and what type of transport available at that time was used for this? You don't have to wait for answers - there won't be any.

Where were the detainees housed? Detainees are rarely held together with those serving sentences; there are special pre-trial detention centers for this purpose. It is impossible to keep prisoners in ordinary buildings - special conditions are needed, therefore, large numbers of investigative prisons, each designed for tens of thousands of prisoners, had to be built in every city. These must have been structures of monstrous size, because even the famous Butyrka housed a maximum of 7,000 prisoners. Even if we assume that the population of the USSR was struck by sudden blindness and did not notice the construction of giant prisons, then a prison is a thing that cannot be hidden and cannot be quietly converted into other buildings. Where did they go after Stalin? After Pinochet's coup, 30 thousand arrested had to be placed in stadiums. By the way, the very fact of this was immediately noticed by the whole world. What can we say about millions?

To the question “where are the mass graves of the innocently killed, in which millions of people are buried?” you will not hear any intelligible answer at all. After perestroika propaganda, it would be natural to open secret places of mass burial of millions of victims; obelisks and monuments should have been installed in these places, but there is no trace of any of this. Please note that the burial in Babi Yar is now known to the whole world and the whole of Ukraine immediately learned about this fact of mass extermination of Soviet people by the Nazis. According to various estimates, from seventy to two hundred thousand people were killed there. It is clear that if it was not possible to hide the fact of the execution and burial of such a scale, what can we say about numbers 50–100 times larger?”

I will add from myself. So far, despite all the efforts of current liberals, burials of this scale have not been found.

Chapter 2 So how many were there? It would seem that the question is quite strange. The number of tanks in the USSR and Germany as of June 22, 1941 has long been known to everyone interested. But why go far - our first chapter began with these numbers. 24,000 and 3300. However, let's try to dig