SOVIET GULAG - THE STORY | PART 2A: PROPAGATION | 1934-1945

ORIGINAL FILE SOURCE:

“ORIGINAL FILE SOURCE: https://archive.org/details/youtube-7fhI9YMyvOo

“Episode 2:
Stalin, who was highly praised at the 17th congress of the Communist Party in 1934, launched the construction of the Moscow canal and a new Trans-Siberian route. The NKVD, which took over from the GPU, increased the number of camps and transformed the Gulag into a veritable prison industry. In 1935 the number of prisoners in the Gulag exceeded one million. The trials held by Moscow, which were the showcase of the Great Purge, hid the repression that was hitting Soviet society and the anonymous mass executions and arbitrary arrests rapidly increased in number. In January 1939 2 million prisoners were working in the Gulag, but on 22 June 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union. As a consequence, in 1942, detention conditions in the Gulag degenerated. Famine and disease caused the death of many prisoners. In 1945, in spite of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, the Gulag archipelago, supplier of essential raw materials, continued to expand.”