The Soviet Gulag System The Soviet Gulag System was a network of labor camps that spanned across the entirety of the Soviet Union. The Gulags began as a way for the Soviet Union to harvest their far-off natural resources, but evoled into an extension of the Soviet Governments control of their citizens. The Gulags were a constant reminder to the Soviet people that following the status quo was required, and that going against it could mean years in gruesome conditions. The term Gulag, is actually an acronym that stands for the administration that ran the camps, the Glavnoe Upravlenie ispravitel’no-trudovykh LAGerei which translates as the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (Introduction: Stalin’s Gulag). The Soviet Gulag system can trace it roots back before the 1917 Russian Revolution, during the era of Czarist rule, where exiles would be placed into forced labor brigades which would be used to reach the hard to reach natural resources of Siberia and the far north of Russia. The System was used as a tool of the government to instill fear, but also to solve some of the …show more content…
Under applicable laws of Russia and the other former Soviet Republics, a person charged with crime could be subjected to “custodial measures of a medical nature” if the criminal act was proven and the person was found “non-imputable” due to mental illness (Bonnie)
Psychiatrists would misdiagnose prisoners with mental illnesses, which allowed them to imprison them in the Gulags, and force the prisoners to take medication that would effectively make them insane. The Soviet’s misuse of psychiatry allowed them to diagnose political dissidents with mental illness, which under their laws allowed the subjects to be imprisoned into Gulags, which finalized the Gulags shift from Labor Camp, to political
The Great Purges led to thousands of party members, military officials and civilians being executed or sent to the GULAGS. Whether the purges did remove enemies of Stalin is questionable, due to the fantastical. methods of the NKVD. The NKVD set quotas, and operated using public information to the public. By 1936 it is estimated 1 in 5 people were NKVD.
The Soviet system of forced labor camps was first established in 1919 under the Cheka; however, in the early 1930’s camps had reached outrageous numbers. In 1934 the Gulag had several million prisoners. The prisoners ranged from innocent pro-Bolsheviks to guilty Trotsky’s. Conditions were harsh, filthy, and prisoners received inadequate food rations and poor clothing. Over the period of the Stalin dictatorship many people experienced violations of their basic human rights, three in particular were Natasha Petrovskaya, Mikhail Belov, and Olga Andreyeva.
The Russian Revolution occured in two stages/times, February nd October of 1917. As cited in document 1, "Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and a liberal democratic government came to power." What lead to the Febraury Revolution was the peasant agriculture to the Russian population, autocracy, and the outbreak of WW1. A long-term cause was the peasant agriculture to the Russian population. As said in document 1, "For all of its history before the 20th cwntury, 80-95% of the population were poor pasants, farmers just barely scratching a living form the land. For most of that history (between 1694-1861) the majority of these peasants were enserfed." to enserf means to be aprovd of liberty and personal rights. Before 1917 peasants recieved sympathy from
In the 1800’s people with mental illnesses were frowned upon and weren't treated like human beings. Mental illnesses were claimed to be “demonic possessions” people with mental illnesses were thrown into jail cells, chained to their beds,used for entertainment and even killed. Some were even slaves, they were starved and forced to work in cold or extremely hot weather with chains on their feet. Until 1851, the first state mental hospital was built and there was only one physician on staff responsible for the medical, moral and physical treatment of each inmate. Who had said "Violent hands shall never be laid on a patient, under any provocation.
Japanese Internment Camps Ten weeks after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) singed an Executive Order of 9066 that authorized the removal of any people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable”(FDR). The west coast was home of majority of Japanese Americans was considered as military areas. More than 100,000 Japanese Americans was sent and were relocated to the internment camps that were built by the United States. Of the Japanese that were interned, 62 percent were Nisei (American born, second generation) or Sansei (third-generation Japanese) the rest of them were Issai Japanese immigrants. Americans of Japanese ancestry were far the most widely affected.
It is well known that the Holocaust concentration camps were a gruesome place to be. People are aware of the millions of deaths that have occurred in these concentration camps. The Plaszow concentration camp was a dreadful place for Jews everywhere in Europe at the time. Beginning with the history of Plaszow, to the man who enjoyed torturing Jews and then the man who salvaged thousands of lives, Plaszow concentration is remembered vividly in many Jewish people’s minds.
How do you judge the atrocities committed during a war? In World War II, there were numerous atrocities committed by all sides, especially in the concentration and prisoner of war camps. Europeans were most noted for the concentration camps and the genocide committed by the Nazi party in these camps. Less known is how Allied prisoners were also sent to those camps. The Japanese also had camps for prisoners of war. Which countries’ camps were worse? While both camps were horrible places for soldiers, the Japanese prisoner of war camps were far worse.
According to Szasz (2005), “In principle, the mental patient is considered competent (until proven [otherwise]). In practice, the client is regularly treated as if he were incompetent and the psychiatrist who asserts that he needs treatment is treated as if he were the patient’s guardian” (p.78). During the 1940’s patients who were mentally ill were considered “legally incompetent” when committed into a mental health facility. Relatives of the patients could release them by providing care in their homes for the client. Unfortunately, Szasz (2005) claims, that “the treatment of mental diseases is no more successful today than it was in the past” (p.78).
Mental illness has been around as long as people have been. However, the movement really started in the 19th century during industrialization. The Western countries saw an immense increase in the number and size of insane asylums, during what was known as “the great confinement” or the “asylum era” (Torrey, Stieber, Ezekiel, Wolfe, Sharfstein, Noble, Flynn Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill). Laws were starting to be made to pressure authorities to face the people who were deemed insane by family members and hospital administrators. Because of the overpopulation in the institutions, treatment became more impersonal and had a complex mix of mental and social-economic problems. During this time the term “psychiatry” was identified as the medical specialty for the people who had the job as asylum superintendents. These superintendents assumed managerial roles in asylums for people who were considered “alienated” from society; people with less serious conditions wer...
From the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century major historical events such as the Industrial revolution had occurred. During this period of time Europe was switching into an economy that is focused mostly in the industrial field. From this emerged two social-economic classes, the rich bourgeoisie and the poor proletariats. Furthermore tension brewed from the two groups since the bourgeoisie source of wealth was from the exploitation of the proletariats. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ book The Communist Manifesto responded to the situation and created a vision of an equal communist society. The Communist Manifesto was defined by the abolishment of the bourgeois sovereign rule that followed to a revolution against capitalism
“Concentration camps (Konzentrationslager; abbreviated as KL or KZ) were an integral feature of the regime in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The living conditions in these camps were absolutely horrible. The amount of people being kept in one space, amongst being unsanitary, was harsh on the body. “A typical concentration camp consisted of barracks that were secured from escape by barbed wire, watchtowers and guards.
Japanese American Internment Camps History Injustice is the unfair treatment or a situation in which the rights of a person or a group of a people are ignored. The internment of the Japanese American in the United States affected hundreds and thousands of lives for generations. It still remains hidden in history. As, I researched every information for this essay, what I found is, this story is ignored by people, it made me clear that the Japanese were so brave to face all the problems. All the Japanese Americans were treated badly because Americans turned their anger on Japanese Americans for a crime that was committed by the Japanese.
Although commonly known as Stalin’s Gulag, the Russian Gulag was in actuality started by Vladimir Lenin, Stalin’s predecessor, in 1918. Lenin, considered one of the most influential revolutionary leaders in history, established Soviet Russia. He was the head of the Bolshevik Party, which he eventually renamed the Communist Party, and also the creator of Leninism, which later combined with Marxisim; Marxisim-Leninism is the basis of Communis...
In these camps any who disobeyed him or questioned his rule were forced to work and many worked themselves to death. Those who were not there to work were tortured or outright killed. Many would rather die than face decades of harsh treatment and being forced to work for things that would be used by Stalin. The Great Terror, 1968 by Robert Conquest states in reference to Stalin’s harsh camps and prisons “Died in camps - about 2 million, In prison about 8 million,” (Doc 12) revealing how many people died due to the harsh treatment. Not only were people forced into labour camps many were outright executed for crimes they might not have even committed. A French ambassador to the Soviet Union described the public trials that were part of Stalin’s purges, writing, “Did these ‘confessions’ carry any share of truth? It is possible that the accused were hostile to Stalin’s regime.” (Doc 9) hinting at the fact that many of those accused only crimes were to question or disobey Stalin. All of the senseless death caused by Stalin is another reason that life under Czar Nicholas the second was probably better for most peasants
This is because they are very effective for inflicting fear on the people and making sure that they do not disobey also to treat the ones who have disobeyed the dictator's rule. These camps consist of horrible basic necessities such as lacking food, unclean water, poor sanitation, and torture. The main purpose of sending rejects to labor camps instead of prisons was to work them to death and get more production done for very cheap since they were not paid. Since our main character was placed in a labor camp in her life there is very vivid description of how the camp is worked and how she felt inside. Grete was first sent to a labour camp in Osterburg where she worked as a slave laborer through any type of weather condition.