Ausstellung Gulag Suitcase

Suitcase made in the camp, 1940s.

The inscription reads: "Papa's suitcase which he brought with him from Kolyma in 1946". The suitcase was made for Mikhail Lebedev, whose daughter later wrote the inscription. M. Lebedev (1892-1949), Belarusian neurologist, sentenced to ten years of forced labour in 1937, served in various camps in the Kolyma Region as a doctor, released in 1946.

Source: "Memorial" Collection, Moscow

Suitcase made in the camp, 1940s.

The inscription reads: "Papa's suitcase which he brought with him from Kolyma in 1946". The suitcase was made for Mikhail Lebedev, whose daughter later wrote the inscription. M. Lebedev (1892-1949), Belarusian neurologist, sentenced to ten years of forced labour in 1937, served in various camps in the Kolyma Region as a doctor, released in 1946.

Source: "Memorial" Collection, Moscow

Suitcase made in the camp, 1940s.

The inscription reads: "Papa's suitcase which he brought with him from Kolyma in 1946". The suitcase was made for Mikhail Lebedev, whose daughter later wrote the inscription. M. Lebedev (1892-1949), Belarusian neurologist, sentenced to ten years of forced labour in 1937, served in various camps in the Kolyma Region as a doctor, released in 1946.

Source: "Memorial" Collection, Moscow

Suitcase made in the camp, 1940s.

The inscription reads: "Papa's suitcase which he brought with him from Kolyma in 1946". The suitcase was made for Mikhail Lebedev, whose daughter later wrote the inscription. M. Lebedev (1892-1949), Belarusian neurologist, sentenced to ten years of forced labour in 1937, served in various camps in the Kolyma Region as a doctor, released in 1946.

Source: "Memorial" Collection, Moscow

The End of the Gulag

The ineffectiveness of forced labour and the fact that the costs of the Gulag system increasingly exceeded the revenue induced the Soviet leadership to carry out radical changes.

Between the beginning of March and the end of December 1953, the total number of camps was reduced by more than half, and in the summer of 1954 the special camps for political prisoners were dissolved. By the mid-1950s, some 1.7 million inmates had been released. The majority of them were amnestied, however, but not rehabilitated. It was only after the 20th Congress of the CPSU that rehabilitations were carried out on a large scale. However, entire inmate groups were excluded from this process. The released inmates were often stigmatized and subjected to limitations to their choice of profession and place of residence. The chief administration of camps was dissolved in 1956. The remaining "corrective labour camps" were converted into "corrective labour colonies". Isolated camps for political opponents remained in existence until the end of the USSR.

What did a rehabilitation verdict look like?

Certificate issued by the Supreme Court

Certificate issued by the Supreme Court of the RSFSR confirming the annulment of the sentences passed in 1937 by the court of the Leningrad Oblast against Mikhail Bogachev, 3 Nov. 1955

M. Bogachev was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of "disruptive activity" and "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" (art. 58 of the criminal code). Upon annulment of the sentences the file was closed.

Source: "Memorial" Collection, Moscow

Where did people go, where could they go, after being amnestied or rehabilitated?

Former Polish inmates shortly before departure

Former Polish inmates from camps in the Vorkuta Region shortly before departure for their native country, 1956

Source: photo by Tomasz Kizny

Former Lithuanian inmates in exile

Former Lithuanian inmates from a camp in the Karaganda Region in exile, 1954

Source: "Memorial" Collection, Moscow

Stefania Szantyr-Polovna in an interview with Meinhard Stark

"[...] I didn't want to accept the fact that I had to stay there […]"

Stefania Szantyr-Polovna in an interview with Meinhard Stark, 2006 (2:40 min.) in German

S. Szantyr-Polovna (b. 1924), a Pole, initially resisted the German occupying forces, then fought against the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland as a member of the Armiya Krayova (Homeland Army), arrested in 1944 and sentenced to ten years in camp, served term in camps in the Vorkuta Region, subsequently forced settlement in camp village, departure for Poland in 1955.

Source: Meinhard Stark private archive, Berlin