The Vorkuta Gulag - Hellhole of the USSR

this episode is brought to you by the ridge wallet it's light sleek strong and industrial it doesn't fold or awkwardly bulge in your back pocket and it seriously changed our whole pocket situation most people are still carrying wallets designed in the 90s why have we moved on from large flip phones to smartphones but still carry bulky wallets the ridge wallet it holds up to 12 cards plus room for cash and there's over 30 colors and styles including carbon fiber and burnt titanium seriously i really love this thing but don't take my word for it listen to their thirty thousand five star reviews the durable materials means that each wallet comes with a lifetime warranty you could buy this one wallet and carry it for life the rich team is so confident that you'll like it they'll let you test drive it for 45 days and you can send it back for a full refund if you don't love it get 10 off today with free worldwide shipping and returns by going to ridge.com simplehistory that's ridge.com simplehistory and use the code simple history the vorkuda gulag 1932-1962 the soviet gulag prison system set up in the 1920s by the ruling communist party were a series of forced labor camps they held prisoners in harsh living conditions where any treatment was expected to be extreme and inhumane prisoners were both soviet and foreign the camp holding prisoners of war dissidents political prisoners enemies of the state and common criminals their diet provided little sustenance leaving many near starvation beatings were common in the gulag system often brutal and unforgiving prisoners were sentenced for multiple reasons for example john h noble was arrested on charges of spying the nobles camera manufacturing company was merged with other german companies by the soviets shortly after world war ii it was common for the soviet authorities to arrest citizens in order to seize their property and they were often given charges that would be hopeless in fighting stalin found the camps to be an efficient way to boost his country's industrialization and no one was truly safe many of these prisoners never made it out alive often being worked to death or dying of malnutrition among the worst of the gulags was the much-feared vorkuda gulag known by the official title verkuta correct of special labor camp number six based near a coal mining community in the comey republic of west russia just north of the arctic circle the vorkuta gulag was established in 1932 remaining active until 1962 and contained over 73 000 prisoners during its peak the prisoners were assigned to provide labor for the nearby mine and the local logging operation which was thriving at the time a railway was constructed using the prisoners to ship coal and timber out of the area the gulag's perimeter consisted of tall barbed wire fences watch towers and armed guards beyond the perimeter there were regular armed patrols accompanied by guard dogs soldiers would accompany work details ensuring no escape attempts were successful though the reality was that there was nowhere for the prisoners to escape to verkuta was in the middle of nowhere the land surrounding vorkuta teeming with wolves was the soviet authority's natural barrier between the gulag prisoners and their freedom and the climate in northern russia was brutally cold with extremely short summers and long winters in vorkuta for three months out of the year the sun did not set constant daylight ensued as another form of torture provided by nature herself this phenomenon is known as polar days the regime at the gulag was harsh prisoners were faced with 16-hour days of hard labor and an underwhelming diet of rye bread and buckwheat porridge called kasha [Music] the lack of food was subsidized with potatoes and a little meter fish prisoners often took to eating rats stray dogs or cats that might have inevitably wandered into the gulag earning extra food was possible if you hit your unrealistically high work quota but in order to do so the prisoners had to work so hard that it had an adverse effect on their already deteriorating health the result some prisoners literally worked themselves to death the sheer hunger excessive work and living conditions often caused illness or death so some prisoners resorted to getting admitted to the hospital where conditions were better and they could recover for a while in order to get there they resorted to cutting off their fingers reopening healing wounds or even drinking kerosene some prisoners of war from world war ii were kept at the camp this included the english trader reginald pleasants who had joined the nazi waffen-ss as a sharpshooter he spent six years in the camp before being released to the british authorities and during the korean conflict of the 1950s it was rumored that a number of captured american pilots were also imprisoned at verkuta among the vast number of prisoners american military personnel were no exception one notable example being homer harold cox a u.s military policeman who was arrested whilst off duty in east berlin in 1949. cox wouldn't be free of the soviet tyranny until 1953. the american prisoner john h noble reported as many as 3 000 american prisoners in the soviet camps the freedom noble gained came into being once his note was delivered to his german relatives this note was then passed on to the united states authorities and president dwight d eisenhower intervened to get him freed the corruption within the gulag combined with the atrocious conditions became so bad that in 1953 the prisoners went on strike one of the key leaders of the strike was john h noble they demanded such things as lower production targets wages and to be allowed to write more than two letters a year at first the authorities tolerated this act of rebellion being that it was relatively peaceful moscow sent commissioners to negotiate with the prisoners some minor concessions were made including being granted the privilege of being allowed to write two letters a month and the right to one visitor a year but the prisoners felt this was not enough and refused to go back to work after two weeks the warden's patience had run out he sent in the army to arrest the ringleaders of the strike the situation turned violent and the army openly fired on the prisoners it is estimated that over 60 prisoners were killed and hundreds more were injured afterwards conditions at the gulag slowly improved and in 1962 the camp was permanently closed down with most of its inmates released as for the gulag system itself the permanent dismantling began during the 1950s this was in part due to the economic and political viability of maintaining the gulag's diminishing political reform played a key role in the regression of the camps with nikita khrushchev coming to power after the death of stalin khrushchev began a series of reforms known as destalinization when he came to power in 1958 finally in the early 1960s the last remaining gulags were closed down for cuta being one of the last to close you

Channel: Simple History

Views: 1,846,866

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, vorkuta gulag, USSR, Death Camp, Soviet Gulag, prison, prisoners of war, dissidents, John H. Noble, black ops, cold war, Viktor Reznov, Alex Mason, Frank Woods, ussr, russia, Special Labour Camp, stalin, barbed wire, coal mining, industry, Komi Republic, Soviet authorities, Reginald Pleasants, East Berlin, Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Homer Harold Cox, hard labor, mining, logging

Id: jSZvBnBixmY

Length: 7min 37sec (457 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 19 2020