Dalstroy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dalstroy (or Dalstroi) was an organization set up in 1931 by the Soviet NKVD (the predecessor of the KGB) in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Chukotka region of the Russian Far East, now known as Kolyma. Dalstroy is the Russian acronym for the Far North Construction Trust. Initially it was established as State Trust for Road and Industrial Construction it the Upper Kolyma Area (Государственный трест по дорожному и промышленному строительству в районе Верхней Колымы — Дальстрой). After the 1952 reorganizaion it was known as Main Directorate of Camps and Construction of the Far North (ГУ лагерей и строительства Дальнего Севера).
Dalstroy oversaw the development and mining of the area using forced labor. Over the years, Dalstroy created some 80 Gulag camps across the Kolyma region. As a result of a number of decisions, the total area covered by Dalstroy grew to three million square kilometers by 1951. The town of Magadan was the base for these activities.
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[edit] Scope of activities
The Dalstroy region is often referred to as Kolyma as it was centered largely on gold-mining in the upper reaches of the Kolyma River.
Dalstroy administered basically all aspects of the region: territorial administration, economic activities, and labor camps.
The administration of Dalstroy grew increasingly complex over the years, not only as a result of various geographical centers but also as units were created to manage geological surveying, motorized transport, management of secondary economies, road administration, steamship navigation on the River Kolma, and port and terminal management.[1]
In his book Red Arctic, John MacCannon explains how Dalstroy initially relied on Glavsevmorput or GUSMP, Russian acronym for Main Administration of the Northern Sea Route, a Soviet agency for exploiting resources across the far north, for coordination of supplies and transport. Glavsevmorput managed railway traffic to Vladivostok and shipping from there to Magadan. Over the years, however, as Dalstroy grew more powerful, its director Eduard Berzin obtained ships of his own so as to have more freedom of action. By 1938, when Glavsevmorput lost much of its political support, Dalstroy was firmly in control.
A full account of the many ships used over the years to transport prisoners across the Sea of Okhotsk to Magadan as well as to the Arctic port of Ambarchik is given by Martin Bollinger in his book Stalin's Slave Ships.
| Prisoners at the Dalstroy[2] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Number | Year | Number |
| 1932 | 11,100 | 1944 | 84,716 |
| 1934 | 29,659 | 1945 | 93,542 |
| 1935 | 36,313 | 1946 | 73,060 |
| 1936 | 48,740 | 1947 | 93,322 |
| 1937 | 70,414 | 1948 | 106,893 |
| 1938 | 90,741 | 1949 | 108,685 |
| 1939 | 138,170 | 1950 | 153,317 |
| 1940 | 190,309 | 1951 | 182,958 |
| 1941 | 187,976 | 1952 | 199,726 |
| 1942 | 177,775 | 1953 | 175,078 |
| 1943 | 107,775 | ||
| Figures for 1 January for each year. Figure for 1932 for December |
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[edit] Dalstroy leaders
In the words of prisoner Ayyub Baghirov, "The entire administration of the Dalstroy - economic, administrative, physical and political - was in the hands of one person who was invested with many rights and privileges."[3]
The officials in charge of Dalstroy were:
- Eduard Petrovich Berzin, 1932-1937.
- Karp Aleksandrovich Pavlov, 1937-1939.
- Ivan Fedorovich Nikishev, 1940-1948.
- Ivan Grigorevich Petrenko, 1948-1950.[4]
- I.L. Mitrakov, 1951-1956.[5]
- Iu. V. Chuguev, 1956-1957.
[edit] Disbanding
After Stalin's death in 1953, the reorganization of the Dalstroy basically split its functions into three parts. The administration of labor camps was reorganized into USVITL (North-East Corrective Labor-Force Administration) of GULAG. The administration of the territory and local Communist Party apparatus were subordinated to the newly created Magadan Oblast and other adjacent territorial subdivisions. Dalstroy remained a purely economic enterprise.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ (Russian) Историческая хроника Магаданской области: События и факты, (Historical Chronicle of the Magadan Region) 1917–1972, Magadan, 1975
- ^ (Russian) Dalstroy prisoners
- ^ Ayyub Baghirov - The Bitter Days of Kolyma from Azerbaijan International, Spring 2006. Retrieved 6 February 2007
- ^ [http://generals.dk/general/Petrenko/Ivan_Grigorevich/Soviet_Union.html Petrenko Ivan Grigorevich, Major-General, (1904 – 1950) (NKVD]), Biography from the General.dk site. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
- ^ (Russian) История Дальстроя (History of Dalstroy) from the kolyma.ru website. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
[edit] References
- Ludwik Kowalski: Alaska Notes on Stalinism
- Kolyma - Off to the Unknown - Stalin's Notorious Prison Camps in Siberia by Ayyub Baghirov (1906-1973)
- Bollinger, Martin J., Stalin’s slave ships: Kolyma, the Gulag fleet, and the role of the West, Praeger, 2003, 217 p., ISBN 0275981002
- MacCannon, John: Red Arctic: polar exploration and the myth of the north in the Soviet Union, 1932-1939, Oxford University Press, 1998, 234p, ISBN 0195114361
- David Nordlander: Magadan and the Economic History of Dalstroi in the 1930s. Hoover Press: Gregory/Gulag DP0 HGRESG0600 rev1 p. 105.
