Prisoner: Vladimir Tchernavin
During an interrogation, Tchernavin was told why he was placed in a specific cell: “’I hope we will come to an understanding and that I will not be forced to change the regime I have ordered for you. The third category is the mildest: exercise in the yard, permission to receive food parcels from outside, a newspaper and books. Remember, however, that it depends entirely on me; any minute you may be deprived of everything and transferred to solitary confinement. Or rather, this depends not on me but on your own behavior, your sincerity. The more frank your testimony, the better will be the conditions of your imprisonment. I placed you in a common cell so that you can get familiar with our regulations. You acquaint yourself, so to say, at first hands with our methods, and I believe….you will become more compliant. We have discarded medieval methods; we don’t hang up by the legs or cut off strips of skin from the back, but we have other means, no less effective, and we know how to force the truth.’”
Introduction
The atrocities of working and living conditions in the camps went unnoticed as Soviet authorities promoted the Gulag as a progressive educational prison system to the general populace and prisoners. Posters displayed at the camps reinforced labor—at whatever cost—as a heroic and honorable contribution to the state.
Movie Transcription
Over many Gulag camp gates, a slogan declared: “Labor in the USSR is a matter of honor, glory, courage and heroism.”
In the barracks, posters screamed, “Glory to Stalin, the Greatest Genius of Mankind.”
At the work place, banners urged, “More Gold for Our Country, More Gold for Victory!”
These proclamations of the glories of socialism, the heroism of Soviet labor, and the possibilities of reeducation and reintegration into Soviet society sat uneasily in an environment saturated with death and deprivation.
Millions survived their Gulag, but they would have laughed at the notion that they were re-educated. Most would have used words such as “traumatized,” “brutalized,” or “disfigured”—terms not featured on the propaganda posters.