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A.A. Merekov sketch, "Despair of a Prisoner" drawn at Kolyma.

Drawing by Beniamin Shavarshovich Mkrtchan depicting a prisoner leaving a camp with his belongings.

Black and white photograph of a variety of recently unearthed human skulls and bones.

Color sketch from Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia self-illustrated memoir of a dead body tossed onto a horse-drawn wagon already full of corpses. In the accompanying text, Kersnovskaia recalls that before the war prisoners were usually buried in wooden coffins. However, during the war the number of casualties increased significantly. [These were the deadliest years in Gulag labor camps. ed.] Thus, another method was used which became known as the "Katafalk." She notes that when the inventor of the new method died, he was also buried in the "Katafalk." Unclothed corpses were collected and placed on a wooden vehicle. In 1947, the traditional burial methods reappeared.