Black and white photograph of the brass band of the Medvezhegorsk Militarized Guard at Belomorkanal, posing in front of an incomplete construction.

Black and white photograph of a brass band playing inside the partially-built Belomorkanal. This canal was finished in 1933.

A.A. Merekov sketch from Kolyma of a prisoner watching another play a reed pipe.

Mkrtchan's pencil sketch shows a group of prisoners listening to a guitar player. Song folklore had a long history in Soviet and in pre-Soviet Russian prison life.

Black and white photograph of Russian Orthodox priests creating fish nets in a workshop. Clergy constituted the bulk of the workers in this workshop at the Solovki Camp.

In G. K. Protopopov's sketch, prisoners talk and try to warm themselves by the fire in Ivdellag Camp.

Color sketch from Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia's self-illustrated memoirs depicting guards searching the contents of a truck for prisoners trying to escape. Guards were ever vigilant about escape, as successful escapes could lead to guards being charged with crimes and becoming prisoners.

Color sketch from Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia's self-illustrated memoirs of camp guard beating her. In the accompanying text, Kersnovskaia recalls how guards took her through the camp's zone to the office of the camp chief. She resisted and one of the guards beat her. She lost consciousness for a moment and when she got up she was told to be present at the camp warden's office.

Rudakov painting completed while a prisoner in Kotlas, showing a Gulag guard suffering in the cold.

Photograph of a group of guards with backs to camera pointing rifles as if ready to shoot. This is a group of soldiers of Primorskaia army in the fights at Lake Chasan, Mongolia. 1938. Image taken from the magazine "Our Country"