Color sketch from Evfrosiniia Kernovskaia's self-illustrated memoir of a lone figure in the forest sawing logs. In the accompanying text, Kersnovskaia describes the difficulty of the work.

Black and white photograph of horse cart (grabarka) carrying firewood along wooden tracks. The cart has metal wheels that run on rough wooden rails.

Black and white photograph of a large group of prisoners using iron rods, chisels, and sledge hammers to break boulders in the construction basin at the Belomorkanal labor camp during spring 1932. The 141-mile canal was built almost exclusively with manual labor and tools like those in this photograph.

Black and white photograph of prisoners breaking rocks and clearing rubble after an explosion on the mountain at the construction of a canal lock at Belomorkanal. The 141-mile canal was built almost exclusively with manual labor and tools like those in this photograph.

Black and white photograph of men working in the snow at drilling operations in the basin of canal lock# 12 at the White Sea - Baltic Sea Canal. The 141-mile canal was built almost exclusively with manual labor and tools like those in this photograph.

Black and white photograph of prisoners using hoes and shovels to move mining slurry along wooden sluce trough.

Black and white photograph of a lone prisoner pushing an ore car along a track with the Kolyma camp and its guard towers visible in the background.

Color sketch from Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia's self-illustrated memoirs of two miners working with lanterns and pneumatic drills. In the accompanying text, Kersnovskaia recalls an episode when she was working in a mine and one of the construction managers informed her about a fire in the mine. She did not panic, but calmly cleaned her working space and left.

Photograph of a cart full of ore being pulled out of a mine with six prisoners standing near the mine entrance in Kolyma.

Photograph of mine shaft opening with tracks and wooden framework. Kolyma, 2002.