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.

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

Merekov sketch of prisoners trudging single file through the cold under guard. "V zaboi pod konvoem" Made in Kolyma camps, ca. 1937-1946.

Black and white photograph of small group of prisoners escorted by female guards. Caption reads "Convoy of Prisoners to Work"

Sketch by an unknown artist depicting a column of prisoners marching through winter conditions to their work sites. Armed guards with attack dogs watch over the prisoners.

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

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.