Prisoners eating lunch in Bamlag.

Karlag camp document, 1935: The document concludes that granting a meeting for a camp inmate is one of the highest types of award. However, there were cases when meeting was granted to an individual who had no right for it.

Karlag camp document, 1935: The document discusses how to organize meeting with relatives for camp inmates in order to avoid cases of inmates refusing to see their relatives who came to visit.

Drawing by A.A. Merekov created at Kolyma.

Sveshnikov sketch of "goners" digging through the trash heap for scraps. Some prisoners became so overwhelmed by continual hunger that they were driven to eating anything they could find, including trash. They were known as "goners" in camp slang, as they had only a slim chance of surviving the camps.

Color sketch from Evfrosiniia Kersnovskaia's self-illustrated memoir of goners waiting for camp cooks to dump out food trash. In the accompanying text, Kersnovskaia descibes an episode when "dokhodiagi" (or "goners" in camp slang) were waiting for leftovers from the camp's hospital. They ran to the trash bin and took bits of food including fish scales causing one former professor to regurgitate his meal.

Alla Vasileva's sketch of fellow prisoner Anna Skitmazur reading a book.

Sketch of a man sitting in barracks on bunk deep in contemplation, possibly praying. The barracks are notably well appointed with many personal items left out and unguarded from potential theft at the hands of fellow prisoners.

Sketch of a female prisoner sewing while sitting in a chair.

Black and white photograph of hospital patients in the sun parlor at the Central Hospital of the White Sea Canal forced labor project in 1932. They are receiving fresh-air therapy and surrounded by hospital staff.