Vorkuta uprising
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Vorkuta uprising | |||||||
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Vorkuta Gulag in 1940s | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Soviet Army Prison Guards | Vorkuta inmates | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
57 killed | |||||||
The Vorkuta Uprising was a major uprising of forced labor camp inmates at the Rechlag Gulag special labor camp in Vorkuta, Russian SFSR, USSR from 19 July (or 22 July) to 1 August 1953, shortly after the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria. The uprising was violently stopped by the camp administration after two weeks of bloodless standoff.[1]
Background
Vorkuta
Uprising
The uprising, initially in the form of a passive walkout, began on or before July 19, 1953, at a single "department" and quickly spread to five others. The initial demands were to give inmates access to a state attorney and due justice, and they quickly changed to political demands. According to the inmate Leonid Markizov, Voice of America and the BBC broadcast regular news about the events in the Rechlag, with correct names, ranks and numbers. Even without foreign assistance, strikes at nearby sites were clearly visible as the wheels of the mine headframes stopped rotating, and the word was spread by trains, which had slogans painted by prisoners on the sides, and whose crews spread news. The total number of inmates on strike reached 18,000. The inmates remained static within the barbed wire perimeters.
For a week following the initial strike the camp administration apparently did nothing; they increased perimeter guards but took no forceful action against inmates. The mines were visited by State Attorney of the USSR,
On July 31 camp chief Derevyanko started mass arrests of "saboteurs"; inmates responded with barricades. The next day, August 1, after further bloodless clashes between inmates and guards, Derevyanko ordered direct fire at the mob. According to Leonid Markizov, 42 were killed on the spot, 135 wounded (many of them, deprived of medical help, died later). According to Solzhenitsyn, there were 66 killed. Among those shot was the Latvian Catholic priest Jānis Mendriks.[4]
After submission of the mob, many "saboteurs" were arrested and placed in maximum security cells, but without further punitive executions. Conditions were marginally improved (especially for "political" inmates).
In popular culture
A similar fictional uprising at Vorkuta, however in 1963 when the camp had already been shut down, was depicted in the story mode of the 2010 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Literature
See also
References
- The Day (Den'). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
- ^ Latkovskis, Leonards. "I. Baltic Prisoners of the Gulag Revolts of 1953 - L. Latkovskis". Lituanus - Lithuanian quarterly journal of arts and sciences. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
- ^ Latkovskis, Leonards. "II. Baltic Prisoners of the Gulag Revolts of 1953 - L. Latkovskis". Lituanus - Lithuanian quarterly journal of arts and sciences. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
- ^ Servant of God Fr. Janis Mendriks MIC 1907–1953
Sources
- Markizov, L. P. Uprising, not sabotage (Маркизов Л.П., Не "волынка" - восстание - "Дым Отечества", 1993)
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, v.3 ch. 11