2007-09-02 23:14:20 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I worked with one man who was a German army non-com who was a rifleman on the Eastern front. He was captured by the Russians, and knew what his fate was. He thought he'd never see his family again.
He was sent to the far North, it was very cold all the time, in the summer the bugs were eating them alive, the mosquito's so bad, they tied wet cloth strips to their faces to breathe.
The cold in winter so bad, they had one blanket per man on a hard board bed, five to a tier, you couldn't lift your arm. You couldn't roll over, there was no room. Men died and stayed in their bed for days before they could be removed, they carried them out to roll call so they wouldn't get "gig ed" for their absence, until they were removed.
They were in the process of building a dam with pure man power, no mechanization was there.
Hauling wheel barrows of cement in winter months the temperatures where as low as forty below, they stripped the dead for clothing.
My friend was there for ten years, being allowed to leave in 1957 for his "war crimes" for being a soldier, he had to make his own way back to Poland, where his family lived.
The Gulag was a hell on Earth for anyone that didn't like Stalin, it is said that over 20, yes, twenty million of his own people died in the Gulag, making him one of the biggest killers of people in history.
2007-09-02 23:28:09 · answer #1 · answered by cowboydoc 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In communist Russia anyone who was percieved to be opposing the regime were sent there. They didn't actually have to do too much to be percieved as such, one word against the government could be used against them in court.
Two of my great uncles who lived there were sent to forced labour camps in Siberia because they were practicing Jews.
2007-09-02 23:35:50 · answer #2 · answered by ghds 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any one who threatened the government. An those who were chosen as escape goats.
2007-09-09 13:00:41 · answer #3 · answered by Mogollon Dude 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everybody who didn't like communism.
For instants smart people(Historians, Poets and so on..). Politicians were all so sent there and usual people. And rich people were sent there all so
2007-09-02 23:40:57 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
anyone who opposed the government or was even accused of it. they were mostly poets, authors, intellectuals, and students.
2007-09-09 08:38:31 · answer #5 · answered by Loren S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋