Gulag Town, Company Town

Abstract Gulag Town, Company Town examines the history of Vorkuta, an arctic coal-mining outpost that was built in the 1930s as one of the most notorious prison camp complexes in the Soviet Union. But Vorkuta was not just a camp; it was also a Soviet city, with a substantial non-prisoner population and urban spaces. This book questions the idea that the Gulag was an “archipelago” separated from Soviet society at large. Instead, it examines camp and city together, looking at the interrelationships between them. It demonstrates that borders between the inside and outside of the camp were permeable and contested, and a web of personal connections linked camp and city together. Such connections continued to play an important role during the post-Stalin period in Vorkuta, as they allowed ex-prisoners to navigate their transition to civilian life by relying on social networks that they had established while imprisoned. Based on archival research and oral history, Gulag Town, Company Town offers new interpretations of the relationship between the Gulag and Soviet society, and of the enduring legacy of forced labor in the Soviet Union.