![]() The Germans never saw the preparations, the supply, the force build up and the maskirovka tricking them into reinforcing the wrong parts of the front, only being crushed under an avalanche of men and equipment. These were flexibly moved from a stalled operation to a successful one to create deep penetrations of the German lines. On the operational and strategic level, they had considerable skill, using maskirovka tactics to achieve absolutely crushing local superiority, using high command specialised assets (heavy massed artillery, heavy tanks and tank destroyers, air assets and massive supply organisations) to reinforce local offensive operations. The Soviets lacked some tactical skills on the lower level, especially as their huge casualties early war forced them to shorten the tranining of their low-level officers and NCOs to replace the casualties. The controllers noted down the great productivity, and it moved to Moscow to please Beria and Stalin.īeria was quick to catch onto the truth, but Stalin was convinced that the camps were productive and important in his 5 year plans. Instead of actually working it was more common to create the illusion of work: instead of chopping down 10 trees in a day it was easier to strike a deal with the right people and move the logs from one area to another and create the illusion they were freshly cut. So how did the inmates survive? They cheated the system constantly. This lead to the inmates getting absurd quotas, completely impossible to achieve, just so the camp authorities would look good. A camp that wasn't profitable or productive would have its staff replaced (knowing Stalin you should know what that meant). This was especially common in the arctic camps where sickness could spread across labor-teams and indirectly kill everyone.Īnother reason the quota system went completely wack was that each camp was responsible to the central administration. You can't work at 100% to fulfill your quotas, so you receive less food, and you become even more sick. The logic that stems from this is that if you ever become weak or sick you're likely to enter a unrecoverable downwards spiral. Those who would not labor to repay their debts, they would not get to eat. *Some camps did not allow inmates to call themselves comrades, or have a portrait of Stalin until they've done so. ![]() Each type of labor and classification of people (how healthy/old you were) had a quota they were expected to fulfill so as to repay their debts to the Soviet peoples. It was a inmate that created the Gulags most deadly and iconic policyįrenkel followed the classic " He who does not work neither shall he eat" and organized the camps on that principle. There was also a problem with unmotivated laborers (for some reason.), so there was a drive to make the camps more profitable. In the early stages of the Gulag system there was a ambition to use the camps to reeducate class enemies into good Soviet Men and Women, but Stalin dropped this ambition when his paranoia got real hot. But quotas are actually a major reason why the Gulags were dismantled as they were completely unreliable. So beyond its importance for survival I think the bread was also a symbol of pride, normalcy and of home.Įach camp and regime had a quota that prisoners were expected to achieve. ![]() Working in the mail-station was also highly attractive, if you didn't let the mailman have a taste of that pork your family sent you might never see your mail again. In Ivan Denisovich there is a memorable scene when one of the inmates have problems eating a fisheye, and receives greedy looks from his workgroup. Getting a bed, sick or not, could save your life). Stealing food seemed to be quite normal in the camps actually, the most revered position was in the kitchen since they could skim food to use as bribes and gifts (to get a bed in the hospital for example, patients were exempt from labor. People who achieved their unreasonable quotas would receive a large dole of bread as a reward, all those who missed got a reduced portion. If I recall correctly the inmates all received a portion of mornings and evening Gruel, so they would be fed (even if it often was far from sufficient). ![]()
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