Gulags Quotes
The Stalinist purges were all foretold by this bloody toast which was attended by many of the Soviet leaders.
In Russia at the time, serfs were little better off than slaves. Not only did they have to obey their landlords in all things, but any who advocated disobedience on their part were beaten and sent to Siberia. Exile to the Siberian Gulags was not an invention of the Communists of the 20th century although they used that punishment in unprecedented numbers. It was used by the Czars and the Empress.
Mandelstam was later sent to a Soviet gulag for writing a poem denouncing Stalin. He died there.
Ironically Mandelstam was later sent to a Soviet gulag for writing a poem denouncing Stalin. He died there.
Russia, under the Czar, had a brutal criminal justice system where criminals—often with their families—were forced across Russia to Siberia and Sakhalin. Stalin and the Communists did not invent the Gulag concept but then, although total enemies of the Czar and everything he stood for, emulated the worst of Czarist policies to deal with the Russian “enemies” of the state. The reference to “red-nosed prison supervisors” was to the image of the alcoholism that was (and still is) rampant among so many Russians—especially the prison supervisors who themselves were exiled to the harshest and remotest parts of the nation. They were notoriously heavy drinkers even be Russian standards.
