Everything about Katorga totally explained
Katorga (ка́торга, from medieval
Greek:
katergon,κάτεργον
galley) was a system of
penal servitude of the
prison farm type in
Imperial Russia. Prisoners were sent to remote camps in vast uninhabited areas of
Siberia—where voluntary labourers were never available in satisfactory numbers—and forced to perform hard
labour. Katorga began in the 17th century, and was taken over by the
Bolsheviks after the
Russian Revolution of 1917, eventually transforming into the
Gulag labor camps.
History
Unlike
concentration camps, "katorga" was within the normal
judicial system of (Imperial) Russia, but both share the same main features: confinement, simplified facilities (as opposed to
prisons), and
forced labor, usually on hard, unskilled or semi-skilled work.
Katorgas were established in the 17th century in underpopulated areas of
Siberia and the
Russian Far East that had few towns or food sources. Nonetheless, a few prisoners successfully escaped back to populated areas. Since these times, Siberia gained its fearful connotation of punishment, which was further enhanced by the
Soviet Gulag system that developed from the Katorga camps.
After the change in Russian
penal law in 1847,
exile and katorga became common penalties to the participants of national
uprisings within the Russian Empire. This led to increasing number of
Poles being sent to Siberia for katorga; they were known as
Sybiraks. Some of them remained there, forming a Polish minority in Siberia.
The most common occupations in katorga camps were
mining and
timber works. A notable example was the construction of
Amur Cart Road (Амурская колесная дорога), praised as a success in organisation of penal labor.
Anton Chekhov, the famous Russian writer and playwright, in 1891 visited the katorga settlements in the
Sakhalin island in the Russian Far East and wrote about the conditions there in his book
Sakhalin Island. He criticized the shortsightedness and incompetence of the officials in charge that led to poor living standards, waste of government funds, and poor productivity.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his book
Gulag Archipelago about the Soviet era labor camps quoted Chekhov extensively to illustrate the enormous deterioration of living conditions of the inmates in the Soviet era compared with those of the katorga inmates of Chekhov's time.
Peter Kropotkin, while being
aide de camp to the governor of
Transbaikalia, was appointed to inspect the state of the prison system in the area, and later described the findings in his book,
In Russian and French Prisons.
After the
Russian Revolution of 1917 the Russian penal system was taken over by the
Bolsheviks, eventually transforming into the
Gulag labor camps.
In 1943 the term "katorga works" (каторжные работы) was reintroduced. They were initially intended for
Nazi collaborators but other categories of political prisoners (for example, members of
deported peoples who fled from exile) were also sentenced to "katorga works". Prisoners sentenced to "katorga works" were sent to Gulag prison camps with the most harsh regime and many of them died.
Comparisons
Penal labour has been quite common throughout history, in a number of countries. Parallels can be drawn between the katorga and the American
chain gang, or the convict settlements in
Australia, which played a part in building the country. As well as the punishment aspect, penal labour also partially attempts to address the financial cost of keeping prisoners.
Notable katorgas
Famous katorga captives
Russian
Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, from 1849 until 1854, for revolutionary activity against Tsar Nicholas I. Dostoyevsky abandoned his leftist attitudes during this period, and became deeply conservative and extremely religious.
Cheka founder Felix Dzerzhinsky, imprisoned (and escaped) twice, in 1897 and 1900, for revolutionary activity.
David Riazanov (1891-1895), a narodnik at the time and latter founder of the Marx-Engels Institute
Revolutionary Vera Figner, a well-known political activist.
Decembrists: initial verdict was 16 persons for termless katorga, 5 persons for 10 years, 15 persons for 6 years. After the trial tsar reduced the sentences, subsequent amnesties further shortened the terms.
Joseph Stalin escaped twice, in 1902 and 1908, before being finally confined in a katorga on the Yenisei River 1913-1917, finally being released at the time of the February Revolution
Fanny Kaplan, a Russian political revolutionary and attempted assassin of Vladimir Lenin.
Polish
Aleksander Czekanowski
Jan Czerski
Benedykt Dybowski
Bronisław Piłsudski
Piotr WysockiFurther Information
Get more info on 'Katorga'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://katorga.totallyexplained.com">Katorga Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
