The Bolsheviks and Stalin did not use terms like "marginals” or "former persons” idly; the terms were used to convince the population at large that such persons were deserving of punishment and were, in a way, inhuman or non-humans. The Soviet system was grounded on the principle of repression, and it was vital that the population not have sympathy with its victims. The NKVD officers charged with executing hundreds of thousands of victims between 1937-1938, most of whom appeared quite normal, were taught to speak of their victims as "troika material.” A dedicated NKVD executioner declared in 1937 that it would be a shame if he could not process all his arrestees for execution because "we are dealing here exclusively with riffraff.” 7 The term "former people” also implies someone who is no longer a person, and, as such, is not deserving of pity. Gulag guards were subjected to a drumbeat of propaganda that inmates were saboteurs, spies, assassins, the worst types of criminals, and posed an imminent danger not only to society but also to the guards.
The following document, written by the second-i n-command of the Gulag, makes the point that the cities were fortunate to be rid of this rabble:
Those declasse elements sent from Moscow and Leningrad to the work colonies of the OGPU are primarily evil recidivists who have a number of offenses and convictions. Our experience at transport points and new settlements shows that they cannot adapt to the routine of the free labor regime of worker settlements. They do not cooperate and they demoralize others. According to the OGPU representative in Western Siberia [a Comrade Alekseev], there were a series of escape attempts, attacks on convoys, and thefts of ration materials. They prey on weaker persons.8
The ending of the memo, however, casts doubt on its true intent. The Gulag official, it appears, is simply reinforcing a decision made higher up to re-sentence "evil recidivists” to the Gulag camps, where labor is in short supply:
In connection with these facts and considering your decree to send this contingent to the camps, I request your directive about the transfer of their cases to OGPU troikas to process them for camps.
Were they being transferred to the camps because they were truly regarded as evil, or because their labor was needed? We cannot answer this question from the material we have at hand; it remains one of the major research issues surrounding the Gulag.
World History
