Institution under the Moscow Department of Culture
Interactive GULAG Map
Interactive map of the GULAG — a permanently updated database of history and geography of forced labor camps that operated in the USSR from 1918 to 1960 — has been created by the GULAG History Museum.
The project shows the scale of the Soviet punitive system whose prison camps were scattered across the entire country — from the Baltic Sea and the Crimea to Chukotka. The map shows the birth and evolution of this phenomenon, its climax in the times of the Great Patriotic War, and the eventual decline in the year of 1960.
A majority of the GULAG camps had their production specialization. They were involved in agriculture, foresting, mineral production, building factories, railroads, and other facilities. In some labor camps, criminals lived side by side with political prisoners while other, so-called “special camps,” were intended exclusively for the incarceration of inmates convicted under the 58th article of the RSFSR Criminal Code.
The map shows corrective labor, special and screening and filtration camps. Touching the red spot on the map will pop up a window containing geographic, historical and economic information about each camp. In the future, we are planning to add first camps in the RSFSR, NKVD special purpose camps in East Germany, children’s colonies and a section about ethnic deportations and the exiling of kulaks. Moreover, the map will be updated with photographs, documents, and biographies of famous prisoners.
The GULAG History Museum urges historians from Russian regions to take part in this project and will accept any information about the camps and their divisions. We are primarily interested in maps, photo albums of the NKVD-MVD, statistics and other historical documents that will be added as reference information to the interactive map.
If you have any information, please, contact us: gulagmap@gmig.ru
The touch-pannel of the interactive GULAG map is located in the Document Centre. This is a constantly updated database on the history and geography of Soviet labor camps from 1918 through 1960.
