The Gulag Archipelago is a great work. Solzhenitsyn “Gulag Archipelago” – history of creation and publication. Autobiographical basis of the work

The appearance of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s work “The Gulag Archipelago,” which he himself called “an experience in artistic research,” became an event not only in Soviet but also in world literature. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. And in the writer’s native country during this period, persecution, arrest and exile awaited, which lasted almost two decades.

Autobiographical basis of the work

A. Solzhenitsyn came from the Cossacks. His parents were highly educated people and became for the young man (his father died shortly before the birth of his son) the embodiment of the image of the Russian people, free and unyielding.

The successful fate of the future writer - studying at Rostov University and MIFLI, the rank of lieutenant and being awarded two orders for military merit at the front - changed dramatically in 1944, when he was arrested for criticizing the policies of Lenin and Stalin. The thoughts expressed in one of the letters resulted in eight years of camps and three years of exile. All this time, Solzhenitsyn worked, memorizing almost everything by heart. And even after returning from the Kazakh steppes in the 50s, he was afraid to write down poems, plays and prose; he believed that it was necessary to “keep them secret, and himself with them.”

The author’s first publication, which appeared in the magazine “New World” in 1962, announced the emergence of a new “master of words” who had “not a drop of falsehood” (A. Tvardovsky). “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” evoked numerous responses from those who, like the author, went through the horrors of Stalin’s camps and were ready to tell their compatriots about them. This is how Solzhenitsyn’s creative plan began to come true.

History of the creation of the work

The basis of the book was the personal experience of the writer and 227 (later the list increased to 257) prisoners like him, as well as surviving documentary evidence.

The publication of volume 1 of the book “The Gulag Archipelago” appeared in December 1973 in Paris. Then, at intervals of a year, the same publishing house YMCA-PRESS releases volumes 2 and 3 of the work. Five years later, in 1980, a twenty-volume collected works of A. Solzhenitsyn appeared in Vermont. It also includes the work “The Gulag Archipelago” with additions by the author.

The writer began to be published in his homeland only in 1989. And 1990 was declared the year of Solzhenitsyn in the then USSR, which emphasizes the significance of his personality and creative heritage for the country.

Genre of the work

Artistic historical research. The definition itself indicates the realism of the events depicted. At the same time, this is the creation of a writer (not a historian, but a good expert!), which allows for a subjective assessment of the events described. Solzhenitsyn was sometimes blamed for this, noting a certain grotesqueness of the narrative.

What is the Gulag Archipelago

The abbreviation arose from the abbreviated name of the Main Directorate of Camps that existed in the Soviet Union (it changed several times in the 20-40s), which is known today to almost every resident of Russia. It was, in fact, an artificially created country, a kind of closed space. Like a huge monster, it grew and occupied more and more new territories. And the main labor force in it were political prisoners.

"The Gulag Archipelago" is a generalized history of the emergence, development and existence of a huge system of concentration camps created by the Soviet regime. Consistently, in one chapter after another, the author, relying on his experiences, eyewitness accounts and documents, talks about who became the victim of Article 58, famous in Stalin’s times.

In the prisons and behind the barbed wire of the camps there were no moral or aesthetic standards whatsoever. The camp inmates (meaning the 58th, since against their background the life of “thieves” and real criminals was paradise) instantly turned into outcasts of society: murderers and bandits. Tormented by backbreaking work for 12 hours a day, always cold and hungry, constantly humiliated and not fully understanding why they were “taken”, they tried not to lose their human appearance, they thought and dreamed about something.

He also describes endless reforms in the judicial correctional system: either the abolition or return of torture and the death penalty, the constant increase in the terms and conditions of repeated arrests, the expansion of the circle of “traitors” to the homeland, which included even teenagers aged 12 years and older... Famous the entire USSR projects, such as the White Sea Canal, built on millions of bones of victims of the established system called the “GULAG Archipelago”.

It is impossible to list everything that comes into the writer’s field of vision. This is the case when, in order to understand all the horrors that millions of people went through (according to the author, the victims of the Second World War were 20 million people, the number of peasants exterminated in camps or died of hunger by 1932 was 21 million) it is necessary to read and feel what what Solzhenitsyn writes about.

"GULAG Archipelago": reviews

It is clear that the reaction to the work was ambiguous and quite contradictory. So G. P. Yakunin, a famous human rights activist and public figure, believed that with this work Solzhenitsyn was able to dispel “belief in a communist utopia” in Western countries. And V. Shalamov, who also passed through Solovki and was initially interested in the writer’s work, later called him a businessman focused only “on personal success.”

Be that as it may, A. Solzhenitsyn (“The Gulag Archipelago” is not the author’s only work, but it must be the most famous) made a significant contribution to debunking the myth of prosperity and a happy life in the Soviet Union.

"(1959). Then he named his future book “The Gulag Archipelago.” A possible outline of the presentation was drawn up, the principle of successive chapters was adopted on the prison system, on the investigation, trials, stages, forced labor camps, hard labor, exile and the mental changes of prisoners during the years of imprisonment. Some chapters were written at the same time, but the author postponed the work, realizing that the experience of his own and his camp friends was not enough to cover such a topic.

The secret history of the Gulag Archipelago. Documentary

Immediately after the publication of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” (“New World”, 1962, No. 11), the author was overwhelmed by a stream of hundreds of letters from former prisoners or from their surviving families, where personal stories and observations were passionately, sometimes in detail and voluminously, set out. During 1963-64, Solzhenitsyn processed letters and met with prisoners, listening to their stories. In the summer of 1964 in Estonia, he drew up a complete and final plan for the “Archipelago” in seven parts, and all the new supplementary materials went into this design.

In the fall of 1964, Solzhenitsyn began writing “The Archipelago” in Solotch near Ryazan; work continued until September 1965, when the KGB seized part of the author’s archive, and all the finished chapters and preparations for “The Archipelago” were immediately taken away by fellow prisoners to the safe “Shelter.” There, on an Estonian farm near Tartu, the writer secretly went to work for two winters in a row (1965-66 and 1966-67), so that by the spring of 1967 the first six Parts were written. In the winter of 1967-68, revision continued, in May 1968 the final edition of the book was made and printed, which now had to await publication, planned by the author first for 1971, then for 1975. However, in August 1973, under tragic circumstances, State Security discovered an intermediate version of “Archipelago” in one of the storage facilities - and thus prompted its immediate publication.

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn

A. I. Solzhenitsyn wrote “The Gulag Archipelago” in 1958-1967 in conditions when not only all official documents about the system of political repression and forced labor camps in the USSR since 1918 remained strictly classified, but also the very fact of many years of work on this topic he had to hide it carefully.

“The Gulag Archipelago,” volume one, was published on December 28, 1973 in the oldest emigrant publishing house YMCA-PRESS, in Paris. The book opened with the words of the author (which were not reproduced in any subsequent edition):

“With a constriction in my heart, for years I refrained from printing this already finished book: my duty to the still living outweighed my duty to the dead. But now that state security has taken this book anyway, I have no choice but to publish it immediately.

A. Solzhenitsyn

September 1973».

On February 12, 1974, a month and a half after the release of the first volume, A.I. Solzhenitsyn was arrested and expelled from the USSR. In 1974, the YMCA-PRESS publishing house released the second volume, and in 1975 – the third.

The first edition of The Gulag Archipelago in Russian corresponded to the latest edition of 1968, supplemented by clarifications made by the author in 1969, 1972 and 1973. The text ended with two author's afterwords (from February 1967 and May 1968), explaining the history and circumstances of the creation of the book. Both in the preface and afterwords, the author thanked the witnesses who carried out their experience from the bowels of the Archipelago, as well as friends and assistants, but did not give their names due to the obvious danger for them: “A complete list of those without whom this book would not have been written, would not have been altered , has not been preserved - the time has not yet come to trust it to paper. They themselves know. I bow to them."

“The Gulag Archipelago” has been translated into European and Asian languages ​​and published on all continents, in four dozen countries. A. I. Solzhenitsyn transferred the copyrights and royalties for all world publications to the Russian Public Fund for Assistance to the Persecuted and Their Families, which he founded in the first year of exile. Since then, the Foundation has helped many thousands of people inhabiting the Soviet Gulag Archipelago, and after the dissolution of the political Gulag continues to help former political prisoners.

Just as “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” in the early sixties in his homeland caused a flow of letters and personal stories, many of which became part of the fabric of “Archipelago,” so “Archipelago” itself gave rise to many new evidence; together with printed materials previously inaccessible to him, they prompted the author to make some additions and revisions.

The new edition was published in 1980, as part of the Collected Works of A. I. Solzhenitsyn (Collected works: In 20 volumes. Vermont; Paris: YMCA-PRESS. Vol. 5-7). The author added a third afterword (“And in another ten years,” 1979) and a detailed “Contents of the chapters.” The publication was supplied with two small dictionaries (“prison camp terms” and “Soviet abbreviations and expressions”).

When the publication of “The Gulag Archipelago” in the homeland became possible, it began with a reprint of the “Vermont” edition (M.: Sov. pis.; Novy mir, 1989) - and in the 1990s in Russia, all subsequent ten editions were printed according to the same text.

A significantly updated edition of The Gulag Archipelago was published in 2007 by the U-Faktoriya publishing house (Ekaterinburg). For the first time, a complete list of witnesses who provided material for this book was published. The initials are revealed in the text: replaced by full names and surnames - wherever they were known to the author. Added some later notes. Footnotes have been streamlined and Soviet abbreviations in camp names have been brought into uniformity. Also, for the first time, the publication was accompanied by a name index of all persons mentioned in the “Archipelago” - both historical figures and ordinary prisoners. This voluminous work was carried out by N. G. Levitskaya and A. A. Shumilin with the participation of N. N. Safonov. Additional search for information and editing of the Index was undertaken by historian, senior researcher at the Russian National Library A. Ya. Razumov. Subsequent domestic publications reproduced the above.

The camps where criminals (criminal and political) were kept existed in Soviet Russia since 1919, were subordinate to the Cheka, were located mainly in the Arkhangelsk region and since 1921 were called SLON, the decoding means “Northern camps for special purposes.” With the growing terror of the state against its citizens, as well as the increasing tasks of industrializing the country, which few people agreed to solve voluntarily, the Main Directorate of Forced Labor Camps was created in 1930. During the 26 years of its existence, a total of more than eight million Soviet citizens served in the Gulag camps, a huge number of whom were convicted on political charges without trial.

Gulag prisoners took a direct part in the construction of a huge number of industrial enterprises, roads, canals, mines, bridges, and entire cities.
Some of them, the most famous

• White Sea-Baltic Canal
• Moscow Canal
• Volga-Don Canal
• Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant
• Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works
• Railway tracks in the north of the USSR
• Tunnel to Sakhalin Island (not completed)
• Volzhskaya HPP (deciphering Hydroelectric power station)
• Tsimlyanskaya HPP
• Zhigulevskaya HPP
• City of Komsomolsk-on-Amur
• Sovetskaya Gavan city
• Vorkuta city
• Ukhta city
• Nakhodka city
• Dzhezkazgan city

The largest associations of the Gulag

• ALGERIA (transcript: Akmola camp for wives of traitors to the Motherland
• Bamlag
• Berlag
• Bezymyanlag
• Belbaltlag
• Vorkutlag (Vorkuta ITL)
• Vyatlag
• Dallag
• Dzhezkazganlag
• Dzhugjurlag
• Dmitrovlag (Volgolag)
• Dubravlag
• Intalag
• Karaganda ITL (Karlag)
• Kisellag
• Kotlas ITL
• Kraslag
• Lokchimlag
• Norilsklag (Norilsk ITL)
• Ozerlag
• Perm camps (Usollag, Visheralag, Cherdynlag, Nyroblag, etc.), Pechorlag
• Peczheldorlag
• Prorvlag
• Svirlag
• SVITL
• Sevzheldorlag
• Siblag
• Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON)
• Taezlag
• Ustvymlag
• Ukhtpechlag
• Ukhtizhemlag
• Khabarlag

According to Wikipedia, there were 429 camps, 425 colonies, and 2,000 special commandant’s offices in the Gulag system. The Gulag was the most populous in 1950. Its institutions housed 2 million 561 thousand 351 people; the most tragic year in the history of the Gulag was 1942, when 352,560 people died, almost a quarter of all prisoners. For the first time, the number of people held in the Gulag exceeded one million in 1939.

The Gulag system included colonies for minors, where they were sent from the age of 12

In 1956, the Main Directorate of Camps and Prisons was renamed the Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Colonies, and in 1959 - the Main Directorate of Prisons.

"GULAG Archipelago"

A study by A. Solzhenitsyn on the system of detention and punishment of prisoners in the USSR. Written in secret between 1958-1968. First published in France in 1973. “The Gulag Archipelago” was endlessly quoted in broadcasts to the Soviet Union by radio stations Voice of America, Liberty, Free Europe, and Deutsche Welle, thanks to which the Soviet people were less aware of Stalin’s terror. In the USSR, the book was published openly in 1990.

"GULAG Archipelago"- an artistic and historical work by Alexander Solzhenitsyn about repressions in the USSR in the period from to 1956. Based on letters, memoirs and oral histories of 257 prisoners and the personal experiences of the author.

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  The Gulag Archipelago was written secretly by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the USSR between 1958 and 1968 (completed June 2, 1968), with the first volume published in Paris in December 1973.

  In the USSR, “Archipelago” was published in full only in 1990 (the chapters selected by the author were first published in the magazine “New World”, 1989, No. 7-11). The last additional notes and some minor corrections were made by the author in 2005 and taken into account in the Yekaterinburg (2007) and subsequent editions. For the same publication, N. G. Levitskaya and A. A. Shumilin, with the participation of N. N. Safonov, first compiled a name index, which was supplemented and edited by A. Ya. Razumov.

  The phrase “GULAG Archipelago” has become a household word and is often used in journalism and fiction, primarily in relation to the penitentiary system of the USSR in the 1920s - 1950s. The attitude towards the “GULAG Archipelago” (as well as towards A.I. Solzhenitsyn himself) remains very controversial in the 21st century, since the attitude towards the Soviet period, the October Revolution, repressions, and the personalities of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin remains political sharpness.

  In 2008, a documentary film “The Secret History of the Gulag Archipelago” (French) was created in France about the history of the creation of the book and the fates of the people involved in it. L"Histoire Secrète de l"Archipel du Goulag, 52 minutes) (directed by Nicolas Miletitch and Jean Crépu).

  Description

  The book is divided into three volumes and seven parts:

  • Volume one
    • Prison industry
    • Perpetual motion
  • Volume two
    • Destructive-labor
    • Soul and barbed wire
  • Volume three
    • Hard labor
    • Link
    • Stalin is gone

  At the end of the book there are several afterwords by the author, lists of prison camp and Soviet expressions and abbreviations, and a name index of persons mentioned in the book.

  A. Solzhenitsyn’s work “The Gulag Archipelago” describes the history of the creation of camps in the USSR, describes the people working in the camps and those sentenced to stay in them. The author notes that workers end up in the camps through the schools of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, are drafted through military registration and enlistment offices, and convicts end up in the camps through arrests.

  Beginning in November 1917, when the Cadet Party was outlawed in Russia, mass arrests began, then arrests affected the Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats. The surplus appropriation plan of 1919, which provoked resistance from the village, led to a two-year stream of arrests. Since the summer of 1920, officers were sent to Solovki. Arrests continued in 1921 after the defeat of the Tambov peasant uprising led by the Union of Labor Peasants, sailors of the rebel Kronstadt were sent to the islands of the Archipelago, the Public Committee for Assistance to the Hungry was arrested, and socialist foreign party members were arrested.

  In 1922, the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Profiteering took up church issues. After the arrest of Patriarch Tikhon, trials took place that affected the distributors of the patriarchal appeal. Many metropolitans, bishops, archpriests, monks, and deacons were arrested.

  In the 20s, people were arrested “for concealing their social origin” and for their “former social status.” Since 1927, pests have been exposed; in 1928, the Shakhty case was heard in Moscow; in 1930, pests in the food industry and members of the Industrial Party were tried. In 1929-30, dispossessed, “agricultural pests” and agronomists were imprisoned in camps for 10 years. In 1934-1935, “purges” took place during the Kirov Stream.

  In 1937, a blow was dealt to the leadership of the party, the Soviet administration, and the NKVD.

  The author describes the life of prisoners, their characteristic image, gives numerous examples of the reasons for imprisonment, individual biographies (A. P. Skripnikova, P. Florensky, V. Komov, etc.).

  In Chapter 18 of the second volume of “Muses in the Gulag,” the author describes his ideas about writers and literary creativity. According to his ideas, society is divided into “upper and lower strata, rulers and subordinates.” Accordingly, there are four spheres of world literature. “The first sphere, in which writers belonging to the upper strata depict the upper ones, that is, themselves, their own. Sphere two: when the upper ones depict, think about the lower ones, Sphere three: when the lower ones depict the upper ones. Sphere four: lower - lower, yourself." The author of the classification includes all world folklore in the fourth sphere. As for literature itself: “The writing that belongs to the fourth sphere (“proletarian”, “peasant”) is all embryonic, inexperienced, unsuccessful, because a single skill was lacking here.” Writers of the third sphere were often poisoned by servile admiration; writers of the second sphere looked down on the world and could not understand the aspirations of the people of the lower sphere. In the first sphere, writers from the upper strata of society worked, having the material opportunity to master artistic technique and the “discipline of thought.” Great literature in this area could be created by writers who were deeply unhappy personally or who had great natural talent.

  According to the author, during the years of repression, for the first time in world history, the experiences of the upper and lower strata of society merged on a large scale. The archipelago provided an exceptional opportunity for creativity in our literature, but many carriers of the merged experience died.

  Translations

  The exact number of languages ​​into which The Gulag Archipelago has been translated is not indicated. Usually they give a general estimate of “more than 40 languages.”

  Reaction to publication

  IN THE USSR

  Repression

  In 1974, a graduate of the history department of Odessa University, Gleb Pavlovsky, came to the attention of the KGB for distributing the Gulag Archipelago and lost his job.

  According to the editors of the underground magazine “Chronicle of Current Events”, the first sentence for disseminating the “Gulag Archipelago” was handed down to G. M. Mukhametshin, who was sentenced on August 7, 1978 to 5 years of strict regime and 2 years of exile.

  Reviews

  Positive

  Critical

  Solzhenitsyn was repeatedly criticized, especially often in the 1970s, after the release of Archipelago, for his sympathetic attitude towards the ROA during the Great Patriotic War and related opinions regarding the fate of Soviet prisoners of war.

  Solzhenitsyn is criticized for his alleged call for the use of American atomic weapons against the USSR. His speeches confirming this have not been found, but in “Archipelago” he cites the threatening words of prisoners addressed to the guards:

  ...on a hot night in Omsk, when we, steamed, sweating meat, were kneaded and pushed into a funnel, we shouted to the guards from the depths: “Wait, you bastards! Truman will be on you! They will throw an atomic bomb on your head!” And the guards remained cowardly silent. Our pressure and, as we felt, our truth grew palpably for them. And in truth, we were so sick that it was not a pity to burn ourselves under the same bomb with the executioners. We were in that limiting state where there was nothing to lose.
  If this is not revealed, there will be no completeness about the Archipelago of the 50s.

  After the publication of the work in the USSR in 1990, demographers began to point out the contradictions between Solzhenitsyn’s estimates of the number of those repressed, on the one hand, and archival data and demographers’ calculations (based on archives that became available after 1985), on the other. This meant the data cited by Solzhenitsyn according to the article by I. A. Kurganov: 66.7 million people for the period from 1917 to 1959 “from terrorist extermination, suppression, hunger, increased mortality in the camps and including a deficit from low birth rates” (without a deficit - 55 million).

  Other information

  • “The Gulag Archipelago” takes 15th place in the list of “100 books of the century according to Le Monde”. Moreover, among books published in the second half of the century, it takes 3rd place.

  see also

  Notes

  1. Saraskina, L. I. Solzhenitsyn and media. - M.: Progress-Tradition, 2014. - P. 940.

  Now I finally understand why Solzhenitsyn lies so much and so shamelessly: “The Gulag Archipelago” was written not to tell the truth about camp life, but to instill in the reader disgust for Soviet power.

  Solzhenitsyn honestly worked out his 30 pieces of silver for the lie, thanks to which the Russians began to hate their past and destroyed their country with their own hands. A people without a past is scum on their land. Substituting history is one of the ways to wage the Cold War against Russia.

  A story about how former Kolyma prisoners discussed the “GULAG Archipelago” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn

  This happened in 1978 or 1979 in the Talaya mud bath sanatorium, located about 150 km from Magadan. I arrived there from the Chukotka town of Pevek, where I had worked and lived since 1960. The patients met and gathered to spend time in the dining room, where each was assigned a place at the table. About four days before the end of my course of treatment, a “new guy” appeared at our table - Mikhail Romanov. He started this discussion. But first, a little about its participants.

  The eldest in age was called Semyon Nikiforovich - that’s what everyone called him, his last name was not preserved in memory. He is “the same age as October,” so he was already retired. But he continued to work as a night mechanic in a large automobile fleet. He was brought to Kolyma in 1939. He was released in 1948. The next oldest was Ivan Nazarov, born in 1922. He was brought to Kolyma in 1947. He was released in 1954. He worked as a “sawmill operator.” The third is Misha Romanov, my age, born in 1927. Brought to Kolyma in 1948. Released in 1956. Worked as a bulldozer operator in the road department. The fourth was me, who came to these parts voluntarily, through recruitment. Since I lived among former prisoners for 20 years, they considered me a full participant in the discussion.

  

  I don’t know who was convicted for what. It was not customary to talk about this. But it was clear that all three were not thieves, not repeat offenders. According to the camp hierarchy, these were “men.” Each of them was destined by fate to one day “receive a sentence” and, having served it, voluntarily take root in Kolyma. None of them had a higher education, but they were quite well read, especially Romanov: he always had a newspaper, magazine or book in his hands. In general, these were ordinary Soviet citizens and they hardly even used camp words and expressions.

  On the eve of my departure, during dinner, Romanov said the following: “I have just returned from a vacation, which I spent in Moscow with relatives. My nephew Kolya, a student at the Pedagogical Institute, gave me an underground edition of Solzhenitsyn’s book “The Gulag Archipelago” to read. I read it and, returning book, Kolya said that there were a lot of fables and lies. Kolya thought about it, and then asked if I would agree to discuss this book with the former prisoners. “Why?” replied that in his company there are disputes about this book, they argue almost to the point of fighting, and if he presents to his comrades the judgment of experienced people, it will help them come to a common opinion. The book was alien, so Kolya wrote down everything that was in his notebook. I marked it." Then Romanov showed the notebook and asked: would his new acquaintances agree to satisfy the request of his beloved nephew? Everyone agreed.

  Victims of the camps

  After dinner we gathered at Romanov's.

  “I’ll start,” he said, “with two events that journalists call “fried facts.” Although it would be more correct to call the first event an ice cream fact. These are the events: “They say that in December 1928, on Krasnaya Gorka (Karelia), prisoners were left to spend the night in the forest as punishment (for not completing their lesson) and 150 people froze to death. This is a common Solovetsky trick, you can’t doubt it. It’s harder to believe another story “that on the Kem-Ukhtinsky tract near the town of Kut in February 1929, a company of prisoners, about 100 people, was driven to the fire for failure to comply with the norm, and they burned.”

  As soon as Romanov fell silent, Semyon Nikiforovich exclaimed:

  Parasha!.. No!.. Clean whistle! - and looked questioningly at Nazarov. He nodded:

  Yeah! Camp folklore in its purest form.

  (In Kolyma camp slang, “parasha” means unreliable rumor. And “whistle” is a deliberate lie). And everyone fell silent... Romanov looked around everyone and said:

  Guys, that's it. But, Semyon Nikiforovich, suddenly some sucker who has not smelled camp life will ask why the whistle. Couldn’t this have happened in the Solovetsky camps? What would you answer him?

  Semyon Nikiforovich thought a little and answered like this:

  The point is not whether it is Solovetsky or Kolyma. And the fact is that not only wild animals are afraid of fire, but also people. After all, how many cases have there been when, during a fire, people jumped out of the upper floors of the house and fell to their death, just so as not to burn alive? And here I have to believe that a few lousy guards (guards) managed to drive a hundred prisoners into the fire?! Yes, the most jaded convict, a goner, would prefer to be shot, but will not jump into the fire. What can I say! If the guards, with their five-round farts (after all, there were no machine guns then), had started a game of jumping into the fire with the prisoners, then they themselves would have ended up in the fire. In short, this “fried fact” is Solzhenitsyn’s stupid invention. Now about the “ice cream fact”. It’s not clear what “left in the forest” means? What, the guards went to spend the night in the barracks?.. So this is the blue dream of prisoners! Especially thieves - they would instantly end up in the nearest village. And they would “freeze” so much that the sky seemed like a sheepskin to the residents of the village. Well, if the guards remained, then, of course, they would light fires for their own heating... And then such a “movie” happens: several fires are burning in the forest, forming a large circle. In each circle, one and a half hundred hefty men with axes and saws in their hands calmly and silently freeze. They are freezing to death!.. Misha! A quick question: how long can such a “movie” last?

  

  “I see,” said Romanov. - Only a bookworm who has never seen not only convict lumberjacks, but also an ordinary forest can believe in such a “movie.” We agree that both “fried facts” are, in essence, bullshit.

  Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

  “I,” Nazarov spoke, “have already “doubted” Solzhenitsyn’s honesty. After all, as a former prisoner, he cannot help but understand that the essence of these fairy tales does not fit in with the routine of life in the Gulag. Having ten years of experience in camp life, he, of course, knows that suicide bombers are not taken to camps. And the sentence is carried out in other places. He, of course, knows that any camp is not only a place where prisoners “pull their deadlines,” but also an economic unit with its own work plan. Those. A camp is a production facility where prisoners are workers and management are production managers. And if somewhere there is a “plan on fire,” then the camp authorities can sometimes lengthen the prisoners’ working day. Such violations of the Gulag regime often happened. But to destroy your workers by companies is nonsense, for which the bosses themselves would certainly be severely punished. Up to the point of execution. Indeed, in Stalin’s times, discipline was asked not only from ordinary citizens, but from the authorities the demand was even stricter. And if, knowing all this, Solzhenitsyn inserts fables into his book, then it is clear that this book was not written to tell the truth about life in the Gulag. And for what - I still don’t understand. So let's continue.

  Let’s continue,” said Romanov. - Here’s another horror story: “In the fall of 1941, Pecherlag (railroad) had a payroll of 50 thousand, in the spring - 10 thousand. During this time, not a single stage was sent anywhere - where did the 40 thousand go?”

  This is such a terrible riddle,” Romanov finished. Everyone was thinking...

  I don’t understand the humor,” Semyon Nikiforovich broke the silence. - Why should the reader ask riddles? I could tell you what happened there...

  And he looked questioningly at Romanov.

  Here, apparently, there is a literary device in place, in which the reader is, as it were, told: the matter is so simple that any sucker will figure out what’s what. They say the comments are from...

  Stop! “It’s reached,” Semyon Nikiforovich exclaimed. - Here is a “subtle hint of thick circumstances.” They say that since the camp is a railway camp, 40 thousand prisoners were killed during the construction of the road in one winter. Those. the bones of 40 thousand prisoners rest under the sleepers of the constructed road. Is this what I have to figure out and believe in?

  “It seems so,” replied Romanov.

  Great! How much is this per day? 40 thousand in 6-7 months means more than 6 thousand per month, and that means more than 200 souls (two companies!) per day... Oh yes Alexander Isaich! Hey son of a bitch! Yes, he’s Hitler... ugh... Goebbels outdid him in lying. Remember? Goebbels in 1943 announced to the whole world that in 1941 the Bolsheviks shot 10 thousand captured Poles, who, in fact, were killed themselves. But with the fascists everything is clear. Trying to save their own skin, they tried to embroil the USSR with its allies with these lies. Why is Solzhenitsyn trying? After all, 2 hundred lost souls per day, a record...

  Wait! - Romanov interrupted him. Records are yet to come. You better tell me why you don’t believe me, what evidence do you have?

  Well, I don’t have direct evidence. But there are serious considerations. And here's what. Greater mortality in the camps occurred only from malnutrition. But not that big! Here we are talking about the winter of '41. And I testify: during the first war winter there was still normal food in the camps. This is, firstly. Secondly. Pecherlag, of course, was building a railway to Vorkuta - there is nowhere else to build there. During the war this was a task of particular importance. This means that the demand from the camp authorities was especially strict. And in such cases, management tries to obtain additional food for their workers. And it was probably there. This means that talking about hunger at this construction site is obviously a lie. And one last thing. The mortality rate of 200 souls per day cannot be hidden by any secrecy. And if not here, the press over the hill would have reported this. And in the camps they always learned about such messages quickly. I also testify to this. But I have never heard anything about the high mortality rate in Pecherlag. That's all I wanted to say.

  

  Romanov looked questioningly at Nazarov.

  “I think I know the answer,” he said. - I came to Kolyma from Vorkutlag, where I stayed for 2 years. So, now I remember: many old-timers said that they came to Vorkutlag after the construction of the railway was completed, and before they were listed as Pecherlag. Therefore, they were not transported anywhere. That's all.

  “It’s logical,” said Romanov. - First, they built the road in droves. Then most of the workforce was thrown into the construction of mines. After all, a mine is not just a hole in the ground, and a lot of things need to be set up on the surface in order for the coal to “go to the mountain.” And the country really needed coal. After all, then Donbass ended up with Hitler. In general, Solzhenitsyn was clearly being clever here, creating a horror story out of numbers. Well, okay, let's continue.

  City victims

  Here is another numerical riddle: “It is believed that a quarter of Leningrad was planted in 1934-1935. Let this estimate be refuted by the one who owns the exact figure and gives it.” Your word, Semyon Nikiforovich.

  Well, here we are talking about those who were taken in the “Kirov case”. There were indeed many more of them than could be to blame for Kirov’s death. They just started imprisoning Trotskyists on the quiet. But a quarter of Leningrad, of course, is an impudent overkill. Or rather, let our friend, the St. Petersburg Proletarian (that’s what Semyon Nikiforovich sometimes jokingly called me), try to say. You were there then.

  I had to tell you.

  I was 7 years old then. And I only remember the mournful beeps. On one side one could hear the whistles of the Bolshevik plant, and on the other, the whistles of steam locomotives from the Sortirovochnaya station. So, strictly speaking, I cannot be either an eyewitness or a witness. But I also think that the number of arrests named by Solzhenitsyn is fantastically overestimated. Only here the fiction is not scientific, but rogue. That Solzhenitsyn is being obscure here can be seen at least from the fact that he demands an exact figure for refutation (knowing that the reader has nowhere to get it), and he himself names a fractional number - a quarter. Therefore, let’s clarify the matter, let’s see what “a quarter of Leningrad” means in whole numbers. At that time, approximately 2 million people lived in the city. This means that a “quarter” is 500 thousand! In my opinion, this is such a stupid figure that there is no need to prove anything else.

  Need to! - Romanov said with conviction. - We are dealing with a Nobel laureate...

  “Okay,” I agreed. - You know better than me that most prisoners are men. And men everywhere make up half the population. This means that at that time the male population of Leningrad was equal to 1 million. But not the entire male population can be arrested - there are infants, children and the elderly. And if I say that there were 250 thousand of them, then I’ll give Solzhenitsyn a big head start - there were, of course, more of them. But so be it. There remain 750 thousand men of active age, of which Solzhenitsyn took 500 thousand. And for the city this means this: at that time, mostly men worked everywhere, and women were housewives. And what kind of enterprise will be able to continue operating if out of every three employees it loses two? The whole city will stand up! But this was not the case.

  And further. Although I was 7 years old at the time, I can firmly testify: neither my father nor any of the fathers of my acquaintances of the same age were arrested. And in such a situation as Solzhenitsyn proposes, there would be many arrested in our yard. And they weren’t there at all. That's all I wanted to say.

  I’ll probably add this,” Romanov said. - Solzhenitsyn calls cases of mass arrests “streams flowing into the Gulag.” And he calls the arrests of 37-38 the most powerful stream. So here it is. Considering that in 34-35. Trotskyists were imprisoned for no less than 10 years, it is clear: by 1938 none of them returned. And there was simply no one to take into the “big stream” from Leningrad...

  And in 1941,” Nazarov intervened, “there would be no one to conscript into the army.” And I read somewhere that at that time Leningrad gave the front about 100 thousand militias alone. In general, it is clear: with the landing of “a quarter of Leningrad,” Solzhenitsyn again surpassed Mr. Goebbels.

  

  We laughed.

  That's right! - Semyon Nikiforovich exclaimed. - Those who like to talk about “victims of Stalin’s repressions” like to count in millions and no less. On this occasion, I remembered one recent conversation. There is one pensioner in our village, an amateur local historian. Interesting guy. His name is Vasily Ivanovich, and therefore his nickname is “Chapai”. Although his surname is also extremely rare - Petrov. He arrived in Kolyma 3 years before me. And not like me, but on a Komsomol ticket. In 1942 he voluntarily went to the front. After the war he returned here to his family. I've been a driver all my life. He often comes into our garage billiard room - he loves to play balls. And then one day, in front of me, a young driver came up to him and said: “Vasily Ivanovich, tell me honestly, was it scary to live here in Stalin’s times?” Vasily Ivanovich looked at him in surprise and asked himself: “What fears are you talking about?”

  “Well, of course,” the driver answers, “I heard it myself on the Voice of America. Several million prisoners were killed here in those years. Most of them died during the construction of the Kolyma highway...”

  “It’s clear,” said Vasily Ivanovich. “Now listen carefully. In order to kill millions of people somewhere, you need them to be there. Well, at least for a short time - otherwise there will be no one to kill. So or not?”

  “It’s logical,” said the driver.

  “And now, logician, listen even more carefully,” said Vasily Ivanovich and, turning to me, spoke. “Semyon, you and I know for sure, and our logician probably guesses that now there are many more people living in Kolyma than in Stalin’s times.” times. But how much more?

  “I think 3 times, and perhaps 4 times,” I answered.

  “So!” said Vasily Ivanovich, and turned to the driver. “According to the latest statistical report (they are published daily in Magadan Pravda), about half a million people now live in Kolyma (together with Chukotka). This means that in Stalin’s times there lived , at most, about 150 thousand souls... How do you like this news?”

  “Great!” said the driver. “I would never have thought that a radio station from such a reputable country could lie so disgustingly...”

  “Well, just know,” Vasily Ivanovich said edifyingly, “there are such cunning guys working at this radio station who can easily make mountains out of molehills. And they start selling ivory. They take it inexpensively - just spread your ears wider...”

  For what and how much

  

  Good story. And the main thing is to the place,” said Romanov. And he asked me: “It seems you wanted to tell me something about the “enemy of the people” you know?

  Yes, not my friend, but the father of one of the boys I knew, they imprisoned in the summer of ’38 for anti-Soviet jokes. They gave him 3 years. And he only served 2 years - he was released early. But he and his family were deported 101 km away, it seems, to Tikhvin.

  Do you know exactly what kind of joke they gave you 3 years? - asked Romanov. - Otherwise, Solzhenitsyn has different information: for an anecdote - 10 years or more; for absenteeism or being late for work - from 5 to 10 years; for spikelets collected on a harvested collective farm field - 10 years. What do you say to this?

  For jokes 3 years - I know that for sure. And as for punishments for tardiness and absenteeism, your laureate is lying like a gray gelding. I myself had two convictions under this decree, about which there are corresponding entries in my work book...

  Hey, Proletarian!.. Hey, he's a smart guy!.. I didn't expect it!.. - Semyon Nikiforovich said sarcastically.

  Fine, fine! - responded Romanov. - Let the man confess...

  I had to confess.

  The war is over. Life has become easier. And I began to celebrate my payday by drinking. But where the boys have booze, there are adventures. In general, for two delays - 25 and 30 minutes, I got off with reprimands. And when I was an hour and a half late, I received 3-15: for 3 months they deducted 15% of my earnings from me. As soon as I calculated, I got it again. Now it's 4-20. Well, the third time I would have been punished with 6-25. But “this cup has passed from me.” I realized that work is a sacred thing. Of course, then it seemed to me that the punishments were too severe - after all, the war was already over. But my senior comrades consoled me with the fact that, they say, the capitalists have even stricter discipline and worse punishments: the next step is dismissal. And get in line at the labor exchange. And when it’s time to get a job again is unknown... And I don’t know of any cases where a person received a prison sentence for absenteeism. I heard that for “unauthorized departure from production” you can get a year and a half in prison. But I don’t know a single such fact. Now about the "spikelets". I heard that for “theft of agricultural products” from the fields you can “get a sentence”, the size of which depends on the amount stolen. But this is said about unharvested fields. And I myself went to collect the remains of potatoes from the harvested fields several times. And I’m sure that arresting people for collecting ears of corn from a harvested collective farm field is bullshit. And if any of you have met people imprisoned for "spikelets", let him say.

  “I know 2 similar cases,” Nazarov said. - It was in Vorkuta in 1947. Two 17-year-old boys received 3 years each. One was caught with 15 kg of new potatoes, and another 90 kg was found at home. The second one had 8 kg of spikelets, but there was another 40 kg at home. Both of them lived, of course, in unharvested fields. And this kind of theft is theft in Africa too. Collecting residues from harvested fields was not considered theft anywhere in the world. And Solzhenitsyn lied here in order to once again kick the Soviet government...

  Or maybe he had a different idea,” Semyon Nikiforovich intervened, “like that journalist who, having learned that a dog had bitten a man, wrote a report about how a man bit a dog...

  From Belomor and beyond

  

  Well, that’s enough, that’s enough,” Romanov interrupted the general laughter. And he added grumpily: “They’re completely sick of the poor laureate...” Then, looking at Semyon Nikiforovich, he spoke:

  Just now you called the disappearance of 40 thousand prisoners in one winter a record. But this is not so. The real record, according to Solzhenitsyn, was during the construction of the White Sea Canal. Listen: “They say that in the first winter, from the 31st to the 32nd year, 100 thousand died out - as many as were constantly on the canal. Why not believe it? Most likely, even this figure is an understatement: in similar conditions in military camps years, a mortality rate of 1% per day was ordinary, known to everyone. So on the Belomor, 100 thousand could have died out in just over 3 months. And then there was another winter, and without a stretch, we can assume that 300 thousand died out. ". What we heard surprised everyone so much that we were silent in confusion...

  What surprises me is that Romanov spoke again. - We all know that prisoners were brought to Kolyma only once a year - for navigation. We know that here “9 months are winter - the rest is summer.” This means, according to Solzhenitsyn’s plan, all local camps should have died out three times every war winter. What do we actually see? Throw it at a dog, and you'll end up with a former prisoner who spent the entire war serving time here in Kolyma. Semyon Nikiforovich, where does such vitality come from? To spite Solzhenitsyn?

  Don’t be silly, this is not the case,” Semyon Nikiforovich interrupted Romanov gloomily. Then, shaking his head, he spoke, “300 thousand dead souls on the White Sea?!” This is such a vile whistle that I don’t even want to refute it... True, I wasn’t there - I received a sentence in 1937. But this whistler wasn’t there either! From whom did he hear this bullshit about 300 thousand? I heard about Belomor from repeat offenders. The kind that come out into the wild only to have a little fun and sit down again. And for whom any power is bad. So, they all said about Belomor that life there was a complete mess! After all, it was there that the Soviet government first tried “reforging”, i.e. re-education of criminals using the method of special rewards for honest work. There, for the first time, additional and higher-quality food was introduced for exceeding production standards. And most importantly, they introduced “credits” - for one day of good work, 2 or even 3 days of imprisonment were counted. Of course, the thugs immediately learned how to extract bullshit percentages of production and were released early. There was no talk of hunger. What could people die from? From illnesses? So sick and disabled people were not brought to this construction site. Everyone said that. In general, Solzhenitsyn sucked his 300 thousand dead souls out of thin air. They had nowhere else to come from, because no one could tell him such a story. All.

  Nazarov entered the conversation:

  Everyone knows that several commissions of writers and journalists, including foreigners, visited Belomor. And none of them even mentioned such a high mortality rate. How does Solzhenitsyn explain this?

  It’s very simple,” replied Romanov, “the Bolsheviks either intimidated them all or bought them...

  Everyone laughed... After laughing, Romanov looked at me questioningly. And this is what I said.

  As soon as I heard about the mortality rate of 1% per day, I thought: what was it like in besieged Leningrad? It turned out: about 5 times less than 1%. Look here. According to various estimates, between 2.5 and 2.8 million people were caught in the blockade. And Leningraders received the deadliest ration for about 100 days - such a coincidence. During this time, with a mortality rate of 1% per day, all residents of the city would die. But it is known that more than 900 thousand people died of hunger. Of these, 450-500 thousand people died during the deadly 100 days. If we divide the total number of blockade survivors by the number of deaths over 100 days, we get the number 5. That is. during these terrible 100 days, the mortality rate in Leningrad was 5 times less than 1%. The question arises: where could a mortality rate of 1% per day come from in wartime camps, if (as you all know well) even the penal camp ration was 4 or 5 times more caloric than the blockade ration? And after all, the penalty ration was given as punishment for a short time. And the working ration of prisoners during the war was no less than the ration of free workers. And it’s clear why. During the war, there was an acute shortage of workers in the country. And to starve the prisoners would be simply stupidity on the part of the authorities...

  

  Semyon Nikiforovich stood up, walked around the table, shook my hand with both hands, bowed playfully and said with feeling:

  I’m very grateful, young man!.. - Then, turning to everyone, he said, “Let’s put an end to this nonsense.” Let's go to the cinema - they're starting to re-run films about Stirlitz.

  We’ll be in time for the cinema,” Romanov said, looking at his watch. - Finally, I want to know your opinion about the disagreement regarding camp hospitals that arose between Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov, also a “camp writer.” Solzhenitsyn believes that the camp medical unit was created in order to facilitate the extermination of prisoners. And he scolds Shalamov for the fact that: “...he supports, if he does not create a legend about the charitable medical unit...” Over to you, Semyon Nikiforovich.

  Shalamov was stalling here. I, however, have not met him myself. But I heard from many that, unlike Solzhenitsyn, he even had to push a wheelbarrow. Well, after a car, spending a few days in the medical unit is really a blessing. Moreover, they say that he was lucky to get into a paramedic course, graduate from it and become a hospital employee himself. This means that he knows the matter thoroughly - both as a prisoner and as a medical unit worker. That’s why I understand Shalamov. But I can’t understand Solzhenitsyn. They say that he worked most of his time as a librarian. It is clear that he was not eager to go to the medical unit. And yet, it was in the camp medical unit that a cancerous tumor was discovered in time and it was cut out in time, i.e., they saved his life... I don’t know, maybe it’s a parasha... But if I had a chance to meet him, I would ask: is it true? And if this were confirmed, then, looking into his eyes, I would say: “You swamp bastard! They didn’t “exterminate” you in the camp hospital, but they saved your life... You are a shameful bitch!!! I have nothing more to say.. "

  You need to hit the face!

  

  Nazarov entered the conversation:

  Now I finally understand why Solzhenitsyn lies so much and so shamelessly: “The Gulag Archipelago” was written not to tell the truth about camp life, but to instill in the reader disgust for Soviet power. It's the same here. If we say something about the shortcomings of the camp medical unit, then it is of little interest - there will always be shortcomings in a civilian hospital. But if you say: the camp medical unit is intended to contribute to the extermination of prisoners - this is already interesting. About as amusing as a story about a dog being bitten by a man. And most importantly - another “fact” of the inhumanity of the Soviet regime... And come on, Misha, wrap it up - I’m tired of poking around in this lie.

  Okay, let's finish. But a resolution is needed,” Romanov said. And, giving his voice an official tone, he said: “I ask everyone to express their attitude towards this book and its author.” Just briefly. By seniority, the floor is yours, Semyon Nikiforovich.

  In my opinion, this book should not have been given an international prize, but should have been publicly punched in the face.

  “Very intelligible,” Romanov assessed and looked questioningly at Nazarov.

  It is clear that the book is propaganda, ordered. And the prize is a bait for readers. The prize will help more reliably powder the brains of superb readers, gullible readers,” Nazarov said.

  “Not very briefly, but in detail,” Romanov noted and looked at me questioningly.

  If this book is not a record for deceit, then the author is certainly a champion in the number of pieces of silver received,” I said.

  Right! - said Romanov. - He is perhaps the richest anti-Soviet... Now I know what to write to my beloved nephew. Thanks everyone for your help! Now let's go to the cinema to watch Stirlitz.

  The next day, early in the morning, I hurried to the first bus to catch the plane flying from Magadan to Pevek.

  *) To be precise in the quotes, I took them from the text of “Archipelago”, published in the magazine “New World” for 1989.

  No. 10 p. 96
  No. 11 page 75
  No. 8 pp. 15 and 38
  No. 10 p. 116
  No. 11 p. 66.

  

  Pykhalov I.: Solzhenitsyn is the hero of the Sonderkommando

  Discussing Solzhenitsyn is a thankless task. Take, for example, the notorious “GULAG Archipelago”. This “work” contains so many lies that if it occurred to anyone to punctually refute every single lie of the Nobel laureate, you’ll see that the result would be a tome not inferior in thickness to the original.

  However, lies are different. There are crude lies that immediately catch the eye - for example, about tens of millions of people arrested or 15 million men allegedly deported during collectivization. But Solzhenitsyn also makes “refined” lies, not obvious ones, which are easy to accept as the truth if you don’t know the facts. One such lie will be discussed here.

  “... It is the secret of this betrayal that has been perfectly, carefully preserved by the British and American governments - truly the last secret of the Second World War, or one of the last. Having met many of these people in prisons and camps, for a quarter of a century I could not believe that the Western public knows nothing about this grandiose handing over of ordinary Russian people by Western governments to punishment and death. It was not until 1973 (Sunday Oklahoman, Jan. 21) that the publication of Julius Epstein broke through, to whom I here dare convey the gratitude of the masses of the dead and the few living. A scattered small document from a multi-volume case on forced repatriation to the Soviet Union, which has been hidden until now, has been published. “Having lived for 2 years in the hands of the British authorities in a false sense of security, the Russians were taken by surprise, they did not even realize that they were being repatriated... They were mainly simple peasants with a bitter personal grudge against the Bolsheviks.” The English authorities treated them “like war criminals: against their will, they handed them over into the hands of those from whom a fair trial cannot be expected.” They were all sent to the Archipelago to be destroyed."
  A.I. Solzhenitsyn

  

  A heartbreaking sight. “Bitterly offended by the Bolsheviks,” “ordinary peasants” naively trusted the British - solely out of simplicity of heart, one must assume - and on you: they were treacherously handed over to the bloodthirsty security officers for an unjust trial and reprisal. However, do not rush to mourn their sad fate. To understand this episode, we should, at least briefly, recall the history of the post-war repatriation of Soviet citizens who found themselves in the hands of the “allies.”

  In October 1944, the Office of the Commissioner of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for Repatriation Affairs was created. It was headed by Colonel General F.I. Golikov, former head of the Red Army Intelligence Directorate. The task assigned to this department was the complete repatriation of Soviet citizens who found themselves abroad - prisoners of war, civilians deported for forced labor in Germany and other countries, as well as accomplices of the occupiers who retreated with German troops.

  From the very beginning, the Office faced difficulties and difficulties. This was caused by the fact that the allies, to put it mildly, were unenthusiastic about the idea of ​​complete repatriation of Soviet citizens and created all sorts of obstacles. Here, for example, is a quote from a report dated November 10, 1944:

  “When sending transports with repatriated owls from Liverpool to Murmansk on October 31. The British did not deliver or load 260 owls onto the ships as citizens. citizens. Of those planned for departure, 10,167 people. (as the British Embassy officially announced) 9907 people arrived and were received in Murmansk. The British did not send 12 traitors to the Motherland. In addition, individuals from among the prisoners of war were detained, who persistently asked to be sent with the first transport, and citizens by nationality were also seized: Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, natives of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, under the pretext that they were not Soviet subjects.. ."
  V.N. Zemskov. The birth of the “second emigration” (1944-1952) // Sociological Research, N4, 1991, p.5

  

  Nevertheless, on February 11, 1945, at the Crimean Conference of the Heads of Government of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, agreements were concluded regarding the return to their homeland of Soviet citizens liberated by US and British troops, as well as the return of prisoners of war and civilians of the USA and Great Britain liberated by the Red Army. These agreements enshrined the principle of mandatory repatriation of all Soviet citizens.

  After the surrender of Germany, the question arose about the transfer of displaced persons directly across the line of contact of the Allied and Soviet troops. On this occasion, negotiations took place in the German city of Halle in May 1945. No matter how much the American General R.V., who led the Allied delegation, struggled. Barker, he had to sign a document on May 22, according to which there was to be a mandatory repatriation of all Soviet citizens, both “Easterners” (i.e., those who lived within the borders of the USSR before September 17, 1939) and “Westerners” (residents of the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus).

  But it was not there. Despite the signed agreement, the allies applied forced repatriation only to the “Easterners”, handing over to the Soviet authorities in the summer of 1945 Vlasovites, Cossack atamans Krasnov and Shkuro, “legionnaires” from the Turkestan, Armenian, Georgian legions and other similar formations. However, not a single Bandera member, not a single soldier of the Ukrainian SS division "Galicia", not a single Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian who served in the German army and legions was extradited.

  And what, exactly, were the Vlasovites and other “freedom fighters” counting on when seeking refuge with the Western allies of the USSR? As follows from the explanatory notes of the repatriates preserved in the archives, the majority of the Vlasovites, Cossacks, “legionnaires” and other “Easterners” who served the Germans did not at all foresee that the Anglo-Americans would forcibly transfer them to the Soviet authorities. Among them there was a conviction that soon England and the USA would start a war against the USSR and the Anglo-Americans would need them in this war.

  However, here they greatly miscalculated. At that time, the US and UK still needed an alliance with Stalin. To ensure the USSR's entry into the war against Japan, the British and Americans were ready to sacrifice some of their potential lackeys. Naturally, the least valuable. The “Westerners” - the future “forest brothers” - should have been taken care of, so little by little the Vlasovites and Cossacks were handed over in order to lull the suspicions of the Soviet Union.

  It must be said that while the forced repatriation of Soviet “Eastern” citizens from the American zone of occupation of Germany and Austria was quite widespread, in the English zone it was very limited. Officer of the Soviet repatriation mission in the British zone of occupation of Germany A.I. Bryukhanov characterized this difference as follows:

  “The hardened English politicians, apparently, even before the end of the war realized that displaced persons would be useful to them, and from the very beginning they set a course to disrupt repatriation. In the first time after the meeting on the Elbe, the Americans complied with their obligations. Without further ado, front-line officers handed over to the Soviet country both honest citizens striving to return to their homeland and traitorous thugs subject to trial. But this did not last very long...”
  A.I. Bryukhanov "That's how it was: About the work of the mission for the repatriation of Soviet citizens." Memoirs of a Soviet officer. M., 1958
  Indeed, “this” did not last very long. As soon as Japan capitulated, representatives of the “civilized world” once again clearly showed that they fulfill the agreements they signed only as long as it is beneficial for them.

  Since the fall of 1945, Western authorities have actually extended the principle of voluntary repatriation to the “easterners.” The forced transfer of Soviet citizens to the Soviet Union, with the exception of those classified as war criminals, ceased. Since March 1946, the former allies finally stopped providing any assistance to the USSR in the repatriation of Soviet citizens.

  However, the British and Americans still handed over the war criminals, although not all of them, to the Soviet Union. Even after the start of the Cold War.

  

  Now it's time to return to the episode with the "simple peasants." The passage quoted clearly states that these people remained in the hands of the English for two years. Consequently, they were handed over to the Soviet authorities in the second half of 1946 or 1947, i.e. already during the Cold War, when the former allies did not forcibly extradite anyone except war criminals. This means that official representatives of the USSR presented evidence that these people are war criminals. Moreover, the evidence is irrefutable for British justice. The documents of the Office of the Commissioner of the USSR Council of Ministers for Repatriation Affairs constantly state that former allies do not extradite war criminals because, in their opinion, there is insufficient justification for classifying these persons into this category. In this case, the British had no doubts about the “justification”.

  Presumably, these citizens took out their “bitter resentment against the Bolsheviks” by participating in punitive operations, shooting partisan families and burning villages. The British authorities had to hand over “ordinary peasants” to the Soviet Union: they had not yet had time to explain to the English public that the USSR was an “evil empire.” Concealing persons who participated in the fascist genocide would have caused them, at a minimum, bewilderment.

  But the politically savvy Solzhenitsyn calls this “betrayal” and offers to sympathize with the heroes of the Sonderkommando. However, what else can you expect from a man who, while serving in a camp, dreamed that the Americans would drop an atomic bomb on his native country.