After Lenin's death, Stalin took on the problem of building the Red Soviet, and he made an indelible contribution to the strength of the Soviet Union by using state means to build infrastructure and industrial systems on a large scale.
Stalin, like vodka, had a strong and decisive character, with a firm and ruthless character.
As one of the builders of the Soviets, how to keep the color of the red regime forever is what Stalin has been trying to do, and such a person will also leave countless innovations for this great patriotic war.
A large contingent of labor reformers
The year 1929 is considered a major turning point in the history of the Soviet Union, when Stalin began to lead the Soviet regime in an unprecedented exploration of the economic, political and social spheres.
The First Five-Year Plan, the first five-year plan developed by the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1932, aimed at accelerating the economic development of the Soviet Union, especially in industry.
At the same time, the Soviet government was also making every effort to promote the collectivization of agriculture, merging private farmland into collective farms in order to increase agricultural production efficiency and achieve state control over agriculture.
Minerals are the raw materials of industry, and the Russian border regions are rich in mineral resources, but there is a lack of labor to exploit them, and Stalin deliberately used prisoner labor to exploit the mineral resources in remote areas, which was used as an important means to promote the industrialization process of the Soviet Union.
The use of prisoner labor and the exploitation of the mineral resources of the frontier regions were believed to reduce the cost of production, promote the industrialization process of the Soviet Union, and also lead to the development of the frontier regions.
Why, then, did the Soviet Union come up with such a large contingent of labor camps? This has to mention the "Gulag Archipelago."
It could be Sakhalin, Novosibirsk, Sakhalin, the remote mountains of Eastern Siberia, or all the inhospitable Russian strips.
These otherwise peaceful "islands" are home to multiple labor camps, some of which are notorious for their brutal conditions.
There were political prisoners and criminals of the early Soviet Union, with a wide range of identities, including Bolshevik opposition parties, officials and wealthy people of the old tsarist era, as well as bandits, ruffians, and all reactionary forces opposed to the Soviets.
These "islands" were used as forced labor and concentration camps during the Soviet era, becoming prisons for political dissidents, criminals, and others who differed from the ideology of the Soviet regime.
In fact, the term "gulag archipelago" can refer to any place, and the Gulag islands represent the system of labor camps that dotted the territory of the Soviet Union, a metaphor that highlights the widespread nature of the Gulag system and its profound impact on society.
Back then, the Gulag forced labor camps were created during the Civil War to punish the Bolshevik political opposition, and during this period, the labor camps mainly played the role of punishing and controlling the opposition.
In the initial phase, the main function of the gulag was political, used against the enemies of the Bolsheviks, which meant that its political goals were far greater than economic ones, and it was a means of political punishment and control.
With the development of Stalin's planned economic system, this system of punishment gradually evolved, thus giving the gulag more economic functions.
The Five-Year Plan freed itself from dependence on the capitalist market by placing all economic activity within the state plan, and the prisoners of the Gulag naturally became part of the national economy, which took on a number of tasks that were difficult for the general sectors of the economy, mainly in the remote mining areas and heavy industry.
The conditions in these camps were extremely harsh, with prisoners forced to perform harsh manual labor, often in extreme weather and environmental conditions, and lacking basic living conditions, health care and food, resulting in many deaths.
By the beginning of 1918, these camps were holding 2.2 million prisoners of war, a number that continued to grow during the Soviet Union's construction, eventually growing to an astronomical figure of 20 million.
The glorious record of the fighting nation
Like the famous vodka of the Soviet Union, Stalin had a firm and tough element in his character, and he showed a strong determination to political goals when leading the Soviet Union, which was not easily shaken or compromised.
How did Stalin accomplish the establishment, construction, and consolidation of the Soviet Union in the face of difficulties and pressures? In fact, it has always been accompanied by successive wars.
Stalin made a series of notable military achievements during the Second World War, especially in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Nazi Germany launched an attack on the capital Moscow in 1941, and the Germans failed to conquer Moscow due to the resolute resistance of the Soviet troops and the winter weather.
By the following year, late 1942, the Soviet army had suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Stalingrad, which had successfully stopped the German offensive.
Even after Germany occupied a large part of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union could take advantage of the great depth to keep retreating, and finally the army waited for the time to counterattack, thus pushing the German army to retreat.
The Battle of Kursk in 1943, which became a classic, was one of the largest armored battles in world history, in which Soviet troops successfully withstood the attack of German troops.
This was due to the strong industrial production capacity of the Soviet Union, and the tanks that had just come off the assembly line went directly to the battlefield and finally defeated the German invaders, this victory marked the decline of the German army on the Eastern Front, and the Soviet army gradually developed the momentum of counteroffensive.
After the tide of the war turned around, the Soviet army launched a series of counteroffensives and liberation campaigns, including the liberation of the cities of Kyiv, Minsk, Warsaw, and Berlin, which ultimately created favorable conditions for the Allied victory in the European theater.
Such a brilliant record comes at a great price, as can be found through some data:
When Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, it mobilized about 3.6 million German troops and their allies, and these armies formed several military groupings on the front, mainly composed of the armies of Germany, Romania, Finland, Hungary and other countries.
The Soviet Union mobilized a large number of troops to resist, eventually reaching 13 million to 14 million men, and the Soviet Union had relatively few troops in the early stages of the war, but achieved significant military growth in the later stages through large-scale mobilization and resource deployment.
Germany suffered unprecedented casualties on Soviet soil, and the German army had some victories in the early stages of the war, but suffered a major setback due to the Soviets' death-defying attitude and the harsh Russian winter, which left German tanks and tanks mired in a quagmire, with a total of about 5 million German casualties.
Similarly, the Soviet Union suffered huge casualties in the Great Patriotic War, and in the initial period of the war, the Soviet army suffered serious losses under German aggression, especially in the fierce battles that took place in Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, among others.
However, the Soviet Union gradually turned the tide of the war through massive mobilization and determined resistance, and the total number of Soviet casualties in this war is estimated to be between 20 million and 30 million, including military and civilian personnel.
At this time, Stalin's authority began to be demonstrated, and with a wave of his hand, tens of millions of prisoners of re-education through labor were conscripted into the army.
Of course, it was impossible to send all the tens of millions of prisoners to the battlefield, and the Soviet government, in accordance with Stalin's instructions, adopted a series of measures to force prisoners in labor camps to participate in military work.
At that time, the Soviet Union was faced with serious military needs, especially in the early days of the war, when the German army continued to achieve victories and seriously dampened morale, and in order to make up for the lack of manpower and resources, the Soviet government decided to mobilize prisoners in labor camps and involve them in some military work.
Prisoners on the front lines of construction work, such as building fortifications, repairing damaged roads and bridges, and carrying out other works related to military infrastructure, also had a high mortality rate, and they braved the rain of bullets and bullets to dig trenches and work as coolies, playing an irreplaceable role in the logistics and infrastructure construction of the war.
As the war progressed, the Soviet government began to integrate some Gulag prisoners directly into field units to participate in actual battles, and these prisoners were usually organized into specialized units, known as the "Blue Army", to carry out dangerous and arduous tasks on the front lines, often in the forefront of the combat area.
In order to be able to atone for the crime, the sacrifice rate of this team is very high, and it is often a small victory for the entire army to change areas, which is enough to see that the former Gulag life has given them a new life.
The Soviet Union was industrial, a country founded on science and technology
Thousands of prisoners took part in the Great Patriotic War, and although the exact number is difficult to determine, it is estimated that millions of Gulag prisoners were mobilized for various forms of military work, coming from all social backgrounds, including political prisoners, criminals, prisoners of war, etc.
As early as January 1929, the First Prison Design Bureau was established, which was headed by the State Political Security Bureau.
In 1931, special design bureaus were established in Novosibirsk and other places, in which 42 specialists were involved in the work.
In 1929-1934, the Bureau of Special Technologies provided important technical support for the development of the military and civilian industries of the USSR, and many of its functionaries were honored by the party and government of the USSR.
After 1932, the Special Technical Bureau was disbanded, and with a series of repressive activities, many specialists were suppressed as "harmful elements", and soon the war changed the situation, and on January 10, 1939, the NKVD issued an order to rebuild the Special Technical Bureau with prisoners with specialized knowledge, and to use Plant No. 82 as an experimental base for the Technical Bureau.
In the newly promulgated regulations of the Directorate of Special Technologies, a number of operational groups have been established, including aircraft manufacturing and propeller engine groups, aero engine and diesel groups, naval ship construction groups, etc.
In order to ensure scientific and technological research and development, the Special Technology Bureau provided good treatment and care for everyone, and stimulated the enthusiasm of a large number of outstanding scientific workers, such as aircraft engineer Tupolev, chief designer of rocket engines Valentin Grushko, and Sergei Korolev, the father of the first artificial satellite of the Soviet Union, all of whom worked for the country after their comeback.
The military-industrial technology designed and assembled by the Special Technical Bureau accelerated the modernization of the Soviet Army, and the aircraft developed by the Special Technical Bureau accounted for two-thirds of the total number of Soviet bombers during the Great Patriotic War.
These former Gulag prisoners, with excellent scientific work, led to great achievements in the field of military technology and aviation.
Bibliography:
The Hidden Page of the Planned Economy in the Soviet Union: The Establishment and Development of the "Gulag" Forced Labor System (1929-1953), Liu Jiangyu, March 2015