:lenin-sure: tweet
“Cheburekin, a former Norillag inmate, wrote that wages were introduced for inmates “at northern rates, but 30 percent lower than for free workers. They withheld only for ‘room and board,’ and the rest went into my bank account. I could take up to 250 rubles a month for my expenses. . . . I received 1,200 rubles a month, and after all the deductions something was left over, and accumulated in the account. Some professional drivers . . . earned up to 5,000 a month!” A. A. Gayevsky, an engineer, remembered the following: “When I was released from the camp in 1947, I got hu 2,561 rubles and kopeks of the money that I had earned, and I was issued a cotton blanket, a lumpy mattress, a sheet and a pillowcase.” After Gayevsky received his certificate of release, which stated that he was to go to his “chosen” place of residence— the settlement of Norilsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai (which wasn’t yet a city in 1947)—he remained at the plant in the same job, though in the new capacity of free worker. But since his sentence had stripped him of his rights for five years, he did not receive the benefits for the workers in the far north”
I think the average wage at the time was around 4000 rubles, but I’m not sure.
Also, they were compensated via a shortening of their sentence if they exceeded production targets.
Honestly, the more I read about the Gulag system, the more I’m actually jealous of it. Even in highly pedagogical prison systems like in Scandinavia, where they try to reform rather than punish, they are still lagging behind even the Gulags of the 40’s. Having impromptu People’s Courts that have the authority to mediate and fine offenders surely kept many people out of the prison system, and guaranteeing a reduction in your already very short sentences for going above and beyond in the work ensures that there’s not an incentive to exploit your inmates too much, since they’ll just get out faster. The amount of freedom in the Soviet penal system far outshines the Scandinavian model, where isolation is used liberally and recidivism or continued anti-social behaviour is still a big problem post-incarceration. You can get up to 17 years in prison if you are given a life-sentence in Denmark, the absolute max in the Gulag was 10 years…
Cuba’s model is very similar with some changes, they still take 30% for room and board, but because the Cuban prisons aren’t in insanely remote regions that are being developed, you’re mostly just working as a farmhand for like 3 months to 5 years and are still allowed visitations and freedom to participate in the community (though you have to wear a shirt that lets everyone know you’re a prisoner).
There’s also a huge focus on education, both political and industrial, and participation in this programs can continually reduce your sentence.
You can get up to 17 years in prison if you are given a life-sentence in Denmark
In Denmark a life sentence means you can get out on early release no earlier than after 16 years but there’s no guarantee of that happening and there are examples of prisoners being held for more than 30 years. The quadruple cop killer Palle Sørensen was in prison for 34 years as nobody in the carceral bureaucracy wanted to piss off the pigs by releasing him.
You can get up to 17 years in prison if you are given a life-sentence in Denmark, the absolute max in the Gulag was 10 years…
I always forget how incredibly, incredibly, incredibly cruel and deliberately torturous the US prison system is even compared to the US prior to “sentence reform” in the 70s or 80s or whatever.
