Part 1, Chapter 3: 1929: The Great Turning Point—Summary

1929 marks a turning point for both Soviet Russia and the Gulag system. By this time, Lenin had died, Trotsky had been discredited, and Joseph Stalin had taken over the reigns as the leader of the Soviet Union. In 1929, the Soviet government announced a "Five-Year Plan," which was an economic plan that sought a twenty percent annual increase in industrial output. The plan called for rapid industrialization, food rationing, and longer work periods in general society. In rural areas, peasants were forced to give up their landholdings to the government and join collective farms. This would weaken the agricultural system and lead to the famines in the Ukraine and Southern Russia in the 1930's that killed millions.

Prior to this, in 1926, the criminal code had been rewritten to include an expanded definition of...