Part 1, Chapter 5: The Camps Expand—Summary

As the White Sea Canal project was underway, the administration was expanding the camp system in what some Soviet historians have called the "opening up of the far north." Under this expansion, prisoners performed such tasks as building northern railways and roads, cutting wood for export, and packaging fish harvested in the White Sea. Two of the camps founded during this time in the North, the Ukhtinskaya Expedition and the Dalstroi Trust, would go on to become virtual industrial empires. Still, the death toll at many of the camps was high, and even at camps where mortalities were lower, conditions were still almost intolerable because of the cold and the lack of provisions or adequate clothing.

One of the early forays into the North was the Ukhtinskaya Expedition, which set out in 1929 and had...