Within the camps, there were means of punishments and rewards designed to encourage prisoners to work and abide by the rules. A prisoner could be placed in a "punishment isolator," known by its Russian acronym ShiZO. Applebaum suggests that these punishment isolators seem to contradict the economic principles of the camps, which demanded productivity. However, they were an everyday part of the life and operation in the camps. They were used for two types of prisoners—those who refused to work and those who committed a camp crime. For those who refused to work, the punishment cells offered an alternative to the exhaustion of work, but it came with its own harsh realities, from shortened rations to the cold, damp solitude in which they were forced to sit all day......
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 587 words. This
study guide contains 19,343 words (approx. 64 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our Gulag: A History Access Pass.
