Part 3, Chapter 19: The War Begins—Summary

For Soviet Russia, World War II began on June 22, 1941 when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Repression for political prisoners increased and all foreigners in Soviet society were collected and imprisoned. On June 24, authorities issued orders that any prisoner convicted of a political crime could not leave the camps, even if their sentence had ended. Within the camps, life grew more exacting as longer working hours were established and food further rationed to help with the war effort. During 1942, at least one in four prisoners died, and over the course of the war, over two million prisoners died in the camps.

As during other periods in the Gulag system, chaos reigned. Authorities in the occupied territories of Poland and the Baltic states panicked, and executed many prisoners. Hurried evacuation plans led to overcrowded transports, where...