"Perekovka" Newspaper of the White Sea-Baltic and Dmitrov Prison Camps: The Evolution of Prison Camp Press

Zingis Kristina Aleksandrovna Postgraduate student, Department of Historical Informatics, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119192, Russia, Moscow, Lomonosovsky Prospekt str., 27k4 kristina-zingis@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

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Our printing press team

At the front, the first rushes to breakthroughs,

To give combat work at the front

The enthusiasm of the work impulse.

Typesetter Karyukin

[Moscow-Volga reforging. 30.12.1935. ¹107 (287)]

The study of the Soviet censored press and, especially, the camp press, its evolution is an extremely interesting task. Despite the emasculation of the text, it is necessary to find the grains of truth and the features of reality that appear through the newspaper text. Interdisciplinary approaches are needed that make it possible to dive deeper into the atmosphere of this inhumane world, to understand and feel its hidden meanings and currents. It is for such purposes that the method of content-analytical research of historical sources is used, with the help of which the content of the newspaper "Perekovka" was studied.

Content analysis is a universal tool that allows you to solve tasks that are not obvious and impossible at first glance. For example, to find the lines of continuity between different camps are not formal, as between the stages of one construction site, but systemic and semantic, which are the result of one common idea – the introduction of maximum exploitation of prisoners' labor as a way of building a new state and its citizen under the plausible pretext of re-education and reforging. An idea born in the Solovetsky special purpose camp and spread further – to the White Sea-Baltic, Dmitrov camp systems and the entire "Gulag archipelago". This system was "accompanied" by the most interesting samples of the camp press – the newspapers Novye Solovki and Perekovka. Such a connected existence of these print media determined the purpose of this study as the study of the evolution of the camp press in accordance with the change in priorities of the country's leadership, the norms and rules of the formation of the camp system, which were developed during this period.

The newspaper "Perekovka" was a kind of transitional banner of three penitentiary institutions at once – the Solovetsky special purpose camp (hereinafter referred to as the ELEPHANT), the White Sea–Baltic camp (hereinafter referred to as the BBL) and the Dmitrov camp (hereinafter referred to as the Dmitlag). The first experience of organizing a camp printing body was the publication the newspaper "Novye Solovki" ^[5]. Just as the ELEPHANT became a model for the development of the penitentiary system of the developing Soviet state ^[7], so the "New Solovki" turned out to be the basis for a whole layer of camp life associated with printing ^[4]. The first issue of "New Solovki" was published in 1924, but the publication completed its journey after the camp was moved to the mainland as part of the White Sea-Baltic system called "Perekovka".

The transformation of the content and name of the newspaper reflected the essence of the changes in the views of the country's leadership on the goals and objectives of penitentiary institutions ^[5]. From a creative newspaper (although, of course, censored) she became a messenger of construction and a fighter against laggards, a way to "reforge" stumbled citizens into new Soviet people. But even in this format, it is certainly a valuable source for studying the atmosphere of the camp, its way of life, the activities of cultural and educational cells and many other aspects, and also provides an opportunity to test the hypothesis of whether there was really hope for the "reforging" of citizens.

Perekovka continued its existence within the framework of the BBL, which appeared in 1931. To strengthen the defense capability and economy of the Karelian Territory, it was necessary to build a 227-kilometer waterway to connect the White Sea with Lake Onega and open a passage to the Baltic and Caspian Seas. Re–education by labor, "reforging" - that was what was written on the banner of Belomorstroy. It is not easy to work until you sweat to death, but to work cheerfully, cheerfully, with full awareness that only in hard labor, mainly manual labor, degrading human dignity, can you find the features of a new future Soviet man ^[3].

The construction was completed in record time, and in 1933 the opening of the White Sea-Baltic Canal was already reported. 36 famous writers celebrated this great event in their collective work after traveling around the BBK on a motor ship ^[1]. Probably, the very atmosphere of stifling fear of repression and conditions of camp labor influenced the writers so much that they hurried to associate themselves with collective authorship and jointly informed the country about the grandiose results of construction and the creative genius of the leader. After the completion of the main construction of the canal line, numerous local branches and business trips continued to work in the BBL. Perekovka remained the main source of information for prisoners cut off from the rest of the country.

The construction of the canals did not end there, Moscow has not yet become a port of the five seas. Dmitrovsky ITL was opened for this purpose on September 14, 1932. At the same time, the local newspaper office began to function. The camp administration was located in the city of Dmitrov near Moscow, in the Borisoglebsky Monastery, the editorial board was also located there, and the camp offices were located along the entire route of the Moscow–Volga canal. The prisoners of the Dmitrov camp, one of the most famous and largest camps in the USSR, were engaged in the construction of the Moscow–Volga water canal, the construction of the Northern Canal, the Istra Dam and the reconstruction of the Yauza riverbed. In addition, the labor of prisoners of the Dmitlag was used for the construction of the Frunze Central Airfield in Moscow, the Stalin water pumping station, as well as for logging and peat mining ^[9].

"The camp seal is a powerful weapon in the struggle for the Soviet reforging of campers!" [Moscow-Volga Reforging. 15.09.1934. ¹69 (162)]. It was with this slogan that the newspaper was published. In general, great attention has been paid to the role of the press and the media. They were really considered instruments of influence and re-education of a person. So, M. Gorky in his letter to the newspaper "Perekovka" writes: "I am convinced of the rapid and powerful growth of people by reading your magazine "On the assault of the highway", your newspapers "Perekovka" and "Kanaloarmeyka". Following these literary phenomena, I see how they are getting better, more efficient, more literate and more talented." The quotes of the leaders are repeatedly given. For example, "The role of the newspaper is not limited, however, to one dissemination of ideas, one political education and the involvement of political allies. The newspaper is not only a collective propagandist, but also a collective organizer" (V. I. Lenin); "The press is the only tool with which the party speaks daily, hourly to the working class in its own language, which it needs" (I. V. Stalin) [Reforging Moscow-Volga 12/30/1935. No. 107 (287)]. Each issue of the newspaper must contain a heading that indicates the mistakes and successes in the work of camp correspondents (hereinafter referred to as camp correspondents), reports on the activities of the CVO (cultural and educational departments) in the central department and on business trips. "Reforging" was considered the main tool of re-education and influence on campers, a way to inform and motivate them to work. She invariably covered the events that took place in the camp (of course, only those that could be talked about), introduced the news of the country, branded the laggards, called for social competitions, the fight against illiteracy, poor sanitary conditions, and answered requests to the editorial office.

Thus, we can say that the "Reforging" really illuminated all aspects of camp life and gave them the maximum information that censorship allowed. All this makes this publication the most important source for studying the camp systems within which it existed, and the fact that the newspaper was not digitized earlier and the content analysis of the complete file could not be performed makes our research an urgent scientific task.

What was the camp newspaper "Perekovka" like? How was it produced, at what price was it sold, what was the circulation, frequency, headings, how did it interact with readers? And most importantly, what was it about her that allowed the leadership of the country and the camps to hope that she could really fix and "reforge" someone? And did they really hope for this?

We had at our disposal a file of the newspaper from the vaults of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). The set includes issues of "Reforging on the Moscow-Volga Canal" from December 1932 to March 20, 1936, however, there are some gaps (missing for 1933 ¹¹ 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 22, 24 30, 35, 36, 37, 38 39, 40, 41, 42, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 64, 65, 69, 75, 88; for 1934 ¹¹ 35, 40, 42, 49; for 1935, Nos. 79, 82, 83, 85). At first, the newspaper was published by the KVO (cultural and educational department) Dmitrov OGPU Dmitrov, then the Organ of the Dmitrov correctional labor camp of the NKVD of the USSR began to act as the publisher. In addition, the files of the "Reforging of the Thirty-pendulum" were studied (issued by the Organ of the Dmitrov Executive Labor camp of the NKVD of the USSR, available No. 1, 2, 5 for 1934; No. 6, No. 2-14 for 1935, for 1936 ¹¹15 (21) – 18), " Reforging on BBK" (it was issued by the Body of the QUO of Management and the Central Headquarters in Bear Mountain in the Typolithography of the BBK, available in 1935. ¹¹1 (435) – 7, 9, 12, 14, 17-53, 56-58, 60-64, 65 (499) – 109 (543), 110 (544) – 130 (564), for 1936 ¹¹1 (565) – 8 (572), 18 (582) – 24 (588), 25-26 (589-590) – 94-95(658-659); " Forgings at the Mekhzavod" (No. 1-4 for 1935 on one page, circulation 1500-2500 copies); numbers of the Visiting editorial office at Field Administration for 1936 No. 20-23.

For the first time, the newspaper in the Dmitrov branch was published as an emergency issue and was called "Hardening" instead of "Reforging" [No. 1 of 12/15/1932 QUO Dmitlag OGPU by decree of the Central Headquarters of S. and U. (Construction and Management) instead of 12/20/1932], then the name was unified, and "Reforging" existed in parallel in the BBL and Dmitlag. At first, the newspaper was published every 5 days and had two pages, then it became a three-day newspaper and added another page. The circulation in the first issues did not exceed 3,000 copies, the maximum number for the entire period of publication was 30100; at various times this number fluctuated in the specified range. The price for the room ranged from 2 kopecks. for a copy of up to 3 kopecks, "Reforging on BBK" cost from 5 to 10 kopecks per room, it was also possible to subscribe for a month.

The headings are extremely diverse, the first page always contains calls to brand simlods (simulators and loafers), rush to storm the track, carry out the plan, various resolutions, orders, telegrams, roll calls of the best drummers, news of drumming. On the second one, you can find summaries, "debriefings", the content of the following pages is usually mixed – this is information about cultural education, QUO, educational programs, the need for a radical change, that work is getting better, shortcomings are being eliminated, war is declared on malfunctions (attention is paid to the statements of campers, there should not be a single unsatisfied complaint), camps (camp correspondents) collect outrageous facts and news from camp sites.

The newspaper is replete with calls to accelerate the pace, take into account the lessons of the past, telegrams are printed to the meeting of strikers, reports on the work done, calls to cover campers with labor collectives and artels that take on new obligations to implement plans, explanations of the meaning of self-financing, etc. There are regular calls to increase the pace for all holiday dates. The authors of the notes advocate cleanliness, sanitation, demand to eliminate lice, to establish the work of santroek, stigmatize those responsible for the inability to get into the bathhouse, dampness in barracks, dirt and garbage.

A significant place is devoted to self-flagellation and criticism. Lagcors report unsettled life, poor use of mechanization, transmit signals from the highway, work out "those who disrupt the plan."

The last pages usually contain information about the drummer competition, the transfer of the red banner, and propaganda drawings. Clear evidence of extremely weak mechanization is the constant calls to "Stop mocking the horse", "Do not take care of the horse", "Let's improve the health of the staff", "End the soulless attitude towards the horse!", "Give horses days off!" etc. In general, the condition of horses is given much more attention than the health and living conditions of people. Also, at the end of each issue, the work of the camp sites is highlighted (mainly criticism of specific points – "record construction", "forgot 6 conditions, etc. Stalin", "Unbuckled", "A warm place", "Drowning in mud", "Kitchen in a garbage pit", "Inside-out assault", "Simlods disrupt the plan").

The purpose of the newspaper is manifested in the headlines "How I got better", "Realized", "Why I was a simlode", "From the penalty box to the front line", "They were re–educated by the team", "We will turn Refuseniks into strikers", "We will strengthen our ranks", "Not a single laggard", "We teach them to work never worked", "Reforging will be the arbiter", "Let's get rid of the mate", "The fight against depersonalization", "The camp wall newspaper should be the first assistant to the plan." At the end, the lagcors are given instructions on what to pay attention to in their next notes and messages. The heading "Forging answers" contains clarification of deadlines, offsets of working days, information about incoming parcels, letters, and exposure of false attackers.

The pseudonyms of lagcors are extremely interesting. Who doesn't meet there! Rodionov, Collectivist, Lel, Drummer, Transport worker, Observer, Digger, Northerner, Artel, Social activist, Shuma, Triodin, Foreman, Kach, Trumpet, Vel, Jack, Friend, Stranger, Echo, Vitalik, Knowledgeable, Spectator, Asma, Sikora, Radio operator, Zorka, Shark, Eye, Eyewitness, Dudnik, Kindhearted, Unmerciful, Pike, Unwashed, Flea, Lada – and this is far from a complete palette of self-names of hundreds of correspondents who, in different years of the camps' existence, fought for their lives through participation in cultural, educational and propaganda work.

I would like to introduce the reader to some of the most striking slogans that have stood out at least a little from the general mass of constant appeals.

· "Construction will only be successful when you put your soul into the tool you work with, into the saw, into the axe!" [Moscow-Volga Reforging. 1933 (¹ 7)]

· "Santroika is a faithful guardian of your health"; "Fighting for a new life, eliminate the legacy of the old – dirt!" [Moscow-Volga Reforging. 10.02.1933. ¹ 9-10)]

· "The fight for a healthy horse is the fight for the fulfillment of the plan!" [Moscow-Volga Reforging. 20.02.1933. ¹ 11-12]

· "Every lagkor drummer is every drummer lagkor" [Moscow-Volga reforging. 05.05.1933. ¹ 25]

· "Our channel should be the most durable, the cheapest. We will give you thousands of new innovative proposals and inventions! I will give my knowledge to the channel!" [Moscow-Volga reforging. 01.09.1935. ¹65 (245)]

· "Put an end to the bureaucratic deadness!" [Reforging BBK. 08.09.1936. No. 60 (624)]

· "Hello! Hello! Hello! Says the editor. The "reforging" of Radio should become the most important part of our work. Good transmission, elimination of technical defects, maximum radio points in the camp - that's what we demand from radio operators." [Moscow-Volga reforging. 13.06.1933. ¹ 34]

Of course, the newspaper is very voluminous and it would be impossible to single out all the slogans, but this way we can get a general idea of the atmosphere of the publication. At first glance, it is very stable and should not surprise the researcher, but with the help of content analysis, we tried to get behind the screen of a lacquered picture designed for an outsider and a beautiful presentation of the work of the channel army.

To conduct the research, a complete file of various editions of the newspaper "Perekovka", available at the GARF, was digitized ^{[9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]}. The total length of the text was 5,904,029 characters without spaces.

The MAXQDA 2024 computerized content analysis program was used for text analysis. Unlike a number of other programs, large amounts of text can be processed in this program, which is essential under the circumstances. The program allows for quantitative and qualitative content analysis, provides an extensive set of functions related to coding, quantitative lexical analysis and data visualization.

The content analysis method consists in developing a system of semantic categories that represent the text content in a generalized form and include indicators – lexical units (words and phrases) that specify categories; the system of categories and indicators is subjected to quantitative analysis with the calculation of the frequencies of occurrence of individual categories and the frequencies of their joint occurrence, which allows you to build interpretations of the text content on the results of the analysis ^[5].

When studying the frequency dictionary of a text compiled using a special function of the MAXQDA MaxDictio program (the program makes it possible to calculate and present in the form of a table all available word forms of the studied text, summarize single-root words and visualize the results of this work), a list of indicators is compiled that are grouped into categories reflecting the main semantic trends of the text (Table 1). When when encoding text in the content analysis program, categories are encoded in the text according to the presence of certain word forms of indicators.

Table 1. Semantic categories and indicators

When compiling the list of categories and their indicators, the experience of working with the newspaper Novye Solovki ^[5] and the memoirs of prisoners of the Solovetsky special purpose camp was taken into account ^[6]. The content of these materials, of course, differs greatly both in the range of topics and in emotional content, but the general background on which the transformation of camp organizations and their accompanying publications took place was very similar.

The largest categories are "Work" and "Construction" according to the objectives of the organization and contrary to the name of the publication, which was supposed to re-educate the stumbled citizens. After all, the main goal was to complete the construction of the canal. Therefore, all the headings of the newspaper are built around the main task, "serve" it. The indicators of these categories do not need additional comments.

Propaganda, which is presented very extensively, was supposed to stimulate the campers to move towards new achievements in the name of building a canal and a bright future. For clarity, here are some quotes.

"Execute the civil engineering plan! We have already written more than once about the great importance that civil engineering works have. If the carpenters do not provide our construction site with all the buildings it needs on time, then this will cause a serious blow to the construction" [Moscow-Volga reforging. 22.02.1934. ¹ 14 (107)]

"They have made decisions to take lagging brigades in tow and get rid of downtime and fight against loafers, malingerers and idlers. However, the staff of the tenth department failed to deploy combat work to mobilize campers there around the letter of the Red Banner. The letter in many labor collectives and labor cartels has been worked out bureaucratically and has not been brought to the broad masses of the Channel Army. This can also explain the situation that the department is trailing, shamefully not fulfilling the September plan. [Moscow-Volga reforging. 19.09.1933. ¹66]

On every page there are calls for strikers, participation in the Stakhanov movement, over-fulfillment of the plan and other attributes of social competition.

The press is an integral auxiliary unit in camp life. The newspaper pays great attention to the organization of the printing body itself, its employees, their tasks, and the quality of their performance. The role of the press in human correction is strongly emphasized.

Perekovka, the newspaper of the camper, the organ through which he seeks to increase labor productivity, improve his way of life, and grow his culture, must now fight for continuous Stakhanov shifts, detachments, districts. Sharper eyes, wider horizons, sharper pen! LAGCORS, STRONGER

FIGHT FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF STAKHANOV'S METHODS OF WORK! [Moscow-Volga reforging. 30.12.1935. ¹107 (287)]

We combined "Perekovka" and "Kultprosvet" into one category, since the newspaper's editorial board clearly did not separate these meanings from each other. Cultural and educational work was carried out precisely in order to reforge yesterday's lawbreaker, a second-class man, into a Soviet man, a builder of a new society.

"THE NEWSPAPER HAS REBUILT ME. A notorious refusenik and a loafer in the recent past – I am now a good machinist of Kovrovets No. 57 (steam excavator – approx. the author) on the 1st site of the Technique area.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that our camp newspaper Perekovka played a decisive role in the transformation of my consciousness.

She castigated refuseniks and sloppies, showed them in all their ugliness. I recognized myself in each of them and felt ashamed. On the day of the newspaper's triennial, I send her my thanks in the wish and in the future to hold high the banner of the struggle for the completion of the canal on time, for a new person" [Moscow-Volga Reforging. 30.12.1935. ¹ 107 (287)].

The feminist attitude of the Soviet government is perfectly visible in the newspaper's materials. The desire not to divide work into male and female, to forge women from "slaves of everyday life" into builders of socialist happiness is found everywhere. Special artels and collectives were created for women in the camps, and separate commitments were made. Equality with men and the need to work selflessly and heroically were strongly emphasized.

"Forty—five percent of all campers," says T. Filimonov, "work in household services. If they all worked in a percussive way, then we would not have many problems in everyday life! The campers must remember that a strong, healthy rear will ensure victory for us on the construction front."

"Order No. 190 of the deputy chairman of the OGPU T. Yagoda says that the pace and volume of construction require from everyone not just good work, but heroic work," continues T. Filimonov. "This applies equally to every female camper!" [Moscow-Volga reforging. 14.03.1934. ¹ 19–20 (112-113)].

A small but specific category of "Religion" is extremely interesting. Anti-religious propaganda was necessarily part of the Soviet reforging. It extended not only to the struggle against the Russian Orthodox Church, although it was certainly considered the main opponent, but also to other religions.

"Every camper should be released as a fully reforged person. In the camp, he must prepare himself to become a conscious citizen of the Soviet country. But such a Soviet Reforging is unthinkable without well-organized anti-religious work, the fight against religion is an indispensable condition for the reforging of the camper" [Moscow-Volga Reforging. 25.12.1933. ¹ 92]

"The tutor of the national team is working well. Kadyrov (the Zhestilevsky section of the Orudyevsky district). He organized circles of atheists among the national businessmen and political) established work on the educational program. He is also often at work and will help the national teams to produce high output."[Moscow-Volga reforging. 08.03.1934. ¹ 18 (111)]

In addition, the categories "Sanitation", "Diseases" and "Love", which were insignificant in terms of volume, were allocated, which practically had no place in the camp newspaper. Sanitation and diseases are of interest to correspondents solely in connection with ensuring the quality and speed of work and the absence of downtime. For a better visualization of the occurrence of categories in texts, a histogram of the frequency of categories by year is shown below as a percentage, since the volume of texts is different and the absolute values do not reflect the whole picture.

Fig. 1. Shares of semantic categories by year, %

The subject matter of the publication is also clearly visible when composing clouds of words (Fig. 2) and phrases (Fig. 3), which show the most frequent words and expressions that occur in texts. Work, construction and, of course, speeding up the deadlines for winning the socialist competition – that's what is in the focus of attention.

Rice. 2. The cloud of words 1932-1936. Fig. 3. The cloud of phrases 1932-1936.

The "Code Link Browser" tool allows you to identify links between categories, which demonstrates the intersection of categories in one text segment. The best visualization of the matrix browser is provided by connection graphs, where the thickness of the lines corresponds to the strength of the relationships (Fig. 4-7).

As we can see, the categories of "Work" and "Construction" have the strongest connections and great weight. This reflects the tasks of the newspaper, which, contrary to the name, was primarily supposed to stimulate the production process, in which it was helped by "Propaganda". The value of this category is significantly higher than "Presses" and "Reforges". This ratio makes us think about the reality of the desire to "reforge" people and the belief in the reality of this event. The relatively small interaction of the "Press" and "Cultural Light" with other categories is surprising. They are certainly significant, but not so significant as to be considered the leitmotif of the newspaper. After all, the main point of this publication is motivation for work, which is the main "educator". The "People" themselves, the peculiarities of their way of life, conditions of detention, and health are needed only as a necessity to achieve the goals of construction, which obviously follows from the graphs obtained.

Fig. 4. Category relations, 1932-1933.

We do not see significant changes over time in the weights of categories and the strength of relationships. Some growth is observed only in "Construction", as over time the newspaper focuses more and more on the engineering and technical aspects of construction.

Fig. 5. Category relations, 1934

Fig. 6. Category relations, 1935

Fig. 7. Category relations, 1936.

The absence of any noticeable dynamics of the newspaper's content speaks to several points at once. Firstly, the publication under study is censored and could not afford large fluctuations in content. And secondly, the lack of dynamics shows that the goals and objectives of the leadership were defined as the maximum exploitation of each prisoner under the screen of reforging into homo soveticus, and did not change during the construction of the canal. To achieve the goals of construction, it was considered normal to use all available means of stimulation and coercion.

Thus, the question of the reality of reforging campers from the point of view of the country's leadership remains open, however, with the help of a content-analytical study, the desire to introduce maximum exploitation of prisoners' labor as a way to build a new state and its citizen under the pretext of re-education and reforging, one of the ways of which was the newspaper of the same name.