Ustvymlag

Ustvymlag or Ust-Vym corrective labor camp (Russian: Устьвымлаг, Усть-Вымский ИТЛ) was a Gulag labor camp in the Soviet Union, Komi ASSR, with the headquarters in the village of Ust-Vym, later moved to Vozhayol. It was created from a detachment of Ukhtpechlag (Ухтпечлаг[1]) on August 16, 1937. After the dismantling of the Gulag system, it remained a corrective labor camp of the Soviet penal system until 1960.[1][2][3]

The main industry of the camp was logging and related production. The maximal occupation of 24,245, registered in 1943.[2]

In 1942, a labor detachment of Volga Germans "mobilized for labor" was housed in the camp. Since 1945, it also detained prisoners of war.[2]

It should not be confused with the earlier Ust-Vym corrective labor camp (1931-1932) used to man the constructions of the Syktyvkar-Ukhta road and Pinyug-Syktyvkar railway.[4]

Notable inmates

  • Jānis Alksnis, Soviet military commander and military scientist
  • Georgy Astakhov, Soviet diplomat
  • Dāvids Beika, Soviet Latvian activist and intelligence officer
  • Valenting Gudievsky, Russian criminal boss, "thief in law"
  • Boris Gusman, Soviet author, screenplay writer, theater director, and columnist for Pravda
  • Ekaterina Kalinina, wife of Mikhail Kalinin, the chair of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and formally the head of the Soviet state[3]
  • Bishop Veniamin (Milov)
  • Archbishop Varlaam (Pikalov)
  • Lev Razgon, Soviet journalist and activist
  • Georgy Statsevich, Soviet functionary
  • Mikhail Viktorov, Soviet NKVD functionary

References

  1. 1 2 УСТЬВЫМСКИЙ ИТЛ (archived)
  2. 1 2 3 Система исправительно-трудовых лагерей в СССР, 1923–1960: справочник, compiled by М. Б. Смирнов; editors: Н. Г. Охотин, Arseny Roginsky, Мoscow, 1998. excerpt online
  3. 1 2 Узники «священной» реки
  4. ↑ УСТЬ-ВЫМСКИЙ ИТЛ ОГПУ

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