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The Soviet gulags were forced labour camps, mainly in the remote regions of [[Siberia]] and the Far North. By 1934, the gulags held several million inmates (political prisoners and ordinary criminals alike) and the Soviet economy was dependent upon  this vast pool of [[slave]] labour from the [[lumpen masses]] and [[counterrevolutionaries]]. An April 14, 1941 Memorandum from the U.S. Military Attache (G-2) in Moscow, found in the [[Harry Hopkins]] Papers at the FDR Library, entitled "[[NKVD]] of the USSR", it states in part,

The Soviet gulags were forced labour camps, mainly in the remote regions of [[Siberia]] and the Far North. By 1934, the gulags held several million inmates (political prisoners and ordinary criminals alike) and the Soviet economy was dependent upon  this vast pool of [[slave]] labour from the [[lumpen masses]] and [[counterrevolutionaries]]. An April 14, 1941 Memorandum from the U.S. Military Attache (G-2) in Moscow, found in the [[Harry Hopkins]] Papers at the FDR Library, entitled "[[NKVD]] of the USSR", it states in part,

{{Cquote|"Although the Soviets disclaim [[forced labor]] in this country, the organization of this commissariat is interesting to note.  In it are the means to apprehend (militia), try and sentence (advisory council) and imprison offenders ([[Gulag|corrective labor]]).  Any governmental organization that has a crying need for labor simply calls upon the NKVD to supply it.  If the amount of labor is insufficient to supply the need, it is relatively an easy matter to institute a [[reign of terror]] on any pretext and fill up [[labor colonies]] to meet requirements....Its close supervision over the people, its [[pogroms]], its raids and arrests, has instilled fear...[http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/5d.gif] }}

{{Cquote|"Although the Soviets disclaim [[forced labor]] in this country, the organization of this commissariat is interesting to note.  In it are the means to apprehend (militia), try and sentence (advisory council) and imprison offenders ([[Gulag|corrective labor]]).  Any governmental organization that has a crying need for labor simply calls upon the NKVD to supply it.  If the amount of labor is insufficient to supply the need, it is relatively an easy matter to institute a [[reign of terror]] on any pretext and fill up [[labor colonies]] to meet requirements....Its close supervision over the people, its [[pogroms]], its raids and arrests, has instilled fear...[http://web.archive.org/web/20040423034159/www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/5d.gif] }}

{{Cquote|"The NKVD has every individual under observation from birth to death...its secret agents are everywhere; its actions are swift.  An individual simply [[Nacht und Nebel|disappears in the middle of the night]] and no one ever sees or hears of him again. ...When Stalin needs scapegoats to cover government mistakes he unleashes his NKVD...The Soviet Union is in itself a prison and the NKVD and State Security are its keepers. [http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/5e.gif] }}

{{Cquote|"The NKVD has every individual under observation from birth to death...its secret agents are everywhere; its actions are swift.  An individual simply [[Nacht und Nebel|disappears in the middle of the night]] and no one ever sees or hears of him again. ...When Stalin needs scapegoats to cover government mistakes he unleashes his NKVD...The Soviet Union is in itself a prison and the NKVD and State Security are its keepers. [http://web.archive.org/web/20051208125448/www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/5e.gif] }}

Conditions were brutal: prisoners received insufficient food and clothing to cope with the long working hours and severe weather, resulting in high death rates from exhaustion and disease. <ref>http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/gula.html</ref>  

Conditions were brutal: prisoners received insufficient food and clothing to cope with the long working hours and severe weather, resulting in high death rates from exhaustion and disease. <ref>http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/gula.html</ref>