ESCAPES OF GULAG PRISONERS IN THE POSTWAR PERIOD (1945-1953)

Abstract

Drawing on documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), the article examines escapes of GULAG prisoners in 1945-1953 as an indicator of vulnerabilities in the camp regime and the effectiveness of security in the late Stalin period. The study aims to explain the persistent presence of escapes within a system that claimed total control: which factors made escapes possible, who initiated them, and what means state agencies employed to prevent and suppress flight. The source base consists of GARF materials, primarily Fond R-9414 (Main Administration of Places of Detention, GUMZ of the USSR MVD) and Fond R-9492 (USSR Ministry of Justice). The article introduces into scholarly circulation statistical summaries on escapes and “prevented attempts,” departmental reporting, correspondence, and reviews of camp court practice. Particular attention is paid to the scale and seasonal dynamics of escapes, the socio-criminal composition of fugitives, legal qualification and sentencing practices, and the complex of countermeasures undertaken by the MVD - from strengthening militarized guard units and engineering fortifications to expanding operational-informant work and mobilizing «assistance brigades». It is shown that fluctuations in escape activity cannot be reduced to changes in the size of the camp population, while the decline in recorded successful escapes by the early 1950s resulted from a combination of normative decisions and transformations in practices of security, accounting, and institutional response.