Dalstroy

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Dalstroy (or Dalstroi) was an organisation set up in 1931 by the Soviet NKVD (the predecessor of the KGB) in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Chukotka region of Siberia, now known as Kolyma. Dalstroy, Russian acronym for the Far Eastern Construction Trust, oversaw the development and mining of the area using forced labour. Over the years, Dalstroy created some 80 Gulag camps across the Kolyma region. As a result of a number of decisions, the total area covered by Daltroy grew to three million square kilometers by 1951. The town of Magadan was the base for these activities.

Contents 1 Scope of activities 2 Dalstroy leaders 3 Closure 4 Footnotes 5 References

[edit] Scope of activities

The Dalstroy region is often referred to as Kolyma as it was centered largely on gold-mining in the upper reaches of the Kolyma River.

The administration of Dalstroy grew increasingly complex over the years, not only as a result of various geographical centres but also as units were created to manage geological surveying, motorised transport, management of secondary economies, road administration, steamship navigation on the River Kolma, and port and terminal management.^[1]

In his book Red Arctic, John MacCannon explains how Dalstroy initially relied on Glavsevmorput or GUSMP, Russian acronym for Main Administration of the Northern Sea Route, a Soviet agency for exploiting resources across the far north, for coordination of supplies and transport. Glavsevmorput managed railway traffic to Vladivostok and shipping from there to Magadan. Over the years, however, as Dalstroy grew more powerful, its director Eduard Berzin obtained ships of his own so as to have more freedom of action. By 1938, when Glavsevmorput lost much of its political support, Dalstroy was firmly in control.

A full account of the many ships used over the years to transport prisoners across the Sea of Okhotsk to Magadan as well as to the Arctic port of Ambarchik is given by Martin Bollinger in his book Stalin's Slave Ships.

Prisoners at the Dalstroy[2]
Year	Number	Year	Number
1932	11,100	1944	84,716
1934	29,659	1945	93,542
1935	36,313	1946	73,060
1936	48,740	1947	93,322
1937	70,414	1948	106,893
1938	90,741	1949	108,685
1939	138,170	1950	153,317
1940	190,309	1951	182,958
1941	187,976	1952	199,726
1942	177,775	1953	175,078
1943	107,775
Figures for 1 January for each year. Figure for 1932 for December

[edit] Dalstroy leaders

In the words of prisoner Ayyub Baghirov, "The entire administration of the Dalstroy - economic, administrative, physical and political - was in the hands of one person who was invested with many rights and privileges."^[3]

The officials in charge of Dalstroy, i.e. the Kolyma Gulag camps were:

• Eduard Petrovich Berzin, 1932-1937. The deputy head was Valentin Aleksandrovich Tsaregradskiy.
• Karp Aleksandrovich Pavlov, 1937-1939.
• Ivan Fedorovich Nikishev, 1940-1948.
• Ivan Grigorevich Petrenko, 1948-1950.^[4]
• I.L. Mitrakov, from 1950 until Dalstroy was taken over by the Ministry of Metallurgy on 18 March 1953.^[5]

[edit] Closure

After Stalin's death in 1953, Dalstroy was abolished and large numbers of prisoners were granted amnesty. In its place, a new authority, USVITL (North-East Corrective Labour-Force Administration), was created with a similar mandate.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Ludwik Kowalski: Alaska Notes on Stalinism
• Kolyma - Off to the Unknown - Stalin's Notorious Prison Camps in Siberia by Ayyub Baghirov (1906-1973)
• Bollinger, Martin J., Stalin’s slave ships: Kolyma, the Gulag fleet, and the role of the West, Praeger, 2003, 217 p., ISBN 0275981002
• MacCannon, John: Red Arctic: polar exploration and the myth of the north in the Soviet Union, 1932-1939, Oxford University Press, 1998, 234p, ISBN 0195114361