Sevvostlag

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Sevvostlag was a complex of labour camps located in Kolyma. It was constructed in the Stalin era of the USSR, and it's inmates were employed to the building of the infamous Kolyma Highway, a now intraversable roadway that connects Magadan and Yakutsk. While the road was started by the inmates of the camp, other captives from other camps completed it.

Contents 1 Kolyma Highway 1.1 Gold 2 Other Labour Camps 3 Reference

[edit] Kolyma Highway

Main article Kolyma Highway

The highway, which was partly constructed by the actual bones of many of those who built it (Hence its other name, the 'road of bones'), is now treated as a place of memorial. The area can become very cold during Winter, and nearby are the towns of Oymyakon and Tomtor, the two places who hold the record for the coldest temperature in a permenantly inhabited area (thus eliminating Antarctica) ever recorded.

The Highway is impossible to cross by a standard road vehicle because many of its bridges are flooded, washed-out or too unstable to risk crossing, and because much of the road itself has been reclaimed by streams.

[edit] Gold

There are many gold mines close to the highway. Back in the Stalin era, many of the prisoners of labour camps were used to mine gold. Many of these gold mines are still rich, but most are now operated by the government, mined 24 hours a day.

[edit] Other Labour Camps

During the communist days prisoners were taken to Kolyma labour camps to mine the gold using their bare hands. There were known to be over 300 labour camps in the Kolyma region alone, while Stalin had constructed approximately 10,000 prison camps throughout Russia and Siberia. Joseph Stalin caused the death of more people than any other person in history, over 45 million, and many of them were his very own people. When the Germans invaded Russia, they were able to take many Russian soldiers into captivity into their own labour camps. However, when these soldiers were released from their German camps, Stalin sent them into prison back at Russia, claiming that they were in collaboration with the Germans.

[edit] Reference

• English Wikipedia article on Kolyma Highway
• [1]