FORMATION AND ACTIVITY OF CORRECTIONAL LABOR INSTITUTIONS OF THE CHUVASH ASSR IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1920s – EARLY 1950s: TO THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ISSUE

Andrey S. NIKIFOROV

DOI: 10.47026/2712-9454-2022-3-1-45-52

УДК 343.814(091)(470.344)«192/195»

ББК Х409.021(2Рос.Чув)6г

Key words

correctional labor institutions, historiography, research, monographs, Main Directorate of Corrective Labour Camps (GULAG), penitentiary system.

Abstract

The article examines the historiographical aspect of issues related to the formation and activity of correctional labor institutions in the Chuvash ASSR in the second half of the 1920s – early 1950s. The author gives prominence to the main fundamental works on the issue from among domestic and foreign publications.

The historiography of this problematics is divided into two main periods: Soviet (the second half of the 1920s – early 1990s) and post–Soviet (1990s – modernity). A characteristic feature of the first historiographical period was demonstration of the Soviet correctional labor policy achievements within the framework of the state’s solution of political and economic problems. Researchers could analyze only those aspects of penitentiary policy development that the authorities considered possible to reveal. As a result, many aspects, for example, the use of prisoners as cheap labor, their real health and living confinement conditions, the size of the contingent, mortality statistics and other issues became available for study in the late 1980s.

Since the 1990s, the past has been actively subject to critical rethinking. Declassified archival documents were introduced into scientific circulation, the geography and the subject area of research were expanded, a new methodology and scientific approaches to the study of Soviet correctional labor institutions were formed. This period is marked by the publication of fundamental works on the history of correctional labor institutions by such researchers as A.S. Smykalin, G.M. Ivanova, as well as the publication of several major reference and information publications. Regional aspects of the correctional labor system formation and functioning were analyzed in several dissertations. No special scientific studies on the history of correctional labor institutions on the territory of the Chuvash ASSR have been found.

The results of the study are that the issues of correctional labor institutions formation and functioning in the period under review are covered mainly on a nationwide scale. At the regional level, the theme is poorly studied and needs new scientific research, including in the Chuvash Republic.

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Information about the author

Andrey S. Nikiforov – Post-Graduate Student of Russian History Department, Chuvash State University, Russia, Cheboksary (andreynikiforov.s97@yandex.ru; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4648-4453).

For citations

Nikiforov A.S. FORMATION AND ACTIVITY OF CORRECTIONAL LABOR INSTITUTIONS OF THE CHUVASH ASSR IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1920s – EARLY 1950s: TO THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE ISSUE. Historical Search, 2022,  vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 45–52. DOI: 10.47026/2712-9454-2022-3-1-45-52 (in Russian).

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