HOW "USEFUL CITIZENS" ARE MADE
_Chief Punishments — A Freezing Dungeon — "To the Mosquitoes!" — A
Mediæval Torture — Mass Shootings No Longer Necessary._
The leaders of the Communist Party declare that the Northern Camps for
Special Purposes are something in the nature of a reformatory. The
punishments administered in these establishments, they would have the
world believe, are intended to make the prisoners mend their ways and
become useful citizens of the Soviet Republic.
In reality, the camp punishments, like the camp medical arrangements,
are based upon no other calculation than that of sending the largest
possible number of prisoners, more or less swiftly, to "the other side."
Refusal to work, insubordination towards the authorities,
"counter-revolutionary propaganda," insulting words or behaviour to the
_personnel_, the discovery of a "criminal past" (this is Vasko's
occupation), attempted escape — for these offences there are a number of
punishments, in accordance with the heinousness of the offence. I will
mention the chief punishments:
(1) The "Sekirka."
(2) "To the Mosquitoes!"
(3) Prolongation of the term of imprisonment.
(4) "Stone sacks."
(5) Shooting.
Such corrective measures as blows in the face, the confiscation of
parcels from relations for an indefinite time (for the benefit of the
confiscator!), flogging with the whip or only "Smolensky sticks" without
"stone sacks," etc., are so common in the Solovky that there is no need
to dwell on them.
The "Sekirka" is a prison on the notorious Sekirova hill, on Solovetsky
Island, two miles from the Kremlin. In bygone days it was the cave of
one of the most honoured of the legendary heroes of the Solovetsky
Islands. The "guilty" prisoner is sent to the Sekirka for a term of from
two to six months. The regime there is as follows. The prisoner receives
daily half a pound of bread, a jug of cold water, and nothing else. All
the doors and windows of the cave are fastened. He has no communication
at all with the outside world. The dungeon is absolutely unheated. As a
rule, when the term of his punishment comes to an end, there is nothing
left of the prisoner but a frozen corpse. In rare cases a half-dead
skeleton emerges from the Sekirka.
"To the Mosquitoes!" is a form of punishment very popular with the
Solovetsky Tchekists. The manner of its infliction is as follows. The
prisoner is stripped naked and made to stand on a particular stone
opposite the commandant's office. He is ordered, with threats of "stone
sacks" and shooting, to stand absolutely still, not to move a finger and
not to drive away the mosquitoes, which cover the poor wretch's body as
with a thick black crust. The torture is continued for several hours.
When the punishment is over, the victim's body is one huge sore from the
bites of the poisonous insects. The weaker prisoners die, and the
stronger cannot sit or lie down for many weeks after the punishment.
Prolongation of the term of imprisonment is a punishment now
comparatively seldom applied, for the simple reason that the orders
recently circulated by the Gpu have made every prisoner _a convict for
an indefinite term_. When he has served his two, three, five or ten
years, he is sent on from the Solovky to the Petchersk region, then to
the Narym, then to the Zyriansk, and so on, unendingly. For more serious
"offences," therefore, the Tchekists send the prisoners to the "sacks."
In the old times, every monk in the Kremlin, and every holy man in the
caves, had a small cellar cut in the rock near his cell, in which he
kept his food supplies. These cellars, three or four feet in depth, have
no doors, and the food was placed in them from above through small
openings.
These are the famous "stone sacks." The Tchekists take the prisoner to
the "sack," and ask him:
"How'll you get in — head first or feet first?"
If the prisoner gets into the "sack" head first, he is beaten with
"Smolensky sticks" on the back and legs; if he gets in feet first, he is
beaten about the head and face. The beating goes on till his whole body
is inside the "sack." The "sack" is too narrow for him to sit, and too
low for him to stand up straight, so that he is obliged to stand with
his knees bent and his head poked forward. He is imprisoned in the
"sack" for a period varying between three days and a week. The rations
are the same as at the Sekirka. Few people can endure this mediæval
punishment.
There are no mass shootings at the Solovky like those carried out at the
"White House," but individual shootings are very frequent, and are
regarded as an ordinary occurrence. A larger or smaller number of
prisoners are shot whenever the Soviet Government retaliates for
measures of suppression against Communists in foreign States by a
terrorist outburst on its own part. Thus, over a hundred persons, both
Russians and foreigners, were shot after the suppression of the
Communist revolt of December 1st, 1924, by the Estonian Government, and
a rather smaller number after the suppression of the rebellion in
Bulgaria.
I gathered from the candid statements of the Tchekists that the Gpu has
now no need to make a regular practice of mass shootings, because more
humane measures — slow murder from starvation, work beyond the
prisoners' strength, and "medical help" — are perfectly adequate
substitutes.
It would be a mistake to suppose that one must commit some kind of
offence to be sent to the Sekirka, the "sacks" and the mosquitoes, or to
be shot. The prisoners are handed over by the central authorities to the
unchecked caprice of the camp administration. If the Tchekists dislike
your face, if you are seen crossing yourself on the sly, if you have
said anything about your hard lot in your letters to your relations —
the Sekirka and the "sacks" open their dreadful doors to you.