Martin J. Bollinger

Stalin's Slave Ships (eBook, PDF)

Kolyma, the Gulag Fleet, and the Role of the West

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Between 1932 and 1953, a fleet of ordinary cargo ships was pressed into extraordinary service. The fleet's task was to relocate approximately one-million forced laborers to the Soviet Gulag in Kolyma, located along the Arctic Circle in far northeastern Siberia. The Kolyma Gulag, the most infamous in the Soviet Union, was accessible only by sea, and the fleet became the lifeblood of the entire operation. As one of the largest seaborne movements of people in history, this transport took a devastating toll on human lives. Bollinger presents the often-horrific stories of the Gulag fleet and its passengers and reveals the unwitting role of the United States government in the operation. U.S. shipyards built most of the Gulag fleet, and the U.S. government sold many of the ships used in the transport directly to an agent of the Soviet Union. The United States also overhauled and repaired many ships in the Gulag fleet free of charge at the midpoint of their Gulag careers. In some cases, free ships provided to the Soviet Union under the Lend Lease military assistance program were diverted into Gulag transport duties. How much did Washington know about the deadly duty of these ships? How many prisoners made the voyage? How many never made it out alive? Bollinger details this tragic tale using firsthand testimony from those involved in the operation and materials from both American and Russian archives.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 240
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. September 2003
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780313052026
• Artikelnr.: 68528460

Autorenporträt

MARTIN J. BOLLINGER is a full-time management consultant with a leading strategy and technology consulting firm, specializing in business and operations strategy for the aerospace, defense, and transportation industries. In his spare time, he researches and writes about maritime history. He has lived and worked in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and currently resides in Great Falls, Virginia.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface: A Horrible Secret Here Stones Cry The Labor Camps at the End of
the World Development of the Gulag Transport Fleet Prisoner Transport
Operations Below the Decks: The Prisoners' Stories Shipwrecks in the Far
North Did 12,000 People Starve to Death on Dzhurma A Question of Numbers:
Correcting the Historical Record The NKVD's Ships The Western Connection
What Did the West Know and When Did It Know It? Kolyma Today Appendix A:
Other Western-Built Ships of the Gulag Fleet Appendix B: Soviet-Built Gulag
Ships Acknowledgments Selected Bibliography