An island hell: A Soviet prison in the far north

by S. A. Malʹsagov

Solovetsky Island is roughly forty miles in circumference and is rich in caves, inhabited in bygone days by religious monks, hermits and holy men vowed to silence. These caves, cut in the rock, recall mediæval country houses. They are scattered about the island, the distance from the monastery varying from three to six or even ten miles. Here the politicals are settled in parties, twenty or thirty persons in each cave.

In the Kem camp they live in a special hut, No. 11 (marked 29 on the plan), which is divided into two rooms, one for the men and one for the women and children. The hut is surrounded by a wire fence and is guarded by special sentries.

On Solovetsky Island the "politicals and party men" can walk about the island and visit each other quite freely, without guards. On Popoff Island they are taken out for exercise with a sentry, not accompanied by "K.R.'s" or ordinary criminals.

Standing much closer, in their ideology, to the Bolsheviks (if the Bolsheviks can be said to have any ideology) than the "K.R.'s" do, the politicals naturally receive a certain consideration from the Soviet authorities and have some attention paid to their needs and demands. In this respect the Soviet power is influenced partly by the right wing of the Communist Party and to a considerable extent by the Socialists of Western Europe, to whose utterances the Communists, despite their assertions to the contrary, listen attentively. The result is that while it sends "politicals and party men" to places of exile, it keeps them there under conditions which are paradise compared to the quite insupportable existence of the "K.R.'s" in the Solovky and in the other concentration camps.

It was not till after the "change of cabinet" in the spring of 1924 that the "K.R.'s" were permitted to correspond with their relations — the letters being carefully read by the Tchekists — and to receive parcels from them. The politicals have always enjoyed these rights.

If a "K.R." has no relations, or his relations are not in a position to send him money, food and other necessaries, he is doomed to death from starvation, for the camp ration, issued for ten days in advance, is sufficient for two days only. In this connection, it should not be forgotten that the Gpu, when it sends a "K.R." to a place of exile, generally confiscates all the property belonging to him and his family. The politicals receive everything they need in abundance, not only from their relations, but also from (1) the "Political Red Cross" presided over by Madame Peshkova,[^[29]] (2) from foreign Socialist organisations, which send help on a most generous scale, and (3) from the "committee for the assistance of Russian prisoners and exiles." It must be emphatically stated that the "K.R.'s" did not once receive any help from this body.

The politicals have their own library, which is continually supplemented with new Russian and foreign books. They are allowed to subscribe to Soviet newspapers and foreign journals of a non-political character. They are allowed to form societies for cultural purposes. The leaders of the politicals read papers on various questions and organise debates, both in the caves and in hut No. 11. The politicals are allowed to occupy themselves with sport. The administration listens attentively to any complaints they may make.

The "K.R.'s" have no advantages of the kind. The camp reading-room is at their disposal, but as the shpana periodically turn it into a latrine, no "K.R." ever puts his nose inside it. Two publications are received in the camps, the newspaper Bednota (Poverty) and the periodical Bezbozhnik (The Godless One), but even this literature the "K.R.'s" do not get hold of until two or three months after its arrival, for it is read first by the Kem administration, then by the Solovetsky administration, and then by the Red soldiers. Of course, the "K.R.'s" are not allowed to carry on any work of a cultural, let alone a political nature, and in any case they would have no time, ceaselessly occupied as they are with work beyond their strength. How the administration treats complaints from "K.R.'s" the reader knows already. Finally, the politicals, according to established tradition, do no work at all, which is at the same time an immense privilege and an atrocious injustice. All the work, both "outside" (outside the camps) and "inside" (inside the camps), falls on the shoulders, first and foremost, of the "K.R.'s" and in a lesser degree of the shpana — the latter only in quite recent times.

But is it solely due to the sympathy of foreign Socialists, and a certain degree of conciliatoriness on the part of the Soviet Government, that the "politicals and party men" have been able to secure themselves a more or less bearable existence in the Solovky? Certainly not. It is in a large degree the achievement of the politicals themselves.

I am a convinced opponent of the politicals' social programme, the ultimate aspirations of which are indistinguishable from those of the Bolshevist programme and are absolutely Utopian. But none the less, I will pay due tribute to the persistency and fearlessness they have shown in upholding, if need be at personal sacrifice, the claims put forward by them as a corporate body in order to alleviate the detestable conditions of their life as exiles.