Che cosa resta della tragedia dei Gulag 
.
Nel 1926 il lavoro forzato e la reclusione di massa divennero un sistema.
Oggi il mancato confronto con quella realtà agisce da ostacolo alla crescita civile.
ANNE APPLEBAUM
Dalla sommità del campanile del vecchio monastero Solovetsky, nella Russia settentrionale, si scorge ancora il profilo del campo di concentramento. Salendo lassù in una giornata limpida sono riuscita a vedere al di là dello spesso muro di pietra che circonda gli edifici del monastero del XV secolo, un tempo sede dell´amministrazione centrale del campo. A nord distinguevo the silhouette of the church on the hill which housed the notorious underground punishment cells of the field.
Beyond hills and dock extends the vast area of \u200b\u200bthe White Sea and the rest of the islands Solovetsky: Bolshaya Muksulmana, where once prisoners foxes raised for their fur, Anzer, home to special camps for the disabled, women with children and ex-monks, Zayatskie Ostrov, home field of the punitive women.
no coincidence that the Russian writer Alexander Solgenitsyn chose to call his history of the system of Soviet concentration camps Gulag Archipelago. After all Solovetsky first camp specifically designed for political prisoners, was a veritable archipelago, a prison that grew expanding from island to island.
Solovetsky also made a model for what later became known as the gulag. Although Lenin and Trotsky began building concentration camps for political prisoners as early as 1918, was to Solovetsky who proceeded to mechanize and redesign the field and it was there that the Soviet secret police began to exploit the labor of prisoners in the service of State. And yet the State was proud. In an article in 1945, a big piece of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, wrote proudly that "forced labor as a method of re-education" Solovetsky began in 1926. This year marks the eightieth anniversary of the establishment then of the Gulag.
The origin of the Gulag can be done at least partly traced to the character of Aronovitch Naftaly Frenkel was born in 1833 in Haifa, as the profile of prisoner. In 1923 the authorities arrested him for "illegal transit to the border" sentenced to ten years of hard work to Solovetsky.
As Frenkel was able to make the metamorphosis from prisoner to the camp commander remains a mystery. Legend has it that came into the field, was shocked by the lack of organization that reigned them to write a letter stating in detail the pitfalls of each of the productive activities of the camp, which included foresters, agriculture and the manufacture of bricks . Apparently he sent an administrator the letter to Stalin in Moscow that called Frenkel. We know that
Frenkel tried to transform the area into a source of profit by setting up the infamous system of food rations for prisoners differentiated according to the quantity of work completed, creating in practice a selection of prisoners by their ability to survive. Relatively well-fed prisoners were made strong strong. Deprived of food the prisoners weak became ill or died. The process was accelerated by the high pace of activity required. Frenkel
sent the prisoners to build roads and cut trees off the field. Within a few years Solovetsky Prisoners of work throughout the region. Stalin greeted this course with enormous enthusiasm and promoted the expansion of the camp system even when it was clear to everyone that it was a system not only cruel but also uneconomical. Impose the execution of projects impassable, railroads across the tundra, tunnels to the island of Sakhalin, many of which were never completed. Sent to special camps "enemies" and refused their requests for pardon in person often with the phrase "let them keep working."
Today, 80 years later, we know what was the true cost of the camp system. Between 1926 and 1953, the year of Stalin's death, some 18 million prisoners passed through the Gulag system. Another six or seven million were sent into internal exile in località dell´estremo Nord. A milioni si ammalarono, a milioni morirono. I campi contribuirono a creare la paura e la paranoia che caratterizzarono la vita dell´Urss e distorsero l´economia sovietica, concentrando persone e industrie nel nord gelido e inabitabile.
Considerando l´orribile ruolo giocato dai campi nella storia dell´Unione Sovietica, ci si domanda come mai in Russia il retaggio del Gulag sia un tema così scarsamente dibattuto. Perché una data come l´ottantesimo anniversario della fondazione dei campi di Solovetsky non viene ricordata? Sorgono disseminati per la Russia vari monumenti a ricordo delle vittime del Gulag, ma non esiste un monumento nazionale o un luogo di lutto. Peggio, a quindici anni dal crollo dell´Unione Soviet absent any public debate about the gulag. It was not always so. In the '80s, the beginning of glasnost in Russia, the memories of survivors of the Gulag sold millions of copies. But recently the history books containing similar "revelations" get bad reviews or simply pass over in silence.
In a sense it is not difficult to explain why. In Russia, the memory field coexists confused with that of many other atrocities: war, famine and collectivization. People often ask me: "Why are the survivors of the camps should be given preferential treatment?". Some people then associated with the debate on the gulag economic and political reforms of the 90s, as "a mess, and wonders where all this has brought. Much more significant is the fact that Russia is now governed by former KGB officers, directors direct heirs of the Gulag. In reality, President Vladimir Putin is often called a chekist, the infamous term used to describe the members of Lenin's political police, forerunner of the KGB. It is not in its interest to stress the fact that he was a member of a criminal organization. Tragically
failure compared with the past is hindering the formation of Russian civil society and the rule of law. After all the leaders of the Gulag have kept their dacha, and their conspicuous pensions. The victims of the Gulag has remained poor and marginalized. In the eyes of most Russians today was a wise choice in past work with the regime. By analogy, the more you cheat and you lie, the more it is wise. Some of the Gulag
ideologies survive in a profound sense also dismissive and arrogant attitude that the new Russian elite to the poor and middle class. If the rich do not learn to respect human rights and civil rights of their fellow citizens, Russia is destined to remain a land of impoverished peasants and politicians, millionaires, men who keep their assets in the vaults of Swiss banks and their private jets on the track, ready for takeoff.
Failure memoria del passato ha inoltre conseguenze più banali, di tipo pratico. Può servire a spiegare, ad esempio, l´insensibilità dei russi rispetto a determinate forme di censura e alla costante, opprimente presenza della polizia segreta, oggi ribattezzata Fsb. Il fatto che la Fsb possa intercettare conversazioni telefoniche ed entrare in abitazioni private senza mandato non turba più di tanto i russi. Né li turba l´inquietante orrore del loro sistema penale. Nel 1998 mi recai a visitare la prigione centrale della città di Arkhangelsk, un tempo una delle capitali del Gulag. Il carcere, risalente a epoca pre-stalinista, sembrava rimasto pressoché immutato. Le celle erano affollate e mal areate, i servizi igienici primitivi. Il responsabile Prison shrugged. It was all about money, "he said. The hallways were dark because the electricity cost dear, the prisoners were still awaiting trial week because the judges were poorly paid. I'm not convinced. If the Russian prisons still have the look they had at the time of Stalin, if the courts and criminal investigations are a sham in part because the past haunts the judges, politicians or business elites in Russia.
But very few in today's Russia feel the past as a burden or a duty. The past is a nightmare to forget. As a big Pandora's box closed pending the next generation.
(The Republic, Friday, 10 NOVEMBRE 2006, Pagina 55 – Varie)
© 2006 Cicero
(Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate)
. Nel 1926 il lavoro forzato e la reclusione di massa divennero un sistema.
Oggi il mancato confronto con quella realtà agisce da ostacolo alla crescita civile.
ANNE APPLEBAUM
Dalla sommità del campanile del vecchio monastero Solovetsky, nella Russia settentrionale, si scorge ancora il profilo del campo di concentramento. Salendo lassù in una giornata limpida sono riuscita a vedere al di là dello spesso muro di pietra che circonda gli edifici del monastero del XV secolo, un tempo sede dell´amministrazione centrale del campo. A nord distinguevo the silhouette of the church on the hill which housed the notorious underground punishment cells of the field.
Beyond hills and dock extends the vast area of \u200b\u200bthe White Sea and the rest of the islands Solovetsky: Bolshaya Muksulmana, where once prisoners foxes raised for their fur, Anzer, home to special camps for the disabled, women with children and ex-monks, Zayatskie Ostrov, home field of the punitive women.
no coincidence that the Russian writer Alexander Solgenitsyn chose to call his history of the system of Soviet concentration camps Gulag Archipelago. After all Solovetsky first camp specifically designed for political prisoners, was a veritable archipelago, a prison that grew expanding from island to island.
Solovetsky also made a model for what later became known as the gulag. Although Lenin and Trotsky began building concentration camps for political prisoners as early as 1918, was to Solovetsky who proceeded to mechanize and redesign the field and it was there that the Soviet secret police began to exploit the labor of prisoners in the service of State. And yet the State was proud. In an article in 1945, a big piece of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, wrote proudly that "forced labor as a method of re-education" Solovetsky began in 1926. This year marks the eightieth anniversary of the establishment then of the Gulag.
The origin of the Gulag can be done at least partly traced to the character of Aronovitch Naftaly Frenkel was born in 1833 in Haifa, as the profile of prisoner. In 1923 the authorities arrested him for "illegal transit to the border" sentenced to ten years of hard work to Solovetsky.
As Frenkel was able to make the metamorphosis from prisoner to the camp commander remains a mystery. Legend has it that came into the field, was shocked by the lack of organization that reigned them to write a letter stating in detail the pitfalls of each of the productive activities of the camp, which included foresters, agriculture and the manufacture of bricks . Apparently he sent an administrator the letter to Stalin in Moscow that called Frenkel. We know that
Frenkel tried to transform the area into a source of profit by setting up the infamous system of food rations for prisoners differentiated according to the quantity of work completed, creating in practice a selection of prisoners by their ability to survive. Relatively well-fed prisoners were made strong strong. Deprived of food the prisoners weak became ill or died. The process was accelerated by the high pace of activity required. Frenkel
sent the prisoners to build roads and cut trees off the field. Within a few years Solovetsky Prisoners of work throughout the region. Stalin greeted this course with enormous enthusiasm and promoted the expansion of the camp system even when it was clear to everyone that it was a system not only cruel but also uneconomical. Impose the execution of projects impassable, railroads across the tundra, tunnels to the island of Sakhalin, many of which were never completed. Sent to special camps "enemies" and refused their requests for pardon in person often with the phrase "let them keep working."
Today, 80 years later, we know what was the true cost of the camp system. Between 1926 and 1953, the year of Stalin's death, some 18 million prisoners passed through the Gulag system. Another six or seven million were sent into internal exile in località dell´estremo Nord. A milioni si ammalarono, a milioni morirono. I campi contribuirono a creare la paura e la paranoia che caratterizzarono la vita dell´Urss e distorsero l´economia sovietica, concentrando persone e industrie nel nord gelido e inabitabile.
Considerando l´orribile ruolo giocato dai campi nella storia dell´Unione Sovietica, ci si domanda come mai in Russia il retaggio del Gulag sia un tema così scarsamente dibattuto. Perché una data come l´ottantesimo anniversario della fondazione dei campi di Solovetsky non viene ricordata? Sorgono disseminati per la Russia vari monumenti a ricordo delle vittime del Gulag, ma non esiste un monumento nazionale o un luogo di lutto. Peggio, a quindici anni dal crollo dell´Unione Soviet absent any public debate about the gulag. It was not always so. In the '80s, the beginning of glasnost in Russia, the memories of survivors of the Gulag sold millions of copies. But recently the history books containing similar "revelations" get bad reviews or simply pass over in silence.
In a sense it is not difficult to explain why. In Russia, the memory field coexists confused with that of many other atrocities: war, famine and collectivization. People often ask me: "Why are the survivors of the camps should be given preferential treatment?". Some people then associated with the debate on the gulag economic and political reforms of the 90s, as "a mess, and wonders where all this has brought. Much more significant is the fact that Russia is now governed by former KGB officers, directors direct heirs of the Gulag. In reality, President Vladimir Putin is often called a chekist, the infamous term used to describe the members of Lenin's political police, forerunner of the KGB. It is not in its interest to stress the fact that he was a member of a criminal organization. Tragically
failure compared with the past is hindering the formation of Russian civil society and the rule of law. After all the leaders of the Gulag have kept their dacha, and their conspicuous pensions. The victims of the Gulag has remained poor and marginalized. In the eyes of most Russians today was a wise choice in past work with the regime. By analogy, the more you cheat and you lie, the more it is wise. Some of the Gulag
ideologies survive in a profound sense also dismissive and arrogant attitude that the new Russian elite to the poor and middle class. If the rich do not learn to respect human rights and civil rights of their fellow citizens, Russia is destined to remain a land of impoverished peasants and politicians, millionaires, men who keep their assets in the vaults of Swiss banks and their private jets on the track, ready for takeoff.
Failure memoria del passato ha inoltre conseguenze più banali, di tipo pratico. Può servire a spiegare, ad esempio, l´insensibilità dei russi rispetto a determinate forme di censura e alla costante, opprimente presenza della polizia segreta, oggi ribattezzata Fsb. Il fatto che la Fsb possa intercettare conversazioni telefoniche ed entrare in abitazioni private senza mandato non turba più di tanto i russi. Né li turba l´inquietante orrore del loro sistema penale. Nel 1998 mi recai a visitare la prigione centrale della città di Arkhangelsk, un tempo una delle capitali del Gulag. Il carcere, risalente a epoca pre-stalinista, sembrava rimasto pressoché immutato. Le celle erano affollate e mal areate, i servizi igienici primitivi. Il responsabile Prison shrugged. It was all about money, "he said. The hallways were dark because the electricity cost dear, the prisoners were still awaiting trial week because the judges were poorly paid. I'm not convinced. If the Russian prisons still have the look they had at the time of Stalin, if the courts and criminal investigations are a sham in part because the past haunts the judges, politicians or business elites in Russia.
But very few in today's Russia feel the past as a burden or a duty. The past is a nightmare to forget. As a big Pandora's box closed pending the next generation.
(The Republic, Friday, 10 NOVEMBRE 2006, Pagina 55 – Varie)
© 2006 Cicero
(Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate)
0 comments:
Post a Comment