The notorious prison 'Butyrka' in Moscow in which hundreds of thousands of political prisoners were locked up during the 1930's and later. © 1993 Meinhard Stark

Together with the historical aspects, particular emphasis will be given to sociological and socialpsychological conditions such as:

1. the special conditions to which female prisoners were exposed in Soviet prisons and camps (among other things living situation, camp regime, NKWD guard staff, working situation, nutrition, hunger, accomodation, hygiene, relationship between prisoners, daily routine),
2. the forms of behavior that were caused by the conditions of internment (for instance adjustmant and routine, grouping and mutual allowance, forms of resistance, resignation and apathy) and,
3. the survival patterns and strategies which enabled the women to outlast prison, GULAG and exile (for example use of talents, contact and communication skills, discipline and performance of one's duty, "ability to suffer", longing for relatives).

Women during forced labor at BAM-LAG, a labor camp for the construction of the railway route between lake Baikal and the Amur river in the far east of the former Soviet Union, 1933

The most important source for this project will come from the handed-down memories and life-story interviews with women from Germany, Austria and Russia who fell victim to the Stalinist persecution and were imprisoned in the GULAG between 1934 and 1956.

Schematic drawing of the labor camp Elgen on Koylma island in the far east of the former Soviet Union, 1930's, reconstructed by Elinor Lipper in her book "Eleven years in Soviet prisons and labor camps", Zurich 1950

So far I have conducted 35 interviews in Russia and Germany. The majority were conducted in Germany.
Who else is doing research about the GULAG? Who is concerned with the lives and suffering of the women in Soviet labor camps? Who else knows survivors? Who can provide other information or contacts? I am asking for communication, co-operation and assistance.

Memorial stone for the victims of Stalinism in front of the Lubjanka in Moscow, the headquarters of the Soviet secret police, errected in the early 1990's 90's by the Russian human rights organization MEMORIAL.