Unzhlag
{{Short description|Camp of the GULAG system of labor camps in the Soviet Union}}
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Unzhlag or Unzhensky ITL (Unzhensky corrective labor camp) ({{langx|ru|Унжлаг, Унженский ИТЛ}}) was a camp of the GULAG system of labor camps in the Soviet Union. Named after the Unzha River, it has headquarters at the railway station Sukhobezvodnoye (Сухобезводное, Сухобезводная), Gorky Oblast. It operated from February 5, 1938 to 1960. The main operation was logging and wood processing industries, but also served a wide variety of other small-scale industries: construction, metalworking, railroad servicing, clothing, footwear, pottery production, etc. The camp had 30 sites (lagpunkts).[http://www.memo.ru/history/NKVD/GULAG/ "Система исправительно-трудовых лагерей в СССР"] (select "УНЖЕНСКИЙ ИТЛ" in the index)
There is a small museum of Unzhlag on the private property of a local lore enthusiast Mikhail Shulegin in the village {{ill|Yurovo, Makaryevsky District|ru|Юрово (Костромская область)}}.[https://ling.hse.ru/news/785425636.html Экспедиция фольклористов в Макарьевский район Костромской области]
Notable inmates
- Yusif Vazir Chamanzaminli (1887-1943), Azerbaijani statesman and writer (imprisoned 1940, died January 1943)
- Dalia Grinkevičiūtė, Lithuanian school girl deported in June 1941 who later wrote a memoir about her experiences
- Ahmad Jafarzade (1929-2000), Azerbaijani writer, brother of Aziza Jafarzade, who was imprisoned for his poem, "Hey, Yusif" [https://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai141_folder/141_articles/141_ahmad_jafarzade_poetry.html "Hey, Yusif"] "Poetry of Consciousness" by Ahmad Jafarzade, AZER.com in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 14:1 (Spring 2006), p. 31. critical of Joseph Stalin. Ahmad survived the GULAG (both at Unzhlag and Kolyma), and after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, he published poetry that he had collected from fellow prisoners [https://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai141_folder/141_articles/141_bayati_poetry.html Laments in the Prison Camps: Collection by Ahmad Jafarzade] in AZER.com, in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 14:1 (Spring 2006), pp. 32-33. and a description of the terror that Azerbaijanis had experienced in everyday life in 1937 [https://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai141_folder/141_articles/141_ahmad.html Seven Days in 1937: The Trauma of Stalin's Early Repressions] by Ahmad Jafarzade, AZER.com, Azerbaijan International, Vol. 14:1 (Spring 2006), pp. 26-30. and the traditional tortures used to extract confessions in Baku's NKVD prison in the 1940s.
- Lev Kopelev describes his experience in Unzhlag in his book, To Be Preserved Forever.Lev Kopelev, To Be Preserved Forever ("Хранить вечно"), 1976. [http://www.e-reading.me/chapter.php/94815/31/Kopelev_-_Hranit'_vechno.html Глава двадцать шестая. Сухобезводная. Унжлаг]
- {{Interlanguage link multi|Yanka Shutovich|be-x-old|3=Янка Шутовіч}}, Belarusian literary critic, publisher, and cultural activist; served some of his time in Unzhlag, among several other camps.
- {{Interlanguage link multi|Mikhail Yakubovich|ru|3=Якубович, Михаил Петрович}}, Russian revolutionary and Soviet statesman, Menshevik.
Gallery
File:Остатки бараков .jpg|Barracks leftovers
File:Колучкаулагеря.jpg|Barbed wire fense leftovers
File:Руины у биржы.jpg|"Birzha" site leftovers
File:Урочищедепоунжлаг.jpg|Depot model, Unzhlag museum
References
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