Photographs by Alexander Zelinsky
The memoirs of former Dal’story’s prisoners are not rich in descriptions: all of them are usually briefly telling about inclement climate and permafrost, about dazzling snow and wilted dwarf northern plants. So much the more striking impression make on us now these photos – the camp’s hell was located in incredibly beautiful environment. Vast open spaces and mountain ranges going beyond the horizon offer to a contemporary free beholder the feeling of easy flying, hardly accessible for a prisoner. They saw and felt differently. The simple comparison of these two views may be in a way more eloquent than their narrations: things overlooked by them are not less striking than their evidences.
The exhibited photos were taken during the expedition in August 2010. They show the remains of several camp departments which formed together the system of Chaunsky corrective labour camp (Chaunlag) in the north of Chukot. Along with the photos there exhibited some objects found on the place of former camps, prisoners’ belongings and details of equipment.
Chaunlag was established to develop the uranium deposits, found in 1947 by the geological party headed by Igor Rozhdestvensky. It was the very place where the stuff for the first Russian nuclear bombs was extracted. The camp’s administration was situated in the settlement (which is now the town) Pevek; its departments were located around Pevek (settlements Severny, Vostochny and Zapadny). The uranium camps of Dal’story had sinister fame, for in addition to severe climate and hard work there was a radiation area. The most horrible place among all the uranium mines was apparently the camp Bytygychag on Kolyma river, which also formed a part of the Chaunlag system. The mines of Chukot, according to the memoirs, were relatively safe for living and working. Nevertheless, in a short period of camp’s existence there arose a cemetery of prisoners and camp functionaries (and among them there are some children graves).
Chaunlag persisted no longer than two years, from 1951 till 1953. The extraction of the uranic ore was unexpectedly stopped, and there was no any systematic completion of works. After the order about cessation of mining the mines were abandoned, and a lot of instruments and pieces of equipment were left at place. Now the barracks made of stone, the building of concentration mill, and the remains of mining equipment remind about the former camp. All this blends with the desolate landscape, making a kind of surrealistic impression. The picture is intensified by kekurs (free-standing rocks appeared as a result of weathering) which often have whimsical forms.
The camps of Caun-Chukot were the integral part of a large trust Dal’sroy, established in 1931 to develop the uninhabited territories of Far North and persisted until 1957. Colonization and development of these places were realized mainly by prisoners, and the most of local settlements were first established as camps of the GULAG system. The deposits of gold, tin and uranic ore, found in early 30-s, determined the extreme importance of this area for the development of Soviet sate; hard climatic conditions and lack of necessary facilities probably dictated the solution: the region was developed by colonists who had no chance to quit it. One of the most rigorous and unprejudiced evidences about the Far Northern camps is written by Varlam Shalamov. His stories show the unbelievable reality, which one can’t fit in consciousness. It is symbolic, that even the remains of that kind of existence look now as something beyond the reality.
Alexander Zelinsky
was born in 1974 in Moscow;
studied at the Moscow Aircraft Institute;
journalist, photographer, archaeologist specialized on the period of the World War II;
organizes and leads expeditions devoted to the search of lost soldiers and indication of non-registered war burials;
collaborates as a journalist to the “War Archaeology” magazine and to the Internet sites dedicated to the history of the World War II;
participated in a series of trophies organized in Leningrad, Smolensk and Tver’ regions, champion of Russia (2001, “Russian roads” team).
