Subject Headings for Soviet Labor Camps
A great deal of material is being produced in Russia and other former Soviet republics about the Soviet labor camp system commonly known as the Gulag. Cataloging practice has varied quite widely in terms of subject heading provision for this area, and this guidance aims to help catalogers take a more uniform approach. Catalog records for resources about the Gulag might contain LCSH covering the camps themselves, activity in the camps, or the prisoners (and the nature of their imprisonment). This chapter provides guidance on these aspects and also ends with a section about spet︠s︡pereselent︠s︡y - those subject to internal Soviet exile.
Variations in practice have largely concerned subject headings for the camps. There are two specific authorized access points for the Gulag administrative system:
The former is the earlier authorized access point for the system, the latter is its successor heading. These are names of the Soviet government agencies that administered the state prison system, including correctional labor camps. Generally these specific subject headings should be used only when the resource being cataloged covers these agencies’ history, activities, the biography of their officials, and so on. In some cases, when a resource on a specific camp also includes more general information on the whole camp system, an additional subject heading for one or both of these corporate bodies could be assigned.
The cataloger will therefore frequently need to use more general LCSH to refer to the system instead of (or as additions to) these corporate headings. What term should be used? Practice has varied widely, from Prisons to Labor camps to Concentration camps. None of these fits comfortably. Prisons is too general; the scope note of Labor camps links it specifically to “camps constructed by public or private agencies for the housing of non-compulsory laborers”; and Concentration camps is a term connected more closely with Central/East European camps of the Second World War.
Catalogers are encouraged to use instead the term Penal colonies. The authority record currently lacks a scope note, but the Library of Congress Classification Schedule includes the following note for Penal colonies (HV8935-HV8962): “Class here works on distant or overseas settlements created to punish criminals through forced labor and separation from society”. This description fits the Gulag network much more closely than the other subject headings do.
Note that authorized access points have been created for many specific camps (e.g., Solovet︠s︡kiĭ lagerʹ osobogo naznachenii︠a︡), and these can be used as subject headings when appropriate. While “concentration camp” has sometimes been used as a qualifier for names of individual Soviet camps, such practice is now discouraged.
The activity of prisoners is described through the use of the subject heading (normally geographically subdivided) Forced labor.
The Gulag contained “ordinary” criminals and political prisoners. Most resources focus on the latter group, and records for these would use the subject heading Political prisoners (frequently in the string Political prisoners--Soviet Union and also often accompanied by Political persecution--Soviet Union).
In addition to the Gulag prison system, forced migration was imposed on many people. The Russian term for these involuntary migrants is spet︠s︡pereselent︠s︡y (“special settlers”). The subject heading Forced migration, subdivided geographically, is standardly used. There is no personal parallel subject heading for this (i.e., Forced migrants). Instead, the cataloger should use the appropriate subject heading for the kind of people subjected to this exile as covered by the resource in question (e.g., ethnic group or general group such as, again, Political prisoners*). The same geographical subdivision would be used.
Examples (in MARC format):
650 0 Political prisoners ‡z Soviet Union.
650 0 Forced migration ‡z Soviet Union.
*note: while spet︠s︡pereselent︠s︡y were technically “freer” than prisoners kept in a prison, the terms Political prisoners for those forced into exile for political reasons and Forced labor for the nature of spet︠s︡pereselent︠s︡y’s work are appropriate.
Revised: Dec. 12, 2015