Woman in Camp Society: Problems of Sexual Exploitation and Interpersonal Relations (Based on the Materials of Karlag and Peschanlag)

Research Article

Abstract

This article examines one of the most complex and taboo aspects of camp everyday life – the position of women in Kazakhstani correctional labour camps in the 1930s-1950s, focusing on survival strategies via sexual relations. This issue is the least studied in Kazakh historiography. The research is based on previously unpublished documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, fund R-9414 – Main Directorate of Places of Imprisonment (sometimes unofficially referred to as the “GULAG archive”), as well as the testimonies of former prisoners, which allow us to reconstruct the practice of sexual relations within the camp society. The study addresses the political and moral state of the Karlag military guard, which was notably at a low level. The article provides facts about the cohabitation of guards with female prisoners. The report on the results of the operational and service activities of the paramilitary guards of the camps and colonies of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs for 1951 to the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel General I.A. Serov, was discussed. Information concerning the negative aspects of the activities of the paramilitary guards (VOKhR) is presented. The article assesses the condition of discipline within the 2nd Industrial and Karadzhar divisions and Espinsky, Prostornensky, and SKhOS (Agricultural Experimental Station) independent platoons based on the report on the operational performance of the paramilitary security units of the Karlag under the Ministry of Justice of the USSR. Primary focus is on the under-researched and ethically complex phenomenon of “sex behind barbed wire” as a survival strategy and a mechanism for physical adaptation. According to the meticulously documented case (April 1952) on cohabitation between prisoners and the officers, guards, and civilian employees of the 4th camp division of the Special Peschany Camp (MVD USSR), the authors analyse both forced and consensual forms of sexual contact. The study provides facts, detailing the circumstances. while also examining the camp administration’s policies regarding the professional misconduct of officers, VOKhR sergeants, and overseers. The obtained data indicate that sexual relations under conditions of camp confinement should be considered along a continuum – from direct coercion to forced adaptive forms of behavior determined by the asymmetry of power between guards and prisoners. This study is based on archival documents and testimonies of former female inmates, enabling a reconstruction of the gender hierarchy within the camp's social structure.