Putin’s GULAG Many Times Smaller than Stalin’s but Increasingly Resembles Its Predecessor, Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 11 – The Russian prison system under Vladimir Putin is vastly smaller than the GULAG under Stalin but experts suggest that many of its features resemble those of its model and thus could grow over time into something almost as large and horrific as that of the Soviet dictator.

            Two new articles survey suggestions by expert observers that Putin’s GULAG increasingly resembles Stalin’s in almost every way except for size which they acknowledge is hundreds of times smaller (vkrizis.info/russia/fsin-orientiruyut-na-obrazczy-gulaga/ and verstka.media/chto-takoe-gulag).

            Indeed, these observers suggest that one of the few positive developments in the Russian penal system under Putin has been its decline in size. When he came to power, there were approximately a million Russian citizens behind bars; now there are only about 430,000. But they note that there are far more political prisoners than there used to be and more torture.

            Consequently, it is entirely possible that as the Putin regime becomes more repressive, the number of politicals and of prisoners more generally will increase and ever more of the characteristics of the Stalin’s GULAG come to dominate the one that the current Kremlin leader is building.