The Soviet Union’s brutal Gulag labour camps provided “a start in life” as well as food and shelter for the country’s poorest citizens, according to an article published by Russian state media that has sparked anger.
The article, published by the RIA Novosti news agency, admitted that there were “downsides” to life in the notoriously harsh camps, but praised them for allowing people to drag themselves out of poverty.
“For a poor peasant, the urban poor, for a street child — people who literally starved their whole lives — the labour camps provided food three times a day, warm housing and some kind of medical assistance. It was a more or less normal life in comparison,” the article said.
Torture was common in the camps where officials often released people who were about to die to keep the official death toll lower
SOVFOTO/UIG VIA GETTY IMAGES
At least two million people
