Norilsk uprising
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Norilsk uprising was a major uprising of the GULAG labor camp inmates in Norillag, Norilsk, Russia, in the summer of 1953, shortly after Joseph Stalin's death. It was the first major revolt within the Gulag system in 1953-1954,[1] although earlier numerous cases of unrest in Gulag camps are known.
In May-August 1953, the inmates of the Gorlag-Main camp went on strike, which lasted 69 days. It was not exactly uprising, since the inmates did not have any weapons, although initially during the inquest it was suggested by MVD to classify it as "an anti-Soviet armed counter-revolutionary uprising". (Eventually the Soviet court used the term "mass insubordination of the inmates to the camp administration".) Neither it was a simply strike: the actions included a wide spectrum of nonviolent forms of protest within the Soviet law: meetings, letters to government, hunger strikes. For this reason, the term "Uprising of the Spirit" was suggested, as a form of nonviolent protest against the Gulag system. [2]
The uprising was the topic of the 2006 Ukrainian documentary "Mystery of the Norilsk uprising" ("Загадка Норильського повстання") by Myhaylo Tkachuk.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ William D. Pederson, “Norilsk Uprising of 1953,” Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History (Gulf Breeze, Florida: Academic International Press, 1976) Vol. 25
- ^ Макарова А. Норильское восстание. Май - август 1953 года, in: Опыт ненасилия в XX столетии. Социально-этические очерки /Под ред. Р.Г. Апресяна. Сектор этики Института философии РАН - М.: Аслан, 1996. (Russian)
- ^ Mystery of the Norilsk uprising
- History of the Norilsk Uprising - A Brief Record of Events", a memoir by Yevhen Hrytsyak (Євген Грицяк) (Ukrainian)
- IEvhen Hrytsiak , "The Norilsk uprising: Short memoirs", Munchen, Ukrainisches Institut fur Bildungspolitik (1984) 63p.
