Introduction

Abstract

It is something of a historical irony that the phenomenon with which Stalin is perhaps most widely identified — forced labour and repression — should have been so little known for so long. So little known, that is, in the detailed and comprehensive manner which would give a fuller understanding of its complex structure; not just to be aware that the Gulag system of forced labour camps existed, was extensive, horrific, and claimed millions of victims, but to know also such perhaps more mundane minutiae as its administrative structure, economic significance, internal subdivisions, and personnel policy.¹