Part 1: Origins: From experimentation to setting up the forced labour system (1917-1933) • 2019 • episode "S1E1" • Gulag: The Story

Category: History | Torrent: | Subtitle:

In 1918, only a few months after the October Revolution, the first concentration camps appeared. With the aim of getting rid of political adversaries and re-educating the so-called "asocial" elements through work, the new Bolshevik regime conducted its first large-scale experiment on the Solovki archipelago, very close to the Arctic Circle. Thousands of political and common law detainees, men and women, were deported there and subjected to forced labor. With the arrival of Stalin in power, slavery in these camps became a major economic resource. However, the death of thousands of zeks ("prisoners") will not worry the regime, which sees its population as an inexhaustible source of labor...

Make a donation

Buy a brother a hot coffee? Or a cold beer?

Hope you're finding these documentaries fascinating and eye-opening. It's just me, working hard behind the scenes to bring you this enriching content.

Running and maintaining a website like this takes time and resources. That's why I'm reaching out to you. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support my efforts, would you consider "buying me a coffee"?

Donation addresses

BTC: bc1q8ldskxh4x9qnddhcrgcun8rtvddeldm2a07r2v

ETH: 0x5CCAAA1afc5c5D814129d99277dDb5A979672116

With your donation through , you can show your appreciation and help me keep this project going. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a significant impact. It goes directly towards covering server costs.

Gulag: The Story • 2019 • 3 episodes •

Part 1: Origins: From experimentation to setting up the forced labour system (1917-1933)

Part 1: Origins: From experimentation to setting up the forced labour system (1917-1933)

In 1918, only a few months after the October Revolution, the first concentration camps appeared. With the aim of getting rid of political adversaries and re-educating the so-called "asocial" elements through work, the new Bolshevik regime conducted its first large-scale experiment on the Solovki archipelago, very close to the Arctic Circle. Thousands of political and common law detainees, men and women, were deported there and subjected to forced labor. With the arrival of Stalin in power, slavery in these camps became a major economic resource. However, the death of thousands of zeks ("prisoners") will not worry the regime, which sees its population as an inexhaustible source of labor...

2019 • History

Part 2: Propagation: The Gulag in the turmoil of the "Great Terror" and war (1934-1945)

Part 2: Propagation: The Gulag in the turmoil of the "Great Terror" and war (1934-1945)

Glorified at the XVIIth Congress of the Communist Party, in 1934, Stalin launched major projects that would go down in history. The NKVD, which succeeded the GPU, multiplies the camps. The number of deportees passed the one million mark in 1935. A spectacular showcase for the great terror unleashed in 1937, the Moscow trials concealed the extent of the repression that blindly fell on all of Soviet society and anonymous people. In August 1939, after the signing of the German-Soviet pact, hundreds of thousands of Poles, Balts, Western Ukrainians and Moldavians joined some 2 million Soviet deportees in the Gulag camps. Conditions of detention deteriorated appallingly with the invasion of the USSR by the Wehrmacht in June 1941; and in 1945, despite the victory over Nazi Germany, the number of oppressed increased by tens of thousands of men, women and even children who often had no other fault than to have survived the Nazi occupation...

2019 • History

Part 3: Peak and Death: The Gulag's peak and decline (1945-1957)

Part 3: Peak and Death: The Gulag's peak and decline (1945-1957)

At the end of the 1950s, populations of the newly occupied territories of the East and intellectuals remained two categories particularly suspected of anti-Sovietism. Subjected to exhausting tasks like men, women, including many war widows condemned to heavy sentences for petty food pilfering, now represent a quarter of the zeks. Nearly 2 million detainees, many of them on the very edge of survival, are still crammed into the camps. Little by little, these appalling living conditions cause the economic profitability of the Gulag to drop. On March 5, 1953, after Stalin's death, a million releases were announced. In 1956, Khrushchev, exonerating himself from his responsibility, however undeniable, denounced the crimes of Stalinism, provoking an immense shock wave in the world.

2019 • History

You might also like

Normans of the South

Normans of the South

Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Normans on southern Europe and the Middle East. The Normans spread south in the 11th century, winning control of southern Italy and the island of Sicily. There they created their most prosperous kingdom, where Christianity and Islam co-existed in relative harmony and mutual tolerance. It became a great centre of medieval culture and learning. But events in the Middle East provoked the more aggressive side of the Norman character. In 1095, the Normans enthusiastically answered the Pope's call for holy war against Islam and joined the first crusade. They lay siege to Jerusalem and eventually helped win back the holy city from the muslims. This bloody conquest left a deep rift between Christianity and Islam which is still being felt to this day.

S1E2 • The Normans • 2010 • History

Face to Face

After defeating Darius III at Battle of Issus against odds, Alexander falls back and sets sights on unexpected target: Egypt.

S1E3 • Alexander: The Making of a God • 2024 • History

Scanning the Pyramids: Extended Version

Scanning the Pyramids: Extended Version

These scientists' motto is simple: just because a mystery is 4,500 years old doesn't mean it can't be solved. Their mission: to see through the Great Pyramid of Giza and determine, without moving or destroying a single stone, if there are hidden chambers and passages inside. What will they find? Thanks to new technologies, Japanese scientists will fly Drones equipped with photo-gravimetric cameras over of the Giza Plateau, collecting data in order to create a 3D mapping. First attempts have already detected unexpected anomalies.

2017 • History

The Teutonic Knights

The Teutonic Knights

The Teutonic Knights were one of the great chivalric orders that emerged from the Crusades, alongside the Hospitallers and Templars. The Teutonic Knights evolved out of a "fraternity" of German crusaders who took part in the siege of Acre during the Third Crusade. 'Help, defend, Heal' was the motto of the 'Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem', the Teutonic Order. It was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals.

S1E2 • The Crusaders • 2019 • History

Secrets of the Lost City

Secrets of the Lost City

The new treasure map leads Albert Lin to discover lost pyramids at the ancient city of El Palmar and beneath the site of a sacrificial ball game. Hidden treasures reveal the epic scale of the ancient Mayan civilization.

S1E4 • Lost Treasures of the Maya • 2019 • History

The King and the Emperor: 1515-1558

The King and the Emperor: 1515-1558

Child hostages, marriages, battles, and betrayals -- this is the story of Francis I, King of France and Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, and the rivalry that engulfed Europe in war. But in the end, did either of them "win"?

S1E4 • The Real War of Thrones: The True History of Europe • 2017 • History