Karlag And Spassk

Visit of biggest camp of Gulag Karlag and Spassk was established in 1931 during the period of settlement of remote areas of greater USSR and its ethnic republics. Cheap labor was in high demand for these purposes. People were arrested and transported from west of the Ural Mountains to the gigantic labor camp in central Kazakhstan spanning from Akmola Region in the north to the Chu River in the south. Later, after WWII, another wave of prisoners poured in, constituting Soviet former POWs held captive by the Nazis before the Red Army returned them to the Soviet Union. Many Karlag inmates were prisoners sentenced as "enemies of the people" under Article 58 RSFSR.[1] Over 1,000,000 inmates in total served in Karlag over its history. The Karlag branch was located in Spassk, and during the Second World War, the NKVD of the USSR organized special camp No. 99, where over 70 thousand foreign prisoners of war of about 40 nationalities were held[5][6]. The prisoners of the Spassky branch of the Karlag were Rochus Mish and Ahiko Tetsuro[6]. A memorial to the victims of Karlag is now open