Magadan and the evolution of the Dal´stroi bosses in the 1930s.

• Published in: Cahiers du monde russe
• Main Author: NORDLANDER, David J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Éditions de l’EHESS 2016
• Subjects: hist; hisphilso; Magadan; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/8472

AbstractAlthough significant as the focal point of the infamous Gulag, Magadan and its environs have long remained one of the “blank spots” of Soviet history. Yet this prison capital can tell us much about the nature and mechanism of Stalinist rule. Based upon a number of central and regional archives, this article concerns the changes in provincial administration in this subarctic metropolis throughout the Soviet 1930s. While the political calculus of Magadan always involved repression, there were obvious variations in policy that reflected both the times and larger national trends. The initial generation of camp bosses, raised at least in part on the more utopian goals of the Bolshevik Revolution, proved in retrospect to be a somewhat moderate cohort that took seriously the official goals of inmate rehabilitation and social restitution. At the same time, they were relatively competent economic managers capable of fulfilling key industrial targets set by the Kremlin. All this changed in the watershed year of 1937, when the full force of the Ezhovshchina hit Magadan and forever altered its bureaucratic culture. Economic output fell dramatically as political violence rose, all under the auspices of a new camp management team socialized by the harshening realities of the time. An uneasy truce came in 1939 with the establishment by Moscow of yet another local hierarchy, formed to reemphasize production but nevertheless cynical in its political outlook. Parroted in public discourse for years thereafter, the lofty ideals of October had lost all content and fallen victim to the earthquake of the Great Purges. RésuméMagadan et l’évolution des directeurs du Dal´stroj dans les années 1930.Bien qu’elle doive son importance à sa position centrale au sein du Goulag, Magadan est longtemps restée invisible dans l’histoire de l’URSS. Cependant, cette capitale du monde carcéral peut nous fournir un grand nombre de renseignements sur la nature et les rouages du pouvoir stalinien. Notre article traite des changements survenus ...