Part 3, Chapter 22: The Zenith of the Camp-Industrial Complex—Summary

After the war, Soviet citizens and prisoners looked forward to an easier time. People began to openly complain about the conditions they lived in, and rumors spread quickly about prisoners being freed and the elimination of collective farms. However, this did not happen. Stalin, in the wake of the atomic bomb, rededicated the country to military and industrial production and again tightened his control over Soviet Russia. Authorities began a new series of arrests, targeting the army, ethnic minorities, and collective farmers. Former prisoners, particularly politicals, were rearrested. Thus, the Gulag expanded after the war, reaching a count of more than two and half million prisoners by the early 1950's. This led to several changes in the camps.

While the old political prisoner had rarely actually been political...