We trace the birth of the Soviet penal system, moving beyond the Cheka’s secret executions to the bureaucratic machinery of forced labor. This episode explores how the 1929 decree transformed political dissent into industrial output, focusing on key figures like Nikolai Krylenko and the infamous Solovki camp. We examine the daily reality of the zek, the role of the OGPU in managing millions of souls, and how the concept of 're-education through labor' became a cornerstone of Stalinist control. From the initial arrests following the Shakhty trial to the expansion into the Kolyma gold mines, we uncover how the Gulag evolved from a scattered network of prisons into an economic empire that reshaped the Russian landscape and broke countless lives.
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