CHAPTER 9


    The secrecy of Kolyma is still being continued. This land, though infamously steeped in human suffering and death, is still cloaked in mystery to the world. Western encyclopedias, documentary film, and journalism have barely flickered the light of a match within miles of this grim place. Traditional Russian secrecy, dating back to the Tsars, became a parallel of western policy towards the Soviet past, heedless of the countless unmarked graves and the bloodstains still to be found on the permafrost. The recent Russian illustrated publication "Magadan," mentioned no slave labor in the development of this Kolyma's capitol and shies away from any information that would discredit the place's genocidal past.

    Encyclopedia Britannica merely mentions the name Kolyma as an arctic river with additional insignificant comments about gold mining activities in its Upper basin (p.878.v.5). From its further pages we learn that Magadan's economic development is wholly restricted to mining in several locations. Another note (p.479 v.6) gives only the following information about slave-built sub-arctic city: "good harbor led to its founding in 1933; later a road was built from Magadan crossing the mountains of the Kolyma gold fields. There is a teacher institute in the town." To some men of the West the only "reliable" source on Soviet and Russian matters are Soviets and Russians themselves.

    This strange, unjustified and unexplained attitude of the West is best presented by Prof. Wladyslaw J. Ciesielewicz, who concluded his paper "Russian Bloody Gold" with the following comments on the matter of secrecy of the Kolyma's infamous past:

    "George Orwell predicted in his "1984" fiction that the victims of the Big Socialist Brother would be eradicated even from the memory of the people to become true non-beings. Today, in 1985 (the same goes for 1994) of the real world, this fate actually befallen to 4-6 million Kolyma victims of Russian Socialism. Due to the censorship in Russia and her colonies (former East European satellites) and in democratic West these people virtually disappeared from the dustbin of history. They are mentioned only in a few books and in some obscure, often unpublished memoirs, written in languages other than English that no one ever reads. But there is no television documentary series, motion pictures, major historical studies or discussions in textbooks on this subject, and no human rights conferences, United Nations resolutions, Congressional hearings, monuments or memorials anywhere to remind us of the Great Kolyma Holocaust."

Kolyma, still one of the main centers of mineral resources in the world, has changed its face since Stalin's era. Maybe the slave labor still exists there, but likely on a smaller scale and limited to common criminals. Yet behind it, there is a long period of human suffering and sacrifice of life, which should not be forgotten. It is the place of human genocide, like Auschwitz, and as such deserves to be documented in the history of the world on equal basis with Nazi centers of human destruction.


RETURN TO INDEX NEXT CHAPTER