User:Idashyn/Akmola camp wives traitors to the Motherland

The Akmola camp of the wives of traitors to the Motherland (A. L. Zh. I. R - .Акмолинский лагерь жён изменников Родины ) is the spoken name of the 17th women's special camp unit of the Karagandy ITL in the Akmola region, Kazakhstan (1938-1953).

The largest Soviet women's camp, one of 3 "islands" of the "GULAG Archipelago". The name is associated with the composition of prisoners, much of which was repressed in accordance with the operational order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 00486 as FMTMs (CHSIRs) – “family members of traitors to the Motherland” settlement of labor settlements (now Akmol village (formerly Malinovka), Akmola region of Kazakhstan).

In 1938, there were about 8,000 female prisoners in the camp, including 4,500 FMTM (CHSIR). About 1500 more ChSIR were located in other departments of Karlag.

Camp history
Created on the basis of the order of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs PCIF (NKVD) of the USSR dated August 15, 1937 in the settlement of Tonkeris (Malinovka) south-west of Akmolinsk (now Nur-Sultan - the capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan) as a branch of the Karaganda camp KarCamp (KarLAG). In accordance with the decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR dated June 8, 1934, the punishment of imprisonment from 5 to 10 years or a reference to distant regions of Siberia for 5 years was established for members of the “families of traitors to the Motherland”. Camp "ALZHIR" occupied a territory of 30 hectares. There were several branches in the Karaganda and Akmola regions.

In 1931, on the spot of the future ALZHIR special settlement No. 26 was established for special settlers expelled from the Saratov region. Later, special settlers from other localities of the USSR were brought here: in 1932 - from the Byelorussian SSR, a year later - 54 families from the Crimea, later added to them were families of special settlers from the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR.

The camp was opened at the beginning of 1938 on the basis of the 26th settlement of labor settlements as the R-17 Forced Labor Camp. Starting from January 10, 1938, trains began to arrive at the camp. Within six months, the department overflowed, and the leadership of Karlag was forced to temporarily distribute the next stages of convicts ČSIR to other camp offices, and by the autumn to create another special department for ČSIR - Spasskoe.

In early 1950, the camp “ALZHIR” was liquidated, but until rehabilitation in 1958, convicts had no right to return to their previous place of residence. In 1953, the 17th Akmola camp of Karlag was closed.

Heads of Department

 * Bredikhin Alexander Iosifovich - in 1938
 * Barinov Sergey Vasilyevich - the end of the 30s - the beginning of the 40s.
 * Yuzipenko Mikhail Terentevich - supervised LO in the years of the Second World War

Prison conditions
Unlike most of the camps of Karlag, the 17th compartment was surrounded by several rows of barbed wire, and guard towers were installed. The camp was located a lake, overgrown with reeds. Reed served for heating the barracks in the winter and for building in the summer.

The conditions of detention did not differ from those in the Karlag. The regime of the “special camp department” that existed for the first year and a half imposed additional restrictions on prisoners. In particular, correspondence was prohibited, receipt of parcels was prohibited, there was a ban on work in the specialty. Nevertheless, the majority of women with “necessary” camp professions worked in their field. Humanitarian specialists (musicians, poets, teachers, etc.), who received the TF category at the medical commission, were employed in agricultural fields and as ancillary workers at the construction site. Sick, infirm, old men and children worked in embroidery and garment factories.

Attitude of the local population to prisoners
According to the memoirs, the local population distrusted the stories of women prisoners about the reasons for their imprisonment in the camp. Although contacts of local residents and prisoners were limited, but for the construction of the camp, a significant area was seized from the local population. In this territory there were several Kazakh villages and seven villages with a “European” population (a total of 4861 farms with 21,979 people). Due to the construction of the camp, all this population was resettled to other areas of the Karagandy region. Part of the cattle belonging to local residents was taken for the needs of the camp.

Children in ALZHIR
Some women in ALZHIR had small children with whom they were kept. There were pregnant women among the prisoners. The situation changed in 1951. On April 24, 1951, all women who were pregnant and had children in the camp, as well as many women who had children who were out of the camp, were released from Soviet prisons.

Famous prisoners
During the Great Patriotic War, more than 8 thousand women were kept in the “ALZHIR” camp. Among them are the sister of Marshal M. N. Tukhachevsky, the wife and daughter of A. S. Yenukidze, the wives of S. Seifullin, B. Maylina, T. Ryskulova, S. Kozhanova, T. Zhurgenova, N. Nurmakova, S. Asfendiyarova, and many others.

Akmola New Martyrs
At the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000, 12 prisoners of the Akmola women's camp were glorified in the assembly of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church for general church worship:


 * Evdokia Prohorovna Andrianova - nun (Article 58-10, sentence twice - 3 + 8 years ITL, shot in 1942);
 * Anna Antonovna Vodolanova (b. 1890) - a peasant woman (art. 58-10, sentence - 6 years ITL, shot in 1942);
 * Akilina Stepanovna Dubovskaya (b. 1892) - a peasant woman (art. 58-10, sentence - 10 years ITL, shot in 1942);
 * Natalia Fedorovna Kopytina (b. 1885) - a peasant woman (art. 58-10, sentence - 8 years ITL, shot in 1942);
 * Alexandra Mikhailovna Smolyakova (b. 1880) - a peasant woman (art. 58-10, sentence - 10 years ITL, shot in 1942);
 * Irina Lavrentievna Gumenyuk (b. 1885) - a peasant woman (Art. 127, sentence - 8 years ITL, shot in 1942);
 * Ksenia Mikhailovna Radun (born in 1875) - a peasant woman (Art. 127, sentence - 5 years ITL, executed in 1942);
 * Marfa Ivanovna Dudarenko (b. 1885) - a peasant woman (art. 58-10, sentence - 3 years ITL, executed in 1942);
 * Domna Efimovna Vasilkova (b. 1887) - a peasant woman (Article 58-10, sentence - 3 years ITL, executed in 1942);
 * Tatyana Ignatyevna Kushnir (born in 1889) - a peasant woman (Article 58-10, sentence - 2 years ITL, executed in 1942);
 * Natalia Semenovna Karih (b. 1885) - the head of the church (art. 58-10, sentence - 8 years ITL, executed in 1942);
 * Justina Matveevna Melanich (born in 1887) - a peasant woman (Article 58-10, sentence - 2 years of ITL, in the camp she was sentenced to 10 years of ITL).

In total, in 1942, about 50 female prisoners of ALZHIR were executed.

Museum-memorial complex to the memory of victims of political repression and totalitarianism "ALZHIR"
The museum-memorial complex of the memory of victims of political repression and totalitarianism “ALZHIR” was opened on May 31, 2007 at the initiative of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev in the village Akmol of the Tselinograd district of the Akmola region, in the place of the former “26th point” of the labor settlement where it was created Akmola Karlaga Branch, which later received the name Akmola camp wives of traitors of the Motherland. The opening of the museum was timed to the 10th anniversary of the adoption in 1997 of the decree “On the establishment of a day to commemorate victims of political repression - May 31”, the 70th anniversary of the start of mass political repression. The author of the museum-memorial complex is the honored architect of Kazakhstan S. Zh. Narynov.

The memory of ALZHIR
In 1990-1991, a Kazakh researcher Z. K. Suraganova was in Malinovka, recording interviews with former ALZHIR prisoners, their relatives and camp guards. The collected material (as well as the photographs transferred to it) Suraganova deposited in the regional archive of the Tselinograd region and the Tselinograd regional historical museum of local history.

Other USSR women's camps
In addition to ALZHIR, three “female” camps functioned in the USSR:


 * Temlyakovsky - 40 km from the city of Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod)
 * Dzhangidzhirsky - 100 km from the city of Frunze (Bishkek)
 * Temnikovskiy - in the village. Potma (Zubovo-Polyansky district of Mordovia) (as of August 1, 1948 there were 4371 women among 13877 prisoners).

Facts
Kazakhs fed prisoners of the Stalinist camp with Kurt, who was mistaken for guards by the guards.

Literature
Из КНЭ:
 * — Воспоминания жены репрессированного, арестованной в 1937 г., охватывают период с ее детства (1910-е годы) до конца 50-х годов. Дано подробное описание Акмолинского лагеря № 26 (АЛЖИР).
 * Узницы «АЛЖИРа»: Список женщин—заключённых Акмолинского и других отделений Карлага / Ассоциация жертв незаконных репрессий г. Астаны и Акмол. обл., Междунар. о-во «Мемориал»; Сост.: В. М. Гринёв, В. В. Горецкий и др. — М., Звенья, 2003. — 568 с., ил. (фот.).
 * Алжир (лагерь) &#32;&#47;&#47;&#32;Казахстан. Национальная энциклопедия. — Алматы: Қазақ энциклопедиясы, 2004. — Т. I. — ISBN 9965-9389-9-7.
 * Тасымбеков А., Крик души. Архипелаг Алжира, Алма-Ата, 1994.
 * Адилет. Материалы круглых столон и семинаров, Алма-Ата, 1995.
 * Дильманов С., Кузнецова Е. КарЛАГ, Алма-Ата, 1997.

Links

 * Акмолинские новомученицы
 * Сайт Музейно-мемориального комплекса «АЛЖИР»
 * АЛЖИР на Викимапии

When writing this article, material from the ''“Kazakhstan. National Encyclopedia'' "(1998-2007), provided by the editorial" Kazakh encyclopedia "under the license Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Unported.