Why are prisoners sent to Siberia?

Under the Imperial Russian penal system, those convicted of less serious crimes were sent to corrective prisons and also made to work. Forced exile to Siberia had been in use since the seventeenth century for a wide range of offenses and was a common punishment for political dissidents and revolutionaries.

Was Joseph Stalin exiled to Siberia?

In 1913 Stalin was exiled to Siberia for the final time, and remained in exile until the February Revolution of 1917 led to the overthrow of the Russian Empire.

What was a Gulag What was the purpose of gulags?

The Gulag was a system of Soviet labour camps and accompanying detention and transit camps and prisons. From the 1920s to the mid-1950s it housed political prisoners and criminals of the Soviet Union. At its height, the Gulag imprisoned millions of people.

Why did Stalin use gulags?

From 1929 until Stalin’s death, the Gulag went through a period of rapid expansion. Stalin viewed the camps as an efficient way to boost industrialization in the Soviet Union and access valuable natural resources such as timber, coal and other minerals.

Who are the Russian political prisoners of Siberia?

The group that looms largest among the early political exiles to Siberia is the Decembrists (in Russian, Dekabristy ), young officers who in December 1825 attempted to change the course of Russian history.

Why was Siberia important to the Tsars of Russia?

Any discussion of Siberia is incomplete without an examination of its role in the history of Russia as a penal colony. Russian Tsars exiled many political opponents, as well as common criminals, to prison camps and remote villages in the Siberian vastness. Such exiles, many of whom were highly educated, helped transform Siberia itself.

Why was Siberia considered to be a penal colony?

While several Western European settlements, such as Australia and Georgia also started as penal colonies, they typically outgrew those functions within a few decades; Siberia, on the other hand, retained that role for hundreds of years. In certain respects, it still serves as a place of punishment and exile.

Who was sentenced to eternal exile in Siberia?

The Law Code of 1649 gave Russia’s tsars the authority to condemn fugitive serfs, rebels, robbers, thieves, religious dissenters, counterfeiters, beggars, and “anyone who drove his horses into a pregnant woman and caused her to miscarry” to “eternal exile” in Siberia.