Money doesn’t smell
The USSR bought its loyalty to America during World War II
The precious metal is transported by submarines
The GULAG system was founded by the Bolsheviks in the USSR in 1919, when the first forced labor camps appeared in the country. In them all convicts for a period of more than 3 years are obliged to work. Authorities are also concerned about the commercial side of the issue – the GULAG even has its own brand.
Some researchers today claim that prisoners can barely make their own bread. This is not true. In 1950, 12 million rubles were set aside for their maintenance in the USSR, while prisoners built facilities for 900 million rubles a year and produced products for 17 million rubles. The work of the prisoners is profitable.
Large-scale construction projects became the locomotive of the Soviet economy, where convicts, using carts, picks and shovels, built factories and power plants, built roads and built canals.
In 1935, 150,000 prisoners built railways in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, 196,000 worked on the Moscow-Volga canal, and 71,000 participated in the construction of the White Sea-Baltic plant.
Thanks to the work of prisoners, before the war in the USSR there was a sharp breakthrough in non-ferrous metallurgy, increasing the production of nickel, tin, copper, aluminum and magnesium. Prisoners are building new aircraft factories, airports and oil depots. They extract oil and coal, cut down forests and produce huge quantities of timber. Gulag produces products for industry and consumer goods – sewers, valves for stoves, taps, pots, scales, locks, gas masks, clothes, shoes and even furniture.
Dozens of new deposits
Special mention should be made of gold. The turning point in its extraction occurred in the USSR in 1934, largely thanks to the GULAG company – “Dalstroy”, which literally from scratch began to extract precious metals in Colima. In 1935-1936 53 tons of gold were mined, in 1937 the prisoners gave 51.5 tons. In 1940, 176,000 Dalstroy prisoners gave the state 80 tons of precious metal, and in 1941 – 75 tons.
Gold is mined in hellish conditions. During the war, the influx of fresh forces “from the continent” to Colima stopped and thousands of prisoners were sent to the front. Due to lack of labor, a 12-hour working day with a one-hour lunch break was introduced. The supply of equipment has been suspended, the supply of food and household goods is declining. In the conditions of deficit and harsh climate, the workers in Dalstroy not only “fulfill the plan” for the production of gold, but also manage to create their own metallurgical production, make glass, equipment and spare parts, open workshops for sewing clothes, shoes, create own food industry, built a power plant … In 1941 alone, more than 30 new gold deposits were discovered.
During the war, the prisoners of “Dalstroy” gave the country 55.5% of all gold mined, and by 1945 its volume reached 2/3 of the total volume. In addition to gold from 1941 to 1945, Dalstroy mined 19,000 tons of tin, 380 tons of tungsten, which is estimated as a component for the production of armor, and 150 tons of uranium ore.
All this costs the health and lives of many prisoners. 1942 is a particularly difficult year. Due to poor nutrition and unbearable working conditions in some months the mortality rate reaches 30 thousand people. In the end, it was decided by order to establish order with the “feeding” of the prisoners, as the country needs working hands.
“Their pupils dilated with greed”
Liberal historians today consider the supply of military equipment, supplies, and other goods from the United States to be “grants.” But this is not true. For every American button, the USSR pays the United States with gold, tungsten and Russian sable. US Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones admits that “with the supplies from the USSR, we not only returned our money, but also won, which is far from a special case in the trade relations regulated by our state agencies.”
Before giving a loan to the USSR, the Americans came to the country to make sure that the potential debtor would be able to repay the money. This first happened in 1941, when the Red Army literally bled to death in the fiercest battles with the Nazis. US Secretary of State Dean Acheson arrives in Colima at Dalstroy’s gold mines. Seeing the piles of native gold and golden sand, Acheson delivered an inspired speech: “The USSR will pay off all debts in full.” Then the USSR was granted a billion-dollar loan, which the Soviet Union … paid for the supply of weapons. The money ran out by October 1941.
For the second time, US Vice President Henry Wallace visited Dalstroy in 1944. Lenzolot’s chief engineer, Vladimir Leshkov, who accompanied him, later wrote that the American and his entourage at the sight of the gold mined by Gulag prisoners “They dilated their pupils out of greed.”
It should be noted that during the visits of American guests, the prisoners were removed, but it is unlikely that American businessmen do not know how and from whom the gold is mined. But greed prevails. In fact, Stalin bought the loyalty of the United States during World War II with GULAG gold. From the mines, the precious metal goes to a refinery in Moscow, and then, already in bars, through Vladivostok, is delivered to the United States by submarine. Payments were stopped only in 1949, when the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear bomb. In total, the Soviet Union supplied the Americans with 1,500 tons of pure Soviet gold. In addition, the United States receives another 300,000 tons of chromium ore, 32,000 tons of manganese ore, as well as platinum, timber, hides and caviar. The debts were paid by the country only in 2006.
