CAMP DAILY ROUTINE OF UKRAINIAN PROFESSORS-HUMANITARIANS: BAMLAG

Abstract

The Ukrainian humanitarian intellectuals became the object of the totalitarian regime repressions at the end of 1920–1930s. Ordinary social conditions of cultural life centers changed drastically. Even harsher conditions waited for the repressed humanitarian intellectuals — the conditions of Stalin’s GULAG prisons, concentration camps, and an exile. The survival strategies at GULAG’s extreme conditions had many differences and yet had common features. The subject matter of this article is an daily routine of the Ukrainian humanitarian intellectuals in 1930s. The objective of this research is to reflect upon the everyday life of well-known Ukrainian scientists, professorshumanitarians Stephan Taranushenko, Vasyl Dubriovskyi, Dmytro Gordieiev, and Vsevolod Zummer, who at different times were connected to Kyiv and its scientific environment. They met at BAMLAG (Urulha, Svobodniy) — where they were constructing the Baukal-Amur highway and two ways of Transsyb. Social transformations in the concentration camp had a sweeping character. But the Ukrainian humanitarians worked hard, under the psychological and ideological pressure, to the extent possible were doing art as well. The humanitarians of those days were forced to show their loyalty to the totalitarian regime. The sources for this paper are not only Vasyl Dubrovskyi’s memorials of concentration camp but also the documents and memoirs of Ivan Chystyakov, who at that time was a commander of BAMLAG security division. It was reflected how the prisoners were forced to a more productive work. The camp administration used food and the early release conditions to achieve that. The conclusion was the next — the Ukrainian professors managed to survive and left BAMLAG before the date due.