Friday, January 13, 2017

Mapping the Soviet Gulag Camps


Under Joseph Stalin the Gulag was the government agency that administered the forced labor camp system in the Soviet Union. The camps were used to house political prisoners and other convicts. The prisoners lived in harsh conditions and their slave labor was used in industrialization projects by the Soviet Union. These projects included timber production, mining and large construction projects. It is estimated that at least 1.5 million prisoners died in the forced labor camps under Stalin.

The Gulag Online Virtual Museum is an interactive map based portal of archaeological and archival research, oral history and geographical data about the Gulag labor camps. The application maps and provides information about individual Gulag labor camps. However the application is much more than just a simple map of the Soviet Gulag network.

The Gulag Online Virtual Museum provides a detailed history of how the Gulag system was introduced and used within the Soviet Union. It also includes information about the lives of individual prisoners in the labor camps, 360 panoramic images from inside labor camps, and vintage Soviet maps and aerial images.

The Gulag Online Virtual Museum also includes a 3D model of a Soviet era labor camp. The 3D model allows you to take a virtual tour of a Stalin labor camp and visit the typical buildings that you could find in a Gulag camp.

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