Dalstroy

 ( Gulag Industry ) 

DalstroyAlso romanized Dalstroi. (, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust,; acronym: ГУСДС. was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Oblast, Chukotka, parts of Sakha Republic and parts of present-day Kamchatka Krai.

Initially it was established as General Directorate of Construction in the Far North (Главное Управление строительства Дальнего Севера) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union. target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Kolyma region - Central Intelligence Agency In 1938 it was placed under the NKVD and in 1945 it was reorganized and renamed. After the 1952 reorganization it was known as Main Directorate of Camps and Construction of the Far North..

Dalstroy oversaw the development and mining of the area. Over the years, Dalstroy created some 80 Gulag camps across the Kolyma region. As a result of a number of decisions, the total area covered by Dalstroy grew to three million square kilometers by 1951. The town of Magadan was the base for these activities.

Dalstroy authorities chose civilians employed as labor force, but faced with the harsh climate, with long winters and extremely low temperatures, working conditions were brutal from the onset. After the organization was placed under the NKVD in 1938, prisoners from various forced labor camps (ITL - Исправительно-трудовой лагерь) of the USSR were used as miners, as well as for the building of the infrastructure that the region lacked. Development of the area included industrial, railway, airfield, harbor and road construction, as well as providing the administrative and urban structure for a territory which previously had had no roads and no cities. A.I. Shirokov. The history of the formation and activities of Dalstroy in 1931-41

The Okhotsk Sea shore of the Kolyma region was sparsely inhabited by Evens. Since the area was chosen as a harbor for future operations, a plan for the establishment of an East Even Cultural Base (Восточно-Эвенская культбаза) was carried out. After surveying the area in 1928, the spot of the base was chosen by Karl Luks at a certain location in Nagaev Bay. Construction began in 1929 in order to settle and re-educate the local population and to educate the younger generation in line with the Soviet Cultural Revolution. Among the structures built, there were three residential buildings, a school, a veterinary station, a hospital, a bathhouse and a boarding school. Акт о выборе площади для месторасположения Восточно-Эвенской (Нагаевской) культурной базы (1929 г.) By the end of the year there were 75 residents. However, there was resistance from the part of the native population to the system of cooperatives, district committees and to have their children educated at the school of the cultural base. In the first academic year 1929/1930, only 17 students enrolled at the school and even though the number of students rose to 44 in the following year, the base was wrapped up owing to low efficiency. However, the village of Nagaevo grew around the base and the Kamchatka Joint-Stock Company (AKO) erected a building. More ships entered the harbor and the area continued developing, paving the way for modern Magadan. Some of the East Even Cultural Base buildings survived well into the 1980s. Magadan - History of the development and formation of the city

Историческая хроника Магаданской области: События и факты, (Historical Chronicle of the Magadan Region) 1917–1972, Magadan, 1975
     

In his book Red Arctic, John McCannon explains how Dalstroy initially relied on Glavsevmorput or GUSMP (Russian acronym for Main Administration of the Northern Sea Route, a Soviet agency for exploiting resources across the far north) for coordination of supplies and transport. Glavsevmorput managed railway traffic to Vladivostok and shipping from there to Magadan. Over the years, however, as Dalstroy grew more powerful, its director Eduard Berzin obtained ships of his own so as to have more freedom of action. By 1938 Glavsevmorput had lost much of its political support, leaving Dalstroy firmly in control.

In November 1948, under pressure from the Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy, Dalstroy played a pioneering role in the reform of the Soviet forced labour system. After it introduced a wage for prisoners and other measures to stimulate productivity, it became fully self-financing. This led to the Dalstroy pilot model quickly spreading throughout the country. The Volga–Don Canal was among the first projects to emulate its approach.