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Katorga (, ; from medieval and modern ; and Ottoman Turkish: کادیرغا, ) was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union).
Prisoners were sent to remote penal colonies in vast uninhabited areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East where voluntary settlers and workers were never available in sufficient numbers. The prisoners had to perform forced labor under harsh conditions.
In the Russian language, "katorga" evolved to denote a form of penal labor or a harsh prison system, transcending its initial maritime connotation. This semantic shift underscores the extreme nature of the punishment associated with "katorga," which became synonymous with "prison" in Russian parlance, reflecting the severe conditions faced by those condemned to such labor.
Katorga camps were established in the 17th century by Tsar Alexis of Russia in newly conquered, underpopulated areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East—regions that had few towns or food sources. Despite the isolated conditions, a few prisoners successfully escaped to populated areas. From these times, Siberia gained its fearful connotation of punishment, which was further enhanced by the Soviet Union gulag system.
After the change in Russian penal law in 1847, exile and katorga became common punishments for participants in national rebellion within the Russian Empire. This led to increasing numbers of Polish people sent to Siberia for katorga. These people have become known in Poland as Sybiraks ("Siberians"). Some of them remained there, forming a Polish minority in Siberia.
The most common occupations in katorga camps were mining and timber work. Another example involved the successful construction of the Amur Cart Road ().
In 1891 Anton Chekhov, the Russian writer and playwright, visited the katorga settlements on Sakhalin island in the Russian Far East and wrote about the conditions there in his book Sakhalin Island. He criticized the short-sightedness and incompetence of the officials in charge that led to poor living standards, waste of government funds, and decreased productivity.
Peter Kropotkin, while aide de camp to the governor of in the 1860s, was appointed to inspect the state of the prison system in the area; he later described his findings in his book In Russian and French Prisons (1887).
In 1943 the "katorga labor" () as a special, severe type of punishment was reintroduced. It was initially intended for Nazi collaborators, but other categories of political prisoners (for example, members of deported peoples who fled from exile) were also sentenced to "katorga labor". Prisoners sentenced to "katorga labor" were sent to gulag prison camps with the most harsh regime, and many of them died.
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