The majority of workers were criminal convicts, up to 2,000 in number. After national-liberation movements in Poland and Lithuania were suppressed, Polish and Lithuanian insurgents were sent to the Kara katorga. The first small group was sent there after the Polish uprising of 1830-1831. However, the majority of political convicts were Polish insurgents of 1863, about 180 persons. Later a number of Russian revolutionaries were sent there, the majority being members of the Narodnaya Volya organization. In total, 185 men and 32 women were political prisoners at Kara katorga.