A major part of the Combine's workforce consisted of 75-85 thousand Beltbaltlag prisoners. In addition, the Combine included 21 "special settlements" ("spetsposyolok") with some 30 thousand residents, mostly dispossessed farm families transported to Karelia from the USSR's warmer regions. In addition to convicts and "special settlers", the Combine employed about 4500 free employees and a paramilitary security force. In all, the Combine's employees accounted for about 25% of the population of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.