THE GULAG STUDY

Joint Commission Support Directorate

Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office

Fifth Edition

Disclaimer: This Study is presented as an interim report of an ongoing investigation. 

Conclusions and judgments are derived from the material received to date. Specific 

accounts and cases are provided to support the topics under discussion and are not 

intended to be an exhaustive listing of material under investigation or consulted.
Front cover: cell door, Perm’-36 Strict-Regime Camp.

Back cover: a panel from the Memorial to Victims of the Gulag, Syktyvkar, Komi 

Republic.
The Gulag Study
This study was prepared by:

 Michael E. Allen

CPO, USN
“One big, dirty, hungry prison place.”

American merchant seaman Delvio Senna describing the USSR

after his release from Soviet detention in 1921.

February 11, 2005

To Our Readers:

After a hiatus of nearly three years, we resume our series of updates on the work 

being done to verify reports alleging that American servicemen were taken into the 

Soviet prison camp system during World War II and the Cold War period. However, 

before we look at the distinctive features of the fifth edition of the Gulag Study that you 

will find in the pages that follow, a word or two about the report’s origins and historical 

antecedents is in order.

The quest for information that would allow the U.S. Side of the U.S.-Russia Joint 

Commission on POW/MIAs to determine whether and which American servicemen were 

transferred to, and detained in, the former Soviet Union is an integral part of the 

Commission’s nearly thirteen-year history. As early as 1993, then U.S. Commission CoChairman, Ambassador Malcolm Toon, provided his counterpart, the late General –

Colonel Dmitrii Volkogonov, a compendium of accounts from multiple, disparate sources 

claiming that Soviet forces, particularly during the Korean War, were involved with the 

treatment and disposition of captured American servicemen, a number of whom were 

believed to have been forcibly taken into the former USSR. The promised response to 

that compendium has never been received from the Russian Side. More recently, in 

November 1999, Ambassador Toon’s immediate successor, retired Major General Roland 

Lajoie, furnished the current Russian Co-chairman, General-Major Vladimir Zolotarev, 

with a personal memoir of a former Soviet citizen containing numerous references to 

American servicemen taken prisoner by Soviet authorities during World War II and the 

Cold War. The memoir, which has triggered considerable public interest, was met by an 

outpouring of skepticism and suspicion when presented to Russian commissioners. A 

written Russian response to the document challenged the accuracy of its claims and the 

motives of its author without attempting to verify the specific incidents it addressed. A 

proposed bilateral investigative approach that would have allowed Commission 

researchers to visit sites noted in the memoir and speak with possible respondents never 

came about. All this has left the question of the transfer of U.S. service members into the 

former USSR unresolved and, by default, has made it a distinctly unilateral U.S. pursuit.

In scope and detail, the Gulag Study’s fifth edition is a more ambitious work than 

its predecessors. Its principal drafter, Chief Petty Officer Michael Allen, draws upon a 

number of published works to offer a close look at the Soviet prison-camp matrix, its 

elaborate structure and vast reach. Using specific case studies, he then presents the 

process by which reports about Americans in the gulag have been analyzed to assess their 

credibility. Joined by others, past and present, from DPMO’s Joint Commission Support 

Directorate, CPO Allen has himself participated in trips to remote sites that have 

generated some of the investigative leads appearing in the study.

The work of the U.S. Side of the Commission to resolve the transfer issue 

continues. Hopefully, at some point, circumstances will change to allow for a thorough, 
bilateral inquiry into this elusive question. In the meanwhile, we proceed with our efforts 

to examine the data we have, pursue new leads, and make our findings known through 

reports such as this. In a sense, we are not unlike the thousands, if not tens of thousands, 

of Russian citizens who have embarked on a similar quest to learn the facts about their 

own relatives who disappeared in the gulag. Ultimately, for them as for us, it is 

persistence which will shape the outcome of this often frustrating, occasionally 

promising, and always daunting enterprise.

Norman D. Kass

Executive Secretary, U.S. Side
Contents

Executive Summary 1

Who We Are 2

 US-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs 

Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office’s Joint Commission

Support Directorate

What We Do 3

How We Do It 4

Sources and Methods

Source Descriptions

State Archives of the Russian Federation

Russian State Military Archives

 National Archives and Records Administration

The Library of Congress

Verification Process

Analytic Process

Case Studies 15

What We’ve Found 17

“Gulag” versus “gulag”

 Former Soviet Law Enforcement and Security Services

Prison Agencies of the Former Soviet Union

The Camps

Special Camps and the “Sharashka” System

Vorkuta-Vorkutlag-Rechlag

Britanka

Americans in the Gulag

Sightings by Geographical Location 34

Moscow 35

Vladimirskaya 37

Mordovska 38

Rostov 41

Kirov 42

Komi 43

Molotov (Perm) 57

Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) 60

Chelyabinsk 61

Novosibirsk 62

Krasnoyarsk 63

Irkutsk 67
Sakha

-Yakutia 71

Chita 77

Magadan 78

Khabarovsk 81

Primorskiy Kray 83

Kamchatka Peninsula 85

Kazakhstan 86

Ukraine 88

Byelorussia and Germany 89
1

Executive Summary

Since it was established as a distinct component of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel 

Office in the fall of 1994, the Joint Commission Support Directorate has carefully 

examined a series of reports and sightings of U.S. servicemen held in the Soviet gulag, a

network of penal camps that crisscrossed the former Soviet Union. Several points have 

become clear. 

First, Americans, including American servicemen, were imprisoned in the former Soviet 

Union. The Soviets and the ir Warsaw Pact allies even transferred some of these

Americans from satellite states such as the German Democratic Republic, to the Soviet 

Union, where they were detained. However, despite our extensive efforts, we have not 

yet acquired definitive, verifiable information that would allow us to determine the scope 

of such transfers or the ultimate fates of those whose lives were directly affected by them.

Secondly, sightings of Americans in the gulag vary by level of detail and clarity of

circumstance. While there are numerous accounts of “American servicemen” who can be 

clearly identified as U.S. or non-U.S. nationals, most reports we have received lack the 

specificity needed to correlate them to individuals still listed as missing.

Thirdly, resolving the questions raised by reports of American servicemen in the Soviet 

Union will remain an elusive task. We continue to pursue permission from the Russian 

government for U.S. investigators to have greater access to former Security Service and 

Military Intelligence officers. To date the results of these efforts have been less than 

encouraging.

Lastly, immersing oneself in memoirs or anecdotal accounts can never substitute for 

unfettered access to historical records. It is these records, after all, which tell the story of 

those foreigners who became part of the deep abyss known as the Soviet gulag. No 

search for the facts about American servicemen in the Soviet prison camp system can be 

considered truly productive or even completely credible unless such access is provided.
2

Who We Are

US-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs

In March 1992, the Presidents of the United States and Russian Federation joined

together to establish the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs (USRJC). The 

work of the Commission focuses on three primary objectives:

- To determine if any American POW/MIAs are being held against their will on the 

territory of the former Soviet Union and, if so, to secure their immediate release 

and repatriation;

- To determine the fate of unaccounted-for members of the U.S. Armed Forces who 

were located on the territory of the former Soviet Union or about whom the 

Russian Government may have information; and

- To clarify facts pertaining to Soviet personnel missing from their war in

Afghanistan, from Cold War-era loss incidents, and from World War II. 

Over the course of the past twelve years, it has embarked on a number of initiatives of 

which the present study is but an example.

Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office’s Joint Commission 

Support Directorate

The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office’s Joint Commission Support 

Directorate (JCSD) provides direct analytical, investigative, and administrative support to 

the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs (USRJC) As one of its principal tasks, 

JCSD has undertaken a in-depth review of the Soviet prison camp system as part of its 

mission to determine the fates of missing American service members.
3

What We Do

Our research covers the entire history of the former Soviet Union. The earliest known 

sightings of American servicemen held in the Soviet Union occurred in the 1920’s 

following the Allied Intervention of 1918-1920. The greatest numbers of reported 

sightings occurred during World War II and through the mid-1950s.

The search for answers involves extensive, on-the-ground field investigations in the 

former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, an oral-interview program, archival research, 

and collaboration with experts in all pertinent disciplines. Our analysts routinely conduct 

research at the United States National Archives and Records Administration, the Library 

of Congress, the State Archives of the Russian Federation, and the Russian State Military 

Archives, as well as many other institutions throughout the world. They have conducted 

hundreds of interviews, reviewed thousands of documents, and spent months traveling—

at times, to some of the most remote places on the Earth—searching for clues and 

evidence. Much of what we have discovered—however fragmentary and inconclusive it 

at times has been—appears in this study. It has been carefully examined, using various 

disciplines and techniques, in order to guide our research and provide answers to our 

questions: Were American servicemen transferred to the former Soviet Union,

particularly during the wars in Southeast Asia and Korea? Were American servicemen 

detained in the former Soviet Union? Are there live American servicemen being held in 

the former Soviet Union?

An Artic village located on the Laptev Sea
4

How We Do It

Sources and Methods

The four previous editions of the Gulag Study have provided a compendium of reported 

sightings primarily arranged by geographical location. These sightings were of

individuals purported to be American citizens, specifically, American servicemen who 

were detained in the former Soviet Union. We have conducted on-the-ground 

investigations and archival research around the world in an effort to verify and, where 

possible, draw informed analytical conclusions. Much of the information in the Gulag 

Study is derived from sources outside the Russian Federation. Research in Poland, 

Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as the Baltic States and Ukraine, has,

in a number of instances, been encouraging. Our research is ongoing in all of these 

nations and elsewhere, as appropriate.

One of the greatest impediments to resolving the questions raised by the Gulag Study is 

the lack of documentary evidence, with incomplete or anecdotal accounts frequently

serving as the sole basis to generate investigative leads. Names, or the lack thereof, 

remain a problem. Many of the accounts lack any associated name, let alone full names, 

of the individuals reportedly encountered. The majority of full names that are available 

do not match the names of any known missing U.S. servicemen. Problematic as it may 

be, this fact, however, does not rule out the possibility that an individual may be a 

missing U.S. serviceman. A source, after all, could have remembered a name incorrectly, 

or the individual sighted may have been using an alias. The latter was the case, for 

example, with Russell R. Pattinger, a soldier from the American Expeditionary Force, 

who was imprisoned in Moscow until 1921. Pattinger used the alias Thomas Hazelwood 

until his repatriation on August 10, 1921.1

Additionally, eyewitness accounts, especially of events that are years in the past, have 

been shown by scientific investigation to be generally unreliable.2 Imagine asking the 

faculty and student body of a school to write down detailed descriptions of all the foreign 

exchange students who had attended that particular institution during a ten-year period 

which ended 20 years prior to an interview. The range of descriptions would be vast, 

with varying degrees of accuracy. This is not unlike the situation we have encountered 

while investigating eyewitness accounts of Americans in the Gulag.

Reported accounts can be grouped into categories based on the source of the information 

and the identity of the supposed American service member. 

 

1

 Americans in Prison in Moscow; Military Observer, Baltic Provinces, Riga to Director of Military 

Intelligence, War Department, Washington, DC, May 3, 1921, Military Intelligence Division (MID), 

Record Group (RG) 165, National Archives, College Park (NACP).

2

 Elaine Cassel, “Behavioral Science Research Leads to Department of Justice Guidelines for Eyewitness 

Evidence.” Virginia Lawyer 48, no. 7 (February, 2000), 

http://www.vsb.org/publications/valawyer/feb00/cassel.pdf.
5

Sources usually obtained information through various forms of contact.

• Direct personal contact with the individual. 

• Visual contact with the individual identified.

• Indirect or second-hand accounts.

The determination of identity as an American or an American serviceman is usually made 

in one or more of the following ways.

• An individual told a source that he was an American and/or an American

serviceman.

• A source deduced through his own means that an individual was an American or 

an American serviceman.

• A third party told a source that an individual was an American or an American 

serviceman.

These possibilities, in turn, give rise to a number of variations. For instance, an

individual may have told a source he was an American citizen and the source may have 

deduced on his own -- or was told by a third party -- that the individual was not only 

American, but was also a soldier.

Individuals reported to be American servicemen typically fall into one of the following 

categories:

• Former POWs held by the Germans, liberated, and later imprisoned by the

Soviets. They are often of Slavic or Germanic descent.

• Members of the Constabulary, Counter-Intelligence Corps, or an intelligence 

agency arrested or kidnapped by the Soviets, usually in Germany or Austria, 

between 1945 and 1960.

• Soldiers stationed in Germany or Austria arrested or kidnapped after inadvertently 

crossing into the Soviet zone.

• Crewmembers of an aircraft, usually a reconnaissance plane, shot or forced down 

over or near Soviet territory.

• Korean- or Vietnam-War POWs transferred to the Soviet Union. 3

• Defectors or deserters.

This study allows for the possibility of all of these scenarios, with specific circumstances 

making some more plausible than others. 

Sightings, however, are only one piece of the puzzle. By using a fusion of all-source 

information, JCSD analysts continue to work on resolving the questions central to the 

Gulag Study in as complete and accurate a manner as possible. 

 

3

 Reports of Vietnam War sightings are less common than those received for other periods being reviewed.
6

A hand-drawn map depicting 1950’s era prison camps along the Lena River

A native Yakutian during an interview in Tiksi, Yakutia
7

Source Descriptions

Gulag Study Support Document Database

JCSD analysts have combed through U.S. diplomatic and military archives to collect as 

many contemporaneous reports of American servicemen in the former Soviet Gulag as 

possible. These include numerous accounts of U.S. POWs reportedly shipped into the 

former Soviet Union, as well as sightings of missing servicemen who were observed at 

camps and other former Soviet detention facilities. 

The documents contained in the Gulag Study Support Document Database are a selection 

of declassified U.S. government documents that have provided JCSD researchers with 

key information to support and focus their on-the-ground research and investigations. The 

Library of Congress’s Federal Research Division maintains the database. It is located on 

the World Wide Web at the following URL:

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/gulag/gulaghome.html

A subset of the Gulag Study Support Document Database is the Wringer Database. It is 

located at:

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/wringer/wringerhome.html

Further information about DPMO, the USRJC, and JCSD can be found on DPMO’s 

website:

http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo

Krasnoyarsk City Museum
8

CPO Dennis Friedbauer interviews a Hungarian survivor of the Gulag

Interviews—The Oral History Program

One of the most important tools JCSD analysts have is the interview or “oral history” 

program. Analysts interview Soviet military and security service veterans, local

inhabitants, former prisoners, subject-mater experts, and other individuals of interest. 

JCSD has also established contractual relationships with Non-Government Organizations 

(NGOs) such as KARTA, headquartered in Poland, and Memorial, based in Russia, to 

assist in interviews and archival research. Besides providing primary-source material, 

archival research in the United States, Russia, and elsewhere is essential for identifying 

and locating individuals for inclusion in the interview program. 

Archives and Libraries

JCSD analysts carry out archival research throughout the United States, Russia, and 

various East European nations, most notably Hungary and the Czech Republic. The 

following highlights key archival collections where we have carried out research to date.
9

State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF)

JCSD analysts have been conducting research at GARF, located in Moscow, for a 

number of years. GARF is the main repository for Gulag-related records, and those of 

the Main Administration of Camps, and its successor organization, the Main

Administration of Places of Confinement (GUMZ). In addition, GARF maintains the 

records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs up to the year 1960. Equally important are the 

records of the various national-level entities such as the Main Administration of Railroad 

Construction, which were responsible for the Gulag’s industrial productivity.

State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF)

 

Russian State Military Archives (RGVA)

RGVA, also located in Moscow, has several collections of particular documentary

importance to our Gulag Study, specifically: the records of the Main Administration of 

Prisoners of War and Internees and the records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ 

Convoy Troops. The latter were responsible for escorting prisoners throughout the 

Soviet Union. RGVA also maintains a large collection of “trophy documents,” i.e., 

captured foreign documents that are of interest to our researchers. 
10

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

JCSD analysts conduct research at NARA facilities throughout the United States,

including the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri, and the 

various presidential libraries. The bulk of JCSD’s research is carried out at the NARA II 

building in College Park, Maryland, where, our researchers have access to vast amounts 

of classified and declassified U.S. Government documents, as well as captured foreign 

documents.

The Library of Congress 

The Library of Congress, located in Washington, D.C., is an invaluable source of hard-tofind books, newspapers, periodicals, and unpublished manuscripts. JCSD analysts

routinely work in the library’s European Reading Room. In addition, JCSD has a 

partnership with the library’s Federal Research Division (FRD), which was mentioned 

earlier in this section.

Project Wringer

One collection of documents that deserves special mention are the “Wringer” documents, 

which have provided several new investigative leads.

In the late 1940’s, the United States Air Force established Project Wringer. Primarily 

aimed at developing target folders for strategic bombing in the event of a future war 

against the Soviet Union, Wringer reports obtained strategic intelligence information on 

Warsaw Pact nations through overt interviews with former defectors, refugees, and 

POWs held in the former Soviet Union. The Wringer reports contain large amounts of 

detailed information specific to the Soviet infrastructure. Of particular interest is the 

unique and extensive look they provide into the vast, industry-based prison empire that 

has become known as the “Gulag.” Wringer reports cover the period from the early 

1940’s until the late 1950’s. 

Project Wringer, now declassified, is stored in some 1,350 boxes at the National Archives 

and Record Administration. In early 2001, JCSD initiated a concerted effort to exploit 

the Wringer reports for references to, and sightings of, known and purported U.S.

servicemen. Material gained through this effort is routinely incorporated into the Gulag 

Study

Project Wringer received its name in 1949, during a briefing: 

“ I had always described what we were after as ‘wringing out’ every last bit of 

usable data from every single person who had been inside the USSR...”
11

A page from a Project Wringer document
12

The Verification Process

A subsection of a larger analytical process, the sighting verification schematic shown on 

this page, allows analysts to determine whether a reported sighting warrants further 

investigation. During their review of existing documentation and interviews with new 

sources, investigators come across references to possible American servicemen in the 

Gulag system in three ways. References may appear in reports of direct contact –

personal interaction between the source and a possible American serviceman; through 

indirect contact – visual contact with amplifying data as mentioned above, or through 

second-hand accounts of possible Americans.

Analysts usually differentiate sightings by the type of information available in a given 

report. The best reference, for analytical purposes, is a complete name. If a reference 

contains a full name, the analyst is able to compare a name with lists of known missing

servicemen. If a correlation can be made, then the analyst must create a priority file and 

refine the search to determine if this is an actual missing serviceman and, if so, what 

further action must be taken. 

If the full name is not within existing databases, the analyst attempts to determine if the 

referenced person may be an American civilian. To do this, the analyst refers to existing 

lists within U.S. Government and other data sources. If the full name appears in these 

lists, the analyst annotates this, determines if the individual is one and the same and, if so, 

the matter is referred to the State Department for further resolution. 
13

If a full name cannot be identified, a review is conducted at the National Personnel 

Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis to locate existing records that might match the full 

name. In the case of a potential match, the analyst attempts to refine the NPRC query by 

researching any relevant corollary information. 

Reference data, when available, exists, is correlated with appropriate records to determine 

whether a match exists. If a correlation is made, the analyst may say with some 

confidence that the status of the referenced full name is known. The name may then be 

added to the sightings list for further investigation.

When a complete name cannot be verified with any level of confidence during the NPRC 

research process, the analyst returns the name to JCSD’s data sources as undefined and 

awaits the discovery of other, clarifying information. 

In those instances where only a partial name is provided, supplemental data such as hair 

color, identifying marks, or rank takes on particular importance. If such data exists, 

analysts follow the same procedure as used to verify a full name reference. 

When no amplifying information exists, a partial name and reference document are

recorded in JCSD’s data sources. In cases where amplifying information is available, it is 

examined against other similar data on file. When a match occurs, the new information is 

added to the existing entry. If not, a new entry is created in JCSD’s recorded holdings.
14

Analytic Process

The analytical approach we use examines the data acquired against the full spectrum of 

resources available. Sightings are identified and verified through our sighting

verification process described above. Essential to the process is a comparison of

sightings with US Government lists of missing American servicemen and other DPMO 

databases and sources. Once a sighting is received, the analyst then verifies the incident 

using documents and data from seven primary categories:

• Transcripts and notes from interviews conducted by NGOs 

• Internet

• Foreign documents and databases

• Unclassified US Government documents and databases

• Classified US Government documents and databases

• Books (including published and unpublished memoirs) and periodicals 

• JCSD-conducted interviews
15

Case Studies

The following actual case studies are given as examples of the analytical process. We 

have attempted to present sightings from a wide range of sources, with varying degrees of 

available detail, resulting in different outcomes.

The initial step in our analytical process is what we term “sighting verification.”

In our first example, Gulag Study analysts, while performing archival research,

discovered a declassified US Government document from the 1950’s. The document 

contained a full name (withheld here because this case is still under investigation) with 

detailed amplifying information relating to a possible World War II missing service 

member. Analysts first ran the name through DPMO’s databases. These databases and 

DPMO’s other data sources, generated 15 names identical to that in this case study. 

Through further research, we found that eight of the 15 are known to have been Killed in 

Action and are buried in US military cemeteries overseas. The remaining seven are listed 

as missing; however, only one of these seven is missing from the European theatre. The 

amplifying data provided in the sighting report closely matches that associated with that 

one missing American.

Once verified as a possible missing American serviceman, a more extensive analysis 

begins, as described in the Data Collection and Data Analysis sections. In this case, the 

analyst’s next step was to go to the National Archives and Records Administration

(NARA) in search of any pertinent Missing Air Crew Report (MACR). The MACR is a 

declassified US Government document that details the crew list and technical details of 

aircraft lost during combat operations in World War II. 

During our research, we have come across inconsistencies between data found in the 

MACRs and that contained in other sources. When this happens, we continue to consider 

the case as “Open” and continue to review our existing sources, looking for new data to 

move the case from “Open” or “Inconclusive” to “Resolved.”

In this instance, Gulag Study analysts have requested the individual’s personnel records 

to compare them with the reported sighting. We have sent a request for information to 

the Russian Military Medical Archives.

Our second example centers on a declassified CIA document from 1954, which was 

found at NARA. In it was a sighting of an American soldier with no name or rank given, 

located in Tayshet Camp 20 during the 1949-1950 time frame. A clear physical

description was given, as well as mention of a shoot-down during a reconnaissance 

mission over the Baltic Sea. Most importantly, the sighting report mentioned burn scars 

on the American’s right cheek and his use of a cane. 

In performing the sighting verification, Gulag Study analysts determined that this may be 

related to a PB4Y-2 shot down over the Baltic on April 4, 1950. 
16

At first glance, it would appear logical to conclude that this was a crewmember from the 

April 1950 shoot-down. However, since the report fails to mention a specific date of loss, 

it is by no means certain that it unequivocally relates to that incident.

The large amount of clear amplifying data in this case allowed us to refine the list of 

possible servicemen by comparing specific data points – physical description, date/time 

of sighting, etc. – to other cases in the data sources. To do this we looked for other 

sightings in the same time frame in Tayshet Camp 20. This significantly narrowed our 

search. Source materials revealed a declassified diplomatic cable from 1956 that states 

that, in 1950, a debriefed Austrian national and former Russian prisoner in Tayshet Camp 

20 met an American named Jim Fabian. Fabian claimed to have been a first lieutenant in 

the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. One half of his face was scarred from a

plane accident during the war, and he walked with a cane. He claimed to have been 

arrested in 1947-48 while visiting a relative in Prague. 

With a full name and a plausible explanation of his burns and cane, we then began to 

research Jim Fabian in more detail. Fabian is described in many source documents as 

having had burns or a birthmark on his face. During the 1950’s, the FBI and the State 

Department both investigated the reports about Mr. Fabian. Through researching case 

specifics within the United States, they determined that there was no US citizen matching 

the names or aliases surrounding James Fabian. 

Finally, we found an unclassified US document in NARA that related news that Eugene 

Jan (Jimmy) Fabian had been repatriated to Czechoslovakia as a Czech citizen in August 

of 1955, and was residing there as a Czech national. Descriptions and other amplifying 

information confirmed that Jan Fabian was the “American soldier” reported in the various 

sightings. In this case, we state that this report is most likely “Closed” or “Resolved” and 

have recorded that in DPMO’s source records. 
17

What We Have Found

Terms of Reference: “Gulag” versus “gulag”

The word “gulag” became a familiar term in the West with the publication of Aleksandr 

Solzhenitsyn’s epic novel, The Gulag Archipelag, in 1973. A Russian acronym for 

Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerey (Main Administration of Camps), “Gulag,” is often used to

mean any oppressive penal system. 

The former Soviet Gulag, as an administrative organization, did not come into being until 

the 1930’s. Prior to its establishment and during its tenure, other detention facilities also 

existed within the former Soviet penal system. Because of the complexities of these 

systems and the all-inclusive connotation of the word, “gulag,”—with a lower-case “g”—

has been used in this volume as a general term to describe all places of confinement 

within the former Soviet penal system. 

A basic understanding of that system, as well as the law enforcement and security

services that controlled it, is necessary to put into context, understand, and analyze 

sightings of Americans in the gulag. 

Former Soviet Law Enforcement and Security Services
18

The two primary Soviet organizations responsible for maintaining detention facilities 

were the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Committee of State Security, hereafter 

referred to by the Russian abbreviations MVD and KGB, respectively. The People’s 

Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the NKVD, preceded the MVD; the Ministry of State 

Security, or MGB, preceded the KGB. 

As law enforcement agencies, the MVD controlled the police, the convoy troops

(responsible for prisoner transport), and internal troops. The KGB maintained

responsibility for state security, including: border guards, foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and the political police. The names, structure, and authority of these

agencies changed numerous times between 1917 and 1991 because of internal power 

struggles and administrative realignments.4 In addition to their presence at the federal 

level, these agencies existed on the republic, regional, and municipal levels.5 

Military Intelligence, the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the

Ministry of Defense (GRU), which was founded in 1926, did not play a role in the Soviet 

penal system; however, it was involved in prisoner-of-war debriefing and processing and 

would more than likely have played a key role in any possible transfer of American 

POWs to the Soviet Union or its satellite states.

Prison Agencies of the Former Soviet Union

Between 1917 and 1936, the predecessors of the MVD and KGB, as well as the Ministry 

of Justice, shared responsibility for operating all places of confinement located in the 

former Soviet Union. Each entity had its own prison agency responsible for managing 

these facilities. In 1934, with the creation of the Main Administration of Camps, the 

NKVD gained primary responsibility for the majority of places of confinement.6 The 

security services retained certain of their own places of confinement, primarily prisons 

such as the infamous Lubyanka in Moscow. Republics and regions maintained their own 

departments of Corrective Labor Colonies (OITK) and administrations of Corrective 

Labor Camps and Colonies (UITLK) separate from, yet loosely tied to, the Main 

Administration of Camps. The Soviets utilized these camps and colonies for individuals 

who were serving out terms of three years or less and who were not convicted of state 

crimes. 

In addition to the camps and colonies, the MVD and KGB maintained their own jails and 

prisons. The MVD had a Directorate of Prisons responsible for maintaining prisons and 

jails. In 1953 the MVD maintained 587 prisons with a 249,000 prisoner capacity: two 

 

4

 The predecessors of the NKVD and MGB were the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to Combat 

Counterrevolution and Sabotage (VCHK or Cheka), the State Political Administration (GPU), the Unified 

State Political Administration (OGPU), and the People’s Commissariat of State Security (NKGB). The 

NKVD became the MVD in 1946; the MGB, the KGB in 1953. 

5

 See A. I. Kokurin and N. V. Petrov, Lubyanka: Organy, VCHK-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB-MVD-KGB, 

1917-1991, Spravochnik , [Lubyanka; Organs, VCHK-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB-MVD-KGB, 1917-

1991, a Guide] (Moskva; Mezhdunarodnyy Fond “Demokratiya,” Materik, 2003).

6

 Originally the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Labor Settlements (GUITLTP), it was 

changed to Gulag in 1936 for reasons of simp lification.
19

central prisons: Butyrskaya and Lefortovskaya ; three special-regime prisons “osobye 

tyur’my”: Vladimirskaya, Aleksandrovskaya, and Verkhneural’skaya; two special prisons 

“spetstyu’rmy” (names and locations are unavailable for these); three psychiatric prison 

hospitals: Kazanskaya, Chistopol’skaya and Leningradskaya; 437 routine prisons, and 

140 internal prisons.7 These figures do not include KGB detention facilities.

Jails were primarily small places of confinement for individuals convicted of minor 

offenses and held for short periods of time, or for those awaiting transfer to a larger, more 

secure facility. A special-regime prison, such as Vladimir Prison, served the purpose of 

detaining especially dangerous or special categories of prisoners, such as enemy generals, 

SS officers, high-profile prisoners such as Francis Gary Powers and possibly Raoul

Wallenberg, or anyone else who needed to be segregated and kept in a maximum-security 

facility with highly controlled access.8 Psychiatric prison hospitals, later known as

special prison hospitals, were punitive medical facilities controlled by the MVD and 

KGB. The security services would commit enemies of the state to these facilities, 

sometimes indefinitely. Two of the most infamous of these facilities are The Leningrad 

Special Psychiatric Hospital of the MVD and The V. P. Serbsky Central Scientific 

Research Institute of Forensic Psychiatry of the Ministry of Public Health. 9 In 2000, 

Andras Toma, a former Hungarian POW of the Soviets, returned to Hungary after 56 

years, most of this spent in the psychiatric facility in Kotel’nich, Russia.10 Special

prisons were intended for specific purposes as in the case of the sharashka prisons 

described later in this section. 

From 1939-1956, the NKVD/MVD also maintained the Main Administration of Prisoners 

of War and Internees (GUPVI), possessing a similar structure to the Gulag. Occasionally 

GUPVI prisoners’ and Gulag prisoners’ paths would cross while working on the same 

labor project. Prisoners of war who were not returned to their homelands by 1956, when 

the MVD shut down the GUPVI, were declared criminals and transferred to camps 

controlled by the Main Administration of Camps, or to special-regime prisons. These 

were usually members of the SS, high-level officers, or POWs who had violated a 

regulation while under the control of the GUPVI.

11

The Gulag was not only a system of confinement; it was a massive industrial complex 

spread out across the entire former Soviet Union. The MVD established several

departments within the Gulag to manage specific types of industry and production in the 

 

7

 M.B. Smirnov, ed., Spravochnik: Sistema Ispravitel’no-Trudovykh Lagerey v SSSR 1923-1960, [The 

System of Corrective Labor Camps in the USSR, 1923-1960, a Guide] (Moskva, Rossiya; Zven’ya, 1998), 

p. 539. The two special prisons are unidentified in the text.

8

 Michael R. Beschloss, Mayday: the U-2 Affair: the Untold Story of the Greatest US-USSR Spy Scandal, 

(New York: Perennial Library, Harper and Row, 1987), p. 343, and Marvin W. Makinen and Ari D. 

Kaplan, Cell Occupancy Analysis of Korpus 2 of the Vladimir Prison: an Examination of the Consistency of 

Eyewitness Sightings of Raoul Wallenberg with Prisoner Registration Cards from the Prison Kartoteka, 

(Report submitted to the Swedish-Russian Working Group on the Fate of Raoul Wallenberg, 2000).

9

 Alexander Podrabinek, Punitive Medicine, (Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers INC, 1980), pp. 145-147, 151-

154.

10 Laszlo Erdos, The Last Prisoner of War, (Zrinyi: 2002).

11 See M. M. Zagorul’ko, ed., Voennoplennye v SSSR 1939-1956: Dokumenty i Materialy, [Prisoners-ofWar in the USSR, 1939-1956: Documents and Materials] (Moskva: Logos, 2000).
20

labor camps and prisons. These departments later became main administrations directly 

subordinate to the MVD. For instance, Vyatlag, 12 an industrial (logging) camp located in 

the Kirov Region possessed this dual chain of command: the Main Administration of 

Camps maintained responsibility for all the day-to-day aspects and logistics of running 

the camp, while the Main Administration of Forestry Camps (GULLP) of the MVD 

maintained responsibility for labor use and production, i.e., running the camp’s logging 

business. Another example is that in 1950, the Head of the Vorkuta Corrective Labor 

Colony, a Colonel Fadeev, was also the Head of the Vorkuta Coal Combine. The Head of 

Special Camp Six (which was also located in Vorkuta and provided labor for the Vorkuta 

Coal Combine), a Lieutenant Colonel Shun’kin, was subordinate to Colonel Fadeev

concerning industrial matters.13 At its peak, there were approximately twenty-three main 

directorates and directorates of the MVD responsible for various aspects of Soviet 

industrial and economic productivity. The Gulag ran everything from potato and sheep 

farms to coal and uranium mining camps. Prisoners built highways and railroads across 

vast tracks of the steppes and taiga, high-rise apartments in Moscow, and the White Sea 

Canal. Prisoners not only worked on Gulag-sponsored projects, but were also contracted 

out to other state enterprises.14

The Camps

There are approximately 476 camps listed in M.B. Smirnov’s guide, System of Corrective 

Labor Camps in the USSR 1923-1960. This does not include GUPVI camps, prisons, or 

OITK and UITKL facilities. A camp, or lager’ in Russian, was usually a massive complex 

covering a relatively large geographical area. These camp complexes consisted of a 

headquarters unit (upravlenie) and various subunits, including hospitals, factories, mines, 

logging camps, road and railway construction sites, etc. The primary subunits of a camp 

complex included: a camp section [lagotdelenie (L/O)]; an independent camp section

[otdel’nyy lagpunkt (OLP)]; a camp sub-section [lagpunkt (L/P)], and a transit camp

(perpunkt).

15 Occasionally sub-units would have a remote or temporary camp assignment 

(komandirovka) and a remote or temporary camp sub-assignment (podkomandirovka). 

Because the majority of these subordinate units do not have any ready English

equivalents, they will be referred to primarily in Russian.

A camp complex usually had several camp elements/components (lagotdeleniya)

subordinate to the camp’s headquarters (HQ) unit, which was frequently located in a 

town or city. Some elements/components, in turn, were comprised of several subsections. A number of camp sections had additional facilities such as a hospital

(sanitarnyy gorodok or sangorodok), which sometimes operated within its own camp 

structure. The camp’s HQ component had a number of directly subordinate elements. 

This was the result of geographical, political, security, or economic reasons. These 

elements usually had better facilities than those at a regular camp section. Examples of 

 

12 Vyatskiy Corrective Labor Camp (ITL).

13 Fond 9414, opis’ 1, delo 1869, GARF.

14 Galina Mikhailovna Ivanova, Labor Camp Socialism: The Gulag in the Soviet Totalitarian System, ed. 

Donald J. Raleigh, trans. Carol Flath (Armonk, New York; London, England: M. E. Sharpe, 2000), p. 98.

15 peresyl’nyy punkt or peresyl’ka, a transit point used to sort and distribute prisoners. 
21

komandirovki and podkomandirovki include groups of prisoners sent out for short periods 

of time to log or to establish and maintain a rail line. Such activity was carried out with a 

minimum amount of supervision, temporary or semi-permanent shelter, and dry

provisions.

Sample Camp Organizational Chart

A lagotdelenie or a lagpunkt is what people normally think of when they hear the term 

“prison camp.” They usually consisted of several prisoner barracks, a dining facility, 

bathhouse, and an exercise yard, all within a fenced-in compound zone (zona) surrounded 

by guard towers. Separate areas were set aside for administrative buildings, warehouses, 

possibly a clinic, and barracks for the guards. A prisoner’s place of work might be in “the 

zone,” an area nearby, or, possibly, a distant location, depending on the type of industry. 

Also located in or near the zone were disciplinary barracks (baraki usilennogo rezhima

or BUR), and penalty or solitary-isolation cells (shtrafnoy izolyator or SHIZO). Many 

camp complexes had an entire penalty or disciplinary sub-section.

Camps and their subunits were named in a variety of ways using numbers, geographical 

names, or industrial designators. Camps were assigned code names, code letters, and 

alphanumeric postal codes by which they, even now, are often referenced, especially in 

the accounts of former prisoners. Camp structures continually changed. They grew or 

shrank like a living organism. One camp would absorb all or parts of another camp. 

Lagotdeleniya would be restructured, lagpunkty added or removed. Designators and 

names changed. GUPVI camps were similarly arranged. All of this adds to the difficulty 

of researching accounts of Americans held in the gulag. 16

 

16 For instance in September 1949, Vorkutlag OLP 54Zh was transferred to Rechlag and was redesignated 

L/O 10Zh. Fond 9414, opis’ 1, delo 1869, GARF.

HQ

Unit

Camp Section Camp Section Camp Section

Camp Sub-section Camp Sub-section Camp Sub-section

Camp Sub-assignment

Camp Sub-section Camp Sub-section

Remote Camp 

Assignment

Remote Camp Sub-assignment

Independent Camp 

Section
22

The “Zone” and SHIZO at Perm’-36
23

Special Camps and the “Sharashka” system

Two more aspects of the gulag deserve mention: special camps and the so-called 

“Sharashka” camps and prisons. 

Special camps (osobye lagerya) were strict-regime camps established to hold political 

prisoners and individuals categorized as especially dangerous criminals. In general, these 

camps were similar in structure and operation to other camps in the Gulag. There were 

twelve special camps—Coastal, Far, Lake, Meadow, Mineral, Mountain, Oak Forest, 

Reed, River, Sands, Steppe, and Watershed17—which were eventually subsumed into the 

regular camp system in the mid-to-late 1950’s. 18

“Sharaga” or “Sharashka” is a Russian slang term with various definitions. In the 

context of the gulag, a sharashka is a “secret project, designers’ office, etc., manned by 

specialists subjected to repression.”19 These were prisons or camps where Soviet and

foreign scientists and technicians, including prisoners of war, were forced to work on 

military and industrial projects. These prisons were part of the Special Technical Bureau 

(OTB), also known as the Fourth Special Department of the MVD. 20 The MVD would 

select prisoners with special technical skills or knowledge and transfer them from their 

place of confinement to a sharashka, where their abilities could be exploited. Prisonertechnicians worked in all fields of military-industrial research, including aviation,

electronics, rocketry, and nuclear weapons. Generally, prisoners in a sharashka received 

better food and treatment than prisoners in a camp or prison. Andrei Tupolev, the great 

aviation designer, and Sergei Korolev, father of the Soviet space program, were prisoners 

in a Sharashka.21 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel The First Circle is based on his

experiences in the Marfino sharashka, formerly located in the Moscow suburbs. 22 As 

highly secret facilities, their records remain largely classified. These facilities are of

particular interest because of their use in scientific and technical exploitation of prisoners 

of war. If U.S. personnel with knowledge of advanced weapons systems were transferred 

to the former Soviet Union, these prisons were a likely place of confinement for them. 23

 

17 Berlag, Dal’lag, Ozerlag, Luglag, Minlag, Gorlag, Dubravlag, Kamyshlag, Rechlag, Peschanlag, 

Steplag, and Vodorazdel’nyy Lager’.

18 M.B. Smirnov, Spravochnik: Sistema Ispravitel’no-Trudovykh Lagerey v SSSR 1923-1960; N. A. 

Morozov, Osobye Lagerya MVD SSSR v Komi ASSR (1948-1954 gody), [Special Camps of the MVD in the 

Komi ASSR] (Syktyvkar: Syktyvkaskiy universitet, 1998); and fond 9414, opis’ 1, dela 1857 and 1869, 

GARF.

19 D.I. Kveselevich, Dictionary of Unconventional Russian, Russian-English, (Moskva: Astrel’; AST, 

2002), p. 1069.

20 Osoboe Tekhnicheskoe Byuro. A. I. Kokurin and N. V. Petrov, Lubyanka: Organy, VCHK-OGPUNKVD-NKGB-MGB-MVD-KGB, 1917-1991, Spravochnik, (Moskva: Materik , 2003), p. 201 and V. F 

Nekrasov, MVD Rossii, Ehntsiklopediya, [MVD of Russia: an Encyclopedia] (Moskva: MVD Rossii, 

OLMA-PRESS, 2002) pp. 371-374.

21 Central Design Bureau No. 21 (KV-21) formerly located in Moscow.

22 Special Prison “Spetstyur’ma” No. 220.

23 See Paul M. Cole and Theodore Karasik, The Sharashka System: The Link Between Specialized Soviet 

Prison Camps and American POW-MIAs in Korea? (RAND, 1993) and L. L. Kerber, Stalin’s Aviation 

Gulag: a Memoir of Andrei Tupolev and the Purge Era (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution 

Press, 1996).
24

SHIZO, Lagpunkt Seven, Ukhtpeshlag, Ukhta, Komi Repubic
25

The Komi Republic
26

Vorkuta-Vorkutlag-Rechlag

In the summer of 1932, an OGPU (a predecessor of the KGB) geological survey group, 

primarily made up of prisoners, set out to the north from Ukhtpeshlag and established 

Survey Mine Number 1⁄2 on the right bank of the Vorkuta River. Six years later, Vorkuta 

was one of the largest and most productive cities in the Soviet Union; it was also one 

incredibly large prison—Vorkutinskiy Lager’, (Vorkulag)—built entirely with slave labor.

Vorkuta is etched in the mind of eve ry student of repression and totalitarianism. It is 

probably the most well-known Soviet-era penal colony, outside of Kolyma (just north of 

Magadan), and has, the largest number of reported sightings of Americans of any location 

in the gulag. 

By January 1

st, 1941, there were 19,080 prisoners working ten hours a day, eight of those 

hours in coal mines, in Vorkutlag. 24

On August 27th, 1948, the Main Administration of Camps established Special Camp 

Number Six (Osobyy Lager’ Nomer Shest’), also known by its less prosaic title of 

Rechnoy Lager’, (Rechlag)—River Camp, in the area of Vorkutlag. By January 1st, 1950, 

13,465 prisoners from Vorkutlag, and 5,391 prisoners from other camps and prisons had 

been transferred to Rechlag. 25

An analysis of sightings in the Vorkuta area demonstrates that the majority of all

Americans, especially American servicemen, imprisoned or said to have been

imprisoned in Vorkuta between 1948 and 1954 were detained in camps and facilities 

subordinate to Special Camp Number Six—Rechlag.

The following map of the Vorkuta Region, circa 1951, depicts the vastness of that camp 

complex. The map is to the scale of 1=150,000 or 1 cm=1.5 km. Camps, mines, and 

other industrial facilities subordinated to Vorkutlag are displayed in magenta; those 

subordinated to Rechlag appear in yellow.

The two boxes outlined in red highlight the Rechlag facilities (symbols depicted in

yellow) most frequently associated with sightings of Americans, especially American 

servicemen. 

A brief case study of an American serviceman, Private Homer H. Cox, who was detained 

in Rechlag during this time period, is provided as well.

 

24 N. A. Morozov, Gulag v Komi Krae: 1929-1956, [The Gulag in the Komi Area, 1929-1956] (Syktyvkar: 

Syktyvkarskiy Gosudarstvennyy Universitet, 1997), p. 49.

25 N. A. Morozov, Osobye Lagerya MVD SSSR v Komi ASSR (1948-1954 gody), (Syktyvkar: Syktyvkarskiy 

Gosudarstvennyy Universitet, 1998), p. 10.
27
28

U. S. Army Private Homer Harold Cox—1949

Homer Harold Cox, AKA: Jim or Harold Cox, H. Cake, Cook, Sergeant Cox, and

Lieutenant Cox, An American Military Policeman assigned to the 759th Military Police Service 

Battalion in West Berlin, was drugged and arrested while in the Soviet Sector of East Berlin on

September 6th, 1949. He was sighted at Sverdlov No. 6118 in Shcherbakov (Rybinsk),26 Vorkuta 

Mine No. Four,27 Vorkuta Mine No. Seven28 and Bautzen, East Germany.29 Soviet authorities 

returned him to U.S. custody in Berlin on December 29th, 1953 along with U. S. Merchant Marine 

Leland Towers.30

Private Cox was carried as AWOL during his captivity. On January 21st, 1954, a board of 

inquiry determined Private Cox could not be held accountable for his absence.31 He 

passed away of pneumonia in Lawton, Oklahoma on September 27th, 1954.32 Shortly 

after his death, Cox’s fiancée made a statement to the press that he was in very good 

health and that “...murder is the only explanation...” This has lead to persistent rumors 

that Mr. Cox was the victim of foul play and a KGB plot.33

 

26 Moscow #164 to State, November 17, 1953

27 Handling and Processing of Prisoners in USSR, IR-255-56, NBG Team, 7051st Air INTSERON, 7050 

Air INTSERGU (USAFE), 18 December 1956, Air Intelligence Reports 1947-62 (AIR), Deputy Director 

for Collection and Dissemination (DDCD), Records of Headquarters U.S. Air Force (Air Staff), Record 

Group 341 (RG 341), National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD (NACP).

28 Memorandum for the Record by Paul H. Vivian, Army Task Force Russia, January 6, 1993.

29 POLAD Heidelberg #SX-3361 to State, October 20, 1953, 611.61251/10-2053, Decimal, Central Files, 

RG 59, NACP.

30 Moscow #782 to State, December 30, 1953, 611.6125/12-3053, Decimal, Central Files, RG 59, NACP.

31 The New York Times, January 22, 1954.

32 The Stars and Stripes, September 29, 1954.

33 “The Austrian sweetheart of Homer H. Cox, who fell in love with her at a Russian slave camp, sobbed 

today, that ‘murder is the only explanation’ for his death in a tourist cabin at Lawton, Okla.” The Stars and 

Stripes, September 29, 1954.
29

Vorkuta—2000
30

Britanka

In the mid-1960’s, a Soviet geologist was working near the village of Sed’vozh in the 

Komi Republic. Sed’vozh is located approximately 73 kilometers northeast of the city of 

Ukhta along the main railroad line. During the course of his duties, he noticed the 

remnants of a former prison-labor camp north of Sed’vozh along the east side of the 

railroad tracks. When he asked about the camp, the local villagers told him that this 

former camp was known as “Britanka”—a former Gulag camp. 

Local villagers recounted to him that the prisoners were brought to Britanka following 

the Second World War. Although supplies were taken to the camp, the locals never saw 

the prisoners leave the compound. He later reported this information to a local historian. 

Since the word Britanka has no connection to the region, the historian concluded that the 

camp name probably referred to British citizens who were detained there. 

In August 2000, the historian’s colleague, an archeologist, conducted an oral history 

program in Sed’vozh. During his visit, one of the locals related that she never heard of a 

prison zone named Britanka, but that there was a place the locals called the “English 

Colony.”34 

The location of the English Colony was in the same approximate area where the geologist 

reported the Britanka camp. According to those interviewed, a British firm was involved 

in logging in the area before and during the Russian Civil War. The archeologist 

recorded a local legend that British workers from the logging firm were detained in the 

Britanka Camp following the Russian Civil War. 

In addition, a local resident recalled a cemetery in the area of the Britanka zone. While 

visiting the cemetery, she saw rows of grave markers with foreign names on them. She 

believed that the remnants of the wooden crosses and nameplates have since been

destroyed during a field fire in the early 1990’s. 

The historian sees the English Colony in a different light. According to his research, the 

British inserted hundreds of Special Forces into Nazi Germany to disrupt the German war 

machine. Many of these Special Forces were arrested and detained in POW camps in 

Poland. He believes that when the Soviet Army liberated these camps, the British POWs 

were transferred to Britanka. 

According to his archival research, 480 foreign internees were transferred from Poland to 

Camp 225 in the Sed’vozh region of the Komi Republic in 1946. By 1948, Camp 225 no 

longer contained the 480 prisoners, and the fate of the prisoners’ is unknown. Archival 

documents examined to date do not provide an exact location of Camp 225, and he 

surmises that Camp 225 and Britanka are one in the same. 

 

34 The colony of Americans working in Magnitogorsk in the 1930’s was called “Amerikanka .” Stephen 

Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization, (Berkley: University of California Press, 1997),

p. 125. 
31

Moreover, he believes that Stalin detained the British troops as especially dangerous 

forces, in preparation for a possible World War III scenario with the Soviet Union’s 

former allies. During the years 1946 through 1948, the internees were reportedly

detained in the camp and were not permitted to leave on work details. He posits the view 

that the British forces were starved and worked to death. 

The reference to British prisone rs from the Russian Civil War is, in his view, nothing 

more than a disinformation ploy designed to conceal the fact that British POWs from 

World War II were detained in Britanka. 

In pursuing this matter at the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF), JCSD’s 

researchers requested access to a special fond concerning the location of Camp 225 in the 

Komi Republic. 

During research trips to GARF in 2003, analysts discovered that there is apparently no 

documentation showing Camp 225 to have been a part of the Gulag. Further research in 

April of 2004 at the Russian State Military Archives in Moscow established that Camp 

225 was part of the Main Administration of Prisoners of War and Internees (GUPVI) 

camp system. 

Camp 225 was located in the Komi Republic and subordinated to the Administration of 

Northern Railroad Camps. These camps and their prisoners were responsible for building 

the rail line from Kotlas to Khal’mer-Yu and from Vorkuta to Labytnangi. The main 

administrative headquarters was located in Ukhta. 

Of particular interest is the fact that numerous documents exist for most camps in the 

GUPVI system, but only two documents were found for Camp 225. Both of these 

documents were in a file that lists prisoners of war who had died in captivity. The first 

document was a list of 108 Germans; the second is a list of 670 Germans, Poles, and 

Ukrainians. Neither document cites an exact location for Camp 225, which was

apparently liquidated in 1948.

In her book Gulag: A History author Anne Applebaum states that one researcher came 

across a reference at RGVA to “ten Scotsmen” in a prisoner-of-war camp located in the 

area, but that the actual document was missing.35

In April of 2004 the historian informed our researchers that a colleague had recently 

written him stating he had found the names of several British citizens who were detained 

in Labytnangi and Salekhard. The Administration of Northern Railroad Camps

controlled both of these camp locations. 

He maintains that “Britanka/Camp 225” was liquidated and the prisoners transferred to 

Labytnangi and Salekhard. This theory has some merit. Because of the type of work 

involved, railroad camps tended to have shorter life spans than other types of camps. The 

 

35 Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History, (Doubleday, 2003), pp. 463 and 628.
32

historian has promised to provide us with a list of the British citizens as soon as it is 

available.

Memorial to the victims of the gulag, Syktyvkar, Komi Republic
33

Americans in the Gulag

There have been reported sightings of American citizens, civilian and military,

imprisoned in the former Soviet Union since the Russian Civil War.36 Most of these 

sightings remain unsubstantiated. A number of these Americans returned home to the 

United States, often after years of imprisonment and exile. Others were executed; some 

remained in the former Soviet Union, never to see the United States again.37 Often these 

sightings, especially of U.S. military personnel, remain unsubstantiated. John Noble and 

Alexander Dolgun are two of the better-known American civilians who suffered in the 

gulag and eventually returned to the United States. Others are Victor Herman and Morris 

Hershman. 38 In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, six U.S. servicemen are known to have 

been arrested in Germany or Austria and transferred to the former Soviet Union. 39 All six 

eventually returned to U.S. control after years in various prisons and camps in East 

Germany and the former Soviet Union. 

On July 1st, 1960 a Soviet MIG fighter shot down a U.S. Air Force RB-47 reconnaissance 

jet over the Barents Sea. Captains John R. McKone and Freeman B. Olmstead survived 

and were held in a Moscow prison until their release on January 24th, 1961. The Soviets 

shot down Francis Gary Power’s U-2 on May 1st, 1960. He was held in Lubyanka and 

Vladimir prisons until his release on February 10th, 1962.

 

36 Decimal File 164-334; Department of State to War Department; May 24, 1921; MID, Records of the War 

Department, RG 165, NACP.

37 John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage, (San 

Franscico: Encounter Books, 2003) pp. 115-121.

38 All four men have published autobiographies.

39 Homer H. Cox, Wilfred C. Cumish, Murray Feingersch (Fields), William T. Marchuk, Sidney R. Sparks, 

William A. Verdine.
34

Sightings by Geographical Location

Sightings in this section are arranged in geographical order from East to West. Locations 

are listed as referenced or spelled by the source. Sections dealing with regions outside 

the current Russian Federation have been added to provide a more comprehensive

approach. Future additions may include other former Warsaw Pact nations. 
35

Moscow

Krasnaya Presnya Prison—In a letter to President Nixon, repatriated American John 

Noble reported that, etched into the wall of Krasnaya Presnya Prison in Moscow, he saw 

the name of a Major Roberts or Robbins, with his American address and the inscription, 

"I am sick and don't expect to live through this....”. 40 In 1958 Mr. Noble reported this 

incident had occurred in Orsha Transit Prison in Byelorussia (where he was imprisoned 

prior to his confinement at Krasnaya Presnya).41

Lubyanka—In 1947, while in pre-trial confinement in Potsdam, a Polish witness shared 

a cell with a U.S. Army sergeant, reportedly a gunner. The witness believed that the 

sergeant had unintentionally entered the Soviet Zone in Berlin by car and had been

immediately arrested. The source described the American as a sturdy fellow, whose 

father was a farmer. The American gave the source an overcoat. They spoke German, 

although both spoke it very poorly. They met again at the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow at 

the turn of 1948.42

A follow-up interview with the source revealed that in the winter of 1948-1949, he saw 

the same American in the Transit Prison at Sverdlovsk-na-urale. He waved at the 

American from afar and never saw him again. Some time after this encounter, source 

heard from a French officer that the American was shot and killed while attempting to 

escape.43

Monino Air Force Academy—During a series of interviews in 1996, a Soviet veteran 

who lived in Minsk claimed to have seen a U.S. POW in May or June 1953. The POW 

reportedly was a Korean War F-86D pilot whose plane had been forced to land. The pilot 

landed his plane undamaged, was captured, and his aircraft taken to Moscow. The 

incident occurred in the late spring of 1953. According to the witness—who served in An 

Dun, China, from December 1952 through February 1954—the pilot was sent to Moscow 

the day after his forced landing, "because Stalin wanted to speak with him." The witness 

said that his commander, Colonel Ivan Nikolayevich Kozhedub, interrogated the pilot. He 

believed the U.S. POW was not injured. The witness stated that the late General Vasiliy 

Kuzmich Sidorenkov had a picture of the American POW, which Sidorenkov showed to 

him years ago, declaring, "that's our American." He stated that the U.S. POW depicted in 

the photo was white, with light brown hair and blue or light brown eyes, was about five 

feet seven inches tall, and had a two-and-a-half inch scar above the right eye. The witness 

revealed that this pilot later became an instructor and taught at the Monino Air Force 

Academy in Moscow from 1953-58. The U.S. POW did not speak Russian and served at 

Monino under an assumed Russian name. He did not know the name and could not recall 

any other details about the U.S. POW, who reportedly taught air battle techniques and 

 

40 Sworn Affidavit to President Richard M. Nixon by John Nobel, May 26, 1973, p. 2.

41 John Noble, I Was a Slave in Russia, (Broadview, Illinois: Cicero Bible Press, 1964), p. 73.

42 KARTA Center’s research project (KARTA): Searching for Information on American Citizens Gone 

Missing during World War II and after it in the Territory of the USSR, Final Narrative Report for the 

Period April 1-October 30, 1998, p. 9.

43 Joint Commission Support Directorate Phone Interview, October 4, 2001.
36

tactics and assisted the Soviets in figuring out a U.S. radar sight (radio-lokatsionniy 

pritsel).44

Moscow Transit Prison—In 1954, a German returnee reported meeting an American 

Army or Air Force captain while detained in the Moscow Transit Prison in 1949. Source 

was imprisoned in one cell with 19 other German officers from February to April 1949. 

For three to five days in March another prisoner was placed in source’s cell. This prisoner 

spoke broken German with an American accent and also spoke fluent Russian. He 

claimed to be a captain in the U.S. Army or Air Force. The Soviet Internal Security 

Forces reportedly arrested him in the USSR while operating as an agent. Source

described him as 30-35 years old, five feet eleven inches tall, slim, athletic build, black 

hair, slender face with a straight nose and medium-sized ears. He was retic ent, but 

energetic. He gave the impression of being well educated. Source had no further

information about the man. 45

 

44 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 191534Z MAR 96, 161242Z MAY 96.

45 Alleged American National in Soviet Prison near Moskva, 51-B-13005A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), 1 

March 1955, Reports of Returning POWs and Detainees Under Soviet Control 1949-1955 (Wringer 

Reports), Office of the Director of Intelligence (ODI), Records of Headquarters U.S. Air Force (Air Staff), 

Record Group 341 (RG 341), National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD (NACP).
37

Vladimirskaya 

Vladimir Central Prison—A United Press release, dated September 1, 1955, reported 

that nine Austrians and one Italian were released from a Russian prison camp. The 

returnees reported that U.S. servicemen Wilfred Cumish [returned], Sidney Sparks

[returned], Frederick Hopkins [returned], and Grisham [not returned] were in the same 

camp.46

Vladimir Central Prison—Source met a U.S. signals technician named Wallace while 

incarcerated in Vladimir Prison in 1948. Wallace was of average height with dark blond 

hair and brown eyes. He was approximately 50 years old. He studied radio technology 

in California, possibly at the California Institute of Technology. Later, he had worked for 

eight years, until 1946 or 1947, in Canton, China. He left Canton for Moscow, where he 

was arrested as a U.S. intelligence agent. While in Vladimir, Wallace wrote two papers 

on radio technology for the Soviets. In 1949 Source learned Wallace was transferred to 

Moscow, possibly to work for the Soviets in his field of expertise.47

Vladimir Central Prison—An Austrian returnee reported meeting a soldier from New 

York named George Dick some time prior to September 1, 1955.48

Vladimir Central Prison—An Austrian returnee met an alleged American official of the 

U.S. Legation to Bucharest, Romania, named William C. Wallace. He was originally 

from New York City. 49 

 

Vladimir Central Prison—A second Austrian returnee reported that he had met William 

C. Wallace of New York, the former American Commercial Attaché to Bucharest. 

Wallace had been held in Aleksandrov Prison prior to 1953-54.50

Vladimir Central Prison—A German returnee reported meeting an American Army 

officer, Captain William Wallace, from San Francisco in Vladimir Prison. 51

 

46 United Press, UPR37, September 1, 1955.

47 US Signals Technician Incarcerated in Vladimir Prison in 1948, RV-417-56, USAREURIC 513th MI 

Group, June 13, 1956.

48 Alleged US Citizens Imprisoned in the USSR; HQ USFA, AC of S, G2 (SSB/CIB) APO 168, NY, NY;

July 15, 1955.

49 Alleged US Citizens Imprisoned in the USSR; HQ USFA, AC of S, G2 (SSB/CIB) APO 168, NY, NY; 

July 15, 1955.

50 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W Detention of American Personnel By Foreign 

Agency (ZF000004W) pp. 4-76, IRR Case Files: Imp ersonal Files 1940-1976, Records of the Investigative 

Records Repository (IRR), Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC).

51 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-76.
38

Mordovska

Dubrava Camp—Several repatriated Iranian witnesses claimed that, at this location in 

1953, they knew of an American, a Colonel Jackson, who had been reportedly kidnapped 

by the Soviets in Berlin.52

Dubrava Camp, Ust’-Tarna—A Ukrainian reported that in 1947 two disabled

Americans were imprisoned here.53

Pot’ma—In March 1955 a repatriated German POW informed U.S. Air Force debriefers 

that in June 1954, while interned in a prisoner of war camp awaiting repatriation to 

Germany, he met three alleged Americans who had arrived in the camp from Sverdlovsk 

(Yekaterinburg). One was approximately 43 years old, five feet nine inches tall, stout 

build, blond hair with gray streaks combed back, brownish-gray eyes, and a full face. 

Although born in Russia, his parents immigrated with him to the United States, where 

they later became U.S. citizens. He claimed to be former a military policeman who 

accidentally crossed into the Soviet Sector of Berlin shortly after World War II. The 

second was described as approximately 30 years old, five feet one inch tall, with a stout 

build, blond curly hair, and gray eyes. He was called “Jolly”, spoke German and worked 

at the camp dispensary. The third was described as a black man, 30 years old, five feet 

ten inches, and had a slim build. He did not speak German or Russian. The alleged 

Americans never received any packages from the Red Cross or any mail. On December

27, 1954, they told the German good-bye, stating that the Russian authorities had

informed them they would be repatriated. The source had no further information about 

where the Russians transported the alleged Americans.54

Pot’ma Camp 18—An Estonian witness alleged that he met a U.S. POW from Korea in 

1952. The POW's first name was Gary or Harry. The POW was still at the camp when the 

witness left in the autumn of 1953.55

Pot’ma Camp 19—A Polish witness was the chief of a work brigade in Camp 19 in 

Pot’ma, working primarily in the forest. He claimed there were a few Americans among 

the 17 nationalities in his brigade.56

Pot’ma Camp 385— In 1960, a German source reported that, while interned in the 

Soviet Union, he met two American military personnel. Source met the first American in 

the autumn of 1957 at Pot’ma Camp 385, Sub-camp Eleven, and last saw him in the 

autumn of 1959 in Sub-camp Seven. 

 

52 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-12.

53 KARTA Center’s research project (KARTA): Concerning Research in Central and Eastern Europe and 

the Former Soviet Union on the Fate of Missing Americans During and After the Second World War, Final 

Narrative Report for the Period September 17, 2002-September 16, 2003, p. 10.

54 Alleged Americans at PW camp at POTMA, 52HD-55-196B, 7050 AISW (USAFE), February 25, 1954, 

Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

55 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 161156Z, Aug 93.

56 KARTA, 1998, p. 8.
39

The American was named Jack. He was a light-skinned African-American, 28-30 years 

old, six feet five or six feet six inches tall, and slender. Jack’s mother was part Native 

American. He had lived in Saint Louis, Missouri. 

Jack had originally served with the U.S. Constabulary in Bad Hershfeld, Germany as a 

“First Sergeant.” Jack showed source a photo of himself wearing a uniform with a 7th

Army patch and constabulary insignia. Source could not remember any insignia of rank. 

After serving in Bad Hershfeld, Jack returned to the United States. 

At an unknown date Jack returned to Europe as a member of the United States Air Force

in Europe (USAFE). He was stationed at Celle Airfield during the Berlin airlift, and later 

with the Military Police in Berlin as a “Sergeant Major.” Jack showed the source a 

second photograph of himself in an “Ike” jacket with Air Force staff sergeant stripes and 

airborne (parachute) insignia above the jacket pocket. 

The third photograph was of Jack in a military police uniform with a white garrison cap 

with visor, leggings, Sam Brown belt, and a .45 holster. In this picture, Jack was 

standing in front of a military police jeep with the Memorial Church in Berlin in the 

background. The United States Army Europe and USAFE emblem with “Highway

Patrol” in the center appeared just below the windshield of the jeep. Reportedly, Jack 

went out one evening in Berlin and awoke the next morning in the custody of Soviet 

authorities in the town of Karlshorst. He was not allowed to write to friends or relatives57.

 

Source met the second alleged American in Sub-camp 11-1 in 1958. This individual 

claimed to have been a Marine who fought the Japanese in the Philippines during World 

War II. He was arrested in Manchuria around 1944, supposedly because he was of

Russian heritage. He was between 36 and 38 years old. This individual was permitted to 

write and receive mail from New Jersey via an unknown location in Sweden.

Saransk (Zubovo-Polyanskiy) Camp 385/8—In 1955, a CIA source reported meeting 

an American from Philadelphia who was a pilot during World War II. He was fairly tall, 

very strong, and approximately 30 years old with light brown hair and gray eyes.58

Yavas—A former German POW met an American prisoner, John Hansen, in August 

1955, after having previously heard about him from another prisoner as early as 1953. 

John Hansen spoke both German and Russian and was described as five feet six inches 

tall, medium build with brown hair and gray eyes.59

 

57 Prisoners of Special Interest at the Potma Rehabilitation Camp, MI-3640B-60 AEUMF-HM, USAREUR, 

September 1960.

58 American in Soviet Forced Labor Camp near Saransk, Central Intelligence Agency, May 1955 and

American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-37.

59 Soviet Apprehension of U.S. Personnel, AEUC-GI D-30477, HQ 66th Counter Intelligence Corps Group, 

December 1, 1955.
40

Yavas—A Ukrainian witness stated that between 1950-51 he worked with a prisoner who 

claimed to have been in the U.S. Army. He was described as a tall Native American 

between 40-45 years of age.60

 

60 KARTA, 2003, p.10.
41

Rostov

Novocherkassk Camp 1/421—During a 1947 interview, a former German POW

reported that he met two American soldiers in POW Hospital 5351 located at

Novocherkassk in September 1945. The Americans stayed at the hospital until February 

1946, when they were transferred to an engine factory in the same town. The witness 

provided the names of five other sources who he claimed would be able to verify this 

information. The one source contacted did in fact verify the account as provided by the 

witness.61

 

61 Americans Held in Russian PW Enclosure, Office of Military Government of Bavaria Intelligence, 

Historical and Reports Branch, Ag 383.6 MGBI, July 11, 1947.
42

Kirov

Kirov—Repatriated American William Marchuk received information from a German 

POW who was imprisoned in a camp in Kirov. The German stated that he was in the 

camp together with nine American POWs, all captains and majors, who were Korean 

War aviators.62

 

62 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-32.
43

Komi

Abez—A German source reported seeing an American pilot while in a prisoner of war 

camp in Abez from May to November 1949. The American, who was supposedly a pilot 

shot down in World War II, was still in Abez when the source left in November 1949.63

Inta—A Russian witness claimed that, from 1956 until 1975, the KGB maintained a 

facility on the shore of the river Inta. In 1965, people were brought to Inta from Laos, 

Cambodia and Vietnam, where they were imprisoned and killed, and their records burned 

in the boiler room in an eastern suburb on Shakhtnaya Street. More than 1,000 people 

ended up in the Inta prison, both American enlisted personnel and officers. The witness 

claimed that Petr Ivanovich Kuznetsov, who reportedly worked as a driver for the MVD 

for twenty years, could confirm this information. The latter now lives on Mir Street in 

Inta. [Efforts to contact Mr. Kuznetsov during a visit to Inta in October 2000 proved 

unsuccessful as Mr. Kuznetsov claimed that he was too ill to meet with USRJC

representatives who traveled to Inta to speak with him.]64

Inta—A Polish witness reported two Americans in a camp in 1949-1950.65

Inta—In 1948, a reputed American soldier was kept here separate from the other

prisoners.66

Inta—A CIA source reported that in 1948 he met an alleged American citizen who had 

Polish documents in the name of Fawitsky or Faveleki. The American refused to reveal 

his true name. He spoke German, Russian, French, and English fluently. Source stated 

Soviets had a photograph of the reported American in an U.S. enlisted man’s uniform. 

Source last saw this man in Lubyanka Prison in 1951.67

Inta Camp Three—A Polish witness recalled meeting two Americans in Camp Three in 

Inta in 1954. They worked in his brigade, which was led by Wladyslaw Szyszko. He 

related that, while they were building a bridge, one of the Americans jumped into the 

Kosyu River and drowned.68

 

63 Area Description of Abez, 51-B-13074A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), March 9, 1954, Wringer Reports, ODI, 

RG 341, NACP.

64 TFR 140, Task Force Russia, p. 1.

65 KARTA, 1998, p. 3.

66 KARTA, 2003, p. 11.

67 Alleged American Held in Soviet Prison, Information Report No. CS-79883, Central Intelligence 

Agency, December 8, 1955.

68 KARTA, 1998, p. 8.
44

Inta Camp Six–A Ukrainian witness in Topol-3 near Dnepropetrovsk stated that he was 

interned in Inta Camp Six from 1949 through 1955. During that time, the camp held 

many foreigners of various nationalities. In 1952, a man who claimed to be an American 

and was referred to as Leonid Teryashchenko (a pseudonym), was transferred to Inta. 

Teryashchenko's real name was never disclosed. His prisoner number had an additional 

slash and digit following the usual letter and three-digit sequence given to other 

prisoners. The witness frequently talked to Teryashchenko, who told the witness that he 

was imprisoned for political reasons. The witness described Teryashchenko as an athletic 

man with a large frame, a former boxer, approximately 30-33 years old. In late 1953 or 

early 1954 Teryashchenko committed suicide to avoid further torture. Teryashchenko 

overpowered one of the guards, took his weapon, and shot himself in the mouth. He was 

buried in a common grave in the camp (exact location unknown).69

Inta Mining Camp (Minlag)—A Russian witness indicated that she had spent four years 

in the Inta "Minlag" camp complex (1952-1956). During that time, she heard reports of 

two American flyers in the Inta camp complex in the early 1950s, although she did not 

see them herself. Some of the women who worked in the central hospital said there were 

many foreigners in the camp, including two American pilots. According to these reports, 

the two men were shot down or forced down over Germany after having strayed over 

Soviet-occupied territory. One of the two was white, while the other had black skin 

(chernokozhiy). The witness said that these women told her that the reputed Americans 

had been imprisoned since 1946. 70

Inta Mining Camp, Section Five—A CIA source reported in 1957 that, while interned 

he became acquainted with an American citizen. This individual was named Jan (John) 

with a double family name—the first American, the second Polish. He was born in the 

United States of Polish and French extraction. Jan was a U.S. Army captain stationed in 

Berlin from 1946 to 1947. The Soviets arrested him in the Soviet Zone while he was 

visiting his girlfriend. Source last saw Jan in September 1953 at the eye, ear, and nose 

clinic of the Section Five, Barracks 27 hospital.71

Inta Mining Camp 15—A Russian source stated that he knew of two Americans in the 

Inta Gulag system detained at Mining Camp 15 (circa 1950). The two men were U.S. 

service members and went by the names of John and Michael.72

Pechora—A Lithuanian witness claimed to have met an American Major or Colonel on 

15 or 16 February 1950. The American reportedly was captured in the Ukraine during 

WWII. The witness saw him on two occasions before being sent into exile.73

 

69 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 181139Z Nov 94.

70 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 051347Z Nov 96.

71 American Held in Soviet Prison, Information Report, Central Intelligence Agency, May 30, 1957. 

72 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 141940Z Jun 01. 

73 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 070842Z Jul 93
45

Pechora Kozhva (Koschwa)—A German POW reportedly had direct contact with a U.S. 

Air Force Captain described as being five feet eleven inches tall, 28-33 years old, with

reddish hair. The witness last saw him on January 5, 1950. The American claimed that at 

the end of WWII he was arrested for participating in an altercation at a Moscow

restaurant. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. The American spoke broken

German. 74

Pechora Kozhva (Koschwa)—A German returnee reported meeting an American soldier 

named Jack. Jack claimed the Soviets arrested him in 1945. Jack spoke fluent English, 

Russian, and German. He was approximately 29 years old, five feet ten inches tall, 180 

pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. He had five tattoos on his arms including a navy 

anchor, right upper arm; English script, right forearm; an eagle, right wrist; and a half 

moon, left upper arm. In August 1949, Jack became ill with tuberculosis and was 

transferred to the prison hospital, where he died in August 1950. Source last saw Jack in 

August 1950. His body was lying on a table in the hospital following a post-mortem 

examination. 75

Ukhta—A German interned in Ukhta from 1947 to February 1950 reported meeting and 

developing a friendship based on an escape plot with an American citizen named James 

Stafford, who reportedly arrived in Ukhta in 1948. 

Stafford was born between 1910 and 1914 in Breslau, Germany, where his father worked 

for the city police. His father immigrated to the U.S. via Czechoslovakia in 1919. 

Stafford followed with his mother and sister in 1920. Stafford’s mother was from

Chemnitz, Germany. The family changed their surname from Lenz to Stafford and settled 

in San Francisco. Stafford attended school in San Francisco and married a South

American woman, who bore him a son. 

Stafford claimed to be an American intelligence operative. After six months’ training, he 

was posted in 1939 to his first assignment as a radio technician in Spain. During World 

War II he carried out various missions in Germany until German counter-intelligence 

finally captured him in Helsinki. The Germans transported him to Tallinn for execution. 

When the Russians captured Tallinn, they freed him. 

The Russians arrested him in 1945 while he was attempting to escape to Finland with a 

group of Estonian civilians. He was first sent to a camp in Kirov, where he escaped and 

was recaptured before eventually being sent to Ukhta. 

Stafford was better known in the camp by his World War II cover name Kurt Nisslone or 

Nissloni. The Russians knew his American identity but sentenced him under the name 

Nissloni Stafford. 

 

74 Americans Imprisoned in the Soviet Union, III-33330, Region III 66th Counter Intelligence Corps Group, 

December 11, 1953.

75 (LNU) Jack, D-30477, HQ 66th CICG, October 5, 1954.
46

James Stafford was husky; five foot seven inches tall, 165 pounds, dark hair, gray-blue 

eyes, prominent cheekbones, short chin, and high forehead. He spoke fluent American 

English, German with a Silesian dialect, and Russian. 

Stafford was still in Ukhta when the source was transported from the camp in February 

1950. The day before source departed Stafford requested that, if source ever returned to 

West Germany, he contact the nearest American intelligence office and report that he had 

met Stafford in a Russian penal camp. Stafford told him, “All you have to do is mention 

to them that you met K-226 Helsinki, and they will know who I am.”

76

[An earlier report, most likely from the same source, cited almost exactly the same 

information about James Stafford with the additional detail that Stafford had worked in 

Helsinki as an American newspaper journalist and that his journalist ID card was number 

K-226.]77

Ukhta Camp 226/4—A German source interned in a Russian labor camp from January 

1949 to December 1953 became acquainted with two alleged members of the U.S. Army, 

who were transferred from the Soviet prison in Hohenschoenhausen, East Germany, to 

Ukhta Camp 226/4 in July 1948. Source had occasional conversations with these

individuals between January 16 and July 19, 1949. Source reported meeting a U.S. Army 

major named Bob, who previously resided in New York. While stationed in Berlin, Bob 

was lured into the Soviet Sector, where he was arrested for espionage. Bob was

approximately 28 years old, five feet eleven inches, squarely built, with dark hair and 

bright eyes. The second American was an Army sergeant named Jack, approximately 22 

years old, five feet three inches, slender, with thin, fair hair, a “boxer’s” nose, and sunken 

eyes. Source heard from other convicts that Bob and Jack were transferred to Siberia in 

autumn, 1949. Source stated that a special camp for foreign convicts (Americans,

English, French, etc.) was located in Siberia.78

Ust-Ukhta Camp Two, Three, and 14—A German source interned from December 

1949 to June 1953 reported meeting two members of the U.S. Air Force. In December of 

1949, while confined in Camp Three, source heard two individuals speaking English and 

asked them who they were. They responded that they were Americans who had made a 

forced landing in Kharkov in 1949 when their four-engine bomber lost both right engines. 

One man was named Harry Rosenberg. Rosenberg showed the source a U.S. Air Force 

cap, which he had in his pocket. It was a gray-blue overseas cap with an airman’s U.S. 

silver wing insignia and one silver horizontal bar. Harry was 26 years old, five feet seven 

inches, slim with black hair. He had a scar on his upper right arm and spoke some 

German. In camp he wore a bright blue airman’s shirt without pockets. Sometimes he 

 

76 American National in Penal Camp at Ukhta, 51-B-13547-C, 7050 AISW (USAFE), May 11, 1954, 

Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

77 Americans Imprisoned in the Soviet Union, III-33330, Region III 66th Counter Intelligence Corps Group, 

December 11, 1953.

78 Members of the U.S. Army Interned in a Convict Camp at Ukhta, 49-D03-873/1-0554, Office of Special 

Investigations (USAFE), May 24, 1954, Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.
47

wore a brown-green shirt with two pockets closed with buttons. He wore Russian work 

clothes in the winter. 

Source did not recall the second man’s name. He was five feet nine inches, blond, slim, 

broad-shouldered, and lame in the right leg. He wore similar clothes to Harry

Rosenberg’s but also had a plain beige tie. Both men were reportedly from New York 

State. 

In January 1950 source and the two airmen were transferred to Camp 14. In March or 

April 1950 Harry Rosenberg escaped, making it as far as Kotlas before being caught and 

returned to Camp 14. He was placed in a special prison as punishment. Source was 

placed in the same prison with Rosenberg a few days later. Ten days later source was 

released from the special prison back into Camp 14. Harry Rosenberg was transferred to 

the disciplinary barracks in Camp Two. 

In the summer of 1950 a prison gang murdered the second American while robbing him. 

Source, along with three Russian prisoners, buried the American in a cemetery containing 

five thousand graves located 1.24 miles from Camp 14. They placed a wooden cross 

with the letters U.S. made of copper on the grave. Soon after this incident the source was 

transferred to Camp Two, where he once again spoke with Harry Rosenberg. 

In the fall of 1951 source saw Harry Rosenberg being escorted through the camp gate by 

two soldiers. They exchanged a few words. Rosenberg stated he was going to Moscow. 

This was the last time source saw or heard of Harry Rosenberg. 79

[In June 2002 Gulag researchers made a trip to Ukhta. Three possible sites for Camp 14 

were determined. Two of these sites are now heavily industrialized areas. The third site 

is the least likely site based on its geographical distance from Ust-Ukhta. Interviews with 

local residents in the area and a search on foot by the team were unsuccessful in

determining the location of the camp cemetery. Research is ongoing with the help of 

local specialists.]

Vorkuta—An Austrian journalist met an American pilot while interned in Vorkuta some 

time prior to June 1954. The pilot was active in the Berlin airlift. He was the only 

crewmember to bailout when his plane crashed in 1948 or 1949.80

Vorkuta—A witness met and spoke with a group of eleven American prisoners in

December 1946, at Vorkuta. All were flyers, one was black, and they included both 

officers and enlisted men. They were kept in a small barracks separated from the rest of 

the camp and surrounded by barbed wire. The witness claimed these might have been 

part of a group of American pilots coerced into staying in the Soviet Union after WWII. 

 

79 Americans Held Near Ust’-Ukhta, 59B-B-5865B, 7050 AISW (USAFE), May 18, 1954, Wringer 

Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

80 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-20.
48

These pilots claimed to have flown missions against Nazi targets using airfields in the 

Soviet Union. 81

Vorkuta—A German witness reported meeting U.S. Air Force member Bob (last name 

unknown), in July 1951. Bob had been stationed in Berlin as a U.S. Air Force

bombardier. While visiting his girlfriend in the Soviet Sector in 1948 or 1949, he was 

arrested and sent to Vorkuta. He previously lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and spoke 

only English. Bob was 30-35 years old, five feet eight inches tall, and had dark hair.82

Vorkuta—A source who had been imprisoned in Vorkuta reported meeting an American 

with the last name "Cox," whose physical description matched that of a West Point cadet 

named Richard Alvin Cox, who mysteriously disappeared from the U.S. Military

Academy on 14 January 1950.83

[Further investigation and analysis of the primary source document (NBG Team, 7051st

Air INTSERON, 7050th Air INTSERGU Air Intelligence Information Report IR-255-56 

dated 18 December 1956)84 indicated the source probably met Private Homer H. Cox, a 

U.S. military policeman who was detained by Soviet authorities in East Germany in 

September 1949. Private Cox was detained in Vorkuta and released on December 29, 

1953.85 He returned to his home state of Oklahoma, and died of pneumonia in 1954.86

The primary source document stated: COX, first name unknown, from CHICHASHA 

(3501N/9755E) OKLAHOMA, 30-35 years old, blond, five feet eight inches tall. Source 

heard from fellow prisoners that this man deserted his military unit in West Germany.]

Vorkuta—A Lithuanian witness in Vilnius stated that, while a prisoner in a camp in 

Vorkuta, he met a prisoner who claimed to be a U.S. WWII pilot named John. 87

Vorkuta—A woman from Kiev reported that during interviews with former prisoners in 

the Vorkuta and Berlag camps, several claimed to have seen American pilots. The pilots 

were shot down during the Korean War.88

 

81 Zoltan Toth, Prisoner of the Soviet Gulag, (Gresham Books, 1978), pp. 62-64. 

82 Allied Personnel Imprisoned in USSR, D-30477, HQ 66th Counter Intelligence Corps Group, 

June 15, 1955.

83 American Prisoner at Vorkuta Camp, USSR, Memorandum for the Record, Central Intelligence Agency, 

May 24, 1957.

84 Handling and Processing of Prisoners in USSR, IR-255-56, NBG Team, 7051st Air INTSERON, 7050 

Air INTSERGU (USAFE), December 18, 1956, Air Intelligence Reports 1947-62 (AIR), Deputy Director 

for Collection and Dissemination (DDCD), Records of Headquarters U.S. Air Force (Air Staff), Record 

Group 341 (RG 341), National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD (NACP).

85 The New York Times, December 30, 1953. 

86 The Stars and Stripes, September 29, 1954.

87 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 231127Z Jun 95.

88 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 181139Z Nov 94.
49

Vorkuta—The son of a Soviet engineer stationed at Vorkuta stated that of the several 

thousand persons in that camp complex, there were two black American soldiers, an 

American major, and several British citizens, as well as "other Europeans."89

Vorkuta—During a press conference in 1999, a Russian journalist stated that in 1962, 

while living in Vorkuta, he conducted an expose on the KGB, presumably to highlight its 

good work at protecting the borders of the former Soviet Union. To present his findings, 

the reporter held a press conference with several KGB officers in attendance. The

journalist asked the officers whether there were any U.S. servicemen in Vorkuta. He 

reported that one KGB officer commented, "Of course we have American prisoners from 

the Korean War here in Vorkuta." When asked to expound on this, the officer demurred, 

indicating that he did not want to discuss the issue any further.90

Vorkuta—A female source, who was imprisoned in Vorkuta and Ukhta from December 

1947 until December 1953, reported the presence of American or British, and French 

male prisoners in Vorkuta. Other female prisoners, who spoke French and English, told 

this to source in March 1953 while working at an excavation site in Vorkuta. The 

English-speaking male prisoners were supposedly airmen who had been arrested after 

bailing out of their aircraft.91

Vorkuta—A CIA source reported in 1955 that among the prisoners in Vorkuta was an 

American citizen named Walter Kovalik. Kovalik was born in 1921. He was missing his 

right arm. Kovalik was arrested in Mongolia on an unknown date. He gave his address as 

4406 South Hermitage Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. His sister Mrs. Frank (Katherina) Sarna 

lived at the same address.92

Vorkuta—A female Austrian returnee interned from 1946 to 1955 reported meeting an 

American colonel in Vorkuta. In 1946, source met the alleged American, a Colonel

Davison, in the Soviet prison located in the basement of a building at Tolbuchkinstrasse 

48, Vienna in 1946. The Prison Commander was Lt. Colonel Dobrovolsky. Source’s 

interrogator was named Ivan Ivanovich Petrov. Colonel Ponomorev, a member of the 

Soviet element of the Vienna Inter-Allied Command, handled Colonel Davison’s case. A 

Major Orlov interrogated Colonel Davison. Davison was approximately 48 years old, and 

came from Ohio. He was arrested in February 1946 at the Hotel Erzherzog Rainer in IV 

(Soviet) Bezirk of Vienna after being entrapped by an Estonian dancer and Soviet agent 

named Helena Leit. Source later met Davison in Vorkuta in 1947. When source left 

Vorkuta in 1950, Davison was ill in the camp hospital. In 1953 in Verkhne-Uralsk source 

learned from two other American prisoners (see Chelyabinsk section) that Davison was 

out of the hospital and still in Vorkuta.93

 

89 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, p. 4-91.

90 Trip Report for TDY to Moscow and Perm, Russia, Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, 

Joint Commission Support Directorate, Gulag Research Team, June 2001.

91 Russian Forced Labor, Penal, and Correction Camps in Ukhta and Vorkuta, 59A-B-2792D, 7050 AISW 

(USAFE), July 29, 1954, Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

92 American Held in Soviet Prison, Information Report, Central Intelligence Agency, October 19, 1955.

93 Amembassy Vienna to State, American Citizens Detained by the Soviet Union, October 20, 1955, 

611.61241/10-2055, Decimal, Central Files, RG 59, NACP.
50

Vorkuta—Source reported meeting an American soldier named Sheridan who claimed 

the Soviets kidnapped him in Germany in 1949.94

Vorkuta Camp One—A CIA source stated in 1954 that a person who claimed to be an 

American flyer had been in Vorkuta since 1948.95

Vorkuta Camp One, Nine/Ten, and Eleven—A German source was interned in

Vorkuta from July 1950 to June 1953. On numerous occasions he spoke with a fellow 

prisoner who claimed to be an American. The prisoner claimed to be a U.S. Army 

corporal named Bill Matthiuk, a member of the U.S. Occupation Forces in Berlin. He was 

arrested in Potsdam in 1948 after falling asleep on a train. At the time, he was twentyfive or twenty-six years old, stout, dark blond with bushy eyebrows. Sour ce last saw him 

in December 1952.96

[This is possibly Private William T. Marchuk. United States Army. Private Marchuk was

reported absent without leave February 1, 1949 in Berlin. He was imprisoned in Vorkuta 

and other camps in the Soviet Union until his release to U.S. authorities on January 8,

1955.]

Vorkuta Camp Three—Repatriated American John Noble reported that shortly after his 

arrival at Camp Three, he had spoken with a Yugoslavian national. The Yugoslav told 

him that several months before, an American Navy reconnaissance plane had been

downed by the Soviets over the Baltic Sea and that eight of the ten crewmembers had 

survived. The survivors were being held in the Vorkuta area. However, they were told 

that the United States Government had accepted the official Soviet statement declaring 

them dead. This effectively doomed their chances of ever returning to America. Noble 

was never able to identify the survivors by name. However, he heard repeatedly from 

other inmates who were transferred from one camp to another that Americans were held 

in the same camps from which the transferees had come.97

Vorkuta Camp 5-153/5-OR—A Ukrainian source stated that towards the end of 1949 he 

met two American military officers who were musicians.98

Vorkuta Camp Six—A German witness reported that he knew a U.S. Major Schwartz 

from 1951 until 1952. Schwartz had been stationed in Frankfurt, Germany, when Soviet 

security police in Kassel, West Germany, kidnapped him in 1949. The American, last 

seen by the witness in 1952, spoke Russian and English. He was described as being 51 to 

56 years old, five feet ten inches to six feet tall, 165 to 175 pounds, dark hair, dark 

complexion with protruding teeth and a missing upper front tooth. 99

 

94 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, p. 4-82.

95 Soviet Concentration Camps in the Vorkuta Area, Information Report, April 23, 1954, Central 

Intelligence Agency.

96 Area Description of Vorkuta, 52B-11085A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), December 7, 1954, Wringer Reports, 

ODI, RG 341, NACP.

97 Sworn Affidavit to President Richard M. Nixon by John Nobel, May 26, 1973, p. 1.

98 KARTA, 2003, p.10.

99 U.S. Personnel in Soviet Custody, XE-030477, 66th Counter Intelligence Corps Group, 
51

Vorkuta Camp Six—A returned German reported that, while interned from March 1950 

to January 1954, he occasionally conversed with prisoners who claimed to be U.S. 

citizens. In early 1953, source met a colonel in the U.S. Army; approximately 50 years 

old, five feet eleven inches, slender with gray hair. He claimed the Russians kidnapped 

him in the Russian Sector of Vienna in 1948, while he was making a trip by car with his 

girlfriend. Source stated this prisoner was still in Camp Six when he left Vorkuta in 

January 1954. 

Once in January of 1954 at the tailor’s shop, the same source met an alleged U.S. Army 

soldier named Joe, approximately 40 years old, five feet seven inches, slender, with dark 

blonde hair. Joe had a scar over his right eye and limped on his right leg. He was 

sentenced to five years hard labor in 1945 and had been “free” since 1950. He lived in 

exile in the Vorkuta area with a Russian woman. Joe worked as the head of the 

bathhouse for Coal Mine 29.100

Vorkuta Camp Nine—An Austrian journalist imprisoned in various camps from 1948 

until 1954, claimed to have known a naturalized American, Colonel Brandenfels, in

Vorkuta in 1951. (Brandenfels was reportedly the name he used before becoming an 

American citizen.) The American had been stationed in Berlin after WWII and was 

picked up in a bar in the Soviet Zone.101

Vorkuta Camp Nine—While detained in Camp Nine in 1952, a former German POW 

heard rumors from camp guards and officers that Americans were detained in Vorkuta.

In early 1952, the camp’s security officer, Fedor Nikolayevich Kolesnikov, told the 

source he had seen the American officers. The source also spoke with the Chief of State 

Security for Vorkuta, Mishanov, who acknowledged Kolesnikov’s statement. 

The source reported that seven American military prisoners were reportedly detained in 

the Vorkuta Mekhanicheskiy Zavod (The Vorkuta Mechanical Factory) Camp Complex, 

Camp 23 or 25—one lieutenant colonel, two majors, two captains, and two civilian

engineers. Another American prisoner was detained in Camp Nine and worked in Coal 

Mine Eight. Source remembers the latter American’s name as Johnny Thomson or 

Johnny Chemson. 

This American prisoner reportedly told the source that he had been the first engineer of 

an American vessel anchored at Port Author, USSR (no time frame reported). The 

engineer went on a short errand ashore, was arrested for illegally entering the harbor area, 

and sentenced to six to seven years in the Vorkuta Gulag. 

 

November 20,1957.

100 U.S. Citizens, Interned in Russian Convict Camps at Vorkuta, 49-D03-886/1-0554, Office of Special 

Investigations (USAFE), April 27, 1954, Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

101 U.S. Citizens Reportedly Detained in USSR, Headquarters United States Forces in Austria, Office of the 

Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, September 20, 1954.
52

The source doubted whether the Soviet authorities would release him after he completed 

his sentence. He believed that the engineer would have been forcibly settled somewhere 

in the Urals. Source also noted that the Soviet authorities seemed proud of having

American officers in custody. 102

Vorkuta Camp 13—A German interned from November 1950 to June 1953 reported 

meeting an American soldier while working in Coal Mine 13. In November of 1950 

source became acquainted with a man named Frank who claimed to have been an army 

sergeant in the Berlin motor pool. In early 1949 Frank had been at a restaurant in BerlinNeukoelln near the border of the U.S.-Soviet sectors. He decided to return home via a 

short cut through the Soviet Sector. Russian soldiers arrested him while still in the U.S. 

zone. He was sent to Vorkuta in October 1950, and was transferred to an unknown labor 

camp in November 1951. Frank was 27 to 30, six feet tall, dark hair, olive skin, broadshouldered with athletic build. He spoke German with an American accent and Russian. 

His parents were allegedly Russian. 103

Vorkuta Camp 223/III104—A German returnee who was interned from June 1950 to

December 1953 reported meeting a man who claimed to be an officer in the U.S. Army. 

From 1951 to the summer of 1952 the source occasionally spoke with a prisoner who 

worked as the camp bookkeeper. He spoke fluent English as well as German, French, and 

Russian. He claimed to be a U.S. Army colonel who at one time was the military attaché 

in Leningrad. Source described him as approximately 35 years old, five feet eleven

inches, slender, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a twisted mouth. He left Vorkuta 

in the summer of 1952.105

Vorkuta Coal Mine One—A Polish witness arrived at Vorkuta Coal Mine One in 1950. 

Other prisoners pointed out to him an American colonel. He appeared about 60 years old, 

was quite tall, broad-shouldered, and pale. He wore a quilted jacket and did not converse 

with other prisoners. After some time the camp administration summoned the colonel, 

returned his gold ring and watch, and released him from Vorkuta.106

Vorkuta Coal Mine One—A Polish witness cla imed to have met an American pilot in 

the summer of 1946. They could not understand each other, but the witness was able to 

understand that the pilot "fell down" from a plane. He was tall (six feet), slight of build, 

dark-skinned, with an oval face. He looked robust. The witness saw him in the camp for a 

few days, and did not know what became of the American. 107

 

102 American Prisoners in Vorkuta, 59A-B-2673 E, 7050 AISW (USAFE), September 29, 1954, Wringer 

Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

103 U.S. Prisoners in Vorkuta, D-58-B-3353 B, 7050 AISW (USAFE), April 15, 1954, Wringer Reports, 

ODI, RG 341, NACP.

104 223/III (3), the postal code for Special Camp Number Six, Rechlag, Lagotdelenie Number Three. 

105 U.S. Officer, Interned in Russian Convict Camp North of Vorkuta, 49-D03-1121/2-0654, Office of 

Special Investigations (USAFE), June 2, 1954, Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

106 KARTA, 1998, p. 3.

107 KARTA, 1998, p. 3.
53

Vorkuta Coal Mine One—A Polish source who was at this camp in 1954 heard that an 

American colonel downed over East Germany (near Berlin) was among a group of

prisoners who arrived that year.108

Vorkuta Mine Two—A witness reported that between 1946-1947 he was imprisoned 

with an individual who claimed to be an American pilot who had seriously injured 

himself when he bailed out of his plane after it was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He had large 

scars on his face, was taciturn and spoke Russian poorly. He was later transferred to 

another camp.109

Vorkuta Coal Mine Six—A Polish witness recalled that an American arrived at the 

camp around June of 1953. Other prisoners told the witness that the American was a 

pilot from a spy plane downed by the Soviets. The American was approximately 40 years 

old, over six feet tall with an oval face and a shaved head, wearing a quilted jacket (like 

everybody else). His Russian was very poor. The witness saw him while the Polish 

prisoners were being prepared for release.110

Vorkuta Coal Mine Six—In 1954 this Polish witness came into contact with an

American and had a short conversation with him (The source's English was poor, and the 

American could not speak Russian). The American stated that he was a colonel in the 

U.S. Army, captured in Vienna by Soviet agents. He looked about 40 years old, of

medium height, thickset, with dark or auburn hair. The witness left the camp in 1953 [sic] 

and did not know what happened to the American. 111

Vorkuta Mine Six—A Ukrainian witness stated that in 1952 he met an individual who 

claimed to be an American citizen of Ukrainian descent. He claimed to have been

arrested for spying while on a mission in Lvov in 1949. He was described as disabled, 

tall, with a round face and wavy blond hair. He was approximately 30 years old.112

Vorkuta Coal Mine Seven—A Polish witness reported that he met an American colonel, 

kidnapped in Berlin. The American recounted that at first he had been sent to Moscow 

(Lubyanka Prison). He was originally sentenced to death, but the sentence was somehow 

commuted to 25 years’ imprisonment. He was sent to Vorkuta and worked in Coal Mine 

Seven, where the source first met him. The witness met him a second time between May 

and June 1954 in prison in Tayshet, while being moved from Tayshet to Krasnoyarsk. 

 

108 KARTA, 1998, p. 3.

109 KARTA, 2003, p. 10.

110 KARTA, 1998, p. 4.

111 KARTA, 1998, p. 4.

112 KARTA, 2003, p. 10.
54

The American told the witness that, after the uprising in Coal Mine Seven in Vorkuta in 

1953, he had been sentenced to death because of his participation in the uprising. 

However his sentence was commuted to ten years in a camp somewhere in the Irkutsk 

District. The American was of average height with blond hair and was about 45 years 

old.113

Vorkuta Mine Nine—A German witness met a U.S. Navy ensign named Sobeloff

[Sobelev], reportedly captured in China in 1948, when Communist forces took control of 

the country. Sobeloff claimed to have been the captain of a U.S. vessel at the time of his 

capture. He was Russian by birth, but a U.S. citizen. He was last seen at Vorkuta Mine 

Nine in November 1955.114

Vorkuta Mine Nine/Ten—A witness reported that an American citizen was imprisoned 

here between 1949 and 1953. The other prisoners were banned from contact with the 

purported American. He was approximately 40, of medium height with dark hair.115

Vorkuta Coal Mine Eleven—A Polish witness was moved from Coal Mine Nine/Ten to 

Coal Mine Eleven in Vorkuta. While at Coal Mine Eleven, he came into close contact 

with an American officer named Langier, who had been captured by the Soviets

somewhere in Eastern Asia and sentenced for espionage. Langier worked at the baths. 

He spoke some Polish and claimed he had some Polish friends in the USA. The source 

believed Langier was from Alabama. He was tall, fair-haired and very friendly. Langier 

sometimes shared food with the source. He also helped him transfer back to Coal Mine 

Nine/Ten (Langier had a good relationship with the camp doctor). When the witness was 

released in 1954, the camp at Coal Mine Eleven no longer existed. The witness assumed 

that Langier had been moved somewhere else earlier.116

Vorkuta Coal Mine 16—In 1951 or 1952 a Polish witness remembered meeting a young 

American 20-25 years old, thin, medium-sized, who spoke Russian and worked at the 

baths. The witness believed he had been captured in Germany. The witness also heard 

rumors about an American plane downed over Latvia near the town of Limbava and that 

the crew was imprisoned in one of the camps.117

Vorkuta Coal Mine 29—In 1955, a German source imprisoned in Vorkuta from

September 1950 to June 1953 reported meeting an American citizen named Harry. 

Harry’s last name sounded like “Waterwolf”, but he was always addressed or referred to 

as “Ami”. Harry spoke almost fluent Russian and some German. The source spoke some 

English allowing the two to communicate. Harry claimed to be a member of a control 

board that examined an air crash between an American and a Soviet aircraft in the Soviet 

Zone of Germany near Berlin. 

 

113 KARTA Center’s research project (KARTA): Searching for Information on American Citizens Gone 

Missing During World War II and After it in the Territory of the USSR, Final Narrative Report for the 

Period February 1-December 31, 1999, p. 3.

114 SOBELOFF, Eugene, D-30477, 66th Counter Intelligence Corps Group, August 3, 1956.

115 KARTA, 2003, p. 10.

116 KARTA, 1999, p. 3.

117 KARTA, 1998, p. 4.
55

Source could not recall the circumstances of Harry’s arrest. He was transported from 

Berlin to Moscow, where he was placed on a transport to Vorkuta with the source. In July 

1951, Harry transferred to the camp that served Coal Mines 10, 14, and 16. In 1953 

while in Moscow, source heard from a fellow prisoner that Harry was still in Vorkuta. 

Harry’s parents were Americans living in Japan when he was born. He was described as 

28 years old, six feet one inch tall, dark blue eyes, thin blond hair, very slender with 

tattooed arms and chest. The left side of his face appeared paralyzed with the skin

hanging loose. His left eye had a reddish appearance, which he stated was the result of 

an air crash. 118

Vorkuta Mine 29—A Ukrainian witness reported meeting an individual in 1954 who 

claimed to be an American colonel who had been abducted in Germany after the Second 

World War. He was of medium height, approximately 40 with red hair. He was 

educated and spoke Russian well. The purported colonel lived with the Russian prisoners 

and worked at the mine’s warehouse.119

Vorkuta Coal Mine 40—A Polish witness recalled that in early September of 1951 or 

1952—after some kind of Russian-American incident in Berlin—a large number of

Germans were brought to Vorkuta. They came mostly from Berlin (both East and West) 

and around 20 ended up in Coal Mine 40. One German from this group was about 45 

years old, a doctor and disabled soldier who had a platinum plate in his skull. He related 

that during a rail trip to Vorkuta he had met in the carriage an American major who had 

been captured on a street in Berlin near the East-West border. He believed there were a 

total of three Americans in this convoy and that, at a transfer point, they were directed to 

other coal mines in Vorkuta.120

Vorkuta Mine 40—An eyewitness reported that in 1950 he met a tall, 35-year-old 

American pilot named John Czekman. 121

Vorkuta Distribution Camp 61—A former German POW reported direct contact with a 

U.S. major (five feet nine inches tall with blue-gray eyes, moustache, and slim build) who 

claimed to have been kidnapped in 1945 while the Americans were still at the Elbe River. 

The Soviets sentenced him to 25 years for espionage. He wore an American uniform. 122

Vorkuta Pit 40—Austrian witnesses claimed to have met a naturalized American who 

immigrated to the U.S. as a child. His adopted name was Bizet. The Soviets referred to 

him by his birth name, Wasiljevski. He was supposedly taken prisoner by the Soviets in 

1945 in Korea, where he was serving with the U.S. Navy. The Soviets reportedly did not 

recognize him as a U.S. citizen. 123

 

118 Forced Labor Camp in Vorkuta, 52HD-55-29A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), January 11, 1955, Wringer 

Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

119 KARTA, 2003, p. 10.

120 KARTA, 1998, p. 5.

121 KARTA, 2003, p. 10.

122 Americans Imprisoned in the Soviet Union, III-33330, Region III 66th Counter Intelligence Corps 

Group, 11 December 1953.

123 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-94.
56

Vorkuta Transit Camp—A German source reported that in August 1949 he met an 

individual who claimed to be a U.S. Army colonel. This individual remarked that he was 

on a secret mission in the Soviet Zone of Germany when arrested. He was described as 

between 44-45 years old, five feet seven to five feet nine inches tall, with dark hair and a 

slender build. He claimed to have been a spy in Germany during World War II. He 

spoke fluent German with no accent and was never heard to speak English.124

Vorkuta Transit Camp—A German source reported that, between October 4 and 18, 

1949, he saw a U.S. Army colonel. He was in U.S. uniform without insignia, stout, five 

feet nine inches, 40-45 years old with dark blond hair. Source did not speak with the 

alleged American; however, a German lieutenant general named Schartz spoke with him 

in English. General Schartz later told source that the man had claimed to be a U.S. 

colonel arrested in the Soviet Zone of Vienna. General Schartz did not believe the man 

was really an American but was an informer posing as one.125

Vorkuta Transit Camp 58—A former German POW claimed to have had direct contact 

with an Army or Air Force colonel (five feet eleven inches tall with dark blond hair) 

during the week of August 21-25, 1949. The U.S. colonel spoke perfect German. He 

claimed to have been dropped behind German lines during WWII to conduct espionage 

and was captured in East Germany. 126

Vorkuta OLP Eight—While in the hospital of OLP Eight from September 1949 to 

March 1950, a German source was in the same ward as an American citizen. The 

American’s last name ended in “ich”. He was 58-60 years old, slender with black hair, 

between five feet nine and five feet eleven inches tall. The alleged American was born in 

San Francisco of Yugoslavian decent. He was employed on an American vessel as chief 

engineer. In 1946, while on a trip from Port Duna, Soviet authorities arrested him in 

Vladivostok. When source was released from the hospital, the American had recovered 

considerably and was expecting to be repatriated.127

Vorkuta OLP Nine—While detained in separate labor camp section OLP Nine in 1953, 

a former German POW heard from a driver that approximately 19 miles north of Vorkuta 

was a Camp of Silence (the inmates of the camp did not have to work, and were not 

eligible for mail privileges). According to the driver, who was an ex-prisoner engaged in 

hauling supplies to various camps, this Camp of Silence held Americans and British 

captured in Korea.128

 

124 Area of Vorkuta, 56A-5120-A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), June 30, 1954, Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, 

NACP.

125 Source’s Experience in Penal Labor Camps in Vorkuta, 51-B-13376-H, 7050 AISW (USAFE), 26 

March 1954, Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

126 Americans Imprisoned in the Soviet Union, III-33330, Region III 66th Counter Intelligence Corps 

Group, December 11, 1953.

127 U.S. Citizen in Hospital at Vorkuta, 51B-13892A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), July 1, 1954, Wringer 

Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

128 Urban Area of Vorkuta, 51A-10623, 7050 AISW (USAFE), July 12, 1954, Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 

341, NACP.
57

Molotov (Perm)

Molotov (Perm)—A CIA report dated September 2, 1952 cites the location of Soviet 

transit camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. The following indented paragraphs have 

been excerpted from that report: 129

Since July 1951, according to new information, several transports of

Korean POWs passed through the ports of Bukhta (near Vladivostok), 

Okhotsk and Magadan. Each ship contained 1,000 or more prisoners. 

Between the end of November 1951 and April 1952, transports of POWs 

were sent by rail from the Poset railway junction on the Chinese-Soviet 

frontier. Some were directed to Chita in Eastern Siberia and some to 

Molotov, European Soviet Russia, west of the Ural Mountains.

Information about non-Asiatic POWs was received on April 30, 1952 

from the Gubakha railway station in the Komi-Permyak National District, 

in Northwestern Siberia. According to this information, about 300 POWs 

were transported by rail from Chita to Molotov in February 1952. The 

prisoners were clothed in Soviet-type cotton padded tunics with no

distinctive marks. They were first transported from the railway station to 

the MVD prison and then sent by rail, in a train consisting of 9 wagons, to 

Molotov on or about April 5, 1952. The train was heavily guarded by 

railway guards of the MVD.

In March this year transports of POWs passed through from Khabarovsk 

to Chita and from Chita to Molotov roughly every fortnight. They were in 

small groups of up to 50 persons. According to latest information, dated 

30 June 1952, the prisoners, after arriving in Chita, were first sent to the 

local MVD prisons, and then, after a sufficient number of them had been 

assembled, were sent further to Molotov. It is most probable that POWs 

are undergoing some sort of investigation and selection process while in 

the MVD prison in Chita. Some of them are retained in prison in Chita for 

a long time, while others are sent directly by rail to Molotov and other 

industrial regions in the Ural Mountains.

 

129 Location of Certain Soviet Transit Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea, Information Report, Central 

Intelligence Agency, September 2, 1952.
58

From December 1951 up to the end of April 1952, several railway 

transports of American and European (probably British) POWs were seen 

passing at intervals of 10 to 20 days through the Komi-Permyak National 

District in Northwestern Siberia. These transports were directed to

Molotov, Gubakha (Northeast of Molotov), Kudymkar (Northwest of

Molotov), and Chermos on the Kama River North of Molotov. The

prisoners were clad in cotton-padded gray tunics and pants and wore 

civilian caps, so-called “Sibirki”. They had no military insignia. They

spoke among themselves in English, and they knew no other languages, 

except a few words of Russian. 

During the journey they remained locked in heavily guarded wagons and 

were not allowed to leave them. They received their meals from MVD 

guards. Each wagon had small windows on two levels. Each window was 

barred and covered by opaque glass.

According to information gathered between April 1 and 20, a certain

number of American POW officers, among whom was a group referred to 

as the “American General Staff”, were kept at that time in the Command 

of the Military District of Molotov. Some of the POWs were

accommodated in the building of the MVD in Molotov, having been

subjected most probably to interrogations. They had been completely

isolated from the outside world.

In the town of Gubakha and in the industrial regions of Kudymkar and 

Chermos there were three isolated camps and one interrogation prison for 

American POWs from Korea, according to information dated February 

and April 1952. Prisoners kept in the three labor camps were employed on 

the construction of a new railway line. In one of these camps, called 

GAYSK about 200 Americans were kept. They were employed in

workshops assembling rails and doing various technical jobs. These camps 

were completely isolated from any civilian camps located in

neighborhood. Political control was carried out by the local Party

organization, headed by (first name unknown (fnu)) Edovin, a delegate 

from the Obkom of the Komi-Permyak National District. All these camps 

were under the charge of (first name unknown) Kalypin, a Soviet officer 

of unknown rank who was sent from Molotov in February 1952.

 In some camps situated near the Gubakha railway, which are called

“Zapretchdelanki”, [Russian term difficult to translate - means “isolated 

plots”] about 150 Americans were kept, probably soldiers and NCOs. An 

interesting thing was that from these camps one to three POWs were taken 

every few days by officers of the MVD for transportation to Gubakha or 

Molotov. They never returned to their camps and their fate remained 

unknown. According to the supposition of persons acquainted with MVD 

methods, these POWs had been observed in the camps by specially
59

assigned agents of the MVD, who knew the English language and thus 

were able to identify those individuals who were very hostile to the 

Communist regime and ideology and those who could be considered

sympathetic. Those belonging to the first group were most probably sent 

either to prison or to especially hard labor camps for extermination; the 

others were probably sent to special political courses in Molotov.

Solikamsk—A stateless refugee who was detained by the Soviets from February 14, 

1950 until May 18, 1955 reported meeting five American servicemen. In June of 1954 

source was in a camp near Kirov when a fe llow inmate informed him that five Americans 

were being held in a cell nearby. A few days later, he transferred by train to the Central 

Dispensary at Solikamsk. 

The train arrived in Solikamsk at 4:30 pm on 19 June 1954. The prisoners were ordered 

to disembark and line up by nationality. Source noticed five men to his right and began 

speaking to the closest in German. The man told source his name was Room or Rum and 

that he and the other four men were Americans. He was wearing an American or British 

army uniform without insignia or devices. He was 28 to 33 years old, approximately six 

feet two inches tall, dark eyes, and brown hair. He had a bad case of eczema on his head. 

He spoke excellent German. 

The other four had common faces, wore prisoner clothes, and spoke poor German. 

Source stated they used German words peculiar to Berlin. Source had the impression 

Room was the leader of the group. Source spoke with Room for approximately five 

minutes before the guard told them to be quiet and marched the five Americans away 

separately from the group. Room told source that they were being taken to a camp in the 

Molotov area, Gardinsky region, postal district Bondiuk, post office box AM 244 9/2. He 

requested source notify American authorities if he was ever released.130 [Note: AM 244 

was the postal code for Usol’skii Corrective Labor Camp, “Usol’lag” in Solikamsk.]131

 

130 U.S. Personnel Imprisoned by the Soviet Forces, D-30477, Headquarters 66th Counter Intelligence Corps 

Group, June 13, 1955.

131 M.B. Smirnov, Spravochik Sistemy Ispravitel’no-Trudovykh Lagerey v SSSR,(Moskva,Rossia: Zven’ya, 

1998), pp. 433-434.
60

Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg)

Nizhne-Isetskiy—A German POW, who was incarcerated in the Nizhne-Isetskiy Forced 

Labor Camp saw three Russian-born Americans working as mechanics. Two of them 

were more than forty years of age; the third was nineteen years old and did not speak 

Russian. They sang American songs, and, when the German inquired, he learned from 

fellow POWs that the three men were arrested aboard a ship by Mao’s police in

Shanghai, China, imprisoned, transferred to the Soviet authorities, and lived as free 

laborers in Sverdlovsk.132 

Nizhniy Tagil Strict Regime Camp—An Austrian returnee reported meeting a U.S. 

sergeant and corporal in late 1952. One was believed to have been kidnapped in

Vienna.133

Sverdlovsk—A German POW was incarcerated in the Sverdlovsk City Jail from

February to July 1951, where he met one U.S. and one British citizen. The American was 

James Pushkan, born 1916 in Manchuria. His mother was Manchurian, and his father 

was an American merchant. Pushkan was about six feet tall, blond, blue eyes; he spoke 

fluent English, French and Russian. Pushkan reportedly joined the U.S. Navy when he 

was 20 years old and served as a lieutenant on a cruiser during World War II. After the 

end of the war, he separated from the U.S. Navy and went as a civilian to Shanghai, 

China. He subsequently traveled to Shenyang (Mukden) in 1950 to look for his parents. 

In Shenyang, he was arrested by the Soviets, convicted, and sentenced to 15 years’

imprisonment. He was later transferred from the Sverdlovsk City Jail to an unknown 

prison camp in May 1951. 

The German POW also met a British citizen by the name of Soja Aginski. Aginski was 

born in 1909 in Vladivostok, Russia. His parents fled Russia following World War I, and 

lived in the United Kingdom, where Aginski studied law. He reportedly served in the 

British Navy as a military judge, and earned the rank of major. He was captured in 

China, where he was living illegally following World War II. While in the Sverdlovsk 

jail, he wore civilian clothing and possessed a British military coat. Aginski was 

sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and transferred to an unknown prison camp with 

Pushkan. 134 

 

132 Socio-Political Information, 272130-56-B-4321A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), January 20, 1954, Wringer 

Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

133 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-90.

134 Area Description of Sverdlovsk, 51-A-9352A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), February 24, 1954, Wringer 

Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.
61

Chelyabinsk

Verkhne-Ural’sk—An Italian returnee reported meeting an American Army major in a 

camp in Verkhne-Ural’sk in 1953. The American’s parents were Hungarian; he was born 

in the United States. At the end of World War II the major was in Hungary and later was 

present at the Nurenberg trials. He returned to Hungary as a civilian and was arrested by 

the Soviet Secret Police. He was sent to prison in Baden, Soviet Zone of Austria, where 

he spent three years and from there was transferred to Verkhne-Ural’sk in 1951,

remaining there, in poor health, until May 1953, when he was transferred to Moscow. 135

Verkhne-Ural’sk—An Austrian woman detained in the Soviet Union from 1946 until 

1956 reported meeting two American officers in Verkhne-Ural’sk. One gave his name as 

Captain Peterson. He was approximately 30 years old and claimed that he had been 

kidnapped in Vienna while working at General Mark Clark’s headquarters in 1946. 

Source first met Captain Peterson in 1953 and last saw him in 1955 at Vladimir Prison. 

The second individual whom the source alleged to have met was a Captain Sing Oisman, 

who was approximately 30 years old at the time and had supposedly been kidnapped in 

Vienna in 1949. Source last saw Captain Oisman in September 1953 at Verkhne-Ural’sk. 

Both Peterson and Oisman reportedly told the source that 27 Americans were being held 

in the Krasnoyarsk Region. 136

Verkhne-Ural’sk—Source reported meeting a U.S. Army captain named George

Mackelly. Mackelly claimed to have been stationed in Hanover, Frankfurt am Main, and 

Berlin. The Soviets arrested him in Berlin in 1950.137

Chelyabinsk PW Camp—Source met an American who arrived in camp in July 1950 

along with three German prisoners. The American was called ‘Yam’. He claimed to be a 

lieutenant who had been shot down over eastern Germany in 1945. He was transferred to 

the Soviet Union when the Red Army captured the hospital where he was recuperating. 

He was described as approximately 40 years old, fair with a slim build. He spoke English, 

German, and Russian. His parents allegedly owned a large farm or estate in New York 

State. At the end of July 1950 source and the American were transferred to Shakhty. The 

American was transferred to Rostov Prison in September 1950 for beating a guard.138 

 

135 Amembassy Vienna to State, Alleged American in the USSR, December 6, 1954, 261.1111/12-654, 

Prisons and Camps USSR No. 3, Operations Section Files, 1949-54, Operations Section (POW Desk), 

Office of Naval Intelligence, Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Record Group 38, 

NACP.

136 Amembassy Vienna to State, American Citizens Detained by the Soviet Union, October 20, 1955, 

611.61241/10-2055, Decimal, Central Files, RG 59, NACP.

137 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-66.

138 Alleged US Citizens in Russian Hands; HQ USFA, AC of S, G2 (SSB/CIB) APO 168, US Army; 

3August 3, 1955.
62

Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk Transit Prison—During an interview in 1993, a witness in Lithuania 

described an encounter with Americans at the Novosibirsk Transit Prison around June 

1952. The witness stated there were two American pilots in a group of prisoners brought 

into his small room. The other two or three prisoners were German. The Americans 

reportedly told him that they had been shot down in Korea. They were dressed in khaki 

shirts and trousers with no belts. The first American told the source that he was a captain 

in the U.S. Air Force. The source could only recall that the captain was tall and had a red 

beard. He could not remember any details about the second individual.139

 

139 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 070842Z Jul 93.
63

Krasnoyarsk

Kirovskiy—In his memoirs (provided to the Russian Side in November 1999), a former 

Soviet citizen quoted seven people who claim to have seen Americans in Kirovskiy. 

Excerpts from his memoirs:140

1. [In the] fall, 1951, a group of American POWs from Korea arrived in a camp by the 

town Kirovsk, in the Krasnoyarsk area. However, in the beginning of 1952, they

disappeared. In any case, during the liquidation of the prison camp during the winter of 

1951 and into 1952, they were not part of the prisoners who were transferred to Motygino 

(to the south)....

2. A worker from Kirovskiy witnessed how, late at night, during Russian Christmas, a 

group of 20, maybe slightly more, were led from the camp along the Veniaminovky 

Road.

3. Another witness and her friend claimed that during the last days of December 1951, 

more than 20 prisoners, wearing bare threads and half frozen, were moved along the road 

to Veniaminovsky.

4. A witness in Veniaminovky, stated that on Christmas "we had a present which the 

NKVD delivered to the town (half frozen prisoners). They did not speak Russian. They 

only said 'American, American,' and 'eat, eat.' ... Then in the morning, around 6 am, they 

were taken and marched further."

5. A hunter and driver, from the town of Chinuel, saw from his car, a number of prisoners 

who did not speak Russian, being marched along the road...this was early in the morning, 

around Christmas...The next day, around 7 am, he was going back to Kirovsk and saw the 

prisoner column moving toward the town of Kamenka (and the lake).

4. One more witness worked in the town of Kirovsk. In February 1952, while

hunting, in the area where the Kamenka and Porenda rivers meet, he came across an area 

where he suspected people were buried. The ground was overturned and his dogs were 

picking up strange scents.

 

140 The Memoirs, Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, Joint Commission Support 

Directorate, pp. 7-11.
64

7. A cleaning lady in the camp made a list of 22 names of citizens of the USA who were 

in the camp by Kirovsk during the winter of 1951 to 1952. She was able to take a pencil 

to the Americans and have them record their names and addresses on pieces of

newspaper. She smuggled these pieces out of the camp, put them in a can and buried 

them.

Many names on the list match those of missing service members from the Korean War. 

These include:

Foster 1LT Robert Foster,SGT Elmer Foster, and 

 PFC Robert Foster are missing

Hatch SFC Robert Hatch is missing

Leon PFC Chang Jay Park Kim assumed the name 

 "George Leony" upon his capture in order to

 disguise his Korean heritage...reported 

 to have died in a POW camp in Korea.141

Miller There are 42 missing Millers

Davis There are 39 missing Davis

Johnson, Hubert CPL Herbert Johnson is missing

Morin CAPT Arthur Morin and CPL Fernand Morin is 

 missing

Larson PFC Gerald Larson is missing

Boyar Cpl Andrew Boyer and CPL William Boyer are 

 missing

Fisher There are 8 missing Fishers

Helfand PFC Osvaldo Galvan is missing

Kaiser MSGT George Kyzer is missing

Noril’sk—A Polish witness heard from fellow prisoners that two Americans, probably 

pilots, were in the camp. They were described as being around 30-35 years old.142

Noril’sk “Bear Stream” Mine—A Ukrainian witness stated he saw a tall, American 

pilot between the age of 20 and 23 years old at this mine in 1947 or 1948.143

Noril’sk “Medvezhka”144 Camp—A witness reported seeing six or seven American

prisoners at this camp in 1946-47; he thinks they were later taken to Tayshet in Irkutsk.145

 

141 Amendment to a Study of Repatriation U.S. Military Personnel Sept 25, 1953 Amended Oct 6, 1953, 

Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff J-2, Headquarters Far East Command, Oct 6, 1953, p. 2.

142 KARTA, 1998, p. 7.

143 KARTA, 2003, p. 11.

144 From the Russian for bear, same as “Bear Stream” mine.

145 KARTA, 2003, p. 11.
65

Noril’sk Camp Four—A Polish witness claimed to have worked with 36-38 American 

POWs from the Korean War (pilots shot down near Vladivostok) in the early 50s. He 

recalled the name of one of the prisoners, Scott, but was unsure if this was the first or last 

name.146

Noril’sk Camp Four or Five—A Polish witness claimed to have been in the camp with 

an American for about one year. The American was pudgy and fair-haired, and did not 

speak Russian. 147

Noril’sk Camp Five—A Polish witness met an American or English pilot, probably a 

captain, in Norilsk in the first half of 1953. This pilot carried out reconnaissance flights 

during the Korean War, and, due to bad weather and instrument failure, landed at 

Dal’niy, USSR. He was arrested and sentenced on espionage charges. According to the 

witness, the pilot was approximately 30 years old, tall, dark- haired, and looked healthy. 

Under his prison clothes he wore an "English" military blouse. The source did not know 

the pilot's eventual fate. In May-June 1953 the camp inmates staged an uprising, and in 

July, the witness, one of the revolt's leaders, was transported to Kolyma, where he stayed 

until 1956.148

Noril’sk Camp Nine, Cement Plant Five—A witness in Lithuania said that he was 

working with the third camp division near Cement Plant Five at Norilsk Camp Nine in 

1953. Camp gossip alleged that a heavily guarded corner facility in the camp was for 

American POWs from Korea. The witness observed these prisoners from a distance of 

about 110 yards. They were young white males dressed in prison garb. He felt it was 

significant that during the prison uprisings in May-June 1954 these special prisoners were 

quickly removed. He had no idea what happened to them. 149

Noril’sk Camp Eleven—A French doctor who was incarcerated in various camps in the 

Soviet Union from June 1941 until February 1957 reported hearing about an American 

Air Force officer imprisoned in Camp Eleven of the Norilsk camp complex near

Dudinka. The alleged American officer was attached to the United States Military Aid 

Group training Turkish pilots in Turkey. In 1951, he made a forced landing inside the 

Soviet Union near Erevan. The American was still in Norilsk as of September 1953. 

Source never personally saw this individual.150

 

146 Trip Report for TDY to Poland, Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, Joint Commission 

Support Directorate, 1998.

147 KARTA, 1998, p. 7.

148 KARTA, 1998, p. 6.

149 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 070752Z Jul 93.

150 Amembassy Paris to State, Report of U.S. Air Force Officer in Soviet Prison Ca mp, April 9, 1958, 

611.61241/4-958, Decimal, Central Files, RG 59, NACP.
66

Noril’sk Camp 54—An eyewitness reported that between 1951-56, U.S. airmen were 

kept in a separate barracks from other prisoners in this camp. They were escorted to and 

from work under special surveillance. The witness apparently knew this information from 

hearsay. 151

Noril’sk Dudinka Transit Camp—A Lithuanian witness reported seeing American

WWII officers at the Noril’sk Dudinka transit camp in August of 1946.152

Rybak—In his memoirs (provided to the Russian Side in November 1999), a source 

wrote that in the very beginning of 1953, he was sent to handle an emergency situation at 

the northern mining enterprise called Rybak. One of the technical experts he worked with 

was a demolition-qualified inmate, who he described as tall, exhausted by hunger and the 

Arctic, and having a very characteristic, slightly elongated artistic face. His unnaturally 

protruding gray eyes in sockets sunken from emaciation revealed someone ill with

exophthalmic goiter. In an accent clearly that of an English speaker, he identified himself 

as a citizen of the United States of America, Allied Officer Dale. 

In Noril’sk, many years later, a geologist, who had worked with the witness in Udereya at 

the time in question, related that many of the Americans "who had fallen into our hands 

in 1945 from the liberated Fascist camps were held in Rybak and probably perished 

there...."153

During a visit to Krasnoyarsk in September 2001, the Director of the human-rights 

organization “Memorial” confirmed the existence of Rybak. He commented that Rybak 

was a top-secret uranium mine located on the Leningradskaya River. Unlike the majority 

of Gulag camps, Rybak was not subordinate to the MVD. It is not known what entity 

controlled Rybak, but it is believed that several Soviet geologists worked at the camp. 

The camp was centered on a mining shaft, and the uranium ore was placed into river 

ships for transport. Because the camp produced very little uranium it was eventually 

destroyed and traces of the camp removed. No known archival records or memoirs of the 

camp exist. The Memorial director knew of the camp only through acquaintances that 

served as geologists for the Soviet Union. 154 

Unknown location—While serving his sentence in the Krasnoyarsk Kray in 1949-1950, 

a Russian witness met with Japanese and Korean prisoners of war and conversed with 

them. They told him that, along with them, several Americans who had arrived at a 

camp’s sub-section (lagpunkt) had been prisoners of war of either the Japanese or the 

Koreans; later they (Americans, Japanese, Koreans) all became prisoners of the

Russians.155

 

151 KARTA, 2003, p. 10.

152 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 070752Z Jul 93.

153 The Memoirs, Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, Joint Commission Support 

Directorate, pp. 2-3.

154 Trip Report for TDY to Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, and Irkutsk, Russia, September 9-26, 2001, Defense 

Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, Joint Commission Support Directorate, Gulag Research Team, 9 

Novemb er 2001.

155 TFR 14, Task Force Russia, pp. 11-12.
67

Irkutsk

Aleksandrovsk Central Prison—An Austrian returnee reported meeting in May 1955 an 

American military police first lieutenant named Gevi or Gevy Robinson. He was 47 or 48 

years old. The Soviets arrested him in Berlin. He was not allowed to write. The prison 

post office box was 5110/51 Moscow. 156

Irkutsk—An Austrian returnee stated that while imprisoned in Irkutsk from September 

to December 1954 he met an American serviceman named ‘Gaby’. Gaby claimed to 

have been stationed with an American military police unit in Berlin. The Soviets 

kidnapped him while he was standing watch in 1948. Source had learned some English 

while working for U.S. forces in Heidelberg; he was convinced that Gaby was a native 

English speaker. Gaby was not permitted to write or receive letters or packages.157

Irkutsk Camp 19—A Ukrainian witness was sent to the Irkutsk Oblast in 1959. During a 

brief stay in Camp Four, he heard rumors that Americans were being held in Camp 19, 

about five miles away. He said he heard that a part of Camp 19 housed the Americans 

and that it was a particularly high-security zone, surrounded by an eight-yard fence, with 

several feet of barbed wire. 

After having been caught stealing bread, he was sent to Camp 19 in March 1959 and 

immediately thrown into the "BUR" (Barak Usilennogo Rezhima - Disciplinary

Barracks), located near the bathhouse and guard tower. Inside he was thrown on top of 

the badly bloodied bodies of two men lying on a makeshift table. He said that lying next 

to the bodies were seven gold teeth and part of an artificial jaw. It was obvious that the 

men had been beaten and had their teeth knocked out. He could not recall whether the 

teeth were completely covered with gold, or just the crowns. 

The guards told him that the bodies were those of American officers and that the same 

would happen to him if he did not obey the rules. The witness said that it was impossible 

to discern the color of their skin or even guess at their age, due to the severity of the 

beatings. He said that he was sent off to wash up and that, when he returned, the bodies 

were no longer there. 

He later heard that the bodies were buried near the fourth guard tower, and the prisoners' 

clothes were doused with gasoline and burned. The witness added that he had heard 

rumors that there were another 18 Americans housed in the camp, aside from these two. 

He said these prisoners were gradually killed off between May and July 1959. 

 

156 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-63.

157 Alleged US Citizens in Russian Hands; HQ USFA, AC of S, G2 (SSB/CIB) APO 168, US Army ; 

August 3, 1955.
68

He claimed approximately once a week, one of these prisoners was taken out, forced to 

dig his own grave, stripped, and then shot. The camp guards told him that these victims 

were U.S. aircrews who had been taken prisoner in Korea. They were buried outside the 

camp, near the guard tower, separately from the other prisoners. He added this was not in 

the local cemetery, which was also located just outside the camp. 

The witness could not recall the camp commandant's name. He recalled the surnames of 

two camp guards, Popov and Ivanov, but could not remember their first names or 

patronymics.158

Tayshet—A former German POW reported direct contact with U.S. Army Captain

Johnny Anderson from 1951-1953. Captain Anderson was reportedly stationed in Berlin 

in 1946, and was arrested while drunk in the Soviet sector. The source believed that he 

might have been in the Air Corps.

159

Tayshet—A female German prisoner detained in Irkutsk Prison Camp Nine from

September 1949 to May 1953 reported that a female Lithuanian prisoner told her about a 

prison camp in Tayshet that contained approximately seven hundred male American, 

British, and French prisoners. These prisoners did not work. The female Lithuanian 

prisoner had spent time in Tayshet but did not know where or how these men were taken 

prisoner.160

Tayshet—Source stated that in 1953 he met an American U.S. military police sergeant 

named Robert Robinson. Source described him as approximately 36 years old with a 

stomach ailment. He claimed the Soviets arrested him in Vienna in 1948. Robinson was 

not allowed to write letters. The camp address was Post Office Box 5110/37 Moscow. 161

Tayshet-Bratsk Chuna Camp 19—A Polish witness claimed that at the end of the 

summer of 1951 or 1952, an American escaped from Camp 19 at Chuna, on the Tayshet -

Bratsk railway, 90 miles from Tayshet.162

Tayshet Camp 20, Farm 25—A Japanese returnee reported that in the period of 1949-

1950 he had direct contact with an American flyer, about 40 years old, tall, with a ruddy 

complexion. The flyer was shot down over the Baltic States while on an aerial

reconnaissance mission and sentenced to 20 years. He was burned in the crash, leaving 

scars on his right cheek and left leg, necessitating the use of a cane. He spoke some 

Russian. 163

 

158 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 291316Z Dec 98.

159 POW Returned from USSR, MI OPS 69, Commanding Officer, 532d Mil Intel Bn, December 12, 1955.

160 MVD Penal Camps in the Irkutsk Area, E-56B-B-4959A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), February 11, 1954, 

Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

161 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-69.

162 KARTA, 1999, p. 4.

163 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-41.
69

Tayshet Camp 26—A German civilian returnee reported meeting U.S. Air Force Major 

William Thompson. According to the source, Major Thompson made a forced landing, 

and was arrested by the Russians, who sentenced him to twenty-five years for espionage. 

He spent the years 1944 to 1948 in Budenskaya Prison in Moscow. He was transferred to 

Tayshet Camp 26. Major Thompson was approximately 38 years old, six feet one inch 

tall, slim, fair hair, and had blue eyes. His home was in San Antonio, Texas.164

[Major Wirt Elizabeth Thompson, U.S. Air Force, departed Myitkyina, Burma 4

December 1944 on a mission to Kunming, China. He was reported shot down and is 

listed as missing in action. Major Thompson, also known as Worth and William, was 

born in Italy, Texas and attended high school in San Antonio.]

Tayshet Special Camp Six—A Latvian witness reported he had knowledge of three U.S. 

POWs in Tayshet camps from the period 1949-1951. 

He met the first American in 1950, in Tayshet Special Camp Six, where he worked as a 

barber. This camp held primarily French, Indians, and people from the Baltic States. The 

American was a U.S. military officer taken in 1949 from Austria. During his capture, he 

had been hit on the head, resulting in a skull fracture. He was Caucasian, about five foot 

nine inches tall, had light brown hair, blue eyes, was 30 years old and from New Jersey. 

He was at the camp until 1951, when he was released to exile in Krasnoyarskiy Kray. 

The witness saw a second Caucasian American in Special Camp Six during the summer 

of 1951, but does not know if he was civilian or military. This individual was either 

brought in blind, or simulated blindness, and was approximately 30 years old. The 

American escaped, and his fate is unknown. 

The witness saw a third American in Special Camp Six, who was Caucasian, and around 

40 years old. The American was transferred to another camp. The new camp and the 

fate of the American are unknown.

The witness also cited rumors at the time of his captivity that at least some of the crew 

from the U.S. aircraft shot down on April 8, 1950, were taken alive and sent to camps.165

Tayshet Labor Camp Four—In February 1954 a repatriated German commented during 

a U.S. Air Force debriefing that he met four U.S. servicemen in the summer of 1947 at a 

sub-camp of Tayshet Labor Camp Four.166

 

164 Political Adviser, Headquarters, U.S. Army, Europe, Heidelberg to State, Report of Americans 

Imprisoned in USSR, 18 February 1954, 611.61251/2-1854, Decimal, Central Files, RG 59, NACP.

165 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 250540Z Nov 96.

166 U.S. Nationals in Penal Labor Camp No. 04 in Tayshet 58-B-3004-B, 7050 AISW (USAFE), February

18, 1954, (“Wringer Reports”), (ODI), (Air Staff), (RG 341), (NACP).
70

For two days in July 1947, the source was billeted in a sub-camp of Tayshet Labor Camp 

Four. The camp was located in the forest 34 miles east of Tayshet, and consisted of two 

2.5 by 1.5 mile compounds, which housed thousands of penal laborers of various

nationalities. 

While there, the source met four Americans between the ages of 28 and 36. He described 

them as over five feet nine inches tall and broad-shouldered with close-cropped hair. 

They wore khaki denims with a pocket on the trouser. The Americans, the source, and 

some Latvian prisoners were all able to communicate with one another through their 

broken German. The Americans told the source that they were members of the U.S. Air 

Force who had been stationed in Vienna. 

In 1946 Soviet soldiers arrested them at the Vienna Prater Park. They were transported to 

Moscow and tried for espionage. While in Moscow they where kept in underground 

cells, repeatedly beaten, and interrogated. The Soviets sentenced them to 25 years in a 

labor camp. At the end of 1946 they were transferred to Tayshet Labor Camp Four. The 

source was unable to give any names but made it a point to keep track of the Americans 

through fellow prisoners who worked on the Tayshet-Bratsk railroad line. He was certain 

that the Americans were still working on the railroad line when he left Tayshet in

February 1950.

Unknown location—A resident of Irkutsk claimed that his mother had seen an American 

prisoner in March 1946, while working as a porter on a train carrying NKVD prisoners 

from the Far East. The porters were ordered to bury eight of the prisoners who were 

believed dead, but one of the eight was still breathing, so she took him in. He died a 

week later, but before he died he indicated he was an American. The source believed his 

name was something like, "Fred Kolin or Kollinz." The American drew a picture 

indicating an aircraft being shot down and three people possibly bailing out of the 

aircraft.167

Vikhorevka (southwest of the city of Bratsk)—A former Gulag prisoner and ethnic 

Estonian source reported that, while detained in the village of Vikhorevka in the zone 

reserved for foreigners, he met an American serviceman named Thomas (last name 

unknown). Thomas said that he was a U.S. pilot from the Korean War. The source 

reported that Thomas was 35 years old when he met him in 1953. Thomas was five feet 

five inches to five feet seven inches tall and walked with a limp. Thomas was assigned to 

work on the camp water tower.168

 

167 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 181401Z May 95.

168 U.S. and British Citizens in Prison Camp in Eastern Siberia, Central Intelligence Agency, September 29, 

1958.
71

Sakha-Yakutia

Bulun—On 15 October 1957, a Polish witness visited the American Consulate in

Strasbourg, France. He stated he was held in a prison camp in Bulun until July 1957 and 

reported seeing the following Americans: 

Watson, an American professor of physics captured in Vienna,

Dick Rozbicki, an American soldier captured during the Korean War,

Stanley Warner, an American soldier captured during the Korean War, and

Jan Sorrow, an American soldier captured during the Korean War.169

Bulun Camp 217—On September 20, 1957, two Polish witnesses visited the American 

Consulate in Genoa, Italy. Both men claimed to have been WWII POWs held captive in 

Bulun Camp 217. They had escaped on May 6, 1957. They claimed to have made their 

way across the USSR, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, entering Italy on September 18, 1957. 

They reported that two men, who claimed to be American army officers captured during

the Korean War, had been transferred to Bulun Camp 217 from another camp on July 

24,1955.

The men were: Stanley Rosbicki, approximately 24 years old, of Buffalo, New York and 

Jack Watson, 38 or 39, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both were infantry lieutenants.170

Bulun Camp 217—In mid to late June 1957, a Polish refugee visited the British

Consulate in Innsbruck. He stated that he had been imprisoned at Bulun Labor Camp 217 

near Yakutsk until early 1957. While there, he met two British soldiers who cla imed to 

have been captured in Korea in 1951: Sergeant Stanley Rayder, approximately 38 years 

old, and Corporal Bill Coolig, approximately 32 years old. Source had never seen the 

names written and gave what he thought were approximations. The soldiers had

requested that source notify British authorities of their circumstances. Source had 

returned to Poland when released. From Poland he traveled through Hungary and 

Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia. He then crossed over illegally to Austria. His only 

documentation was an Austrian Police certificate stating they had detained him from 

March 12 to June 12, 1957.171 [Original source document mentions camp location one 

time and spells name of camp location as Lubun. This is a probable typographical error.]

 

169 AmConsulate, Strasbourg, France to The Department of State, Washington (State), Information 

Regarding Americans Allegedly Detained in Soviet Union, October 21, 1957, 611.61341/10-2157, 1910 to 

1963 Decimal File (Decimal), Records of the State Department Central Files (Central Files), Record Group 

59 (RG 59), National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD (NACP).

170 AmConGen, Genoa to State, Peripheral: Alleged Escapees from Soviet Camp Give Names of Possible 

American Prisoners, September 24, 1957, 76100/9-2457, Decimal, Central Files, RG 59, NACP.

171 081, British Consulate, Innsbruck, June 26, 1957, Papers for Colonel-General D Volkogonov from the 

Army Historical Branch, Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom, p. B-2.
72

Bulun Camp 307—On September 5, 1960, a Polish witness visited the American

Embassy, Brussels, Belgium. He stated he had been imprisoned in Bulun Camp 307 for 

seven and a half years and was released on May 1, 1960. He reported seeing two U.S. 

Army personne l captured in Korea: Ted Watson, an infantry lieutenant, and Fred

Rosbiki, a commando or paratroop sergeant.172

Bulun Camp 315—A Catholic priest visited the U.S. Embassy in Paris on July 11, 1958 

to report an interview he had recently conducted with a former Polish Gulag prisoner. 

The prisoner told the priest that he had recently escaped from North Siberia where he had 

been held in Bulun Camp 315. He claimed to have been acquainted with two Americans 

in the same camp: a chaplain, John Westley, captured in Korea in 1952, and a lieutenant, 

Stanley Rosbicki, from New York. The witness further advised the priest that the two 

Americans, who appeared to be in good health, had requested that he convey this 

information to the American authorities for transmittal to their families.173

Bulun—A Sakha-Yakutian government representative reported that her grandmother 

lived in Bulun at the end of World War II and worked as a seamstress in the Bulun 

Gulag. In the late 1940’s, her grandmother routinely met American, Lithuanian, 

Estonian, Polish, and Finish prisoners of war. The source reported that her grandmother 

kept a diary, which documented her time in the Gulag and her acquaintance with

Americans. The Bulun Gulag, located at the mouth of the Lena River (N 70° 44.280' E 

127° 21.281') was a fishing camp—male prisoners worked in the fishing industry and 

female prisoners sewed clothes and prison uniforms. Today nothing is left of the camp 

except for an underground fish storage cell. The source’s grandmother died in 1996.174

Kyusyur—In 2002, a source in Poland who had grown up in Kyusyur, a village on the 

opposite bank of the Lena River from Bulun, stated that her father, a Polish prisoner in 

Bulun and Kyusyur, had known an American named Stanley Warner. Stanley Warner 

worked at the village power plant from 1951-1956. In January 1956 he was arrested and 

transported to Yakutsk. Her father knew a second American named Jack, who visited 

their family possibly in 1974. Jack wrote them letters often and had married a Yakutian 

woman. 175

 

172 Amembassy, Brussels to State, Korean War Prisoners Reported In Soviet Union, September 8, 1960, 

611.61241/9-860, Decimal, Central Files, RG 59, NACP.

173 State to Amembassy, Paris, Welfare-Whereabouts: Report of American Prisoners in Soviet Union, July

16, 1958, 611.61251/7-1658, Decimal, Central Files, RG 59, NACP.

174 Trip Report for TDY to Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, and Irkutsk, Russia, September 9-26, 2001, Defense 

Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, Joint Commission Support Directorate, Gulag Research Team, 

November 9, 2001.

175 The Karta Center Project Concerning Further Research in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union 

on the Fate of Missing Americans During and After the Second World War, Narrative Report for the 

Period: September, 17, 2001-September 16, 2002, pp. 5-6.
73

Yakutsk—The CIA report dated September 2, 1952, excerpted above, cites the location 

of Soviet transit camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. Excerpts from the 1952 

report:176

Those POWs who arrived by ship in the ports of Bukhta, Okhotsk and Magadan were 

then transported by train, or by trucks or by motor-driven barges, to Vaikaren on the 

Chukotsk Sea, to Ust Maisk on the river Aldan and to Yakutsk on the river Lena.

POW camps of Koreans in the Yakutsk A.S.S.R. are situated between Ust Maisk and 

Yakutsk. Prisoners there are employed in building new shafts for coalmines,

earthworks and dams. The camps are situated 30 to 125 miles from one another and 

contain 500 to 1,000 prisoners each. Soldiers of the MVD guard them. The camps and 

inmates are under the supervision of the Ministry of Coal Production or the Ministry 

of Forests. The chief over all camps in this region was, in April 1952, a civilian 

functionary (fnu) Andreev. The commandant of the MVD units assigned to guard the 

camps was Col. (fnu) Vassilevsky. The prisoners are doing very heavy physical work 

and are living under primitive conditions. In one of the camps in this region, called 

AMGA, about 300 POWs died in February and April 1952 as a result of serious 

illnesses and overwork. Over 400 of them were placed in very crude barracks for the 

sick. 

Topolinyy—On November 13-14, 1997 a JCSD team traveled to Taganrog to conduct an 

interview with a source who claimed to have personal knowledge of a U.S. Korean War 

POW living in Yakutiya (now officially called The Sakha Republic) as late as 1983. 

Source had contacted the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission through a journalist, who in 

November of 1997 wrote an article in the Russian newspaper Sovershenno Sekretno

based on the source’s story. 177

Source told the team that in 1975 he traveled to Yakutiya, in Northeast Siberia, as part of 

a scientific expedition. He and some other comrades returned the next year to the village 

of Topolinyy to earn some extra money as seasonal laborers, building a boarding school 

for local children. There he met an individual known only as “Kolya ”, also nicknamed 

“Kon” (“The Horse”). Local rumor had it that Kolya was a former prisoner who had been 

sent to Yakutiya, after being convicted as an American spy. At the time, Kolya was 

around 50 years old and in excellent physical condition, although he was unsociable and 

drank heavily. 

 

176 Location of Certain Soviet Transit Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea, Information Report, Central 

Intelligence Agency, September 2, 1952.

177 Kolymskiy Plennik , Taisiya Belousova, Sovershenno Sekretno No. 11, November 1997.
74

Some foreign-language students from Yakutsk State University came to the area that 

summer and would sometimes practice English among themselves. One time Kolya, 

having drunk heavily, began to use a number of what source described as English words. 

(Note: source admitted that he does not know English himself, other than the phrase, “the 

best,” which Kolya taught him. Kolya himself spoke excellent Russian, but with a slight 

accent.) One of the Yakut students learned from Kolya that his real name was “Oscar”. 

Kolya gradually opened up to source, and during the course of several talks, stated that he 

was born in a Midwestern state in the USA. Source could not remember which one in 

particular but stated it was neither a northern nor a southern state and definitely not 

Texas. His father was a well-off farmer, who had a wife and three children: Kolya, and 

two older sisters. Kolya was the first in his family to choose a military profession, having 

completed a military high school. He entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 

and then transferred to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. After graduating, Kolya

attended courses at Quantico, Virginia, and was commissioned a 2d Lieutenant in the 

U.S. Marine Corps in 1949.

Kolya told source he had served in the Korean War in the 3d Company, 2d Battalion, 1st

Marine Division, assigned to the U.S. Army X Corps. Source was unable to remember 

the designation for Kolya’s regiment. Kolya said that he took part in the Inchon landing 

on 15 September 1950. (Note: the 1st Marine Division was assigned to the U.S. Army’s X 

Corps during the Inchon landing on September 15, 1950. Marine companies are

alphabetically designated, not numerically. The three Marine infantry regiments assigned 

to the 1st Marine Division were the 1st, 5th, and 7th Marines, and the division artillery 

regiment carried the designation of the 11th Marines.) Kolya stated that he was supposed 

to have been decorated and promoted prior to his capture in November 1950. Kolya 

blamed General Ridgeway for his capture. (Note: Ridgeway assumed command of the 8th

Army on December 26, 1950.)

Kolya stated that on the night he was captured, his company was located next to the 1st

British Battalion. He stated that two other Americans were captured along with him, one 

who was black. They were taken to Mukden, China. He never saw the other two again. In 

Mukden he was kept in solitary confinement and tortured for 20 months by his Chinese 

captors. Source later said that he saw numerous scars on Kolya’s legs. 

Kolya was then transferred to Khabarovsk, USSR, where his captors again kept him in 

solitary confinement, and unsuccessfully tried to recruit him as a spy. After seven months 

he was transferred to Yakutiya and forced to sign a statement promising not to reveal any 

details of his captivity, upon pain of death. He was amnestied in 1956, but forced to 

remain in the area in permanent exile. Afterwards, Kolya made his living working odd 

jobs around the area. He even “married” twice to two local women—one who drowned in 

the Tompo River, and a second, who bore him a daughter. 
75

Source said that Kolya became especially attached to him when he found out that 

source’s father had served in Washington, D.C. As source was preparing to return to 

Kiev, Kolya asked him to pass a letter on to the U.S. Embassy, since he knew that source 

would be returning through Moscow. It was at this point Kolya admitted that he was an 

American citizen. 

However, instead of handing over the letter at the American Embassy, source showed the 

letter to his father, who became quite angry. The source’s father had a lifelong hatred of 

Americans and pointed out the danger in which the source was putting his family. Source 

said that his father tore the letter up and told him not to get involved in such matters 

anymore. He added that his father could read English but refused to tell source Kolya’s 

real name from the letter. 

Source saw Kolya several more times over the years during subsequent trips to Yakutia. 

The last time was in 1983, in the village of Teplyy Klyuch. When source traveled to 

Teplyy Klyuch in 1986, he was told that Kolya had returned to Topolinyy. 

Kolya reportedly left a glass jar with several letters in English, explaining who he was. 

Source admitted to the team that he neither saw Kolya write these letters, nor did he see 

Kolya bury them. He explained they had agreed beforehand that Kolya would leave 

behind some sort of evidence, should anything happen to him, in a mutually agreed upon 

place. 

Source had planned to return to Yakutiya on November 25, 1997 to attempt to determine 

Kolya’s fate.178

From August 14-22, 1998, a JCSD investigator, accompanied by source, traveled to 

Sakha-Yakutiya in Northeast Siberia, to investigate the reports of the U.S. Korean War 

POW. The team was unsuccessful in developing significant information on the case of 

the individual known as “Kolya the Horse”. 

On August 19, the team finally reached the confluence of the Tompo and Deline Rivers. 

This was the spot, according to source, where Kolya buried a jar, allegedly containing a 

written description of his identity. Source immediately spotted a wooden shack situated 

on the far bank and pronounced that this was the spot. However, he quickly determined 

that the hiding spot no longer existed, because the bank had obviously suffered

considerable erosion during the spring thaw. He rechecked his bearing several times, but 

always with the same conclusion. At this point there was nothing left to do, and the team 

returned to Teplyy Klyuch. 

One rumor had placed Kolya in the Ust-Nera area as of 1983, from where he had 

supposedly gone to work in the mines at Sarylakh. This was well to the northeast of the 

team’s present location, and even further into the Taiga. A later rumor placed an

apparently intoxicated Kolya loitering at the Yakutsk airport in 1985. 

 

178 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 251422Z Nov 97.
76

Another rumor placed Kolya in Yakutsk two years after the reported Ust-Nera sighting. 

The team decided the best course of action was to return to the city of Yakutsk, which 

they did. They talked to several people in the area, but could find no further information 

about Kolya.179

In March of 2002, The JCSD Gulag researchers traveled to Yakutsk, Tiksi, and

Bykovskiy in the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia. They interviewed numerous villagers, longterm residents, government officials, human rights workers, and members of the media. 

During a meeting with high-level members of the government, media, and several 

representatives of the human-rights organization Memorial in Yakutsk, the story of Kolya 

was broached by a senior member of the government who had come to the meeting with a 

copy of the Sovershenno Sekretno article. The Russian Memorial Society representatives 

present noted that Kolya had a daughter. They were familiar with the area where Kolya 

had lived and volunteered to attempt to find Kolya’s daughter. 

While conducting interviews in Tiksi, a local native and long-time resident of Kyusyur (a 

town located across the Lena River from the remains of Bulun) provided a map and 

detailed information of a system of secret camps that existed along the left (west) bank of 

the Lena in the 1950s. These camps held Caucasian prisoners, were off limits to the local 

indigenous tribal people, and had fences. The camps on the right bank of the Lena were 

Special Resettlement Camps and did not have fences. The most secret of the left-bank 

camps was nicknamed “Kazarma” and designated 315. It was located a few miles south 

of Bulun. A local anthropologist independently confirmed that a secret camp known as 

“Kazarma” had previously existed south of Bulun.

 

179 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, August 8, 1998.
77

Chita

Chita—Refer to the sections on Molotov, Khabarovsk, and Sakha-Yakutiya for

excerpts from the CIA report dated September 2, 1952 that cite the location of Soviet 

transit camps for prisoners of war from Korea located in the region of Chita.180

 

 

180 Location of Certain Soviet Transit Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea, Information Report, Central 

Intelligence Agency, September 2, 1952.
78

Magadan

Arkagala—A Polish source stated that in 1955 he saw an alleged Ukrainian American 

soldier who was captured in North Korea and transferred to the Soviet Union by the 

intelligence services. The man wore civilian clothes and was the only American in the 

camp. Source was released in 1956.181

Atka—In June 1950, a German POW reported that a ‘spy’ had been captured by two 

Soviet officers and brought into the Atka penal labor camp (6050N/151,80E). The 

prisoner’s hands were shackled to his back. He was about five feet, nine inches tall, of 

slight build, dark complexion, very emaciated features; he was dirty and had a few days 

growth of beard. He was clad in a waist-long, brown leather jacket with front-zipper, 

which he wore open, showing a white fur lining, and a yellow shirt. The prisoner had 

long leather trouser of grayish color, tucked into a half-length black boots, of which 

upper parts were made of felt or some other soft material. The prisoner wore a flying 

helmet of solid gray or green material, which covered the ears; the helmet fitted closely 

around the face with a rimmed pad. The attire of the man, which had no rank or other 

insignia, was strange, unsuited for the cold nights and never worn in this style by

civilians or military personnel in the Atka region. The prisoner remained silent, and 

seemed to be sick and very depressed. The prisoner was kept in the hospital about 30 

minutes, then was marched back to the guardhouse and driven away in the direction of 

Magadan. The German POW heard that the prisoner was a U.S. airman, who had lost his 

bearings and bailed out when he ran out of gas, as he could not land in the rough and 

mountainous terrain. He had been picked up by chance by two camp officers who were 

out by car on a hunting trip about 30 miles west of Atka.182 

Chukotskaya Kult'baza —A returned German POW stated that when he arrived at a 

forced labor camp near Chukotskaya Kult'baza in April 1948, he met a man who claimed 

to be a U.S. national. Source said the man spoke German with an accent and was fluent in 

Russian. He claimed to have been born in the United States, and was a pilot sentenced to 

20 years’ hard labor for espionage. The alleged American was 30 years old,

approximately five feet nine inches tall, broad-shouldered, and oval-faced, with brown 

hair. The man wore prison clothes with a brown uniform jacket. He often spoke of

escaping to Alaska across the Bering Straits. Source lost track of the man when source 

was transferred in May 1949. Source heard in February 1950 from fellow prisoners that 

the alleged American was working in a tungsten mine near Chukotskaya Kult'baza.183

 

181 Joint Commission Support Directorate Phone Interview, October 4, 2001.

182 US-Airman Prisoner in Atka, E-51-B-12938E, 7050 AISW (USAFE), Jun 50, Wringer Reports, ODI, 

RG 341, NACP.

183 U.S. National in Soviet Custody, E-58-B-3395 C, 7050 AISW (USAFE), April 30, 1954, Wringer 

Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.
79

Magadan—The CIA report dated September 2, 1952 cites the location of Soviet Transit 

Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. The following indented paragraphs are excerpts 

from the report:184

 In December it was known that transit camps for prisoners of war captured 

by the Communists in Korea had been established in Komsomolsk on the 

Amur, Magadan on Bogaeva Bay in the Sea of Okhotsk, Chita and

Irkutsk. Through those transit camps were passing not only Korean POWs 

but also American POWs.

 Since July 1951, according to new information, several transports of

Korean POWs have passed through the ports of Bukhta (near

Vladivostok), Okhotsk and Magadan. Each ship has contained 1,000 or 

more prisoners. Between the end of November 1951 and April 1952, 

transports of POWs were sent by rail from the Poset railway junction on 

the Chinese-Soviet frontier. Some were directed to Chita in Eastern

Siberia and some to Molotov, European Soviet Russia, west of Ural

Mountains.

 Those POWs who arrived by ship in the ports of Bukhta, Okhotsk and 

Magadan were then transported by train, or by trucks or by motor driven 

barges, to Vaikaren on the Chukotsk Sea, to Ust Maisk on the river Aldan 

and to Yakutsk on the river Lena.

 POWs shipped to Vaikaren were sent to a network of camps in the Nizhni 

Kolymsk region on the East Siberian Sea, to be employed building roads, 

electric power plants and airfields. Their number varies considerably due 

to high mortality and to transfer to other camps on the Chukotski

Peninsula. All these camps are under supervision of MVD and are entirely 

isolated. There were about 12,000 Korean POWs in April 1952 in the 

Nizhno Kolymsk camp network. The camps were under the charge of 

(fnu) Sorotchuk, a Major of MVD and (fnu) Chimbo, a civilian Party 

functionary, probably an employee of MGB. Chimbo was in charge of 

education and political indoctrination.

Magadan Berlag—A Ukrainian witness from Gribenko was transferred from Vanino 

Bay to Magadan Berlag in 1950, where he remained until his release in 1960. The 

witness stated that in the summer of 1954 a large group of foreign prisoners, perhaps as 

many as 2000, were brought to Magadan Prison. This group included three Americans. 

When asked how he knew they were Americans, he replied that it was common

knowledge, and everyone knew it. The Americans were in regular prison garb, but upon 

arrival at the Berlag were ordered to remove their prison numbers from their shirts and 

hats. While working as a medic in the camp, he was asked to examine one of the 

Americans for tropical skin ulcers. Due to the color of the man's skin and the thickness of 

 

184 Location of Certain Soviet Transit Camps for Pris oners of War from Korea, Information Report, Central 

Intelligence Agency, September 2, 1952.
80

his lips, the witness thinks this American was a Mulatto. When asked if he had talked 

with the individual, the witness stated that he had not because it was strictly forbidden. 

He went on to say that the three prisoners were young, all had brown hair, and all 

appeared to be in good health. 185

Mokhoplit Village—On March 29, 1996, an interview was conducted with a Russian 

living in Yekaterinburg, who spent from 1952-1970 in various gulags, to include

Kolomna, Indigirka, and Chukhotka. He claimed to have seen an American citizen in 

1956/57 in the Magadan Oblast, at Mokhoplit Village, in the Tentiskiy gold mining 

region. This U.S. citizen, Azat Tigranovich Petrosian, was born in Armenia in the 1920s, 

and somehow wound up in a Nazi POW camp that was liberated by the Soviets. The 

Soviets refused to repatriate him and sent him to the gulag. The source did not know 

Petrosian's eventual fate.186

Myaundzha (near Susuman)—On August 12, 1996, a witness living in Moscow

delivered a written response to the Radio Liberty program, "Americans in the Gulag," 

being played on Radio Liberty/Voice of America. She had worked at the Directorate of 

the PTU (Professional Technical Academy) Energostroy for the electrical power station 

in Myaundzha, Magadan Oblast, from 1955-63, then in Magadan until 1965, when she 

moved to Moscow. In the letter, the witness told of a Rudolf Martinovich Benush (1917-

1995), who allegedly served as a U.S. Army captain during the Nuremberg Trials. The 

witness worked with Benush, who was referred to as the American spy, "either in

derision, or in reference to the article under which he was convicted" (Article 58), when 

he was a "trustee" prisoner in the Myaundzha camp in Magadan Oblast near Susuman in 

1955, until his release in 1956. The camp had 3,000 prisoners, mostly Baltic and

Ukrainian nationalists. Benush spent the majority of his remaining years in Magadan. 187

Narioberug Central Hospital—Around March 1952, a Japanese witness saw and spoke 

for about 20 minutes with an American in room number two, first medical section, at a 

hospital in Magadan. A hospital attendant named Nikolai told him that the American was 

a captain who had crashed in the vicinity of Kamchatka. During the conversation, the 

American stated, "I cannot accept the sentence of being a spy. The sentence of 15 years 

based on Item six of Article 58 is unjust." He appeared to be about 28 years old, with 

blond hair and blue eyes. In June 1953 the witness was transferred to an internment 

camp in Khabarovsk.188

 

185 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 251431Z Nov 94

186 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 090806Z Apr 96.

187 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 260757Z Aug 96.

188 Information on Probable U.S. Air Force Officer Detained in Soviet Russia, IR-960-54, 6004th Air 

Intelligence Service Squadron, July 27, 1954, AIR, DDCD, RG 341, NACP.
81

Khabarovsk

Khabarovsk—A CIA report dated 2 September 2, 1952 cites the location of Soviet 

Transit Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. The following paragraph has been 

excerpted from the report:

189

In March this year transports of POWs passed through from Khabarovsk 

to Chita and from Chita to Molotov roughly every fortnight. They were in 

small groups of up to 50 persons. According to latest information, dated 

June 30, 1952, the prisoners, after arriving in Chita, were first sent to the 

local MVD prisons, and then, after a sufficient number of them had been 

assembled, were sent further, to Molotov. It is most probable that POWs 

are undergoing some sort of investigation and selection process while in 

the MVD prison in Chita. Some of them are retained in prison in Chita for 

a long time, while others are sent directly by rail to Molotov and other 

industrial regions in the Ural Mountains.

Khabarovsk Prison—A Japanese repatriate who was in Khabarovsk Camp No. 21 from 

1950-1953, heard from Soviet guards, prisoners, and laborers that, in April or May of 

1953, twelve or thirteen Americans from a military plane shot down by the Soviets were 

in Khabarovsk Prison. Source heard from a Soviet guard in October 1952 that two 

Americans had been brought to Khabarovsk Prison and were being investigated as spies. 

In June 1952, source heard from a prison train guard at Khabarovsk Station Number 2 

that there was a prison camp in the USSR solely for American prisoners.190

Khabarovsk Sub-camp 5M—A Russian living in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, reported 

that in November 1952, he saw three American prisoners at the "5M Lagpunkt"

191

detention facility in Khabarovsk, Russia, where he was incarcerated. He went on a 

woodcutting detail with one of them. In December 1952 the Americans were transferred 

out of the camp to an unknown destination. A Russian female prisoner serving a sentence 

for “betraying the motherland” accompanied the Americans. The camp commander was 

Lieutenant Kuzenkov. 192

 

189 Location of Certain Soviet Transit Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea, Information Report, Central 

Intelligence Agency, September 2, 1952. 

190 American-Prisoners-of-War Held in the USSR, Information Report, Central Intelligence Agency, 

December 29, 1953.

191 Camp Sub-section No. Five for men.

192 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 241319Z Jul 92.
82

Svobodnyy—In his memoirs (made available to the Russian Side in November 1999) a 

source quotes four people who claim to have knowledge of the June 1952 RB-29 crew 

and their incarceration in Svobodnyy. Excerpts from his memoirs:193

A former fishing vessel radio operator related that the Captain of his 

fishing vessel told him that "not all the crew members of the American 

[aircraft] had, in fact, died back then (in June) and that ten of those people 

were now in pre-trial solitary confinement in a prison in the city of

Svobodnyy, near Blagoveshchensk."

A former Dalstroy official "was not in the least surprised by [his] question. 

He replied at once: 'Yes, at first ten people were alive. Yes, first they were 

brought to Khabarovsk. But, then, of course, they were sent off to

Svobodnyy...They were supposed to have been met by people from the 

Ministry of Defense...They were not met, though. You see, there was 

some screw-up in Moscow. Well, I can tell you that they were not met. 

What happened to them after that, I do not know. And I would advise you 

not to know as well...Let the leadership worry itself about it..."

A second former Dalstroy official repeated almost word-for-word the 

testimony of [the first Dalstroy official] but went on to clarify: "The guys 

from within ‘worked over' the Americans so badly that only eight were 

taken to Svobodnyy.

A construction official who worked extensively in the Far East and was 

also an advisor to a minister stated "he did learn the names of two

crewmembers of that aircraft, Bush and Moore, who will forever remain in 

the soil of the Khabarovsk Region

Tomarigishi Sakhalin Island—A Japanese repatriate reported meeting an American

lieutenant while interned on Sakhalin Island. The lieutenant traveled from Eastern

Europe through the Soviet Union conducting espionage. In 1947 he was arrested on 

Sakhalin while preparing to use his radio transmitter.194

Verkhniy—According to a Ukrainian citizen who lives in Kiev, seven American

servicemen - three of them pilots whose plane had strayed into Soviet territory because of 

mechanical difficulties - were incarcerated in 1952, in a prison camp called "Verkhniy" in 

the town of Lultin in Khabarovsky Kray. The prisoners' primary contact was with a 

Japanese doctor named Matsuoko. During their detention, three of them were killed in a 

mining accident, and the four others were transferred to another camp.195

 

193 The Memoirs, Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, Joint Commission Support 

Directorate, pp. 4-5.

194 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-23.

195 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 261301Z Feb 94.
83

Primorskiy Kray

Air Force Hospital 404—While training for parachute duties in 1951, a witness broke 

his leg and was sent to Air Force Hospital Number 404, in the small town of Staraya 

Sysoyovka, Primorskiy Kray, between Arsenyev and Novosysoyevka. Due to lack of 

space, he was given a bed on the second floor in the corridor next to a room with four

American patients. One was able to walk, the second was in traction, and the third and 

fourth were burned. He clearly remembered the face of one of the Americans. He was 

blond, no younger than 25 years of age. He thought the blond person was the pilot. The 

witness was able to talk to and see the patients, as well as listen to their dialogue during 

questioning. He stated that the first patient was between 22 and 27 years of age, had light 

colored hair, was thin, had blue eyes, and bent over with a visible limp. His height was 

about six feet tall. Patient one said he was from Cleveland and had two children. The 

witness said the second and third patients appeared older. The second patient had dark 

hair, dark eyes, and a dark complexion. He was approximately five foot six inches tall. 

The source had no other description, other than to say that they were from San Francisco, 

Chicago, and Los Angeles. He could not say which patient was from which city.

There was a fifth American who the source never saw. He had already died. One day, 

when the source was able to get around, a hospital worker took him out to the graveyard 

near the hospital and showed him a grave where, the hospital orderly said, the American 

was buried. Not long after meeting the Americans and while still a patient in the hospital, 

source was led by a hospital worker to a cemetery where the fifth American was buried. 

He remembered the hospital cemetery was only 1 to 1.25 miles away from the hospital. 

Moreover, as he entered the cemetery, the ground rose in front of him. He remembered

this because he was still on crutches and had some difficulty walking up an incline that 

ran almost the entire length of the cemetery. There was, he recalled, a wooden fence, 

apparently constructed to keep out farm animals. The fence formed a corner with the left 

side running a ways down the length of the cemetery and the end side extending to the 

right. The grave was freshly dug in the far left corner with about 10 to 20 yards of clear 

ground before reaching the fence. Further identifying the location of the grave was a 

steep decline to the left of the grave. The grave was fourth, from left to right, in a row of 

four graves side by side.196 JCSD representatives made three separate trips to the region 

to investigate the reported sightings at hospital 404; the first was in late July 1995, the 

second was late October 1995, and the last was in March and April 1996. American and 

Russian forensics experts accompanied JCSD analysts on the second and third

expedients. These teams exhumed three graves which closely matched the source’s 

recollections. The forensic experts determined that two sets of remains where not those of 

missing American servicemen based on dental charts and ethnicity. A sample of bone 

from the third set was taken for DNA testing which resulted in inconclusive results.

Artem—A Russian stated that an acquaintance of his who lived in Artem, a northern 

suburb of Vladivostok, said that as a little boy in the early 1950’s, he saw a column of 

 

196 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 011207Z Jun 95.
84

about 100 American POWs marching near the town. When asked how he knew they were 

Americans, he stated that it was "well-known" (in the village.)197

Vanino Bay—In 1947, a Ukrainian witness from Gribenko was moved from Lvov to the 

Vanino Bay Transit Prison in the Soviet Far East where he remained for about two years, 

1948-49. He claimed there were numerous American prisoners awaiting movement to 

other prisons. He believed the Americans were from WWII. The witness described the 

layout of the Vanino Bay Transit Prison as consisting of 15 separate zones, each holding 

5,000-7,000 prisoners, and that the Americans were housed in zone number two. All 

prisoners were moved to Kolyma by the ships: "Felix Dzerzhinskiy," "Nagin," "Dyurma," 

and "Dalstroy." Whenever these ships passed by Hokkaido, the crew put on civilian attire 

so the Japanese would not know they were prison ships.198

Vladivostok—A CIA report dated 2 September 1952 cites the location of Soviet transit 

camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. The following two paragraphs have been

excerpted from the report:199

Since July 1951, according to new information, several transports of

Korean POWs have passed through the ports of Bukhta (near

Vladivostok), Okhotsk and Magadan. Each ship has contained 1,000 or 

more prisoners. Between the end of November 1951 and April 1952, 

transports of POWs were sent by rail from the Poset railway junction on 

the Chinese-Soviet frontier. Some were directed to Chita in Eastern

Siberia and some to Molotov, European Soviet Russia, west of Ural

Mountains.

Those POWs who arrived by ship in the ports of Bukhta, Okhotsk and 

Magadan were then transported by train, or by trucks or by motor driven 

barges, to Vaikaren on the Chukotsk Sea, to Ust Maisk on the river Aldan

and to Yakutsk on the river Lena.

 

197 Trip Report for TDY to Moscow and Perm, Russia, Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, 

Joint Commission Support Directorate, Gulag Research Team, June 2001.

198 JCSD-AMEMBASSY Moscow, 251431Z Nov 94.

199 Location of Certain Soviet Transit Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea, Information Report, Central 

Intelligence Agency, September 2, 1952.
85

Kamchatka Peninsula

Petropavlovsk—A German internee, who was interned in a penal camp about 40 miles 

northwest of Petropavlovsk from March 1946 until March 1947, reported meeting one 

American citizen who was from Fredericksburg, Virginia. The American, who went by 

the name of Johnny, was born in 1903 or 1909. After completing a law degree, Johnny 

was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force. He wife was American, and he had two 

children. In the course of his Air Force career, he received training in an intelligence 

school, from which he graduated as an ‘agent’ fluent in the Russian language. In 1941, 

before the German invasion of Russia, Johnny reportedly parachuted into Russian

territory near Moscow. The German did not know the mission of his American friend, 

who was finally captured by Soviet police and sentenced to 25 years at hard labor for 

espionage and desertion in accordance

with Article 58 of the Soviet legal code. 

Before he arrived in Petropavlovsk, he 

had passed through the penal camps in

Karaganda, Tayshet, and Irkutsk. The

German reported that Johnny was

wearing a U.S. pilot’s uniform of dark 

color with brown leather trimmings and 

fur lining. The American also wore a 

gold ring of dark yellow color with a

polygonal diamond, one-half inch in

diameter, protruding an inch above the 

setting, with smaller diamonds on the

sides. Johnny wore the ring on the left 

hand ring finger. Later, for fear that the 

Russians would take the ring away; he 

sewed the ring into his pants. In his

upper left jaw he wore two gold teeth

instead of the eyetooth and the one

following to the rear. Somewhere in the 

right and left jaws he wore a set of golden teeth, which were forcibly removed by the 

Russian camp dentists. The German described the American as about five feet, ten 

inches tall, slim, sportsman-like figure; he had full black hair, thick-black eyebrows, 

brown eyes, dimple in the middle of his slightly jutting chin, long straight pointed nose, 

and wrinkled hollow cheeks. Above is a drawing by the German of the American named 

Johnny. 200

 

200 American National in Penal Camp near Petropavlovsk, E-53-12631-B, 7050 AISW (USAFE), 

December 16, 1953, Wringer Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.
86

Kazakhstan

Churba Nura—A CIA source reported in 1956 the presence of two American citizens in 

the “Camp of the Sands” [Note: this is Peshchanlag, one of the Special Camp Systems] 

between November 1954 and September 1955. One of the Americans named Derry was 

sent to Hungary. 201

Karabas—A German returnee stated that she met an American named Joe Miller in June 

or July 1948. Miller claimed to have been a US Army Air Force bombardier shot down 

in 1945 over Berlin. He was detained in a German POW camp near Berlin, which was 

liberated by the Soviets. The Soviets transported him to the Soviet Union and convicted 

him of espionage. Prior to Karabas he had worked for six months mining coal in

Karaganda. He was described as being from Chicago, 25-28 years old, five feet seven 

inches, 130 pounds with black hair and dark eyes.202

Karabas—In 1948 source met an American major in a camp in Karabas. The major was 

described as approximately 45 years old. Around six feet tall, broad-shouldered, square 

jawed, with blue eyes and slightly graying dark blond hair. He spoke German well. 

Soviet forces had captured the major in 1947 while driving along the East and West 

German border near Friendland.203

Karaganda Camp No. 4718/19—A German returnee who was interned in a prisoner of 

war camp from February 1947 to May 1950 reported meeting two U.S. citizens. Both 

Americans were reportedly members of the occupation forces, spoke accented but fluent 

German and claimed their parents were born in Germany. In late 1945, they crossed into 

the Eastern Zone of Germany to visit relatives, were arrested, and transported to the 

Buchenwald Camp. Following a conviction for espionage, they were transferred to 

Karaganda, USSR. The source described them as follows:

One American had the first name “Pit”. He was born in the United States. His parents 

were from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He wore a U.S. Army khaki uniform without 

insignia. He was approximately 18-20 years old. He was five feet seven inches tall, 

brunette hair, sharp pale slim face, and had a strong slender build.

The next American had the first name “Tom”. He was born in United States. His parents 

were from the Rhine region of Germany. He wore a U.S. Army khaki uniform without 

insignia. He was five feet three inches tall, fair hair, blue eyes, round pale face, and had a 

strong build. Tom worked in the camp hospital and was known as a good surgeon.

 

201 American Prisoners in Churba Nura, Information Report, Central Intelligence Agency, November 2, 

1956.

202 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, p. 4-7.

203 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, p. 4-50.
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Pit escaped in the winter of 1947. He was captured and returned to camp two days later, 

badly beaten. Both men were continuously interrogated. In the winter of 1948 (probably 

February) they were transferred to an unknown location. Source later heard they were 

taken to a forced labor camp in Siberia.204

Karaganda—An Austrian returnee reported he met four U.S. airmen in 1948 at a labor 

camp in Karaganda. One airman was named William, another was named John. All four 

were in good physical condition in 1948.205

 

204 U.S. Nationals in PW Camp in Karaganda, 58-B-3331 A, 7050 AISW (USAFE), April 8, 1954, Wringer 

Reports, ODI, RG 341, NACP.

205 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-29.
88

Ukraine

Lvov MVD Transit Prison—Some time prior to December 14, 1953 source met an 

American identified as Colonel Gordon. He was described as being approximately 48 

years old, five feet five inches tall with dark hair. In 1948 or 1949, while serving in the 

Counter Intelligence Corps in Vienna, Soviet soldiers arrested him in the Soviet Sector. 

He was transferred to another prison prior to the source’s departure.206

Lvov Transit Camp—In June 1949 source met an American sergeant. Source

described him as being approximately 27 years old, tall with fair hair. The alleged 

American had been arrested when he had attempted to enter the Soviet Grand Hotel while 

intoxicated.207

 

206 American Citizens Detained in the USSR, ZF000004W, pp. 4-43.

207 Alleged US Citizens Imprisoned in the USSR; HQ USFA, AC of S, G2 (SSB/CIB) APO 168, NY NY; 

July 15, 1955.
89

Byelorussia and Germany

Orsha—In 1958 Mr. John Noble stated that inscribed on a cell wall in the transit prison 

in Orsha, Byelorussia, (where he was imprisoned prior to his confinement at Krasnaya 

Presnya) was the name Roberts, Robertson, or Robins followed by a date in mid-August 

1950 and “Maj., U.S.A.”208

A German returnee stated he met an American, 2

nd Lt. Richard Robertson, in the

dispensary in Orsha. Robertson was dying of tuberculosis. Source described Robertson 

as being 26-28 years old, six feet two inches, emaciated, with brown hair and blue eyes. 

Robertson’s father was supposedly a Colonel Robertson stationed with the U.S. Army in 

Frankfurt Am Mein. Source learned that Robertson supposedly died in Orsha in late 

February or early March 1950.209

A second returnee stated that in 1950 source met an American named Harry Robertson on 

a prisoner transport train from Berlin-Lichtenfelde to Orsha. Source heard from other 

prisoners that Robertson was a U.S. Army Air Force pilot who had flown in the Berlin 

airlift and was arrested in Potsdam in 1949. Robertson was approximately 25 years old, 

emaciated and too weak to walk unaided. Robertson was removed from the train in Orsha 

and was supposedly going to the hospital. 210 

A third German returnee stated that in late August 1950 he met a Lt. Robinson, U.S. 

Army, in a prison in Potsdam, Germany. Robinson claimed to work for an American 

intelligence agency and was stationed in West Germany. His father was a colonel in the 

U.S. Army stationed at Frankfurt Am Mein and was connected with the Allied Control 

Commission. The East German Police arrested Robinson in East Berlin in 1949. 

Robinson spoke fluent German and Russian. His mother was of Czechoslovakian

descent. He was described as 30 years old, five feet ten inches to six feet tall, emaciated, 

one hundred and five to a hundred and ten pounds, with dark blond or light brown hair 

and blue eyes. Source later saw Robinson in Orsha in 1950. Robinson was very ill when 

source last saw him. He told source he had weighed one hundred and ninety-five pounds 

prior to imprisonment.211

 

208 John Noble, I Was a Slave in Russia, (Broadview, Illinois: Cicero Bible Press, 1964), p. 73.

209 Robinson, Lt. RE: US Citizens Being Held in the GDR, VIII-23189, 66th CIC Group, 

November 1, 1955.

210 Overt Intelligence Report, No. 970018, February 13, 1957.

211 Soviet Apprehension of U.S. Personnel, D-30477, AEUC-GI, HQ 66th CICG USAE, November 1,1955.
90

A fourth German returnee reported that in July 1950 an American, Henry Robinson, 

arrived at the Bautzen labor camp. Robinson claimed to have worked for the Allied 

Control Commission in Frankfurt Am Mein, where he lived with his wife at

Eschenheimer Strasse 583. Robinson claimed to have been kidnapped by two men who 

picked him up in 1949 at Berlin-Tempelhof Airport and transported him to the Soviet

Sector. Robinson was in Bautzen for one month. It was rumored the Soviets sent him to 

a prison in the USSR. 212

A fifth returnee stated that while imprisoned in Sachsenhausen, Germany between mid1947 and October 1949 he knew a U.S. national named Robinson who claimed to be a 

Counter Intelligence Corps operative. He claimed the Soviets arrested him in Roz, 

Germany while on a mission. Source described Robinson as being 27–29 years old, tall, 

and well built. He spoke German with a strong American accent. Robinson was

transferred from Sachsenhausen to the USSR in October 1949.213

 

212 Robinson, Lt. RE: US Citizens Being Held in the GDR, VIII-23189, 66th CIC Group, November 1, 

1955.

213 ibid.
91