The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-07-12

rluted many false stories of the rii
posed to be subjected.
Now the gigantic canal is COM
Bleted. in the record time of 10
months. And with its completion, in
itself an amazing achievement, the
story of what really happened to
these people is being revealed to the
world.
Given both freedom and work on
a gigantic and inspiring job, the vast
majority of these people were regen-
Grated in the process. Given posi-
tons of responsibility and trust, and
every opportunity to train themselves,
The former criminals, wreckers, and
llulaks have made themselves over
into eager builders Of socialist con-
struction.
The story Of all that happened in
this drama Of The Soviet nortl1land is
&, L long for a single article, but tho
character Of this drama as well il
ustrated by l letter out of the thou
sands of the same kind which have
been written by the former criminals
themselves.
NOb AuTe8ts, MOI LeITW
This particular letter is from Valda,
ore of the engineers Of the White Sea
Canal, who was himself a prisoner,
but has now been released because
of his good services in the camp.
ut was not threats, nor was it ter
ror that made the people work as they
did on the Baltic-White Sea Canal
On the one hand, it was the full
realization Of the immensely Of our
Job. On the other, thousands Of men
and women who had never had the
Joy of performing useful constructive
labor were awakened to new social
consciousness through the opportunity
to learn a trade"
Neither the magnitude of the
cliffs, nor the hardness of the dia-
base, nor the severe climate of the
North, could retard U.s." he continued.
1--WE became shock brigaders who
astoniShed the world by breaking all
known records. Usually one is called
an udarnik if he exceeds his assign
ment by some five or 10 per cent.
But what would you call a criminal
OF yesterday, transformed into rev
man, full of energy and courage, who
day in end day out, exceeds his task
by 100 and $50 per cent!
Prisoners Choose 10 Stay
But what I saw in the forests of
Karelia bewildered me. The strange
convictS I found there felt and be-
hayed as if they had been working
on DnieproStroi or some other big
construction job. There was dignity
about them. They had their own adj
ministration. They lived in clean
warm barracks. Their food was nour-
ishing and plentiful. They took pride
in the best workers, printed their pic
lures in the papers, and even painted
them with oil colors.
Can YOU imagine a prison whose
inmates are free to go to rhe woods?
Can you conceive a murderer or no
toTious burglar of yesterday, dan
gerous man, speaking at meeting of
his fellowmen of the crying need to
protect public property? ~
If you can, then you understand
what camp life of convicts out in
Karelia is like.
The OGPU which supervises this
amazing camp world is SO sure of
its corrective methods that it fur
nishes rifles to reformed gunner who
guard important buildings, and have
not known of single instance of
serious infringement Of this trust be-
slowed in them.
T. one Of the prisoners recently
set free to leave the camp, have VOL
unfairly remained to see the job fin
ished. Whatever the circumstances
that brought me out here, I can say
that only the Soviet Government
could use camps as a methof of correc-
ton. The lies of the bourgeois press
cannot alter the facts"