Vorkuta

   One of the gulag system’s largest concentration of forced labor camps centered on the northern city of Vorkuta. The city and the camps were established in 1931 in the tundra north of the Arctic Circle for mining coal. The first 23 “settlers” to arrive were prisoners, and approximately a million prisoners and exiles passed through the camp system. In July 1953, news of riots in East Berlin led to strikes and riots in the Vorkuta camps. In Camp Number 6, the strikers refused promises from the authorities of better conditions and resisted a blockade by security forces. Moscow then decided to use force, and MVD troops fired on the strikers, killing scores. Several of the strike leaders were later executed. Vorkuta today is a city of 200,000.