Introduction
Civilization refers to a kind of social order that promotes the creation of culture. In most cases, civilization in a country begins after a country has gone through a period of war and instability. Civilization comes to bring a new economic dispensation and to create new organizations politically. It also changes people’s approach to culture as well as their moral traditions making them have a new approach to life in general. In most cases, a country that is going through civilization will first have gone through a hard economic time due to the ravaging effects of war. While going through this process people tend to pursue knowledge with a new zeal that they never even knew existed within them. (Sega, 1830)
Main Body
In order for civilization to come by there has to be ordered in a country. People who are continually fighting among themselves cannot have the personal will needed to bring about civilization. There is a need for love among people of diverse tribes. Civilization can not come by unless people decide to live in peace and harmony. There must be a functional state for this to be realized. It’s an accepted fact that a strong government forms a strong nation. Religion also plays a key role in bringing about civilization. As I stated earlier, for civilization to come by people must first embrace each other through love. In most cases, religion has been the tool that teaches people to love each other. All these things must work in tandem to bring about civilization. If one of these things is missing then civilization will fail in most cases. Political order is also needed to bring civilization about. In order for this to be possible, it’s important to keep its citizens in check. A case in example is Russia. (Sega, 1830)
Russia has been a country that has been going through long periods of war. One case for example was the cold war in the early 19th century. After this war, the then governing party led by Stalin felt that they needed to bring about civilization. To achieve this feat the government had to make sure that it crushed all kinds of resistance from the enemy. This is when they came up with the idea of the Gulag. This was an outfit that began as a form of an intelligence arm of the government. With time it was extended to mean the whole jail system. Though it began as a kind of a detention camp for holding criminals it went on with time to become like a labor camp. (Golitsyn, 2008)
Those who were viewed to be against the then government were taken to these camps. Life in the camps was not easy. It’s rumored that millions of inmates died in these detention camps due to the hard conditions that existed in these camps.
Most of the people who were taken to the Gulag were people who had committed small offenses. The administration then felt that to keep the people in check they had to rein terror on them and that’s why they expanded the Gustav from simply being a form of the secret police into a jail system. (Golitsyn, 2008)
Another thing to note is that most of the people who were taken to these labor camps had committed petty offenses like failing to report to work. For civilization to come by people must be ready to work. By taking those who failed to work to the gustag’s the government was simply trying to encourage people to work hard since it knew that the way to be civilized is through hard work. This is true not only to Russia but to every nation as well. If a nation wants civilization to come by, then they have to be committed to their work. Since not everyone will be committed to working this was why the Russian government under Stalin was so harsh to those who were sloppy in their work. (Smith, 2002)
As I have mentioned earlier life in these camps was hard and many lives were lost in them. Of importance to learn here is that most of these camps were located in the bipolar regions where the temperatures can drop to below zero degrees. It, therefore, goes without saying that most people especially the elderly died due to exposure to these harsh climatic conditions. Medical care was also not available and this caused the deaths of many children and the weak as well. Food was also scarcity and there were deaths caused by hunger. Other factors that caused deaths among the population in the Gustav were deaths occasioned by beatings from the warders and people who committed suicide for failure to endure the harsh conditions. (Smith, 2002)
The Gulag’s varied in structure and placement from one another. In essence, Gulags were built apart from each other to ensure that inmates were apart from each other. By doing this the authorities ensured that the inmates could not impact each other negatively. In total there were 476 locations for the Gulags. Most of these had been remote monasteries that had been converted into concentration camps. A large part of these had been built by the inmates themselves. Mostly, inmates would be dropped into a remote place with limited resources and left to erect a new camp or die.
The remoteness of the place prevented the inmates from escaping since there was no way they could have navigated the whole area without exposing themselves to the harsh conditions and subsequently dying. At first, the inmates enjoyed freedom but as time went on it became a place for the administration to obtain cheap labor. This was the beauty about the gulags. By the government using it as a means of obtaining cheap labor it was able to expand on its production hence led to Russia becoming what it is today in terms of the production industry. Another important thing to note here is that since the gulags had been placed in remote areas there was a need for a road network. Since there were no existing roads back then meant that the inmates had to build the roads themselves leading to better road networks. (Golitsyn, 2008)
There were also three types of what was known as a special type of concentration camp. One was for children, those who had disabilities, and for mothers with young babies. This first group meant that the government was able to take care of its weak leaving behind those who were able to carry on the work of building the nation. This in itself is civilization. The other group was for the wives of those people who were considered traitors to the nation. In most cases, most of their husbands had been executed and the wives were taken to these camps. The third special group was called “the goofing-off place” or in Russian the “Sharashka”.
This was a place where the scientists of the day who were viewed to have rebelled against the government were taken to do scientific researches. Most of the technology in Russia today came from these institutions. (Smith, 2002)
Conclusion
Though the Gulags were set up in the early soviet days it was Joseph Stalin who perfected them. Stalin ensured that the ultimate goal for those who were taken to the gulags was production. This led to the growth of the clothing and textile industry, agriculture, and many other economic fields as they are today. As I have also indicated most of the top researchers were taken to a special unit of the gulags where they undertook research on behalf of the country. This led to Russia becoming one of the superpowers of the world. Most of the dreaded tools of war in the world today have their genesis in these research centers. (Smith, 2002)
Though most of us would be tempted into thinking that the gulags were a place for crushing political opponents it would only be right in looking at the broader picture. These are the institutions that many years down the line have shaped Russia into what it is today. Russians are known to be one of the most patriotic and hardworking people in the world, attributes that can be traced back to the era of the gulag. These among many other factors show that Stalin achieved his mission of making Russia one of the civilized nations of the world. Many of us may not agree with Stalin’s way of doing things but the end always justifies the means.
References
Smith, Brian. History of the Soviet Russian Gulag. 2002. Web.
Golitsyn, Anatoliy, Soviet Analyst: Memoranda to the Central Intelligence Agency, 2008, E.Harle.University of Michigan, ISBN 1899798048, 9781899798049.
Sega, Giacomo, What is True Civilization, Or, Means to Suppress the Practice of Duelling: To Prevent, Or to Punish, Crimes, and to Abolish the Punishment of Death. 1830. W.Smith.Printer, Harvard University.