The origins of the Soviet camps 1917-21

Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, class based terror and repression of social and political enemies became central to the party's attempts to establish itself. In addition to this, the savagery of the civil war and Lenin's belief that a parallel class war needed to be waged saw the earliest improvised camps, of which there were 107 by 1920.

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