BREAKING NEWS: The Gulags Return to Russia

Edition No200 | 24-07-2025 - Stalin’s Camps to Putin’s Russia — The hint of a new Gulag Archipelago takes shape. Remember the Gulag? That grim and terrifying institution of forced labour, mass arrests and industrial scale torment that Stalin used to apparently modernize Russia. It wasn’t just camps—it was terror, ideology turned into watch towers and razor wire, and millions of lives drained into Russia’s unforgiving soil, for what seemed like capricious and measly ends. Above all, the Gulag was a mindset – of horror for incarcerated, and terror for those threatened with it. But it also served as a projection of power for the Russian state on the international stage. It said ‘look at the horrors we are prepared to inflict on our own people. Imagine, if we are capable of this, then what we can do to you, and your loved ones.’ This is where so many people get Russia’s rulers wrong right down to Putin. Russia’s power, its existence does not come from the raw exercise of power, because in monetary term and most other indices that denote powerful countries, Russia trails far behind. No, Russia’s power, its sense of worth, its status, its very existence cones from the idea that is feared. If Russia is not feared, Putin believes, and has hinted at many times in speeches, then it is not. To be fear is to exist, and to be ignored is the real existential threat to Putin and by extension all of Russia. ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------SOURCES: CEPA, Gulag 2.0 — Russia Reopens the Camps (June 23, 2025)The Guardian, Gulag History Museum… closed (Nov 14, 2024) The Moscow Times, Kremlin & FSB order museum closure (Nov 14, 2024) Meduza, Citing ‘fire safety violations’… museum shutters (Nov 15, 2024)The Art Newspaper, Battle for memory at Russia's Gulag Museum (Mar 5, 2025) Barents Observer, FSB wants its own pre-trial detention centres (Feb 28, 2025) Meduza, The End of a Life Cycle (Jan 15, 2025) Wikipedia, Gulag Museum, Solovki prison campThe Guardian, Skobov sentenced to 16 years (Mar 21, 2025)Vox, Kara‑Murza's experience (Dec 1, 2024)Memorial (society) Wikipedia entry----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyślhttps://kharpp.com/NOR DOG Animal Rescuehttps://www.nor-dog.org/home/----------