Wilson T. Bell’s article on Gulag Historiography is very interesting. He talks about the many different terms of a gulag and how it is difficult to give the term a specific definition, since they vary so much. The three principal terms which define gulags revolve around economic, population politics, and social factors. Gulags differ from place to place, but Bell focuses on the gulags that are in the Soviet Union during the Stalin-era.

The economic aspect is in reference to Stalin’s Five Year plan and wanting to create rapid industrialization. In order to achieve this they used forced labor. The population politics factor examines the types of people that were sent to the camp. There was not a “type” of person that was sent, Stalin arrested and threw in all kinds of people to contribute to the industrialization. And, finally the social factors describes the change of goals in the camps, such as re-educating the prisoners into Soviet citizens. From all of this, one can see how gulags had such a negative connotation.

Bell’s article is extremely interesting in examining all of the factors that revolve around gulags. He provides a lot of information, especially from outside sources, on gulags and all of the different terms associated with it. I thought it was particularly interesting when Bell, agreeing with other authors, states that the Stalin-era gulag is similar to the Holocaust. They are similar because of the forced labor, the amount of deaths, and inequalities among the guards and the prisoners.

How much do gulags really differ from place to place if they all revolve around issues of mortality and exploitation of citizens?