Forced Labor in The Soviet Union - Economic Incentives

Economic Incentives

The GULAG began as a place to house criminals, traitors and socialists but eventually became an important part in the Soviet Union’s economy and rapid industrialization. The Five Year Plans gave production targets that relied on the expansion of forced laborers to meet the industrial targets. The Gulag system allowed for inexpensive laborers to develop the rapid industrialization to meet the target recommendations thereby an economic motivation was for finding a sufficient number of "enemies of the people" to keep Gulag production in line with targets. The Gulag forced labour industry was intended to be a mobile, cheap workforce that can be easily replenished and is able to advance on inhospitable areas that were plentiful in resources.

The Gulag was very expensive to maintain being as on its own it required an entire infrastructure. The workers were also unmotivated and weakened by poor living conditions. The prisoners, with few rights of their own, led authorities to decide for projects with little economic use. The best known example of this is the White Sea Canal. The White Sea Canal was built in-between 1931 and 1933 and it involved over a hundred thousand prisoners that dug a 141 mile canal in 20 months. Though the canal turned out to be to narrow and shallow to support most sea craft.