Les politiques à l’égard des libérés du GOULAG. Amnistiés et réhabilités dans la région de novosibirsk, 1953-1960

Cahiers d'histoire russe, est-européenne, caucasienne et centrasiatique (ex. Cahiers du Monde Russe). 2006. Vol. 47. No. 1-2. P. 327–347.

Elie M.

Policies concerning amnestied and rehabilitated former Gulag prisoners in the Novosibirsk oblast, 1953-1960
This article considers the policies implemented by the Soviet authorities to foster the social reintegration of former cons liberated en masse after Stalin’s death. It focuses on two groups of returnees in the Novosibirsk oblast : those liberated under the 1953 amnesty and former political prisoners. Aware that ex-prisoners were confronted with considerable difficulties, especially concerning job placement, geographical mobility and housing, Stalin’s heirs took secret and inadequate measures to remedy them. As far as amnestied were concerned, failed attempts at reducing unemployment and recidivism promptly lead the authorities to turn to indiscriminate prison threats toward returnees. Former political prisoners could ask for their legal rehabilitation. This device should allegedly lift all bureaucratic and material hurdles to their social reinstatement. One of the findings of this study, however, is that in Novosibirsk rehabilitated persons would need support from local or regional administrators to obtain most of what the law stipulated.

Keywords: история ГУЛАГа, Gulag, амнистия, Soviet history of 1945 - 1953, история СССР 1945 – 1953, history of the gulag