"Gulag" - Slavery, Inc. The First Comprehensive, Self-authenticated Docu-map of Forced Labor Camps in Soviet Russia
- Title:
- "Gulag" - Slavery, Inc. The First Comprehensive, Self-authenticated Docu-map of Forced Labor Camps in Soviet Russia
- Alternate Title:
- "Gulag" - Slavery, Inc.
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Levine, Isaac Don, 1892-1981
- Date:
- 1947
- Posted Date:
- 2015-08-25
- ID Number:
- 1337.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_1337_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Work Type:
- maps
- Materials/Techniques:
- printing
- Subject:
- Communism & Cold War
Pictorial
Unusual Graphics/Text - Measurement:
- 45 x 57 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- Maps of the Soviet forced labor camps, the “Gulag,” are some of the most dramatic and best-known Western propaganda images of the Cold War, among “the most widely-circulated pieces of anti-Communist literature.” Barney 2015, 120; see generally ibid. 117-133 and Barney 2013. The collection includes a number of these, from 1945 to 1982; see Subjects > Communism & Cold War.
This map is a successor to the 1945 "Map of Concentration Camps in Soviet Russia" (ID #1330), and the first version in this form. It was produced by Isaac Don Levine, the editor of Plain Talk, an anti-Communist magazine, and distributed in folded form with the magazine's May 1947 issue. (For more on Levine, see Barney 2015, 121-27.) Levine added a striking photo of "'Gulag' Children" - one wearing a crucifix - and offered a $1,000 reward for "Evidence Disproving the Authenticity of the Soviet Documents Here Reproduced." Although the photo ID cards remain, the crude geographic areas of the earlier map have become more precise and much additional information has been added (likely from Mora & Zwierniak's book) (Barney 2013, 9, 30). The large dotted circles represent "constellations' of state-run concentration camps, and the "ringed dots" represent municipal camps.
The publication of the Plain Talk map gained some prominent press coverage and led the American Federation of Labor to make a formal proposal that UNESCO conduct an international investigation of forced labor. For the next developments in this story, see Notes for ID #1345.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Plain Talk magazine, May 1947.
- Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.