Free labor at our expense: who and how will make money on the "new GULAG"

Sergey Baimukhametov

As you know, on May 20, 2021, the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) Alexander Kalashnikov made a proposal to replace labor migrants with prisoners, to expand the network of penal settlements and correctional centers. There are those convicted under light articles, those who have changed their real term to forced labor.

“Recently, Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin - editor's note) met with the leaders of the Middle Asian regions ... It was about how to establish a flow of migrants for our facilities where there is a shortage of labor. But we, in turn, are really ready to organize, provide ... Among the people who are being held, 188 thousand have the right to such execution of punishment as forced labor ... This will not be a Gulag, it will be absolutely new decent conditions, because this person will already work in a hostel or rent an apartment, if desired, with his family, receive a decent salary, "- said the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service.

Naturally, the public and the press began to vigorously discuss, passions boiled over the new GULAG. Indeed, any mention of him among Soviet, Russian people is associated with the memory of decades of mass repressions that touched every family. During the years of Stalinism and even after them, the use of prison labor was the foundation of the then administrative-command system. There was a special economy in the USSR - the economy of the GULAG. The GULAG was the solution to many problems - free labor, slave labor. There were general arrests in the country - in 1935 the number of prisoners (compared to 1929) increased by 6.1 times and reached 1,296,400 people. The exploitation of the convicts was ruthless. A note from the GULAG Sanitary Department, 1933: "The average mortality rate in the Gulag camps was 15.7 percent with fluctuations ..." That is, every sixth prisoner died every year. In 1942 - every third or fourth. Any factory, combine, power plant, mine, mine, road - began with the organization of a concentration camp. This is how the rank and file and the "great construction projects of communism" were provided with gratuitous labor, and this is how socialism was created.

But here and now - we are talking about something else.

So let's start with words. The word serves to express and reflect thoughts. Or - on the contrary - for disguise, concealment of intentions. If the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service proposed to expand the network of colonies-settlements, correctional centers within the framework of the humanization of the system, it would be clear and understandable. The creation of "decent conditions" for convicts is welcome. But he started with migrants ... Apparently, it seems to the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service and those who have already supported him, the people are dissatisfied with the "dominance of those who have come in large numbers", the people will approve, and we will use it ...

But they are wrong. We have migrants - janitors, waiters, taxi drivers, loaders and handlers of goods in stores, salespeople and cashiers, couriers, nurses in the social service for the care of the elderly. And the mention of "large construction projects where there is not enough labor" is not an explanation or justification. For our mass consciousness, any "convicted person serving time" is a "criminal", "prisoner". We are ready, reading the press, to figure out in each individual case whether this or that person is innocently or reasonably sentenced to imprisonment, but to work alongside a "prisoner" - excuse me ... whether they are at least three times a compatriot, not a "migrant".

This means that we are only talking about creating labor camps at the place of work exclusively from convicts.

But the decision was made a year and a half ago.

And therefore the speech of the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service is incomprehensible and strange. There is no reason for him, because such a law already exists, it entered into force on January 1, 2020.

Did the Minister of Justice and the Chairman of the State Duma, who supported Kalashnikov, forget about the law that they themselves adopted a year and a half ago? It's a ridiculous question, but that's how it looks.

But the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service cannot but remember. For him, this document is one of the fundamental ones in recent economic times.

Federal Law No. 179-FZ of July 18, 2019 states: an organization that uses the labor of convicts in the FSIN correctional center creates a private correctional center at the place of work. "Provides convicts with dormitories for living, other premises and property necessary to ensure the established procedure and conditions for serving compulsory labor, and also assists the administration of the correctional center in the material and medical and sanitary provision of convicts."

All clear. The business is responsible for the care and expense of the prisoners. For the state - security and other security measures.

The Federal Penitentiary Service is one of the country's largest employers, according to the report of the Higher School of Economics "The Invisible Giant: The Federal Penitentiary Service and the Russian Labor Market", 2014. But ... “The state gets almost nothing from the use of extremely cheap labor of prisoners. Profit from income-generating activities is only about 1.5 billion rubles. That is, the FSIN pays for itself by only 5%. The rest is budgetary funds. The entire Russian society pays for the organization of the "labor process" and related economic practices. It can be concluded that the hidden volume of production is up to half of the total: 50 to 50. The profits from the labor of prisoners are deposited in the pockets of the heads of the colonies. (In 2017, former FSIN director Alexander Reimer, former deputy directors Nikolai Kriovolapov and Oleg Korshunov, former director of the FSIN engineering and technical support center Viktor Definedov were sentenced to imprisonment for terms of 5 to 8 years for fraud and embezzlement. there were dozens of colonies and their deputies convicted of various machinations.)

At the same time, the FSIN is one of the six richest departments in the country. Its budget exceeds the budget of the Ministry of Health.

Under the care of the Ministry of Health - 146 million Russians, and the Federal Penitentiary Service - 478.2 thousand prisoners and 295 thousand full-time employees.

Yes, there are 1.6 FSIN employees for every prisoner in our country.

Now, in addition to the budget, the Federal Penitentiary Service will have money for providing the business with labor. Under the new law, "between the correctional center and the organization that uses the labor of convicts," a "model contract" is concluded, which is "approved by the federal body of the penal system."

So what's up? What is incomprehensible to the FSIN and business in the Federal Law of July 18, 2019 No. 179-FZ? Why is the noise raised?

We can only guess.

The scheme of the Soviet GULAG was simple. Continuous slave labor with minimal maintenance costs. Here is the camp, here is the budget for it - from security to food. Cars come, take the prisoners to the facility, where they cut wood, dig a pit, or hammer in a stone. In the evening - they bring it. Everything. All profits go to the state.

And now? Does business want to use cheap labor and at the same time not spend money on creating more or less bearable conditions for keeping prisoners?

Does business want to dump the costs on the state, that is, on us?

The question is, in principle, simple: who will be the main beneficiary, and in Russian speaking - the beneficiary, the beneficiary?

And who will pay for everything?