--- Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com> wrote: Thus, prisons aren't "economic" institutions as much as part of the coercive apparatus of the state. The Gulags helped maintain order and the system of class power, just like Pelican Bay and similar US institutions do. Guantánamo, abu Graib, etc. help maintain US imperial domination over Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Because of these goals, any work done or not done by inmates is of secondary concern.
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There's another factor in play with the Gulag as well that was both economic and coercive. Stalin, like the tsars before him, had an enormous expanse of territory (Siberia -- three-quarters of Russia) brimming over with natural resources like timber, oil, diamonds and so forth so where no one wanted to go because of the hostile environment. AFAIK the forced labor camps were in part an answer to this.
There are whole towns in Siberia that built up around Gulag camps. Elderly Gulag inmates and their descendents still live there.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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