Eduard Berzin

Eduard Petrovich Berzin (Latvian: Eduards Bērziņš; 1894–1938), born in Latvia, was a soldier and Chekist, but is remembered primarily for setting up Dalstroy, which instituted a system of forced-labour camps in Kolyma, North-Eastern Siberia, where hundreds of thousands of prisoners died. It was considered to be the most brutal of all the Gulag regions.

Before World War I Berzin studied painting at Berlin's Academy of Fine Arts where he met his wife, Elza Mittenberg, also an artist, from Riga. In 1915 he joined the Russian army and fought in the First World War, where he was awarded the Cross of St. George and became an officer. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917 he joined the communists. In 1918 Berzin became a commander of the First Artillery Division of the Red Latvian Riflemen with special responsibilities for Vladimir Lenin's protection. Gaining the trust of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, he soon became a member of the Cheka or secret police.

In 1926, Joseph Stalin gave Berzin the task of setting up the Vishera complex of labour camps in the Urals known as Vishlag where cellulose and paper were to be produced. This he did with great enthusiasm and success. The 70,000 prisoners there were in most cases treated surprisingly well, even receiving wages and benefitting from cinemas, libraries, discussion clubs and dining halls.

It was apparently on the basis of this success that in 1931 Stalin appointed him head of Dalstroy, the authority which was to develop Kolyma making use essentially of forced labour consisting of some convicted criminals but mainly political prisoners. He arrived in Nagaevo Bay by steamship on 2 February 1932 together with a small number of prisoners (mainly mining engineers) and some security guards.

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