Article content

MOSCOW — Millions of people died in Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s gulag, but the 75th anniversary of the founding of one of the notorious forced-labour camps was cause for a celebration in Russia.

Russian news portals reported Tuesday that local officials and prison wardens threw a party last week honoring the Usolsky camp in the Urals, with music and dancing and speeches by former camp guards.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Russian prison wardens throw party for 75th anniversary of Stalin's notorious forced-labour camp Back to video

The NKVD, the KGB predecessor which ran the gulag, “instilled traditions in the camp that still hold value today,” the Solikamsky regional department of Russia’s prison service said in a statement. These traditions included allegiance to the motherland, mutual assistance and respect for war veterans, the statement said.

Hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers who had been captured by Nazi forces during World War II were sent to the gulag after the war.

“So hard were the times in which the Usolsky camp was founded, so heavy were the burdens it overcame!” Sergei Yerofeyev, deputy chairman of a committee for retired prison wardens, said in the statement. The camp was founded in 1938, a year when the NKVD executed hundreds of thousands of people for “political crimes” and sent millions more to the gulag.