University students in London have claimed that Stalin's gulags were "compassionate" retreats where education and rehabilitation took place.

The residents were able to enjoy training, clubs, sports and theater.

The bizarre opinion about the punishment and death camps, where an estimated more than one million people died, came to light in an exchange between LGBTA activists and others, according to a report at the Telegraph.

It was "trans rights campaigners" at Goldsmiths University who described the gulags as benign establishments, the report said.

They were, in fact, without many exceptions the terminal home for whomever might be called "enemies of the state."

The opinion came in a series of social-media statements from LGBTQ+ Goldsmiths:

"Here's a mini thread to clarify what a 'gulag' is, for those who only have heard it being used as a buzzword and why sending a bigot to one is actually a compassionate, non-violent course of action," they said.

"First of all, the USSR no longer exists, therefore 'gulags' no longer exist. May as well make a case against orientalism but USSR =/= Russia. Russia is NOT governed by a communist party. Got that? Okay. Good.

"The Soviets did away with life sentences and the longest sentence was 10 years. Capital punishment was reserved for the most heinous, serous crimes.

"The penal system was a rehabilitary one and self supporting, a far cry from the Western, capitalist notion of prison. The aim was to correct and change the ways of 'criminals.' If it couldn't be done in 10 years, it couldn't be done at all."

The explanations came after the group "threatened to send a political opponent 'to the gulag,'" the report said. "The threat was made against Claire Graham, a special education needs teacher, who wrote objecting to LGBTQ Goldsmith's threat to target feminist academics who they claimed were prejudiced against transgender individuals."

The conflict is one that has developed inside the LGTBQ+ movement. Lesbians deny that transgenders exist, as they don't accept that men can become women.

Trans activists, for their part, claim the lesbians are guilty of hate crimes for their opposition to men undergoing gender transitions using women's facilities.

"In its Tweets, Goldsmith LGBTQ said: 'The ideas of TERFS and anti-trans bigots literally *kill* and must be eradicated through re-education,'" the report said.

The college activists had suggested Graham be dispatched to the gulags, and then explained, "sending a bigot to one is actually a compassionate, non-violent course of action."

The activists argued that the CIA spread "lies" about the gulags, including that "u work until u die in gulags."

In that penal system, they claimed, "There were regular classes, book clubs, newspaper editorial teams, sports, theatre and performance groups."

Historians, however, have concluded that Stalin's gulags were used to jail everyone from petty criminals to political opponents, including gay men and women.

The report said, "Soviet files show that 1,053,829 people died in the camps between 1934 and 1953, mostly as a result of deliberate starvation."

The Christian Institute estimated that about 20 million people were incarcerated in the gulags, with "prisoners working up to 14 hours a day in extreme weather. Countless numbers died."