Nerchinsk katorga

Akatuy katorga (Акатуйская каторжная тюрьма, 1832–1917)

Nerchinsk katorga (Russian: Нерчинская каторга, Nerchinskaya katorga) was a katorga system of the Russian Empire in the Nerchinsk okrug of Transbaikalia (today's Chita Oblast), between rivers Shilka and Argun, near the border to Mongolia, in the 18th to 20th centuries.[1]

Nerchinsky Zavod was founded in 1700 by Greek mining engineers in the employ of the Russian Government. Several shafts and smelting furnaces were constructed. Starting in 1722, prisoners took over the mining.[1]

Katorga labor was used for mining lead ore and silver on emperor's private lands (so called kabinetskiye zemli, or cabinet lands) and in foundries,[1][2] wine-making and salt-processing factories. From 1850 to 1890, katorga labor was used at Kara gold fields and for the construction of prison buildings. In 1869, they established the Nerchinsk Katorga Administration, which subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior. From 1826 to 1917 it was a katorga for political prisoners.

Its prisons were named after the mines they served:

Among its convicts were Decembrists, insurgents of Polish uprising of 1830–31, Polish uprising of 1863,[1] Narodniks, Social Democrats, and others.

During George Kennan's visit to the area in 1885, together with the painter George Albert Frost, he noted the Algachi and Pokrofski mines were worked by about 220 convicts. These two mines were the most productive in the district, producing 1440 pounds of silver and 144,000 pounds of lead, from 400 short tons of ore. The total number of convicts in the Nerchinsk silver-mining district was approximately 952. There were 188 at Alexandrofski Zavod, 150 at Algachi, 70 at Pokrofski. The Kadainski and Smirnovo mines had 184. The Savenski and Gorni Zerentuiefski mines had 360.[1]

1885 George Kennan Gallery

External links

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Kennan, George (1891). Siberia and the Exile System. London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. pp. 278–318.
  2. ↑ Hoover, Herbert (1951). The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, Years of Adventure 1874-1920. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 107–108.

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