Soviet prisoner of war camps in the territory of the Georgian SSR (1945-1954)

Abstract

This article uses archival materials kept in the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. One of its main fonds is composed by former Soviet State Security (KGB) archive of the Georgian SSR. The materials used here describe in details the legislative base, POW-builders (facilities and scale), the exploitation of the POW workforce in agriculture, housing conditions of POWs as well as their physical conditions, and generate general conclusions regarding the conditions and functioning of the POW camps, revealing its role in the USSR economy and the assessment of the Soviet bureaucratic apparatus.