“They Changed the Configuration of the Fence”: The Status of Free-Hirees for Former Prisoners of the NKVD-MVD Camps, 1941—1954
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2026.02.115Keywords:
World War II, NKVD-MVD camps, camp commissions, prisoners, civilian employees ( free-hirees), “overstayers”, forced labour, discrimination, labour attachment.Abstract
The purpose of this article is to analyze one aspect of Stalinist terror: the forced transfer of prisoners who were detained in camps beyond the term specified in their sentences into the status of so-called “civilian employees” (“free-hirees”). The objectives of the study are to examine the legal and regulatory framework and departmental directives that sanctioned this practice; to reconstruct the implementation of these measures; to analyse how Soviet official vocabulary masked the coercive nature of what was in fact forced labour; to trace the life strategies of natives of Ukraine referred to in camp jargon and memoirs as “oversitters”; and to demonstrate the regional and sectoral specificities of the exploitation of their labour. The methodology combines historical-legal and anthropological approaches, as well as elements of social history and critical analysis of the language of power. This approach makes it possible to interpret the labour of former prisoners classified as “civilian employees” not as a marginal phenomenon, but as a systemic component of the Soviet model of labour mobilization within the broader economy of unfreedom. Situated at the intersection of punishment and formally civilian employment, this practice institutionalized coercion under the guise of legality. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the comprehensive analysis of “civilian” labour as a specific form of forced labour integrated into the functioning of the NKVD-MVD camp system. This perspective allows for a reconsideration of the mobilization model of the Soviet wartime and post-war economy. Particular attention is devoted to the psychological condition of individuals who were formally free yet subjected to administrative supervision, labour attachment, segregation, and discrimination of former prisoners. Conclusions. It is demonstrated that from the outbreak of the Nazi-Soviet war, in violation of both fundamental legal principles concerning the fixed term of punishment and the existing legislation of the USSR, camps initially practiced the continued detention of prisoners convicted under “political” articles. Following Directive No. 185 of 29 April 1942, this policy was formalized through their forced transfer to the status of “civilian employees” (“free-hirees”). Instead of release, a system of mass economic exploitation was introduced, effectively expanding the mechanisms of forced labour within the Soviet economy of unfreedom. In this way, the Stalinist regime sought to secure cheap labour for enterprises subordinated to the NKVD-MVD while ensuring the social isolation and discrimination of former prisoners, turning remote regions into spaces of prolonged — and often lifelong — unfreedom.
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