On assessing the size of forced concentration camp labour in the Soviet Union, 1929–56

The question of forced labour1 in the Soviet Union is a problem which is very important and needs to be studied in greater depth than has been done so far. Undoubtedly substantial numbers of people were involved. Considerable effort has been expended on this problem in the 1940s and 1950s by many Western scholars. Since then considerably more material has become available and general interest in this topic has been greatly increased by some of the masterpieces of literature which have been devoted to the subject, but curiously there has been a significant decrease in critical work on the topic by Western historians. A survey of the available materials is therefore most welcome, if it is carried out accurately and completely and if it is aimed at providing a basis for renewed study. Unfortunately the recent work by Rosefielde (Soviet Studies, vol. XXXIII, no. 1, pp. 51-87) gives, in my view, a misleading picture of the available data and state of our knowledge. It therefore fails to act as a spur to further productive study in this field, but rather gives the impression that all available estimates give a roughly consistent picture of the scale of forced labour. This is incorrect and the scale of forced labour claimed by Rosefielde should not, in my opinion, be accepted.