Eleven Years In Soviet Prison Camps by Lipper Elinor;

Author:Lipper, Elinor;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hauraki Publishing
Published: 2015-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

Shurup

Shurup was a young thief, a chubby-faced, cheerful girl bursting with health. Camp life was her element. She had known nothing else since childhood, for she had fallen in with a band of thieves when she was a little girl and had since enjoyed only the briefest periods of freedom between the end of one sentence and her next arrest for theft.

By Soviet law every citizen who has reached his twelfth year is legally responsible for his acts, and in every prison in the country there are dozens of twelve-, thirteen-, and fourteen-year-old thieves who complete their schooling in camps and prisons where they live with adult criminals. It is true that near Moscow there still exists the model colony Bolshovo, inhabited by former delinquents who have returned to normal life; but this colony is a relic from times past when fine people were still willing to devote their lives, their sensitivity, and their infinite patience to leading unfortunate children away from criminality. The principle of re-education has long since been abandoned, and instead child criminals are punished, and punished severely. Three years of imprisonment for a few pounds of stolen flour is commonplace.

After a thirteen-year-old boy has spent these three years in the company of bandits, prostitutes, speculators, swindlers, murderers, and other criminals of all kinds, there is no longer any turning back for him. Ugly swearwords, filthy jokes, criminal cant, women, vodka, cards, and tobacco—such is the sum total of his education during those years. At sixteen he no longer has any illusions. After his release the only thing that attracts him is a life of crime.

The urka, as the Russian criminals call themselves, have their own moral code, their own organization, and their own system of justice. Shurup, the cheerful little thief, had to learn all this the hard way. She did not overwork herself in camp and she did not have to manage on the meager camp rations. For she always had half a dozen friends, with whom she had more or less intimate relations, who supplied her with bread, sugar, butter, and alcohol. The guards received their share and turned away their eyes. And now and then Shurup favored them too with the pleasures of her plump body. So Shurup did not have to strain to meet her labor quota. Her way of life was no different from that of her fellows among the women criminals. They had no particular grievances against her for that. But Shurup frequently took away their “steady” men friends, and they did not like this. They fought with her; but Shurup did not mind going around with a black eye, and she gave as good as she got. She did not take their jealousy to heart. But one day she went too far.

Then what was left of Shurup was carried to the hospital. Her whole back was one huge burn. The skin was gone completely, and the layer of fat beneath was largely burned away. Shurup lay on her belly on her cot and moaned softly, but she did not die.

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