Danzig Baldaev – Russian officer and the warden of the Kresty (Crosses) isolator, known not only for his three-volume almanac “Russian Criminal Tattoo”, but also his work in the book “Drawings from the Gulag”, created in the late 80s , based on the collected prison folklore and illustrations and then recently republished in 2010 by Fuel Design & Publishing.

The author had his own reasons to be interested in the Soviet authorities – he was the son of one of the repressed.

“My father told me that in the Sanskrit the word “Russia” means “experimental country” or “field of Satan”. One narrator-ulegirsha told him: “Demons and devils have nothing to fear now: they feared the priests , shamans , churches, monasteries , mosques and datsans before, but now in the human bodies they transformed into communists , NKVD members, informers and kombeds”.

Below have a look at translations from particular illustrations taken from the book from russian into english.

1. Blatari or “thieves in law” were on privileged positions in Gulag, like modern bureaucrats …

Criminals in the Gulag were three positions above the “enemies of the people.” Reputable repeatedly convicted “thieves in law” generally didn’t work, picker thieves – “shesterky” were in their ministry and bytoviki – “thieving men” gave their production percentage. Criminals helped to kill the “enemies of the people” in the Gulag labor camps …

2. The execution of “judgment by the decision of the court of thieves” in a labor camp …

Under the conditions of Stalin’s Gulag camps including full administration connivance, blatari-criminals were committing murders of convicts with the help of electricity, knives, gallows, beheading, fiery scrap pushed into the anus, etc. Many criminals had more than 10 “ships” on their account, i.e. murdered prisoners, including “enemies of the people”…

3. “Cut the skull” of the “enemy of the people” cause he didn’t attribute his daily output to criminals.

4. Take out of the prisoner who lost his live when playing cards…

– Sprinkle him with holy water for better living in the other world, and I will powder him with snow for the guard not to determine…

5. – I am … English, French, American, Japanese, Italian, German and some other spy…