What is the gulag? The use of Gulags originates from 17th century Russian empire,it was called Katorga back then, which was later enhanced and adopted by Vladimir Lenin and was later taken controlled by Joseph Stalin, creating the Gulags that we know today. It reached its peak as the Soviet forced labor camp system during Joseph Stalin’s rule from the 1930s up until the 1950s. Convicts ranged from petty criminals to political prisoners. The Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. Stalin’s use of gulag Stalin’s aims for the Gulag was hypothesis to be of economic development. The plan was first to create special settlements through deportation, but the plan failed after the Nazino affair in 1933, which was an attempt of mass deportation of 6000 people, resulting to the death of 4000. The purpose of the deportation was to force those who were deported to create a self-sustainable system on those remote lands, to help jump start the settlement of unclaimed virgin lands. This had lead to the growth of Gulags instead. Most of the camps established to accommodate the masses of incoming prisoners that were assigned to distinct tasks for Stalin’s 5 year plans .These included the collectivization and economic modernization. The 1933 archives indicate the Gulag had approximately 200,000 prisoners in the camps; while in 1935, approximately 800,000 were in camps. In the early 1930s, a tightening of Soviet penal policy caused significant growth of the prison camp population. During the Great Purge of 1937–38, mass arrests caused another increase in inmate numbers. More than 1.7 million people were arrested, the country’s prison, with an official capacity of 155,00 inmates, held 549,000 at the end of  February, 1938. Collectivization: The use of gulags on collective farms had promoted class warfare, caused removal of the “Kulak” class, had a growth of use on the collective farms, that by 1930 they had 50 percent of peasant farms collectivized. This had all assisted on Stalin’s propaganda, a display of his success, this was written on a article at the time: Economic modernization: The gulag system had allowed the Soviet Union to create a “Camp Economy”. Right before the war, the gulags were able to provide 46.5% of the nation’s nickel, 76% of its tin, 40% of its cobalt, 40.5% of its chrome-iron ore, 60% of its gold, and 25.3% of its timber. And in preparation for war, the NKVD put up many more factories and built highways and railroads. DekulakizationBy late 1929, Stalin started a program known as “dekulakization”. The Kulaks were supposedly wealthy (comparatively to other Soviet peasants) and were considered to be capitalists by the state, and by extension enemies of socialism. Stalin demanded that the kulak class be completely wiped out. This resulted in the imprisonment and execution of Soviet peasants. The term “Kulak” would also become associated with anyone who opposed the Soviet government. This resulted in 60,000 people being sent to the camps in a mere four months. This was only the beginning of the dekulakization process. In 1931 alone 1,803,392 people were exiled.Most Kulaks were also sent to work on agricultural labor camps, many did everything they could to flee the kolkhoz (one of the collective farms) fate. Although the news reported positive on the productivity of the kolkhoz, propagandizing and promoting such camps, letters from the workers of the farm says differ. Most accounts talked about the drop in production, harassment of local officials and major social conflicts. Russian author,Matusovski, characterize kolkhozy as a “system of ‘neo-serfdom’ In comparison to the Cult of Stalin Just like most dictators, Stalin created a cult of personality, representing himself as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. This was established through the use of cult of Lenin. Prior to Lenin’s death, Stalin worked his way into Lenin’s inner circle, becoming Lenin’s right hand man. This representation has raised his reputation, portraying himself as the embodiment of Marxist-Leninism, Stalin had built upon the followers of Lenin, and transferred those who worshiped the cult of Lenin to him as the leading figure. People trusted him as Lenin’s successor to lead them to an embetterment of Russia. He maintained his cult of personality through the use of indoctrination and fear, used education – called the Komosol – to create new generation of believers. From 1936 the Soviet journalism started to refer to Joseph Stalin as the Father of Nations. It portrayed him as a caring yet strong father figure, with the Soviet populace as his “children”. The cult of personality also adopted the Christian traditions of procession and devotion to icons through the use of Stalinist parades and effigies. By reapplying various aspects of religion to the cult of personality, the press hoped to shift devotion away from the church and towards Stalin. Another prominent part of Stalin’s image in the mass media was his close association with Vladimir Lenin. The Soviet press maintained that Stalin had been Lenin’s constant companion while the latter was alive, and that as such, Stalin closely followed Lenin’s teachings and could continue the Bolshevik legacy after Lenin’s death.