The Littlest Enemies: Children in the Shadow of the Gulag

While memoirs such as Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" brought the knowledge of the Gulag to a wide, international audience, they unintentionally created the impression that the camps were a phenomenon restricted to male intellectuals and dissidents. The reality was more variegated: Soviet law authorized the imprisonment of family members of anyone designated an "enemy of the people," thus drawing countless women into the Gulag as well. Their children were usually placed in orphanages under the jurisdiction of the secret police, where they were subjected to both neglect and to social stigmatization. Other children joined the special settlements with their parents; at one point, an estimated 40-70% of the population of the settlements consisted of children under the age of 14.

"The Littlest Enemies" gives voice to some of these children who have left their trace in history within letters, "criminal" dossiers, and, later, first-hand accounts. With an introduction by historian Lynne Viola, their stories not only tell us about the darker aspects of the "Soviet experiment" but also remind us that children are too often the forgotten victims of policies that states officially aim at adult populations. The oft-repeated "Thank you Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood" assumes within this context a new and tragically ironic meaning for the children of the Gulag.