Vasyl Velychkovsky\u2019s<\/strong> time in the Soviet gulag at Vorkuta stands as one of the most harrowing and powerful parts of his story. <\/p>\n<\/div> He had already endured interrogation, arrest, and sentencing for refusing to renounce his faith and his allegiance to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. His “crime” was serving as a bishop and continuing the underground church that had been outlawed by the Soviets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was sent to Vorkuta\u2014a brutal labor camp above the Arctic Circle, part of the notorious Gulag system. This was no ordinary prison. Vorkuta was a coal-mining camp built on permafrost, where the temperature could drop to -50\u00b0C (-58\u00b0F). <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Prisoners worked in dangerous conditions with inadequate clothing, poor food, and almost no medical care. The Soviets sent political prisoners, including clergy, intellectuals, and anyone suspected of \u201ccounterrevolutionary\u201d thought, to these camps to be broken\u2014physically and spiritually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in Velychkovsky\u2019s case, he was not broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Accounts suggest that he endured his sentence (ten years, reduced to three through amnesty in 1955) with unwavering inner strength. Even in the mines, he continued his ministry\u2014quietly hearing confessions, whispering prayers, and offering words of hope. In the heart of that frozen hell, he kept faith alive not only for himself, but for others around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We could think of Velychkovsky in the gulag like an ember under the ash\u2014seemingly smothered, but glowing quietly, ready to rekindle light in the darkness.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Radio Free Europe<\/a><\/strong> provides a moving photo essay of the Soviet gulag at Vorkuta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The labor camps at Vorkuta were established in 1931 to mine coal deposits at the foot of the Arctic Ural Mountains, 150 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. For 25 years, prisoners and exiles labored to turn this area of tundra into one of the largest coal sources of the Soviet Union. The complex grew to include more than 20 mines, mining villages, power stations, roads, railroads, and the new city of Vorkuta. Today, Vorkuta is an industrial city in decline, plagued by corruption and poverty. These photos show Vorkuta at the height of the Gulag era — and as it appears now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The camps at Vorkuta were established in 1931 to mine coal in the Ural Mountains in the Arctic. They continued to operate until 1956.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n [1]<\/sup> Partisans who fought against the Germans during World War II<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another Radio Free Europe<\/a><\/strong> page features Anna Kriku, one of the few remaining survivors of the Vorkuta gulag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Survivor In Vorkuta, Land Of The Gulag And Coal Mines<\/strong> Anna Krikun is one of the oldest residents living around Vorkuta, a coal-mining Russian city above the Arctic Circle. At 93, Krikun is also one of the few remaining survivors of the Vorkuta gulag, one of the largest labor camps in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Krikun\u2019s father had been arrested in 1924 and disappeared without a trace. Her mother’s second husband was arrested in 1937 at the height of Stalin’s Great Terror. She was able to obtain his death certificate only 36 years later. The official cause of his death one month after his arrest was heart failure \u2013 which was widely understood at the time to mean execution by firing squad.<\/p>\nRadio Free Europe<\/a><\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Snow, extreme cold grip Russian ghost town Vorkuta<\/strong> The city, which was established due to the coal-mine nearby and has about a population of 70,000, is known as the coldest settlement in Europe.<\/p>\nDaily Sabah<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A frozen ghost town….<\/p>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/fcaKADTSRUpUyUQuct5W-1-37nk8-717x1024.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\nThe Labor Camps at Vorkuta<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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An undated photo of Polish Home Army[1]<\/sup> soldier Stefan Jozefowicz, who was arrested by the Soviet secret police in 1945 and sentenced to death. That sentence was later commuted to 20 years of hard labor. In 1953, Jozefowicz participated in a prisoner strike at mine No. 29. He returned to Poland in 1956.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n
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Anna Krikun spent a decade in a Soviet labor camp in Vorkuta, the city in the Russian Arctic where 36 workers died in coal-mine disaster last month [Feb 2016]. Krikun survived dictator Josef Stalin\u2019s Great Terror, World War II, the gulag, and more than 18 years in Vorkuta’s coal mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Extreme cold temperatures reaching -50 degrees Celsius prevail in the Russian Arctic city of Vorkuta, which is often called a \u201cghost town\u201d due to its terrifying environment consisting of abandoned buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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