It would be interesting to know what they were charged with, I regret not getting a more detailed understanding of my grandfather's experiences while he was alive.
The Stalinist penal system can be profitably studied with the same sociological tools we use to analyze penal structures elsewhere. It contained large numbers of common criminals serving relatively short sentences, many of whom were released each year and replaced by newly convicted persons. It included a wide variety of sanctions, including non-custodial ones. For most of those drawn into it, it was in fact a penal system: a particularly harsh, cruel, and arbitrary one, to be sure, but not necessarily a one-way ticket to oblivion for the majority of inmates.
They were just taken one day. My grandma might know more about it
It would be interesting to know what they were charged with, I regret not getting a more detailed understanding of my grandfather's experiences while he was alive.
I'll see if I can find out, not sure if we have any documents left (if we even got any paperwork for that).
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They just grabbed random people for no reason at all.
It all makes sense and contributes to the stability of society when people are punished for no reason at all.
You admittedly don't know the full story but are for some reason sure of their innocence? You know plenty of prisoners in the USSR were imprisoned for stuff you'd get imprisoned for in any country, right?