This is barely scratching the surface.
During Perestroika and Glasnost, these stories were so accessible because of RUSSIAN people wanting to figure out the fates of relatives who were arrested, imprisoned, killed, etc...
But the trauma of the realizations proved just as big a burden as the desire to know the truth...and Putin put a halt to much of the archive digging, etc...So as Gulag historian Anne Applebaum says “like a pandora’s box, the past lies in wait for the next generation.”
But here’s a summary-type introduction. Also good to read authors the likes of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vasily Grossman, and Svetlana Alexievich.
“Prisoners faced the constant threat of rape, both homosexual and heterosexual.
“[A]n excited group of prisoners gathered around a bench next to the wall,” recalled Janusz Bardach. “Those in the back row were jumping up, trying to see over the heads and shoulders of those in front, who were shouting obscenities and holding their penises….A young man lay on his stomach [in the baths], and another man lay on top of him, embracing him around the chest and moving his hips back and forth. His back was tattooed with shackles, chains, and the popular Soviet slogan ‘Work is an act of honor, courage, and heroism.’ On both sides were trumpeting angels. He breathed heavily, while the young man underneath moaned and cried out. The spectators shouted. I caught sight of the young man’s grimacing face.”
http://gulaghistory.org/exhibits/days-and-lives/conflict/4
Thanks for the follow up.
I was completely unaware of the sexual violence in the gulag.
I assumed, naively, that “political” prisoners behaved more humanely than criminals.