The “Repeaters”: Former Gulag Prisoners Arrested Again

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a special category of prisoners appeared in the Soviet penal system: the so-called “repeaters.” The term referred to people who were arrested and convicted again after being released from Gulag camps. Most often, these were former political prisoners who were re-arrested on similar charges.

The legal basis for this practice was the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 21 February 1948, “On Sending Especially Dangerous State Criminals into Exile for Settlement in Remote Areas of the USSR after They Have Served Their Sentences.” Under this decree, people who had served their terms in special camps and prisons but were still considered dangerous and politically unreliable were to be exiled under the supervision of the state security organs.

This measure reflected the Stalinist regime’s desire to suppress any potential dissent. Former prisoners were treated as a permanent threat even after they had served their sentences. Exile was usually indefinite, effectively creating a system of double punishment. The process of re-conviction could also affect those who had completed their sentences before the German–Soviet war. Such people often had their passports confiscated and were imprisoned for periods ranging from several months to a year or more.

After interrogations and attempts to fabricate a new case, they were usually sent into exile by decision of the Special Conference of the MGB, on the basis of the old charge.

The exiles were sent in stages through transit prisons. On arrival at the place of exile, they were temporarily placed in prison; from there, those able to work were sent to enterprises, construction sites, mines, or logging operations. The rest were assigned to collective farms. The exiles were under the control of the commandant’s office and had to report regularly.

After Stalin’s death, new cases of “repeaters” ceased, and their gradual release and rehabilitation began.

On our website, you can find a large number of case files of Jewish “repeaters” convicted by the Soviet regime. A vivid example of the fate of a “repeater” is the case of Tsalel Meerovich Ginzburg, born in 1899, an employee of the Tigras industrial complex in Vilnius. First arrested in Minsk in 1937 on charges of espionage, he served ten years in the camps. In 1949, Ginzburg was arrested again and exiled to Krasnoyarsk Krai, where he remained until 1955. He was rehabilitated in March 1956.

Freddy Rotman