Der Klang Des Gulag: Musik Und Musiker in Den Sowjetischen Zwangsarbeitslagern Der 1920er- Bis 1950er-Jahre

The study treats both prescribed and independent musical and cultural activities within the Gulag, as well as their psychological and social ramifications, and in so doing aims to record the perspective of all groups involved in musical life. The study especially focusses on the musical activities prescribed by the camp headquarters' Department of Cultural Education in order to re-educate prisoners. In addition to officially decreed musical practices, there was also a multi-layered independent music-making of the prisoners in the Gulag, through which music could be subversively used against the camp system. A major part of this study consisted of cataloguing the fates of many imprisoned musicians, thereby showing the enormous artistic potential that was lost in the Gulag. The study also documents many formerly unknown pieces of music by imprisoned composers that can now be incorporated into historiography.