THE JOURNEY TO HELL:
THE CONVOY TO THE GULAG

The stories of those who endured the Gulag are filled with pain, fear, and loss. But one of the most harrowing aspects of their experience was the convoy—the transport of prisoners to the labor camps. This journey lasted weeks, sometimes months, turning people into shadows of their former selves.

From Arrest to Departure

Ida Ziskina-Varpakhovskaya was arrested right on the street. The authorities assured her that she would only be taken for questioning about her husband. At home, she left behind her one-and-a-half-year-old son, Grisha.

«I fed my son and put him to bed,» wrote her daughter, Anna Varpakhovskaya, reading from her mother’s diary. «As I was leaving, he cried bitterly, reaching out for me. My mother gave me money for a taxi and told me to come home quickly… But I never saw her again.»

The interrogation was just a formality—an arrest warrant was already waiting on the table. A few days later, she was sent to Novinskaya Prison and then to the convoy. That night, she was placed in an overcrowded cell with dozens of other women. Two weeks later, she was summoned «with belongings.» «I heard the verdict: eight years in a labor camp. No right to appeal,» she recorded in her diary.

The Convoy: A Journey Through Hell

Prisoners were crammed into cattle wagons, each designed for livestock, not humans. Inside, 28–30 people were squeezed together on wooden bunks. Tiny barred windows barely let in any light. A hole in the floor served as a toilet. «For women, this was the ultimate humiliation. There was no privacy, no water for hygiene,» recalled Rakhil Rakhlin.

Hunger and thirst became constant companions. Prisoners were given only salty herring, but barely any water. «Some licked frozen icicles that had formed on the wagon walls from our own breath,» wrote Nikolai Zabolotsky.

During stops, mothers ran to puddles to wash their babies’ diapers, fighting for water with those desperate to drink or wash their faces. Children died from heat, cold, and disease.
«A young boy had a high fever and screamed in pain for days. Someone gave his parents a bit of aspirin— that was all they could offer. He kept getting worse, and in the end, he died. At the next stop, soldiers took his body out of the wagon and said they would bury him,» recalled Barbara Armonas.

The Voyage Into the Abyss

Those sent to Kolyma faced yet another horror—the sea journey. The ships transporting prisoners were disguised as civilian vessels. Officially, men and women were held separately, but guards could be bribed. This led to what was known as the «Kolyma Tram»—mass rape.
«The dead women were dragged by their feet and stacked near the door. The guards didn’t even bother recording their names,» remembered Elena Glinka.

The Final Stage of Humiliation

The convoy was not just a road to the camp—it was a descent into the abyss. People were sent on this journey broken, stripped of every last shred of dignity. «Death no longer seemed frightening. Life itself had become far worse,» wrote Eugenia Ginzburg.

This process was deliberately designed to dehumanize. It turned people into beings who fought for water, air, a corner in a packed wagon. Those who survived faced the camps. But even years of hard labor could never erase the horrors of the convoy. It stayed with them forever.