Abstract: Historiography of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal and the Moscow-Volga Canal, the activities of the White Sea-Baltic and Dmitrov camps are the subjects of the study. A review of studies of the large-scale GULAG system was carried out. In such researches the role of the Solovezkiy, Belbaltlag and Dmitlag is outlined as stages of the Soviet penitentiary system development. It reflects the transformation of the country's leadership views on the role of forced labor in the construction of the economy. Special attention was paid to the studies of the channel Army daily life, historical and cultural phenomena that appeared in the conceptual landscape of the country together with the construction of canals, cultural, educational, creative and ideological components of camp life. A historiographical review of the White Sea-Baltic Canal and the Moscow-Volga Canal construction, as well as the activities of the White Sea-Baltic and Dmitrov camps as an integral system, was not carried out before. But namely this approach to the topic seems logical due to the continuity of both the canal construction organizations themselves and the camp systems that provided the construction with labor (Solovetsky, Belomorsko-Baltiyskaya and Dmitrovskaya). A comprehensive study of these materials allowed us to take a fresh look at the subject of research and identify a number of urgent tasks for the historian of the GULAG system.