"It is impossible not only to provide for all the needs of places of detention caused by overcrowding, but also to feed prisoners": interdepartmental financial disputes on the eve of the birth of the Soviet camp system (1928-1929).

Bakharev Dmitry Vadimovich ORCID: 0000-0003-3922-3554 Doctor of Law Professor, Department of History and Law, Shadrinsky State Pedagogical University 641870, Russia, Kurganskaya oblast', g. Shadrinsk, ul. K. Libknekhta, 3, kab. 206 demetr79@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The research was carried out with the financial support of research works on priority areas of activity of partner universities of SUSSPU and SHSPU in 2022 on the topic "Transformational processes in the penitentiary system of the RSFSR at the turn of 20-30 years of the XX century: political and economic prerequisites, strategies for implementation and coalitions of interests" (No. 16-454, 06/23/2022).

The process of formation and development of the penitentiary system in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s - early 1930s in the last thirty years has aroused considerable scientific interest, both among Russian and foreign historians. The study of the course and results of the hardware struggle (with the participation of the Joint State Political Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR, on the one hand, and the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR, on the other) for control over institutions that carried out criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment gradually took shape in a separate problem field. At the same time, the interest of researchers, as a rule, was focused on the political and organizational aspects of this interdepartmental conflict, and much less attention was paid to its financial and economic component. In this regard, in this article we have set ourselves the following goal: firstly, to trace the chronology and event outline of the initial stage of solving the state task of financially ensuring the transition to a large-scale system of camp detention of prisoners, recorded in documentary sources, and then to find out what new information can give to understand the essence and causes of the occurrence the specified interdepartmental confrontation.

 Since the publication of the Doctor of Historical Sciences S. A. Krasilnikov ^[1], it is customary to take as the starting point of the process under consideration a memorandum dated April 13, 1929, signed by the People's Commissars of Justice and Internal Affairs of the RSFSR N. M. Yanson and V. N. Tolmachev, as well as Deputy Chairman of the OGPU G. G. Yagoda. In it, they take the initiative to create concentration camps "like Solovetsky", with a capacity of 30 thousand people, designed to hold all convicts for a period of more than 3 years in order to use them "for colonization of the northern suburbs and the development of the natural resources available there." For the organization of only one new camp with a filling limit of 10 thousand people and the maintenance of prisoners in it during the year, government appropriations in the amount of 2 million 350 thousand rubles were requested, and by the end of the budget year ^[1] an amount of 1 million 200 thousand rubles was required. ^{[1, pp. 143-144]}.

On May 13 of the same year, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) at its meeting considers the issue "On the use of labor of criminal prisoners" (P No. 80/30) and adopts the following resolution: "Switch to a system of mass use for the payment of labor of criminal prisoners with a sentence of at least three years in the Ukhta, Indigo, etc. ..." and instructs the commission consisting of N. M. Yanson, G. G. Yagoda, N. V. Krylenko, V. N. Tolmachev and N. A. Uglanov "to consider in detail the issue and determine the specific conditions for the use of convict labor on the basis of existing laws and existing practice" ^{[2, L. 6]}. At the meetings of this commission, significant differences were revealed between Tolmachev and the People's Commissar of Labor of the USSR Uglanov, on the one hand, and the rest of its participants, on the other. Sufficient attention has been paid to the analysis of the course and results of this discussion in the historiography of the issue under consideration ^{[3, pp. 33-35; 4, pp. 161-166; 5, pp. 127-131; 6, pp. 48-54]}, therefore it does not make sense to dwell on it in detail.  Suffice it to say that Tolmachev, Uglanov and the head of the Main Directorate of Places of Detention of the RSFSR (GUMZ) E. G. Shirvindt stubbornly objected to the expansion of the number of OGPU correctional labor camps that existed at that time and the transfer of additional contingents of convicts to this department, although their efforts, ultimately, were not crowned with success.

 On May 23, 1929, the Politburo again considers this issue (P No. 81/18) and still decides: "To accept the commission's proposal to instruct the OGPU to begin organizing a concentration camp in the Ukhta area. The amount necessary for this should be determined in the Soviet order" ^{[7, l. 4]}. Fulfilling it, on June 6, 1929, the SNK of the USSR adopted a resolution (pr. No. 17/304), paragraph 3 of which stated: "For the initial organization of camps and the maintenance of prisoners until 1/10-29, to release the OGPU at the expense of the reserve fund of the SNK of the USSR – 1.200,000 rubles, obliging the Union Republics to reimburse the all-Union budget in the fourth quarter of the amounts received as a result of this measure of savings on the relevant republican budgets" ^{[8, L. 1]}. Thus, both the Politburo and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR are meeting the OGPU's initiatives and intend to fully satisfy its financial applications. It was supposed to reimburse these unplanned expenses at the expense of the Republican People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs, who, as planned, were supposed to have savings due to the transfer of long–term prisoners to the OGPU balance.

Meanwhile, on June 12 of the same year, the NKVD addressed a memo to the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR with the following content:

                                                                                     Sov. Secret

12/VI-29                                                                            

                To the Council of People 's Commissars of the RSFSR

By the time of the publication of the Government Decree of 25/III-29 g. ^[2] on the application of exile, as an additional measure of social protection, to some categories of recidivist prisoners, with the total number of full–time places in the RSFSR detention facilities in 82,634, 114,898 prisoners were actually held, i.e. the overflow was 40%.

In connection with the aforementioned Government decree, conditions were created for the places of detention of the RSFSR, which further complicated their already difficult financial situation.

According to the state budget, funds are allocated for the maintenance of prisoners according to the regular number of places, and not according to their actual number.

Thus, the maintenance of every extra inmate – in excess of the staff – puts a burden on the place of detention.

Thanks to the action of the Government decree of 25/3/29, significant categories of prisoners, numbering in the thousands, were detained in places of detention beyond the period assigned to them by the court verdict, since it took a considerable time (over three months) to formalize the exile through the OGPU, during which the places of detention had to spend money on the maintenance of people who without that, they would already be free.

The application of exile to these prisoners, therefore, not only did not give any savings to the places of detention, but required significant costs on their part for their maintenance beyond the sentence period.

Without making any claims for compensation of these expenses, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs believes that the Government of the RSFSR should initiate a petition before the Government of the USSR for the revision and cancellation of the resolution of 6/IV ^[3] on the assignment of expenses in the amount of 1,200,000 rubles to the correctional labor bodies of the Union republics, in part concerning the RSFSR.

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs                                Vol. Tolmachev ^{[8, l. 3]}.

Attention is drawn to the fact that this document was prepared and sent even before the official receipt by the leadership of the People's Commissariat of the resolution of the People's Commissariat of the USSR dated 06.06.1929, since a copy of the latter was sent to the NKVD and the People's Commissariat of Finance of the RSFSR only on June 17, 1929 (and just in response to the above note by Tolmachev) ^[4]. At the same time, the Administration of the Affairs of the SNK of the RSFSR requests from both People's Commissariats all calculations "arising from paragraph 3 of this resolution for consideration by the SNK of the RSFSR" (ex. No. 615.35/ss) ^{[8, L. 2]}.

There is no response from the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, and on 03.07.1929, the Deputy Manager of the affairs of the SNK of the RSFSR, V. A. Usievich, asks the NKVD to inform the NKFIN of the RSFSR of the information he needs to provide to the SNK of the RSFSR all calculations arising from paragraph 3 of the said resolution ^{[8, L. 4]}.

However, the NKVD's response was limited only to a note dated 09.07.1929 signed by the head of the secret part of Lukina with information that the People's Commissar of Finance was sent a copy of the attitude of the People's Commissar Tolmachev dated 12.06.1929 ^{[8, L. 5]}.

Usievich reacts to this with a rather harsh letter:

                                                                                      Secret

                                                                                      Urgently

July 16 , 1929

                NKVD – comrade. Tolmachev

The Department of Affairs of the SNK of the RSFSR asks you to urgently inform us what you have done on the merits of our letter dated 3.VII.1929 for No. 615.35/ss.

The reply sent on behalf of the Secret Part of the NKVD cannot satisfy the Management of the Affairs of the SNK of the RSFSR with its content.

Appendix: The answer is Secret. Parts of the NKVD from 9.VII. S.G. No. 10/4201.

Deputy Managers of the SNK of the RSFSR V. Usievich ^{[8, L. 6]}.

On July 22, also signed by V. A. Usievich, a copy of the letter below from the People's Commissariat of Finance of the RSFSR dated 17.07.1929 is sent to V. N. Tolmachev with a request to inform his opinion within 3 days ^{[8, L. 8]}.

                                                                                       Secret

17/VII 1929                      

               To the Council of People 's Commissars of the RSFSR 

According to the NKFIN, 5,000 people will be transferred from the places of detention of the NKVD ^[5] to a concentration camp in the Olonets-Ukhta area before I/X-29 (3-4 months). The cost of one NKVD prisoner together with a supernumerary contingent is 14r. 70 kopecks per month. Consequently, the savings in places of detention of the NKVD should be 294,000rubles in 4 months. But, taking into account the fact that these 5,000 people. they will not be transferred immediately, but during all 4 months, it should be assumed that the savings on average will be 2 times less, i.e. 147,000 rubles.

This amount should be offered to the NKVD to reimburse the all-Union budget during the fourth quarter.

People 's Commissariat of Finance of the RSFSR Milutin

Budget. Management                                                           Scheindels

                                                                                       Novodvorskaya ^{[8, l. 7]}.

To the address of the SNK of the RSFSR on August 1, 1929, a brief response from the NKVD again follows, but now signed by People's Commissar V. N. Tolmachev. It said: "The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs informs that on the issue of reimbursement to the All-Union budget in the 4th quarter of the amount received for the organization and maintenance of a concentration camp in the Olonets-Ukhta area, they have given an opinion on the SNK dated June 12 of this year for No. 101.3576" ^{[8, l. 11]}.

As a result, the SNK of the RSFSR adopts a resolution on the issue "On the release of OGPU funds for the organization and maintenance of a concentration camp in the Olonets-Ukhta area", approved on August 23, 1929 (Protocol No. 53), which, it would seem, should put an end to the protracted financial and bureaucratic dispute. "In view of the fact," it said, "that prisoners from the places of detention of the RSFSR, consisting on the state budget, have not yet been transferred to a concentration camp in the Olonets–Ukhta area, the issue of compensation to the Union budget for the maintenance of prisoners of the RSFSR in the IV quarter of this year is considered to have disappeared" ^{[9, l. 30]}. The next day, 24.08.1929, the corresponding extract from the minutes of the meeting was sent to the address of the SNK of the USSR ^{[9, L. 29]}.

However, on the same days, the OGPU addresses notes to the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR justifying the need for additional funding. The People's Commissariat of Finance, in turn, appeals to the SNK of the USSR with a request to return to the issue of reimbursement by the Union republics of the costs of organizing a new concentration camp.                                                                                   

                                                                                         With. Secret

5/IX 1929                       

                    To the Council of People 's Commissars of the USSR

According to the resolution of the SNK of the RSFSR of 23/VIII-29, prot. No. 53 on reimbursement of expenses falling on the RSFSR to the All-Union budget, released by the resolution of the SNK of the USSR of 6/VI-29 (Protocol No. 17/304) for the organization of a concentration camp in the Olonets-Ukhta area, the NKF of the USSR informs that according to the OGPU of 20/VIII-29 for No. 117/s in In the fourth quarter of the RSFSR, 1200 prisoners are supposed to be sent to the specified concentration camp, of which, according to the personal message of the Head of the OGPU Concentration Camps, T. According to Eichmans, up to 70% have already been sent and in the near future all 1,200 prisoners from the RSFSR will be sent to the camp.

On the basis of the above, the NKF of the USSR asks to propose the SNK of the RSFSR to revise its resolution of 23/VIII-29 for the implementation of the resolution of the SNK of the USSR of 6/VI- s.g.

Deputy People 's Commissar of the USSR Frumkin

The head of the Department of the NKF of the USSR Zaitsev ^{[9, l. 26]}.

The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR sends this note to the SNK of the RSFSR ^{[8, l. 15]}, from where it is forwarded to the NKVD on 09/19/1929 with a request "to give a written explanation on the merits of the letter in 3 days" ^{[8, l. 16]}. On October 2, a reply signed by the Acting People's Commissar of Internal Affairs V. S. Kornev is sent to the SNK of the RSFSR, actually duplicating Tolmachev's letter of 01.08.1929 ^{[8, l. 17]}. Such, in fact, an unsubscription, apparently, did not satisfy the SNK secretariat, since in the archive file a handwritten note was attached to Kornev's letter with the following content: "To T. Shovkin. Kornev must give a new explanation..." ^{[6] [8, l. 17ob]}. And a new document follows Kornev's signature:

                             Sov. Secret

15/X 1929   

               To the Council of People 's Commissars of the RSFSR

In addition to its ratio of 2 s/m. for No. 6/s, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs reports the following:

According to the estimates of 1928-29, loans were allocated for the maintenance of prisoners under the state budget based on the content of only 48,000 hours, in fact, about 75,000 hours were kept.

Only a small fund of 700,000 rubles was allocated for the maintenance of the supernumerary amount, with an actual need of about 2,000,000 rubles.

Due to the insufficiency of the allocated loans, despite the fact that about 7,000 prisoners were kept in colonies on full self-sufficiency, a debt of 500,000 rubles was formed in places of detention.

The SNK, by resolution of 3/IV-S.G., was forced to allow the use of the balances on the estimate for the repayment of the debt of the m/conclusion.

For 1929-30, the estimate for places of detention is calculated taking into account the reduction in the number of prisoners:

        I/ transferred to OGPU camps,

        II/ transferred to self-sufficiency,

        III/ bred in colonies and for logging.

On the basis of the above, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs is unable to allocate any amount to the All-Union budget for the reimbursement of loans received for the organization and maintenance of a concentration camp in the Olonets–Ukhta area.

Acting Narkomvnudel                                                               Kornev ^{[8, L. 18]}.

Despite the fact that the data given in this document on the number of state budget places and the actual filling of places of deprivation of liberty differed from the figures presented in Tolmachev's memo dated 12.06.1929, apparently, they gave the RSFSR SNK secretariat an opportunity to make a reasoned response dated 10/22/1929 signed by V. A. Usievich addressed to the Deputy Managing Director of the SNK USSR and I. I. Miroshnikov SRT ^{[8, l. 19–19ob]}. And this document almost verbatim duplicates the text of the memo of the Acting People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. It is noteworthy that on September 17 of the same year, the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR sends another letter to the SNK of the USSR on the same issue signed by People's Commissar N. P. Bryukhanov. It already specifies the amount that the RSFSR should contribute to the all–Union budget for the maintenance of 1200 prisoners transferred to the OGPU - 227.535 rubles. ^{[7] [9, L. 23]}. On this document there is a handwritten note made by an unidentified official: "Reference. 18/X reported to T. Miroshnikov. Orders: not to take any measures based on the instruction of T. A. I. Rykov about the inexpediency of the indispensable withdrawal of these funds from the republics with the extreme insufficiency of the amounts released for the maintenance of prisoners in the domzaks." And a copy of this letter from the People's Commissariat of Finance, indeed, was no longer sent to the NKVD. It is possible that for the same reason, the purely formal response of the SNK of the RSFSR did not cause any response in the Management of the Affairs of the Union government ^[8].

From the content of the above documents, a quite obvious conclusion follows: the NKVD leadership actually refused to even discuss the issue of compensation to the union budget for the maintenance of prisoners transferred to the OGPU. As a result, the NKVD, with the tacit support of the republican and union governments, did not transfer a penny for these purposes. At the same time, representatives of the NKVD themselves systematically raised the question of the need to allocate additional financial resources for the maintenance of supernumerary prisoners in common places of deprivation of liberty both to the People's Commissariat of Finance and to the SNK of the RSFSR. This is indicated by the following documents:

                                                                                              Secret

20/IV-28

                    To the Council of People 's Commissars of the RSFSR

When conducting its annual estimates, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs annually raises a question in all instances about the means for the maintenance of those prisoners who are constantly available in places of detention in excess of the regular contingent. However, so far this request has not been satisfactorily resolved. True, according to the estimates for 1927/28, for example, 600,000 rubles are provided as reserve funds for the maintenance of excess prisoners, but in reality this means only about 20 rubles per person per year, which, of course, it is impossible not only to meet all the needs of places of detention caused by overcrowding, but also to feed prisoners. The interests of Soviet policy demand that the places of detention should meet the minimum sanitary and hygienic conditions of the dormitory, and that the prisoners should receive such food as is able to support their physical strength. In fact, as a result of the release of funds without taking into account the really contained contingent of prisoners, it is necessary to state outbreaks of typhoid diseases in places of detention, riots of exhausted and half-starved prisoners and bitterness against society of those subjected to judicial repression instead of their adaptation to a labor hostel.

Considering such a situation impossible in the future, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs asks the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR to oblige the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR when drawing up the budget for 1928/29 to provide, according to the NKVD estimates, the necessary loans for the maintenance of all prisoners actually held, and not just the regular contingent.

Taking into account the tension of the national budget, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs considers it possible for the next budget year to provide loans for the surplus of prisoners not for all items of expenditure, but only for food and sanitary and hygienic measures (food rations and its manufacture, water, bath, soap, straw for mattresses). In money , these additional allocations will be expressed in 2,144,000 rubles per year according to the following calculation:

1) It was contained in the state budget m/s of the NKVD in 1926/27.

On October 1, 1926 (rounded up) 84,000 people.

    -"- November " 93.000

    -"- December " 96.000

    -"- January 1927 " 83.000

    -"- February " 77.000

    -"- martha " 80,000

    -"- April " 80,000

    -"- May " 77.000

    -"- June " 76.000

    -"- July " 78.000

    -"- August " 78.000

    -"- September " 78.000

________________________________________________________

             Average for the year.........................................82,000 people .

2) Loans under the state budget are issued for 50,000 people, and the average annual surplus is thus equal to 32,000 people.

3) In a year, food and sanitary and hygienic measures are released for I person 67 rubles. For the entire surplus, therefore, 2,144,000 rubles will be required per year.

Informing that this amount is made up of a minimum calculation, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs asks the SNK of the RSFSR by a special decree to provide her leave according to the NKVD estimates for 1928/29.

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs

                        RSFSR Tolmachev

Head of the Main Department of Places

               conclusions of the RSFSR                                                Shirvindt ^{[10, l. 1-3]}.

According to this note, the People's Commissariat of Finance of the RSFSR on May 3 of the same year gave a negative conclusion, indicating that "there is no need to single out and consider separately the issue of the maintenance of supernumerary prisoners in 1928/29, since the NKVD may well submit its views on this issue to the NKF in the usual manner, when considering the general annual application of the NKVD for 28/29 the budget year, especially since appropriate loans are provided annually for this need" ^{[10, L. 6]}.

Nevertheless, E. G. Shirvindt and V. N. Tolmachev bring this issue to the discussion of the SNK and seek the following resolution (see the minutes of the meeting of the Small Council of People's Commissars No. 42. item 30 of 04.05.1928, approved by the Deputy. Before. The SNK of the RSFSR A.M. Lezhavoy 10.05.1928): "1) The NKVD's request to provide funds for the maintenance of prisoners in its estimates for the 1928/29 budget year, based on the actual average annual, and not on the regular contingent, should be postponed until the discussion of the RSFSR budget for the 1928-1929 budget year. 2) Instruct the NKFIN, together with the NKVD, to consider the need to release funds for the maintenance of prisoners according to the actual number and submit its conclusion to the SNK of the RSFSR by the time of consideration of the budget of the RSFSR for the 1928/29 budget. year" ^{[10, l. 7]}.

However, in the future, the People's Commissariat of Finance ignores the decree of the Government of the Republic, avoiding discussion with the NKVD of the issue under consideration. And then the management of GUMZ independently includes in the draft estimates of the NKVD the expenses in question:

                                                                                            Secret

25/VII-28

                 To the Secretariat of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR

Despite the fact that the order of the SNK was given to the NKFIN together with the NKVD to develop the issue of the need to release funds for the maintenance of prisoners according to the actual number and submit its conclusion to the SNK of the RSFSR by the time of consideration of the budget of the RSFSR for the 1928/29 budget year, the Main Directorate of places of detention repeatedly, without waiting for the initiative from the NKF, personally through its representatives addressed to NKF with a request to proceed with the implementation of the resolution. However, the NKF (Budget Department) did not find it possible to resolve this issue before clarifying the situation with the budget of the RSFSR.

Therefore, the NKVD included special amounts in its draft budget for 1928/29 for the maintenance of a supernumerary number of prisoners.

Pom. Head of the Main Department

        places of detention of the RSFSR                                           Kornblitt

Head of Administrative-

penitentiary department of GUMZ Yakubson ^{[10, L. 8]}.

Thus, the following picture emerges: in April 1929, the leaders of the OGPU, NKYU and NKVD applied to the government of the RSFSR with a collective petition for the creation of a system of concentration camps "like the OGPU", where not only hardened recidivist criminals would be sent through a Special meeting at the OGPU Collegium, but in general all prisoners with a term of imprisonment of more than 3 years old. For the organization and maintenance of this camp, significant amounts are simultaneously requested, estimated at several million rubles, and only until the end of the budget year, 1 million 200 thousand rubles are required for these purposes.

Thus, the leadership of the NKVD and GUMZ, it would seem, voluntarily joined the petition that the places of detention under their jurisdiction: a) it is unclear what funds will be used after the end of the term of imprisonment of recidivist criminals until they are sent to OGPU camps; b) they will lose the most labor-active contingent of prisoners for a period of more than 3 years (consisting largely of peasants convicted of serious violent crimes and often wishing to be released early through preferential workdays) and c) for this reason, they will not receive the funds already planned in the budget for the maintenance of prisoners of this category, which will be withdrawn from the NKVD and transferred to the OGPU. And all this despite the fact that GUMZ from year to year was forced to operate in conditions of severe budget deficit, even partial coverage of which was accompanied by overcoming significant bureaucratic barriers. And in general, it is perplexing that V. N. Tolmachev, who before only with the support of the RSFSR People's Commissariat of People's Commissars, and actually "bypassing" the People's Commissariat of Finance, was able to receive 2 million 144 thousand rubles. the required GUMZ for the maintenance of more than 30 thousand supernumerary prisoners, suddenly joins the petition for the allocation of an even larger amount to the OGPU for the maintenance of only 10 thousand people!

However, since May of the same year (as follows from the contents of the collection of documents by S.A. Krasilnikov), as if having come to their senses and realizing the disadvantage of the situation developing for their department (in terms of not only financial, but also in general further prospects for the existence of not only GUMZ, but also the People's Commissariat as a whole), the leadership of the NKVD actually stands up to the opposite position: it begins to object categorically to the implementation of all these measures and, as we can see from the content of the above documents, does not make any concessions on the issue of at least partial financing of them at its own expense. At the same time, in modern historical science, such an obvious inconsistency of the then People's Commissar of Internal Affairs V. N. Tolmachev and the head of GUMZ E. G. Shirvindt, oddly enough, did not attract special attention of researchers.

Earlier, we expressed a version according to which the NKVD reason to cooperate with the OGPU could be as follows: by the forces of a contingent of 10 thousand people transferred to the OGPU (which received additional funding as a result), it was supposed to deploy a network of labor camps with a capacity of already 30 thousand people, where it was planned to transfer long-term workers from special purpose isolators of the GUMZ The RSFSR (recall that for the persons held there, the possibility of their withdrawal to work outside the isolation facility was excluded), while these camps would remain subordinate to this department in the future ^{[11, p. 10-11]}. In this case, the interests of all three participating agencies would be respected, including the NKYU, whose leadership, among other measures to reform the existing system of places of detention, insisted on the need to replace insulators and correctional facilities with factory and agricultural colonies ^{[12, C. 1195]}. However, after the NKVD representatives realized that they had been deceived in their expectations and had fallen victim to the intrigues of the tandem of the heads of the People's Commissariat of Justice and the OGPU (the purpose of which was to weaken the position of the People's Commissariat of Justice and the gradual withdrawal of the entire penitentiary system from him), they took the opposite position on the creation, subordination and financing system of new camps.

Obviously, the above materials rather contradict this hypothesis. The head of the NKVD, V. N. Tolmachev, appears in them, as in previously published documents, as a principled and quite sober-minded leader, by no means inclined to hardware coalitions (especially promising only momentary political benefits), bureaucratic adventures and "juggling" legislation. And on the contrary, all this "blows" from the very first, joint memorandum of the heads of the three departments dated April 13, 1929, which neither in style nor in spirit does not "fit" into a number of other documents signed by Tolmachev. Moreover, its content, as already indicated, actually went against the steps that he took subsequently. And here we draw attention to a very significant point in the context of the problem under discussion: on the copy of this document, stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation ^{[13, l. 32–32ob]}, there are signatures of N. M. Yanson and G. G. Yagoda, and the signature of V. N. Tolmachev is missing. To the note, in addition to an indicative certificate signed by the Head of the Finance Department of the OGPU Berenson with the justification of the requested amount of expenses ^{[13, l. 34–36ob]}, a typewritten note is attached as follows: "Reference. This memo was developed at a meeting of the People 's Commissariat of Justice T. To Janson ^[9], the People's Commissar of Justice T. Tolmacheva and Deputy. Before. OGPU T. Berry. Signed by Comrade. Tolmachev is absent due to his departure from Moscow. Special representative at the OGPU Collegium Feldman. April 12, 1929" ^{[13, l. 31]}.

Thus, the totality of all the above facts and arguments allows us to formulate a new hypothesis for discussion: the content of the memo dated 04/13/1929, from which it is customary in historical science to count the process of forming a large-scale camp system in the Soviet Union: a) it reflected exclusively the interests of the coalition of the OGPU leadership under the SNK of the USSR and the NKYU of the RSFSR and b) it was not agreed with the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR V. N. Tolmachev and did not objectively meet the interests of his department. Therefore, most likely, it was for this reason that Tolmachev later categorically objected to the organizational and financial measures provided for in this document. Nevertheless, the verification of this assumption requires an independent, larger-scale study.  

Notes

^[1] The budget year in the analyzed period began on October 1.

^[2] On February 1, 1929, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR agreed "with the proposal of the Prosecutor of the Republic on exile to a concentration camp or to remote areas (in relation to the administrative expulsion of socially dangerous elements) of particularly malicious criminals and incorrigible recidivists through a special meeting of the OGPU Board directly after these persons have served their imprisonment without release from custody" ^{[13, l. 1]}. On March 25 of the same year, this resolution was approved by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR with the reservation that "the above resolution should be carried out on the territory of the RSFSR by way of withdrawal, as a one-time measure ...". At the same time, the OGPU, the NKYU and the NKVD were instructed to develop and submit for approval by the SNK of the RSFSR specific signs of socially dangerous elements that fall under the scope of this resolution ^{[13, L. 2]}.

^[3] Handwritten.

^[4] Most likely, this indicates the initial disagreement of the NKVD leadership with the position of the SNK of the USSR on the financing scheme for newly created camps and the lack of intention to implement this resolution, which is confirmed by the further course of events.

^[5] So in the text.

^[6] Further, the text, date and signature are illegible.

^[7] The note also indicated the amounts due from the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR, in proportion to the number of prisoners transferred by them: the Ukrainian SSR – 804.302 rubles for 4699 people and the BSSR – 168.163 rubles for 981 people.

^[8] The document has the following resolution: "Archive. 22/X-29". The signature is further illegible.

^[9] So in the text.

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