Naftaly Aronovich Frenkel Character Analysis

Naftaly Aronovich Frenkel was a key architect of the Soviet labor camp system, who played a pivotal role in transforming the Gulag into an instrument of economic productivity. A former prisoner himself, he rose to prominence by proposing that camp inmates' labor output should directly affect their food rations, a policy that increased camp efficiency but led to extreme suffering among prisoners. Frenkel oversaw major projects like the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, where countless inmates perished under brutal conditions.