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Part 6, Chapter 2: The Peasant Plague
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Gulag Archipelago, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Oppression and Totalitarianism
Survival and the Human Spirit
The Dangers of Ideology
Power as a Corrupting Force
The Value of Religion and Spirituality
Summary
Analysis
Solzhenitsyn details the brutal deportation of peasants to desolate areas, where they faced near-certain death. Over time, exile evolved from a precursor to camp imprisonment in the 1920s to a severe standalone punishment under Beria in the 1930s and beyond. During the war, exile efficiently cleared regions, targeting groups like women and children, and by 1948, it became a dumping ground for former prisoners. People were exiled for “crimes” like belonging to a criminal nationality or living in suspect areas.
The broadening of exile as a punishment in the 1930s and 1940s demonstrates the Soviet regime’s increasing reliance on isolation and displacement to assert control over diverse populations. By expanding exile to include not only criminals but also entire communities based on arbitrary criteria, the state transforms it into a means of social engineering, clearing out regions and reshaping demographics.
Themes
