Exploration of special soviet settlements of 1930s (on the example of the work by L. Viola “The unknown GULAG: the lost world of Stalin's special settlements”)

The article is concerned with methodological problems of contemporary Western literature on the history of ‘‘peasant exile’’ (the system of special settlements in 1930s) in the USSR. On the example of a recent work by L. Viola, it discusses the aspects of ideological biases, incorrect terminology, narrowness of the source base, and general conceptual approach. It argues that even the best Western works on Russian peasantry bear the bondage of ideological prejudice, insufficiency of the source base, and belatedness in publication of archival materials. The article presents archival sources on the subject of “peasant exile”, which so far have not yet been used by the scholars. However, there is a significant progress in the study of repressions among Russian peasantry in Western historiography. The problem is widely discussed in publications of new materials on social, medical, and cultural aspects of the system of special settlements in the USSR.