Condition of prisoners at the first post-Stalin years

The article is based on rich statistic materials, revealed from the previously unavailable for the researchers archive funds. The author traces the process of reducing the number of places of confinement (camps, colonies, prisons) which was taking place since 1953 through 1960. He also analyzes the practical steps of the Soviet political establishment aimed at elimination of GULAG system (while, nonetheless, colonies and prisons remained as such). The author cites statistical data on rapid decreasing of prisoners in numbers and the changes in their composition. He traces the process on the dramatic decline of absolute and relative number of “political convicts” compared to the general number of convicts. The represented statistical data depict the scales of amnesties and rehabilitations, which were taking place at that time. The author pays special attention to the fact that by the beginning of 1960s the process of rehabilitation of the political convicts was far from being completed.