"Everybody in the whole world knows today what GULAG is... However, the world knows less about life in some camps located all over the former Soviet Union. And this happens because till mid-20
th century not many people came back from there alive, because there were no amnesties for those sentenced – actually, sentenced for death. Only the events of the 1950s, which took place in these camps, changed the situation to some extent. In May, 1953, flags raised over the production area of Gorstroy informed the populations of Norilsk about the strike of political prisoners of Gorlag – "Main special regime camp". Desperate because of the non-human conditions of life unarmed prisoners rose in the revolt and proved that it is not possible to win over human dignity. Approximately 20 thousand prisoners, among them almost 70% were Ukrainians-warriors of UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) and members of OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), which led this outburst of liberty... "Revolt of the spirit", as historians named this strike later, lasted for 69 days, almost as long as the Commune of Paris did...
And then there were Vorkuta, Mengir, abolition of GULAG, Khruschev's "thaw", movements of the 1960s...
Our film reveals this not well-known and heroic page in history of Ukraine. Its numerous participants from Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia remember that "hot summer of 1953" drawing some parallels with Maidan 2004".
Producer: Myhailo Tkachuk (for creation of the series "Riddle of Norilsk Revolt", he won the award named after V.Stus – 2007 and the National Award of Ukraine named after T.H.Shevchenko – 2008)
In Ukrainian.
Video format - PAL.
DVD Region: 5.
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