Did I understand this fellow to say the GULAG began with the construction of the Belomorkanal canal and it was "beautiful"? What a dolt, and such a dangerous dolt.

Solzhenitsyn, a far better witness and historian than he will ever be, puts the dawn of the GULAG under Lenin at the remote Solovetsky Island. Originally housing a monastery where Orthodox monks went to live in peace and contemplative silence, Lenin turned it into a concentration camp where a variety of anti-Communists were housed and maltreated. Even Wikipedia, hardly a reliable source, recognizes the Solovetskys were "the nucleus from which the entire Gulag grew".

Solzhenitsyn also has a great deal to say about the Belomorkanal. The official body count for the construction of this monstrosity is 25,000, but the more reliable Solzhenitsyn puts it at 250,000. The Soviets intended it as a propaganda triumph, but it was just the reverse. Working conditions were horrid, while casualties were extremely high as the Soviets for public relations reasons rushed construction regardless of human consequences.

The sad irony in this story is that this fellow's "beautiful" canal is that today it is essentially useless. Due to incompetence in construction, it isn't deep enough to carry large vessels, and thus, in the words of one authority, "the canal has never played any significant role in Soviet commerce or industry."

In one of his works, Solzhenitsyn movingly describes how he went to the canal, sat on its banks, and reflected on those who suffered and died in its building, all for naught.