[face]

Can you back your claims up? In particular, say, the Trans-Siberian railroad? Its construction began in 1891, two decades before the formation of the USSR [1].

While certainly prisoners were used in its construction, saying that it was "built with slave labor" is somewhat disingenuous. Perhaps you are saying that parts of it were built using prisoners, who were not paid for their services? If so, that is certainly the case.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Siberian_Railway#Construc...

[arethuza]

I can recommend Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum:

http://www.amazon.com/Gulag-History-Anne-Applebaum/dp/076790...

The Gulag was created as a terrible economic experiment - that having a large body of "free" slave labour would be good for the Soviet economy.

There were huge, and often pretty pointless, projects built with slave labor and very basic tools - one example being the Baltic - White Sea Canal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sea_%E2%80%93_Baltic_Cana...

[mml]

i have personally heard anecdotes (and seen snapshots) from people in school in the late 80s, early 90s, who were regularly herded into the fields to harvest potatoes (czech republic). they too considered it rather fun for whatever reason.

[face]

In the 80s, I went on field trips to learn how to plant vegetables. This was hardly slave labor.

In the 90s in the US, I had to spend 40 hours "campaigning" for candidates, if I wanted to graduate highschool. I wouldn't really call that slave labor, but, I certainly learned a lot more by planting sprouts.

[arethuza]

I'm 45 and I used to pick potatoes in the autumn in Scotland when I was at school - the holidays in October were known as the "Tattie Holidays" (tattie being Scots dialect for potato).