“In 1934, at the January Plenum of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission of the Soviet Communist Party, the Great Leader (having already in mind, no doubt, how many he would soon have to do away with) declared that the withering away of the state (which had been awaited virtually from 1920 on) would arrive via, believe it or not, the maximum intensification of state power. This was so unexpectedly brilliant that it was not given to every little mind to grasp it, but Vyshinsky, ever the loyal apprentice, immediately picked it up: "And this means the maximum strengthening of corrective-labor institutions." Entry into socialism via the maximum strengthening of prisons! And this was not some satirical magazine cracking a joke, either, but was said by the Prosecutor General of the Soviet Union!” PrisonSoviet UnionCommunist Party19741934Corrective LaborThe Archipelago Hardens Book:The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books III-IV Source: The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books III-IV