Kotlas is a Russian city (61° 15' N, 46° 35' E) in the Archangelsk oblast that lies at the confluence of Northern Dvina and Vychegda. Population is 82 thousand people. The city has the largest paper mill in Russia and also is a center of the timber industry and an important river port and a railroad center. Murmansk, Archangelsk, Dikson, Tiksi, on the Arctic Ocean The city of Arkhangelsk (Арха́нгельск, formerly in English Archangel) lies on the Northern Dvina River (Се́верная Двина́) near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. ... Oblast (Czech: oblast, Slovak: oblasÅ¥, Russian and Ukrainian: , Belarusian: , Bulgarian: о́бласт) refers to a subnational entity in some countries. ... The Northern Dvina (Се́верная Двина́) is a river in Northern Russia flowing into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. ... Vychegda (Вычегда) is a river in the European part of Russia, tributary to the Northern Dvina. ... International Paper Company:kraft paper mill Georgetown, South Carolina When built, this mill was the largest in the world A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from wood pulp and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier Machine or similar apparatus. ...

The place was probably inhabited from the ancient times but got an official city status only by the Provisional Government of Russia on May 3, 1917. A provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been created by the collapse of a previous administration or regime. ... May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ...

The city has sister cities of Waterville, Maine, USA and Tarnów, Poland. This article is about partnerships between towns distant from each other; see Twin cities for the different concept of physically neighbouring cities. ... Waterville is a city located in Kennebec County, Maine. ... Motto: none Voivodship Lesser Poland Municipal government Rada Miejska Tarnów Mayor MieczysÅ‚aw BieÅ„ Area 72,4 km² Population  - city  - urban  - density 121 300 - 1675/km² Founded City rights - 1330 Latitude Longitude 50°02 N 21°00 E Area code +48 14 Car plates KT Twin towns - Municipal Website...

GULAG

Since 1930s Kotlas was a place of deportation of kulaks being a centre of the forest industry. It was managed by the Kotlaslag division of GULAG. Later it hosted all possible categories of people repressed during the Stalin era. A particularly significant population of Poles existed in the area, with whole Polish villages resettled here in 1920s and 1930. Kulaks (from the Russian кулак (kulak, fist)) is a pejorative term extensively used in Soviet political language, originally referring to relatively wealthy peasants in the Russian Empire who owned larger farms and used hired labor, as a result of the Stolypin reform introduced since 1906. ... Gulag (Russian: ГУЛАГ â–¶ (help· info)) is an acronym for Главное Управление Исправительно—Трудовых Лагерей и колоний, Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii, The Chief Directorate [or Administration] of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies. Anne Applebaum, in her book Gulag: A History, explains: Literally, the word GULAG is an acronym, meaning Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration. ... Not by Their Own Will. ... (help· info) (Russian, in full: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин (Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin), né: Иосиф Виссарионович Джугашвили (Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili), Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი (Ioseb Jughashvili); (December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878 – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist...

Labor camps existed within the territory of the city until 1953. Besides logging and paper industry, the occupation of inmates were plant, housing, bridge and railroad construction. Most of camps were unguarded barrack settlements. A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in forced labor. ... Loggers on break, c. ...

In addition Kotlas was a major transit point for deportees transferred further to the North and East, since it was a railroad terminal point.

There is an Kotlas chapter of the organization Sovest ("Conscience"), which seeks to preserve the memory of these times and to seek compensation for victims.

External links

• (en) City web-site
• (en) Kotlas and the GULAG