Joint Commission Support
Directorate (JCSD)

November 29, 2001

We are pleased to present the third edition of "The Gulag Study," a compendium of reports arid first-hand accounts asserting that American servicemen were observed in the Soviet camp system or Gulag. This version of the study updates the previous edition, which appeared in June of this year.

Since the study was first released, we have continued our search for witnesses and written records that may ultimately allow us to validate at least some of the substantial number of reports received about US servicemen taken to, and held within, the camps and other detention facilities of the former Soviet Union.

Our staff continues to identify and actively pursue new avenues of investigation. DPMO researchers at the National Archives are combing through thousands of interviews of German and Japanese POWs who were detained in the Soviet Gulag after World War II. Even at this early point in the inquiry, previously unknown information has been acquired about Americans in the Gulag from World War II and the Korean War as well as extensive geographical and administrative data on the Gulag system itself. We expect this to be helpful as we plan for investigative expeditions to former Gulag sites in the Perm region next year.

Recent intensive on-the-ground research in the former Soviet Union has yielded new reports about American military personnel in the Gulag with specific references to secret camps, camp commanders, and former Russian prisoners. One such report provides the basis for an investigative trip to the Russian Republic of Sakha-Yakutia being planned during the first part of 2002. As always, the results of our efforts will appear in subsequent updates and may be viewed on the website of the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO).

We are encouraged that family and veterans' organizations remain interested in the program we have begun and are hopeful that the results achieved will prove useful to the overall accounting process.

LOCATION: Lubyanka
SUMMARY: In 1947 while in pre-trial confinement in Potsdam, a Polish witness shared a cell with a U.S. Army sergeant, reportedly a gunner. The witness believed that the sergeant had unintentionally entered the Soviet Zone in Berlin by car and had been immediately arrested. The source described the American as a sturdy fellow, whose father was a farmer. The American gave the source an overcoat. They spoke German, although both spoke it very poorly. They met again at the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow at the turn of 1948.

LOCATION: Monino Air Force Academy
SUMMARY: During a series of interviews in 1996, a Soviet veteran who lived in Minsk claimed to have seen an U.S. POW in May or June 1953. The POW reportedly was a Korean War F-86D pilot whose plane had been forced to land. The pilot landed his plane undamaged, was captured, and his aircraft taken to Moscow. The incident occurred in the late spring of 1953. According to the witness--who served in An Dun, China, from December 1952 through February 1954--the pilot was sent to Moscow the day after his forced landing, "because Stalin wanted to speak with him." The witness said that his commander, Colonel Ivan Nikolayevich Kozhedub, interrogated the pilot. He believed the U.S. POW was not injured. The witness stated that the late General Vasiliy Kuzmich Sidorenkov had a picture of the American POW, which Sidorenkov showed to him years ago, declaring, "that's our American." He stated that the U.S. POW depicted in the photo was white, with light brown hair and blue or light brown eyes, was about five feet seven inches tall, and had a two and half inch scar above the right eye. The witness revealed that this pilot later became an instructor and taught at the Monino Air Force Academy in Moscow from 1953-58. The U.S. POW did not speak Russian and served at Monino under an assumed Russian name. He did not know the name and could not recall any other details about the U.S. POW. The U.S. POW primarily taught air battle techniques and tactics, and assisted the Soviets in figuring out a U.S. radar sight (radio-lokatsionniy pritsel).

LOCATION: Krasnaya Presnya Prison
SUMMARY: In a letter to President Nixon, repatriated American John Noble reported that, inscribed in the wall of Krasnaya Presnya Prison in Moscow, he saw the name of a Major Roberts or Robbins, with his American address and the inscription, "I am sick and don't expect to live through this...." Mr. Noble had earlier reported this was also inscribed on a cell wall in the transit prison in Orsha, Byelorussia, where he was imprisoned prior to his confinement at Krasnaya Presnya. [Major Frank A. Roberts, and Captains Robert Roberts and Edward Robbins, are among the 125 service members missing from WWII with the last name of Roberts or Robbins.]

LOCATION: Vladimir Prison
SUMMARY: A United Press release, dated 1 September 1955, reported that nine Austrians and one Italian were released from a Russian prison camp. The returnees reported that U.S. servicemen Wilfred Cumish [returned], Sidney Sparks [returned], Frederick Hopkins [returned], and Grisham [not returned] were in the same camp. [Captain David Howard Grisham, USAF, went missing from the Korean War on September 3, 1950].

LOCATION: Dubravlag
SUMMARY: Several repatriated Iranian witnesses claimed that, at this location in 1953, they knew of an American, a Colonel Jackson, who had been reportedly kidnapped by the Soviets in Berlin.

LOCATION: Potma Camp No. 18
SUMMARY: An Estonian witness alleged that he met an U.S. POW from Korea in 1952. The POW's first name was Gary or Harry. The POW was still in camp when the witness left in the autumn of 1953.

LOCATION: Potma Camp No. 19
SUMMARY: A Polish witness was the chief of a work brigade in Camp No. 19 in Potma, working primarily in the forest. He claimed there were a few Americans among the 17 nationalities in his brigade.

LOCATION: Yavas
SUMMARY: A former German POW met an American prisoner, John Hansen, in August 1955, after having previously heard about him from another prisoner as early as 1953. John Hansen spoke both German and Russian and was described as five feet, six inches tall, medium build with brown hair. [SGT John Hansen, GM2C John Hansen, and 1LT John Hanson are missing from WWII. These three are among the 88 service members with the last name of Hansen or Hanson missing from WWII.]

LOCATION: Novocherkassk Camp No. 1/421
SUMMARY: During a 1947 interview, a former German POW reported that he met two American soldiers in POW Hospital 5351 located at Novocherkassk in September 1945. The Americans stayed at the hospital until February 1946, when they were transferred to an engine factory in the same town. The witness provided the names of five other sources who he claimed would be able to verify this information. The one source contacted did in fact verify the account as provided by the witness.

LOCATION: Novosibirsk Transit Prison
SUMMARY: During an interview in 1993, a witness in Lithuania described an encounter with Americans at the Novosibirsk Transit Prison around June 1952. The witness stated there were two American pilots in the group of prisoners brought into his small room. The other prisoners (two or three others) were German. The Americans reportedly told him that they had been shot down in Korea. They were dressed in khaki shirts and trousers with no belts. The first American told the source that he was a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. The source could only remember that the Captain was tall and had a red beard. He could not recall any details about the second individual.

LOCATION: Kirov
SUMMARY: Repatriated American William Marchuk received information from a German POW who was imprisoned in the Kirov camp. The German stated that he was in the camp together with nine American POWs, all Captains and Majors who were Korean War aviators.

LOCATION: Inta
SUMMARY: A Ukrainian witness in Topol-3 near Dnepropetrovsk stated that he was interned in Inta Camp No. 6 from 1949 through 1955. During that time, the camp held many foreigners of various nationalities. In 1952, a man who claimed to be an American, referred to as Leonid Teryashchenko (a pseudonym), was transferred to Inta. Teryashchenko's real name was never disclosed. His prisoner number had an additional slash and digit following the usual letter and three-digit sequence of the other prisoners. The witness frequently talked to Teryashchenko, who told the witness that he was imprisoned for political reasons. The witness described Teryashchenko as an athletic man with a large frame, a former boxer, approximately 30-33 years old. In late 1953 or early 1954 Teryashchenko committed suicide to avoid further torture. Teryashchenko overpowered one of the guards, took his weapon, and shot himself in the mouth. He was buried in a common grave in the camp (exact location unknown).

LOCATION: Inta
SUMMARY: A Polish witness recalled meeting two Americans in Camp No. 3 in Inta in 1954. They worked in his brigade, which was led by Wladyslaw Szyszko. He related that while they were building a bridge one of the Americans jumped into the Kosju River and drowned.

LOCATION: Inta
SUMMARY: A Russian witness claimed that, from 1956 until 1975, the KGB maintained a facility on the shore of the river Inta. In 1965, people were brought to Inta from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, where they were imprisoned and killed, and their records burned in the boiler room in the eastern suburb on Shakhtnaya Street. More than 1,000 people ended up in the Inta prison, both American enlisted personnel and officers. The witness claimed that this information could be confirmed by Petr Ivanovich Kuznetsov, who reportedly worked as a driver for the MVD (Ministry of Internal Afffairs) for twenty years. And now lives on Mir Street in Inta. Efforts to contact Mr. Kuznetsov during a visit to Inta in October 2000 proved unsuccessful as Mr. Kuznetsov claimed that he was too ill to meet with USRJC representatives who traveled to Inta to speak with him.

LOCATION: Inta
SUMMARY: A Polish witness reported two Americans in a camp in 1949-1950.

LOCATION: Inta Minlag
SUMMARY: A Russian witness indicated that she had spent four years in the Inta "Minlag" camp complex (1952-1956). During that time, she heard reports of two American flyers in the Inta camp complex in the early 1950s, although she did not see them herself. Some of the women who worked in the central hospital there said that there were many foreigners in the camp, including two American pilots. According to these reports, the two men were shot down or forced down over Germany after having strayed over Soviet-occupied territory. One of the two was white, while the other had black skin (chernokozhiy). The witness said that these women told her that the reputed Americans had been imprisoned since 1946.

LOCATION: Inta Mining Camp No. 15
SUMMARY: A Russian stated that he knew of two Americans in the Inta Gulag system who were detained at Mining Camp Number 15 (circa 1950). The two men were U.S. service members and went by the names of John and Michael.

LOCATION: Pechora
SUMMARY: A Lithuanian witness claimed to have met an American Major or Colonel on February 15 or 16, 1950. The American reportedly was captured in the Ukraine during WWII. The witness saw him on two occasions before being sent into exile.

LOCATION: Pechora Kozhva (Koschwa)
SUMMARY: A German POW reportedly had direct contact with a U.S. Air Force Captain described as being five feet eleven inches tall, 28-33 years old, with reddish hair. The witness last saw him on January 5, 1950. The American claimed that at the end of WWII he was arrested for participating in an altercation at a Moscow restaurant. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. The American spoke broken German.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: A witness met and spoke with a group of eleven American prisoners in December 1946, at Vorkuta. All were flyers, one was black, and they included both officers and enlisted men. They were kept in a small barracks separated from the rest of the camp and surrounded by barbed wire. The witness claimed these might have been part of a group of American pilots coerced into staying in the Soviet Union after WWII. These pilots claimed to have flown missions against Nazi targets using airfields in the Soviet Union.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: Repatriated American John Noble reported that shortly after his arrival at Camp No. 3 he had spoken with a Yugoslavian national. The Yugoslavian told him that several months before, an American Navy reconnaissance plane had been downed by the Soviets over the Baltic Sea and that eight of the ten-crew members had survived. The survivors were being held in the Vorkuta area. However, they were told that the United States Government had accepted the official Soviet statement declaring them dead. This effectively doomed their chances of ever returning to America. Noble was never able to identify the survivors by name. However, he heard repeatedly from other inmates who were transferred from one camp to another that Americans were held in the same camps from which the transferees had come.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: A German witness reported meeting U.S. Air Force member Bob (last name unknown), in July 1951. Bob had been stationed in Berlin as a U.S. Air Force bombardier. While visiting his girlfriend in the Soviet Sector in 1948 or 1949, he was arrested and sent to Vorkuta. He previously lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and spoke only English. Bob was 30-35 years old, five feet eight inches tall, and had dark hair.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: A source who had been imprisoned in Vorkuta reported meeting an American with the last name "Cox," whose physical description matched that of a West Point cadet named Richard Alvin Cox, who mysteriously disappeared from the U.S. Military Academy on January 14, 1950.

However, further investigation and analysis of the primary source document (NBG Team, 7051^st Air INTSERON, 7050^th Air INTSERGU Air Intelligence Information Report IR-255-56 dated December 18, 1956) indicated that the individual named "Cox" encountered by the source was probably Private Homer H. Cox, a U.S. military policeman who was detained by Soviet authorities in East Germany in September 1949. Private Cox was detained in Vorkuta and released on December 29, 1953. He returned to his home state of Oklahoma, and died of pneumonia in 1954.

The primary source document stated: COX, first name unknown, from CHICHASHA (3501N/9755E) OKLAHOMA, 30-35 years old, blond, five feet eight inches tall. Source heard from fellow prisoners that this man deserted his military unit in West Germany.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: A Lithuanian witness in Vilnius stated that while a prisoner in a camp in Vorkuta, he had met a prisoner who claimed to be a U.S. WWII pilot named John.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: A woman from Kiev reported that during interviews with former prisoners in the Vorkuta and Berlag camps, several claimed to have seen American pilots. The pilots were shot down during the Korean War.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: The son of a Soviet engineer stationed at Vorkuta stated that of the several thousand persons in that camp complex, there were two black American soldiers, an American Major, and several British citizens, as well as "other Europeans."

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: In 1962, while living in Vorkuta, a Russian journalist stated that he conducted an expose on the KGB presumably to highlight their good work at protecting the borders of the Soviet Union. To present his findings, the reporter held a press conference with several KGB officers in attendance. The journalist asked the officers whether there were any U.S. servicemen in Vorkuta. He reported that one KGB officer commented, "Of course we have American prisoners from the Korean War here in Vorkuta." When asked to expound on this, the officer demurred, indicating that he did not want to discuss the issue any further.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Camp No. 6
SUMMARY: A German witness reported that he knew a U.S. Major Schwartz from 1951 until 1952. Schwartz had been stationed in Frankfurt, Germany, when he was kidnapped by Soviet Security police in Kassel, West Germany, in 1949. The American, last seen by the witness in 1952, spoke Russian and English.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Camp No. 9
SUMMARY: An Austrian journalist imprisoned in various camps from 1948 until 1954, claimed to have known a naturalized American, Colonel Brandenfels, in Vorkuta in 1951. (Brandenfels was reportedly the name he used before becoming an American citizen.) The American had been stationed in Berlin after WWII and was picked up in a bar in the Soviet Zone.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 1
SUMMARY: A Polish witness arrived at Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 1 in 1950. Other prisoners showed him an American Colonel. He appeared about 60 years old, was quite tall, broad-shouldered, and pale. He wore a quilted jacket and did not converse with other prisoners. After some time the camp administration summoned the Colonel, returned his gold ring and watch, and released him from Vorkuta.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 1
SUMMARY: A Polish witness claimed to have met an American pilot in the summer of 1946. They could not understand each other but the witness was able to understand that the pilot "fell down" from a plane. He was tall (72 inches), fine-figured, dark-skinned, with an oval face. He looked robust. The witness saw him in the camp for a few days, and did not know what became of the American.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 1
SUMMARY: A Polish source who was at this camp in 1954 heard that an American Colonel downed over East Germany (near Berlin) was among a group of prisoners who arrived that year.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 6
SUMMARY: A Polish witness recalled that an American arrived at the camp around June of 1953. Other prisoners told the witness that the American was a pilot from a spy plane downed by the Soviets. The American was approximately 40 years old, over 72 inches high with an oval face and a shaved head, wearing a quilted jacket (like everybody else). His Russian was very poor. The witness saw him while the Polish prisoners were being prepared for release.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 6
SUMMARY: In 1954 this Polish witness came into contact with an American and had a short conversation with him (The source's English was poor and the American could not speak Russian). The American stated that he was a Colonel in the U.S. Army, captured in Vienna by Soviet agents. He looked about 40 years old, of medium height, thickset, with dark or auburn hair. The witness left the camp in 1953 [sic] and did not know what happened to the American.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 7
SUMMARY: A Polish witness reported that he met an American Colonel, kidnapped in Berlin. The American recounted that at first he had been sent to Moscow (Lubyanka Prison). He was originally sentenced to death, but the sentence was somehow commuted to 25 years’ imprisonment. He was sent to Vorkuta and worked in Coal Mine No. 7, where the source first met him. The witness met him a second time between May and June 1954 in prison in Taishet, while being moved from Taishet to Krasnoyarsk. The American told the witness that, after the uprising in Coal Mine No. 7 in Vorkuta in 1953, he had been sentenced to death because of his participation in the uprising. However his sentence was commuted to 10 years in a camp somewhere in the Irkutsk District. The American was of average height with blond hair and was about 45 years old.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Mine No. 9
SUMMARY: A German witness met a U.S. Navy Ensign named Sobeloff [Sobelev], reportedly captured in China in 1948, when Communist forces took control of the country. Sobeloff claimed to have been the Captain of a U.S. vessel at the time of his capture. He was Russian by birth, but a U.S. citizen. He was last seen at Vorkuta Mine No. 9 in November 1955.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 11
SUMMARY: A Polish witness was moved from Coal Mine No. 9/10 to Coal Mine No. 11 in Vorkuta. While at Coal Mine No. 11, he came into close contact with an American officer named Langier, who had been captured by the Soviets somewhere in Eastern Asia and sentenced for espionage. Langier worked at the baths. He spoke some Polish and claimed he had some Polish friends in the USA. The source believed Langier was from Alabama. He was tall, fair-haired and very friendly. Langier sometimes shared food with the source. He also helped him transfer back to Coal Mine No. 9/10 (Langier had a good relationship with the camp doctor). When the witness was released in 1954, the camp at Coal Mine No. 11 no longer existed. The witness assumed that Langier had been moved somewhere else earlier. [There are at least 39 service members missing from WWII with the last name of Lang, Lange, or Langer.]

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 16
SUMMARY: In 1951 or 1952 a Polish witness remembered meeting a young American 20-25 years old, thin, medium-sized, who spoke Russian and worked at the baths. The witness believed he had been captured in Germany. The witness also heard rumors about an American plane downed over Latvia near the town of Limbava, and that the crew was imprisoned in one of the camps.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Coal Mine No. 40
SUMMARY: A Polish witness recalled that in early September of 1951 or 1952--after some kind of Russian-American incident in Berlin--a large number of Germans were brought to Vorkuta. They came mostly from Berlin (both East and West) and around 20 ended up in Coal Mine No. 40. One German from this group was about 45 years old, a doctor and disabled soldier who had a platinum plate in his skull. He related that during a rail trip to Vorkuta he had met in the carriage an American Major who had been captured on the street in Berlin near the East-West border. He believed there were a total of three Americans in this convoy, and that, at a transfer point, they were directed to other coal mines in Vorkuta.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Pit No. 40
SUMMARY: Austrian witnesses reportedly met an American who immigrated to the U.S. as a child. His adopted name was Bizet. The Soviets referred to him by his birth name, Wasiljevski. He was supposedly taken prisoner by the Soviets in 1945 in Korea where he was serving with the U.S. Navy. The Soviets reportedly did not recognize him as a U.S. citizen.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Transit Camp No. 58
SUMMARY: A former German POW claimed to have had direct contact with an Army or Air Force Colonel (five feet eleven inches tall with dark blond hair) during the week of August 21-25, 1949. The U.S. Colonel spoke perfect German. He claimed to have been dropped behind German lines during WWII to conduct espionage and was captured in East Germany.

LOCATION: Vorkuta Distribution Camp No. 61
SUMMARY: A former German POW reported direct contact with a U.S. Major (five feet nine inches tall with blue-gray eyes, moustache, and slim build) who claimed he had been kidnapped in 1945 while the Americans were still at the Elbe River. The Soviets sentenced him to 25 years for espionage. He wore an American uniform.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: While detained in labor camp "OLP 9" in 1953, a former German POW heard from a driver that approximately 19 miles north of Vorkuta was a Camp of Silence (the inmates of the camp did not have to work, and were not eligible for mail privileges). According to the driver, who was an ex-prisoner engaged in hauling supplies to various camps, this Camp of Silence held Americans and British captured in Korea.

LOCATION: Vorkuta
SUMMARY: While detained in labor camp "OLP 9" in 1952, a former German POW heard from camp guards and officers rumors of Americans detained in Vorkuta. In early 1952, the camp’s security officer, Feodeor Nikolayevich Kolesnikov, told the source that he had seen the American officers. The source also spoke with the Chief of State Security for Vorkuta, Mishanov, who acknowledged Kolesnikov’s statement. The source reported that seven American military prisoners were reportedly detained in the Vorkut Mekhanicheskiy Zavod (The Vorkuta Mechanical Factory) Camp Complex-one Lieutenant Colonel, two Majors, two Captains, and two civilian engineers. Another American prisoner was detained in Coal Mine Eight. Source remembers the latter American’s name as Johny Thomson or Johny Chemson. This American prisoner told the source that he had been the first engineer of an American vessel anchored at Port Author, USSR (no timeframe reported). The engineer went on a short errand ashore, was arrested for illegally entering the harbor area, and sentenced to six to seven years in the Vorkuta Gulag. Source doubted whether the Soviet authorities would release him after he completed his sentence. He believed that the engineer would have been forcibly settled somewhere in the Urals. Source also noted that the Soviet authorities seemed proud of having American officers in custody.

LOCATION: Molotov (Perm)
SUMMARY: A CIA report dated September 2, 1952 reported on the location of Soviet transit camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. Following are excerpts from the 1952 report:

1. Since July 1951, according to new information, several transports of Korean POWs passed through the ports of Bukhta (near Vladivostok), Okhotsk and Magadan. Each ship contained 1,000 or more prisoners. Between the end of November 1951 and April 1952, transports of POWs were sent by rail from the Poset railway junction on the Chinese-Soviet frontier. Some were directed to Chita in Eastern Siberia and some to Molotov, European Soviet Russia, west of the Ural Mountains.
    
2. Information about non-Asiatic POWs was received on April 30, 1952 from the Gubakha railway station in the Komi-Permyak National District, in Northwestern Siberia. According to this information, about 300 POWs were transported by rail from Chita to Molotov in February 1952. The prisoners were clothed in Soviet-type cotton padded tunics with no distinctive marks. They were first transported from the railway station to the MVD prison and then sent by rail, in a train consisting of 9 wagons, to Molotov on or about April 5, 1952. The train was heavily guarded by railway guards of the MVD.
3. In March this year transports of POWs passed through from Khabarovsk to Chita and from Chita to Molotov roughly every fortnight. They were in small groups of up to 50 persons. According to latest information, dated 30 June 1952, the prisoners, after arriving in Chita, were first sent to the local MVD prisons, and then, after a sufficient number of them had been assembled, were sent further to Molotov. It is most probable that POWs are undergoing some sort of investigation and selection process while in the MVD prison in Chita. Some of them are retained in prison in Chita for a long time, while others are sent directly by rail to Molotov and other industrial regions in the Ural Mountains.
    
4. From December 1951 up to the end of April 1952, several railway transports of American and European (probably British) POWs were seen passing at intervals of 10 to 20 days through the Komi-Permyak National District in Northwestern Siberia. These transports were directed to Molotov, Gubakha (Northeast of Molotov), Kudymkar (Northwest of Molotov), and Chermos on the Kama River North of Molotov. The prisoners were clad in cotton-padded gray tunics and pants and wore civilian caps, so-called "Sibirki". They had no military insignia. They spoke among themselves in English, and they knew no other languages, except a few words of Russian. During the journey they remained locked in heavily guarded wagons and were not allowed to leave them. They received their meals from MVD guards. Each wagon had small windows on two levels. Each window was barred and covered by opaque glass.
    
5. According to information gathered between April 1 and 20, a certain number of American POW officers, among whom was a group referred to as the "American General Staff", were kept at that time in the Command of the Military District of Molotov. Some of the POWs were accommodated in the building of the MVD in Molotov, having been subjected most probably to interrogations. They had been completely isolated from the outside world.
    
6. In the town of Gubakha and in the industrial regions of Kudymkar and Chermos there were three isolated camps and one interrogation prison for American POWs from Korea, according to information dated February and April 1952. Prisoners kept in the three labor camps were employed on the construction of a new railway line. In one of these camps, called GAYSK about 200 Americans were kept. They were employed in workshops assembling rails and doing various technical jobs. These camps were completely isolated from any civilian camps located in neighborhood. Political control was carried out by the local Party organization, headed by (first name unknown (fnu)) Edovin, a delegate from the Obkom of the Komi-Permyak National District. All these camps were under the charge of (first name unknown) Kalypin, a Soviet officer of unknown rank who was sent from Molotov in February 1952.
    
7. In some camps situated near the Gubakha railway, which are called "Zapretchdelanki", [Russian term difficult to translate - means "isolated plots"] about 150 Americans were kept, probably soldiers and NCOs. An interesting thing was that from these camps one to three POWs were taken every few days by officers of the MVD for transportation to Gubakha or Molotov. They never returned to their camps and their fate remained unknown. According to the supposition of persons acquainted with MVD methods, these POWs had been observed in the camps by specially assigned agents of the MVD, who knew the English language and thus were able to identify those individuals who were very hostile to the Communist regime and ideology and those who could be considered sympathetic. Those belonging to the first group were most probably sent either to prison or to especially hard labor camps for extermination; the others were probably sent to special political courses in Molotov.
    

LOCATION: Kirovskiy
SUMMARY: In his memoirs (provided to the Russian Side in November 1999), a former Soviet citizen quoted seven people who claim to have seen Americans in Kirovskiy. Excerpts from his memoirs:

1. [In the] fall, 1951, a group of American POWs from Korea arrived in a camp by the town Kirovsk, in the Krasnoyarsk area. However, in the beginning of 1952, they disappeared. In any case, during the liquidation of the prison camp during the winter of 1951 and into 1952, they were not part of the prisoners who were transferred to Motygino (to the south)....
    
2. A worker from Kirovskiy witnessed how, late at night, during Russian Christmas, a group of 20, maybe slightly more, were led from the camp along the Veniaminovky Road.
    
3. Another witness and her friend claimed that during the last days of December 1951, more than 20 prisoners, wearing bare threads and half frozen, were moved along the road to Veniaminovsky.
    
4. A witness in Veniaminovky, stated that on Christmas "we had a present which the NKVD delivered to the town (half frozen prisoners). They did not speak Russian. They only said 'American, American,' and 'eat, eat.' ... Then in the morning, around 6 am, they were taken and marched further."
    
5. A hunter and driver, from the town of Chinuel, saw from his car, a number of prisoners who did not speak Russian, being marched along the road ... this was early in the morning, around Christmas...The next day, around 7 am, he was going back to Kirovsk and saw the prisoner column moving toward the town of Kamenka (and the lake).
    
6. One more witness worked in the town of Kirovsk. In February 1952, while hunting, in the area where the Kamenka and Porenda rivers meet, he came across an area where he suspected people were buried. The ground was overturned and his dogs were picking up strange scents.
    
7. A list of 22 names of citizens of the USA who were in the camp by Kirovsk during the winter of 1951 to 1952 was put together by a cleaning lady in the camp. She was able to take a pencil to the Americans and have them record their names and addresses on pieces of newspaper. She smuggled these pieces out of the camp, put them in a can and buried them. Many names on the list match those of missing service members from the Korean War. These include:

Foster	1LT Robert Foster, SGT Elmer Foster, and PFC Robert Foster are missing
Hatch	SFC Robert Hatch is missing
Leon	PFC Chan Jay Park Kim assumed the name "George Leon" upon his capture in order to disguise his Korean heritage...he remains missing
Miller	There are 42 missing Millers
Davis	There are 39 missing Davis
Johnson, Hubert	CPL Herbert Johnson is missing
Morin	CAPT Arthur Morin and CPL Fernand Morin is missing
Larson	PFC Gerald Larson is missing
Boyar	Cpl Andrew Boyer and CPL William Boyer are missing
Fisher	There are 8 missing Fishers
Helfand	PFC Osvaldo Galvan is missing
Kaiser	MSGT George Kyzer is missing

LOCATION: Norilsk
SUMMARY: A Polish witness heard from fellow prisoners that two Americans, probably pilots, were in the camp. They were described as being around 30-35 years old.

LOCATION: Norilsk Camp No. 4
SUMMARY: A Polish witness claimed to have worked with 36-38 American POWs from the Korean War (pilots shot down near Vladivostok) in the early 50s. He recalled the name of one of the prisoners, Scott, but was unsure if this was the first or last name. [There are 21 service members missing from the Korean War and 96 service members missing from WWII with the last name Scott. Many others have a first name Scott.]

LOCATION: Norilsk Camp No. 4 or No. 5
SUMMARY: A Polish witness claimed to have been in the camp with an American for about one year. The American was pudgy and fair-haired, and did not speak Russian.

LOCATION: Norilsk Camp No. 5
SUMMARY: A Polish witness met an American or English pilot, probably a Captain, in Norilsk in the first half of 1953. This pilot carried out reconnaissance flights during the Korean War, and due to bad weather and instrument failure, landed at Dalny, USSR. He was arrested and sentenced on espionage charges. According to the witness, the pilot was approximately 30 years old, tall, dark- haired, and looked healthy. Under his prison clothes he wore an "English" military blouse. The source did not know the pilot's eventual fate. In May-June 1953 the camp inmates staged an uprising, and in July, the witness, one of the revolt's leaders, was transported to Kolyma, where he stayed until 1956.

LOCATION: Norilsk Camp No. 9, Cement Plant No. 5
SUMMARY: A witness in Lithuania said that he was working with the third camp division near Cement Plant No. 5 at Norilsk Camp No. 9 in 1953. Camp gossip alleged that a heavily guarded corner facility in the camp was for American POWs from Korea. The witness observed these prisoners from a distance of about 110 yards. They were young white males dressed in prison garb. He felt it was significant that during the prison uprisings in May-June 1954 these special prisoners were quickly removed. He had no idea what happened to them.

LOCATION: Norilsk Dudinka Transit Camp
SUMMARY: A Lithuanian witness reported seeing American WWII officers at the Norilsk Dudinka transit camp in August of 1946.

LOCATION: Rybak
SUMMARY: In his memoirs (provided to the Russian Side in November 1999), a source wrote that in the very beginning of 1953, he was sent to handle an emergency situation at the northern mining enterprise called Rybak. One of the technical experts that he worked with was a demolition-qualified inmate: tall, exhausted by hunger and the Arctic, with a very characteristic, slightly elongated artistic face. His unnaturally protruding gray eyes in sockets sunken from emaciation revealed someone ill with exophthalmic goiter. In an accent clearly that of an English speaker, he identified himself as a citizen of the United States of America, Allied Officer Dale.

In Norilsk, many years later, a geologist, who had worked with the witness in Udereya at the time in question, related that many of the Americans "who had fallen into our hands in 1945 from the liberated Fascist camps were held in Rybak and probably perished there...." [LT Harvey Dale and LT William Dale are both missing from WWII.]

During a visit to Krasnoyarsk in September 2001, the Director of the human-rights organization "Memorial" confirmed the existence of Rybak. He commented that Rybak was a top-secret uranium mine located on the Leningradskaya River. Unlike the majority of Gulag camps, Rybak was not subordinate to the MVD. It is not known what entity controlled Rybak, but it is known that several Soviet geologists worked at the camp. The camp was centered on a mining shaft, and the uranium ore was placed into river ships for transport. Because the camp produced very little uranium it was eventually destroyed and traces of the camp removed. No known archival records or memoirs of the camp exist. The Memorial director knew of the camp only through acquaintances who served as geologists for the Soviet Union.

LOCATION: unknown
SUMMARY: While serving his sentence in the Krasnoyarsk Kray in 1949-1950, a Russian witness met with Japanese and Korean prisoners of war and conversed with them. They told him that, along with them, several Americans arrived at the labor camp sub-sector (Lagpunkt) who had been prisoners of war of either the Japanese or the Koreans; later they (Americans, Japanese, Koreans) all became prisoners of the Russians.

LOCATION: Camp No. 19
SUMMARY: A Ukrainian witness was sent to the Irkutsk Oblast in 1959. During a brief stay in Camp No. 4, he heard rumors that Americans were being held in Camp No. 19, about five miles away. He said that he heard that the part of Camp No. 19 which housed the Americans was a particularly high-security zone, surrounded by an eight-yard fence, with several feet of barbed wire.

After having been caught stealing bread, he was sent to Camp No. 19 in March 1959, and was immediately thrown into the "BUR" (Barak Usilennogo Rezhima - Reinforced Security Barracks), located near the bathhouse and guard tower. Inside he was thrown on top of the badly bloodied bodies of two men lying on a makeshift table. He said that lying next to the bodies were seven gold teeth and part of an artificial jaw. It was obvious that the men had been beaten and had their teeth knocked out. He said that he could not recall whether the teeth were completely covered with gold, or just the crowns. The guards told him that the bodies were those of American officers and that the same would happen to him if he did not obey the rules. The witness said that it was impossible to discern the color of their skin or even guess at their age, due to the ferocity of the beatings. He said that he was sent off to wash up and that when he returned, the bodies were no longer there. He later heard that the bodies were buried by the fourth guard tower, and the prisoners' clothes were doused with gasoline and burned. The witness added that he had heard rumors that there were another 18 Americans housed in the camp, aside from these two. He said that these prisoners were gradually killed off between May and July 1959. He claimed that approximately once a week, one of these prisoners was taken out, forced to dig his own grave, stripped, and then shot. The camp guards told him that these victims were U.S. aircrews that had been taken prisoner in Korea. They were buried outside the camp, near the guard tower, separately from the other prisoners. He added that this was not in the local cemetery, which was also located just outside the camp.

The witness said that he could not recall the camp commandant's name. He recalled the surnames of two camp guards, Popov and Ivanov, but could not remember their first names or patronymics.

LOCATION: Taishet
SUMMARY: A former German POW reported direct contact with U.S. Army Captain Johnny Anderson from 1951-1953. Captain Anderson was reportedly stationed in Berlin in 1946, and was arrested while drunk in the Soviet sector. The source believed he might have been in the Air Corps. [Captains John R. Anderson and John A. Anderson are missing from WWII. There are an additional four Captains missing with the last name of Anderson.]

LOCATION: Taishet Camp No. 20, Farm No. 25
SUMMARY: A Japanese returnee reported that in the period of 1949-1950 he had direct contact with an American flyer, about 40 years old, tall, with a ruddy complexion. The flyer was shot down over the Baltic States while on an aerial reconnaissance mission and sentenced to 20 years. He was burned in the crash, leaving scars on his right cheek and left leg, necessitating the use of a cane. He spoke some Russian.

LOCATION: Taishet Special Camp No. 6
SUMMARY: A Latvian witness said that he had knowledge of three U.S. POWs in Taishet camps from the period 1949-1951.

He met the first American in 1950, in Taishet Special Camp No. 6, where he worked as a barber. This camp held primarily French, Indians, and people from the Baltic States. The American was a U.S. military officer taken in 1949 from Austria. During his capture, he had been hit on the head, resulting in a skull fracture. He was Caucasian, about five foot nine inches tall, had light brown hair, blue eyes, was 30 years old and from New Jersey. He was at the camp until 1951, when he was released to exile in Krasnoyarskiy Kray.

The witness saw a second Caucasian American in Special Camp No. 6 during the summer of 1951, but does not know if he was civilian or military. This individual was either brought in blind, or simulated blindness, and was approximately 30 years old. The American escaped, and his fate is unknown.

The witness saw a third American in Special Camp No. 6, who was Caucasian, and around 40 years old. The American was transferred to another camp. The new camp and the fate of the American are unknown.

The witness also cited rumors at the time of his captivity that at least some of the crew from the U.S. aircraft shot down on 8 April, 1950, were taken alive and sent to camps.

LOCATION: Taishet-Bratsk
SUMMARY: A Polish witness claimed that at the end of the summer of 1951 or 1952, an American escaped from Camp No. 19 at Czuna (Chuna), on the Taishet - Bratsk railway, 90 miles from Taishet.

LOCATION: unknown
SUMMARY: A resident of Irkutsk claimed his mother had seen an American prisoner in March 1946, while working as a porter on a train carrying NKVD prisoners from the Far East. The porters were ordered to bury eight of the prisoners who were believed dead, but one of the eight was still breathing so she took him in. He died a week later, but before he died he indicated he was an American. The source believed his name was something like, "Fred Kolin or Kollinz." The American drew a picture indicating an aircraft being shot down and three people, possibly bailing out of the aircraft. [There are three Fred Collins missing from WWII. There are an additional 89 service members with the last name of Collins.]

LOCATION: Taishet Taishet Labor Camp No. 4
SUMMARY: In February 1954 a repatriated German commented during a U.S. Air Force debriefing that he met four U.S. servicemen in the summer of 1947 at a sub-camp of Taishet Labor Camp No. 4.

For two days in July 1947, the source was billeted in a sub-camp of Taishet Labor Camp No. 4. The camp was located in the forest 34 miles east of Taishet, and consisted of two 2.5 by 1.5 mile compounds which housed thousands of penal laborers of various nationalities. While there the source met four Americans between the ages of 28 and 36. He described them as over five feet nine inches tall and broad-shouldered with close-cropped hair. They wore khaki denims with a pocket on the trouser. The Americans, the source and some Latvian prisoners were all able to communicate with one another through their broken German. The Americans told the source that they were members of the American Air Force who had been stationed in Vienna. In 1946 Soviet soldiers arrested them at the Vienna Prater Park. They were transported to Moscow and tried for espionage. While in Moscow they where kept in underground cells, repeatedly beaten, and interrogated. The Soviets sentenced them to 25 years in a labor camp. At the end of 1946 they were transferred to Taishet Labor Camp No. 4. The source was unable to give any names, but made it a point to keep track of the Americans through fellow prisoners who worked on the Taishet-Bratsk railroad line. He was certain that the Americans were still working on the railroad line when he left Taishet in February 1950.

LOCATION: Vikhorevka (southwest of the city of Bratsk)
SUMMARY: A former Gulag prisoner and ethnic Estonian source reported that while detained in the village of Vikhorevka in the zone reserved for foreigners, he met an American serviceman named Thomas (last name unknown). Thomas said that he was a U.S. pilot from the Korean War. The source reported that Thomas was 35 years old when he met him in 1953. Thomas was five feet five inches to five feet seven inches tall and walked with a limp. Thomas was assigned to work on the camp water tower.

LOCATION: Bulun
SUMMARY: On October 15, 1957, a Polish witness visited the American Consulate in Strasbourg, France. He stated he was held in a prison camp in Bulun until July 1957 and reported seeing the following Americans:

Watson, an American professor of physics captured in Vienna,
Dick Rozbicki, an American soldier captured during the Korean War,
Stanley Warner, an American soldier captured during the Korean War, and
Jan Sorrow, an American soldier captured during the Korean War.

LOCATION: Bulun Camp No. 217
SUMMARY: On September 20, 1957, two Polish witnesses visited the American Consulate in Genoa, Italy. Both men claimed to have been WWII POWs held captive in Bulun Camp No. 217. They had escaped on May 6, 1957. They claimed to have made their way across the USSR, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, entering Italy on September 18, 1957. They reported that two men who claimed to be American army officers captured during the Korean War had been transferred to Bulun Camp No. 217 from another camp on July 24, 1955.

The men were: Stanley Rosbicki, approximately 24 years old, of Buffalo, New York and Jack Watson, 38 or 39, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Both were infantry Lieutenants.

LOCATION: Bulun Camp No. 307
SUMMARY: On September 5, 1960, a Polish witness visited the American Embassy, Brussels, Belgium. He stated he had been imprisoned in Bulun Camp No. 307 for seven and a half years and was released on May 1, 1960. He reported seeing two U.S. Army personnel captured in Korea: Ted Watson, an infantry lieutenant, and Fred Rosbiki, a commando or paratroop sergeant.

LOCATION: Bulun Camp No. 315
SUMMARY: A Catholic priest visited the U.S. Embassy in Paris on July 11, 1958 to report an interview he had recently conducted with a former Polish Gulag prisoner. The prisoner told the priest that he had recently escaped from North Siberia where he had been held in Bulun Camp No. 315. He claimed to have been acquainted with two Americans in the same camp: a chaplain, John Westley, captured in Korea in 1952, and a lieutenant, Stanley Rosbicki, from New York. The witness further advised the priest that the two Americans, who appeared to be in good health, had requested that he convey this information to the American authorities for transmittal to their families.

LOCATION: Yakutsk
SUMMARY: A CIA report dated September 2, 1952 reported on the location of Soviet transit camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. Excerpts from the 1952 report:

1. Those POWs who arrived by ship in the ports of Bukhta, Okhotsk and Magadan were then transported by train, or by trucks or by motor-driven barges, to Vaikaren on the Chukotsk Sea, to Ust Maisk on the river Aldan and to Yakutsk on the river Lena.
    
2. POW camps of Koreans in the Yakutsk A.S.S.R. are situated between Ust Maisk and Yakutsk. Prisoners there are employed in building new shafts for coal mines, earth works and dams. The camps are situated 30 to 125 miles from each other and contain 500 to 1,000 prisoners each. They are guarded by soldiers of the MVD. The camps and inmates are under the supervision of the Ministry of Coal Production or the Ministry of Forests. The Chief over all camps in this region was, in April 1952, a civilian functionary (fnu) Andreev. The commandant of the MVD units assigned to guard the camps was Col. (fnu) Vassilevsky. The prisoners are doing very heavy physical work and are living under primitive conditions. In one of the camps in this region, called AMGA, about 300 POWs died in February and April 1952 as a result of serious illnesses and overwork. Over 400 of them were placed in very crude barracks for the sick.

LOCATION: Bulun
SUMMARY: A Sakha-Yakutian government representative reported that her grandmother lived in Bulun at the end of World War II and worked as a seamstress in the Bulun Gulag. In the late 1940’s, her grandmother routinely met American, Lithuanian, Estonian, Polish, and Finish prisoners of war. The source reported that her grandmother kept a diary, which documented her time in the Gulag, and her acquaintenances with Americans. The Bulun Gulag, located at the mouth of the Lena River (N 70º 44.280' E 127º 21.281') was a fishing camp--male prisoners worked in the fishing industry and the female prisoners sewed clothes and prison uniforms. Today nothing is left of the camp except for an underground fish storage cell. The source’s grandmother died in 1996.

LOCATION: Chita
SUMMARY: A CIA report dated September 2, 1952 reported on the location of Soviet transit camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. Following are excerpts from the 1952 report:

1. There were previous transport of POWs from Chita between August and November 1951. These were directed to Kotlas on the Northern Dvina and to Lalsk, southeast of Kotlas, both in the Archangelsk Oblast. The total number of POWs transported in this direction amounted to about 6,000 at the end of 1951. Their fate is not known.
    
2. In March of 1951, transports of POWs passed through from Khabarovsk to Chita and from Chita to Molotov roughly every fortnight. They were in small groups of up to 50 persons. According to latest information, dated 30 June 1952, the prisoners, after arriving in Chita, were first sent to the local MVD prisons, and then, after a sufficient number of them had been assembled, were sent further, to Molotov. It is most probable that the POWs were undergoing some sort of investigation and selection process while in the MVD prison in Chita. Some of them are retained in prison in Chita for a long time, while others are sent directly by rail to Molotov and other industrial regions in the Ural Mountains.

LOCATION: Magadan Berlag
SUMMARY: A Ukrainian witness from Gribenko was transferred from Vanino Bay to Magadan Berlag in 1950, where he remained until his release in 1960. The witness stated that in the summer of 1954 a large group of foreign prisoners, perhaps as many as 2000, were brought to Magadan prison. This group included three Americans. When asked how he knew they were Americans, he replied that it was common knowledge, and everyone knew it. The Americans were in regular prison garb, but upon arrival at the Berlag were ordered to remove their prison numbers from their shirts and hats. While working as a medic in the camp, he was asked to examine one of the Americans for tropical skin ulcers. Due to the color of the man's skin and the thickness of his lips, the witness thinks this American was a Mulatto. When asked if he had talked with the individual, the witness stated that he had not because it was strictly forbidden. He went on to say that the three prisoners were young, all had brown hair, and all appeared to be in good health.

LOCATION: Mokhoplit village
SUMMARY: On 29 March 1996, an interview was conducted with a Russian living in Yekaterinburg, who spent from 1952-1970 in various Gulags, to include Kolomna, Indigirka, and Chukhotka. He claimed to have seen an American citizen in 1956/57 in the Magadan Oblast, at Mokhoplit village, in the Tentiskiy gold mining region. This U.S. citizen, Azat Tigranovich Petrosian, was born in Armenia in the 1920s, and somehow wound up in a Nazi POW camp that was liberated by the Soviets. The Soviets refused to repatriate him and sent him to the Gulag. The source did not know Petrosian's eventual fate.

LOCATION: Myaundzha (near Susuman)
SUMMARY: On 12 August 1996, a witness living in Moscow delivered a written response to the Radio Liberty program, "Americans in the Gulag," being played on Radio Liberty/Voice of America. She had worked at the Directorate of the PTU (Professional Technical Academy) Energostroy for the electrical power station in Myaundzha, Magadan Oblast, from 1955-63, then in Magadan until 1965, when she moved to Moscow. In the letter, the witness told of a Rudolf Martinovich Benush (1917-1995), who allegedly served as a U.S. Army Captain during the Nuremberg Trials. The witness worked with Benush, who was referred to as the American spy, "either in derision, or in reference to the article under which he was convicted" (Article 58), when he was a "trustee" prisoner in the Myaundzha camp in Magadan Oblast near Susuman in 1955, until his release in 1956. The camp had 3,000 prisoners, mostly Baltic and Ukrainian nationalists. Benush spent the majority of his remaining years in Magadan.

LOCATION: unidentified hospital
SUMMARY: A Japanese witness saw and spoke for about 20 minutes with an American in room No. 2, first medical section, at a hospital in Magadan. A hospital attendant named Nikolai told him the American was a Captain who had crashed in the vicinity of Kamchatka. During the conversation, the American stated, "I cannot accept the sentence of being a spy. The sentence of 15 years based on Item 6 of Article 58 is unjust," He appeared to be about 28 years old, with blond hair and blue eyes.

LOCATION: Magadan
SUMMARY: A CIA report dated September 2, 1952 reported on the location of Soviet Transit Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. Following are excerpts from the 1952 report:

1. In December it was known that transit camps for prisoners of war captured by the Communists in Korea had been established in Komsomolsk on the Amur, Magadan on Bogaeva Bay in the Sea of Okhotsk, Chita and Irkutsk. Through those transit camps were passing not only Korean POWs but also American POWs.
    
2. Since July 1951, according to new information, several transports of Korean POWs have passed through the ports of Bukhta (near Vladivostok), Okhotsk and Magadan. Each ship has contained 1,000 or more prisoners. Between the end of November 1951 and April 1952, transports of POWs were sent by rail from the Poset railway junction on the Chinese-Soviet frontier. Some were directed to Chita in Eastern Siberia and some to Molotov, European Soviet Russia, west of Ural Mountains.
    
3. Those POWs who arrived by ship in the ports of Bukhta, Okhotsk and Magadan were then transported by train, or by trucks or by motor driven barges, to Vaikaren on the Chukotsk Sea, to Ust Maisk on the river Aldan and to Yakutsk on the river Lena.
    
4. POWs shipped to Vaikaren were sent to a network of camps in the Nizhni Kolymsk region on the East Siberian Sea, to be employed building roads, electric power plants and airfields. Their number varies considerably due to high mortality and to transfer to other camps on the Chukotski Peninsula. All these camps are under supervision of MVD and are entirely isolated. There were about 12,000 Korean POWs in April 1952 in the Nizhno Kolymsk camp network. The camps were under the charge of (fnu) Sorotchuk, a Major of MVD and (fnu) Chimbo, a civilian Party functionary, probably an employee of MGB. Chimbo was in charge of education and political indoctrination.
    

LOCATION: 5M-Lagpunkt
SUMMARY: A Russian living in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, reported that in November 1952, he saw three American prisoners at the "5M Lagpunkt" detention facility in Khabarovsk, Russia, where he was incarcerated. He went on a woodcutting detail with one of them. In December 1952 the Americans were transferred out of the camp for an unknown destination. A Russian female prisoner serving a sentence for "Betraying the Motherland" accompanied the Americans. The camp commander was Lieutenant Kuzenkov.

LOCATION: Khabarovsk Prison
SUMMARY: A Japanese repatriate who was in Khabarovsk Camp No. 21 from 1950-1953, heard from Soviet guards, prisoners, and laborers in April or May of 1953, that 12-13 Americans from a military plane shot down by the Soviets were in Khabarovsk Prison.

LOCATION: Svobodnyi
SUMMARY: In his memoirs (made available to the Russian Side in November 1999) a source quotes four people who claim to have knowledge of the June 1952 RB-29 crew and their incarceration in Svobodnyi. Excerpts from his memoirs:

A former fishing vessel radio operator related that the Captain of his fishing vessel told him that "not all the crew members of the American [aircraft] had, in fact, died back then (in June) and that ten of those people were now in pre-trial solitary confinement in a prison in the city of Svobodnyi, near Blagoveshchensk."

A former Dalstroi official "was not in the least surprised by [his] question. He replied at once: 'Yes, at first ten people were alive. Yes, first they were brought to Khabarovsk. But, then, of course, they were sent off to Svobodnyi ... They were supposed to have been met by people from the Ministry of Defense...They were not met, though. You see, there was some screw-up in Moscow. Well, I can tell you that they were not met. What happened to them after that, I do not know. And I would advise you not to know as well ... Let the leadership worry itself about it..."

A second former Dalstroi official repeated almost word-for-word the testimony of [the first Dalstroi official] but went on to clarify: "The guys from within 'worked over' the Americans so badly that only eight were taken to Svobodnyi."

A construction official who worked extensively in the Far East and was also an advisor to a minister stated that "he did learn the names of two crewmembers of that aircraft, Bush and Moore, who will forever remain in the soil of the Khabarovsk Region." [Along with 10 other crewmembers, Major Samuel Busch and Master Sergeant David Moore were shot down by Soviet fighters on June 13, 1952. The entire crew remains missing.]

LOCATION: Verkhniy
SUMMARY: According to a Ukrainian citizen who lives in Kiev, seven American servicemen - three of them pilots whose plane had strayed into Soviet territory because of mechanical difficulties - were incarcerated in 1952, in a prison camp called "Verkhniy" in the town of Lultin in Khabarovsky Kray. The prisoners' primary contact was with a Japanese doctor named Matsuoko. During their detention, three of them were killed in a mining accident, and the four others were transferred to another camp.

LOCATION: Khabarovsk
SUMMARY: A CIA report dated September 2, 1952 reported on the location of Soviet Transit Camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. Following are excerpts from the 1952 report:

In March this year transports of POWs passed through from Khabarovsk to Chita and from Chita to Molotov roughly every fortnight. They were in small groups of up to 50 persons. According to latest information, dated June 30, 1952, the prisoners, after arriving in Chita, were first sent to the local MVD prisons, and then, after a sufficient number of them had been assembled, were sent further, to Molotov. It is most probable that POWs are undergoing some sort of investigation and selection process while in the MVD prison in Chita. Some of them are retained in prison in Chita for a long time, while others are sent directly by rail to Molotov and other industrial regions in the Ural Mountains.

LOCATION: Air Force Hospital 404
SUMMARY: While training for parachute duties in 1951, a witness broke his leg and was sent to an Air Force hospital, number 404, in the small town of Staraya Sysoyovka, Primorskiy Krai, between Arsenyev and Novosysoyevka. Due to lack of space, he was given a bed on the second floor in the corridor next to a room with four American patients. One was able to walk, the second was in traction and the third was burned. He clearly remembered the face of one of the Americans. He was blond, no younger than 25 years of age. He thought the blond person was the pilot. The witness was able to talk to and see the patients, as well as listen to their dialogue during questioning. He stated that the first patient was between 22 and 27 years of age, had light colored hair, was thin, had blue eyes, and bent over with a visible limp. His height was about six feet tall. Patient one said he was from Cleveland and had two children. The witness said the second and third patients appeared older. He had no other description, other than to say that they were from San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles. He could not say which patient was from which city.

LOCATION: Vanino Bay
SUMMARY: In 1947, a Ukrainian witness from Gribenko was moved from Lvov to the Vanino Bay Transit Prison in the Soviet Far East where he remained for about two years, 1948-49. He claimed that there were numerous American prisoners there, awaiting movement to other prisons. He believed the Americans were from WWII. The witness described the layout of the Vanino Bay Transit Prison as consisting of 15 separate zones, each holding 5,000-7,000 prisoners, and that the Americans were housed in zone No. 2. He said all prisoners were moved to Kolyma by the ships: "Felix Dzerzhinski," "Nagin," "Dyurma," and "Dalstroi." He said that whenever these ships passed by Hokkaido, the crew put on civilian attire so the Japanese would not know they were prison ships.

LOCATION: Artem
SUMMARY: A Russian stated that an acquaintance of his who lived in Artem, a northern suburb of Vladivostok, said that as a little boy in the early 1950’s, he saw a column of about 100 American POWs marching near the town. When asked how he knew they were Americans, he stated that it was "well-known" (in the village.)

LOCATION: Vladivostok
SUMMARY: A CIA report dated September 2, 1952 reported on the location of Soviet transit camps for Prisoners of War from Korea. Following are excerpts from the 1952 report:

1. Since July 1951, according to new information, several transports of Korean POWs have passed through the ports of Bukhta (near Vladivostok), Okhotsk and Magadan. Each ship has contained 1,000 or more prisoners. Between the end of November 1951 and April 1952, transports of POWs were sent by rail from the Poset railway junction on the Chinese-Soviet frontier. Some were directed to Chita in Eastern Siberia and some to Molotov, European Soviet Russia, west of Ural Mountains.
    
2. Those POWs who arrived by ship in the ports of Bukhta, Okhotsk and Magadan were then transported by train, or by trucks or by motor driven barges, to Vaikaren on the Chukotsk Sea, to Ust Maisk on the river Aldan and to Yakutsk on the river Lena.