A rare survivor of the harshest Stalin-era labour camps has died aged 89 in Russia's far east.
Vasily Kovalyov had survived icy punishment cells and beatings in the USSR's notorious Gulag prison system.
During an escape attempt in 1954 he spent five months hiding in a freezing mine with two other prisoners.
Kovalyov's story was featured in Vesma, a news site based in Magadan. The communist regime shipped thousands of “enemies” to prison camps via Magadan.
In 1950 Kovalyov, aged 20, was found guilty of anti-Soviet sabotage – one among the millions of victims of Stalinist terror. An old sabre that he had used to chop vegetables was enough to condemn him.
Dicing with death
First he was…
