The author of the article analyses the psycho-social changes which occur in individuals and groups from the moment at which they are arrested/held to the moment at which they are placed in a camp. The tool for this analysis is the definition of suffering with its various dimensions. The briefly described process of human degradation was carried out by the organisational, material, psychological and social conditions created by the USSR’s repressive apparatus. These conditions gradually reduced human needs to a basic, biological level. This reduction was caused by the suffering of individuals and groups at every possible level. The article compares the adaptation of adults and children to the conditions in which they found themselves.
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