This paper examines reform of the Gulag system in the 1950s, through the lens of a ‘return to Leninism’. Both the party leadership and criminological reformers framed the previous thirty years as a deviation from the path originally intended for the socialist revolution. However, how contemporary reformers envisioned the ‘ideal’ revolutionary period uncovered not only their vision for what the imminent communist order should be, but also their difficulties grappling with the legacy of Stalinism. Traditional historiography of this era tends to either position reform as a total ‘de-Stalinising’ break with the past or as fleeting and inconsequential. By situating these reforms in a longer timeline stretching back to 1917, historians can shed light on whether they were indeed returning to an old model, orienting themselves to contemporary non-Soviet examples, or readapting Stalinist principles for a changed political situation. Indeed, the 1950s were marked by a wave of social activism among both former prisoners, and retirees who had participated in the Revolutionary period; these few were known as ‘Lenin’s cohort’. The active presence of these voices in the post-Stalin period served not only to relate to the Revolutionary period but also to offer a testimony to the changing nature of the penal system. Understanding how the Stalinist period was dealt with by those who followed it could also prove vital in recontextualising its interpretation in Russian politics today.
