The Red and the White: Britain’s Arctic Prison
When Allied soldiers went to Russia near the end of World War One, they did not expect to fight the Bolsheviks, yet they opened the first concentration camp on Russian soil.
Back in the Soviet era, boatloads of day-trippers went to the island of Mudyug in the White Sea, to visit a museum. It was based around the remains of a prison camp - and one that is very different from the decaying Gulag camps scattered across north Russia and Siberia. For one thing, it was set up as far back as 1918. Even more remarkably, many jailors were not Russian. They were foreign troops. Bizarrely one French officer at the camp later created the world's most famous scent, Chanel No 5, inspired by his experiences in the Russian Arctic.
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