“Canal Army! The heat of your work will melt your prison sentence.” Motivational poster for GULAG labourers, ca 1940
The White Sea–Baltic Canal, completed in 1933 connected the White Sea, in the Arctic Ocean, with Lake Onega, which is further connected to the Baltic Sea. The canal was constructed by the forced labor of gulag inmates. Beginning and ending with a labor force of 126,000, between 12,000-25,000 of which died.
The White Sea Canal should have shut up any Stalinist apologist.