In truth, the Gulag system was highly economically inefficient and resulted in a much higher loss of life and productivity than necessary. When prisoners' lives were ever taken into account by the government, it was from a purely economic point of view--a loss of productivity, rather than a consideration of humanity. Even apart from the social effects of the Gulag, both on the prisoners themselves and on the greater Soviet population, the system was not ultimately economically profitable for the Soviets.
Costs for the Gulag camps were often underestimated--though the labor was seen as free, calculations by the government generally failed to take into account the cost of guards, the cost of transport of prisoners across the country (especially to the remote and mostly uninhabited regions many camps were located in), and the opportunity of cost of using these laborers in a coercive manner rather than the proven more efficient method of allowing them to be free workers.
Ultimately, the Gulag system did more to cripple Soviet society at this time than improve it. The loss in productivity brought on by forced labor in the Gulag compromised the Soviet ability to grow and develop as an economy and to make itself a healthy nation able to engage in war with the U.S. Rather than protecting society as was intended, in truth the Gulag wreak havoc economically on the Soviet Union, and this hugely contributed to political upheaval during and after the Cold War, and domestic issues that plagued the country during the war.
This exploration has for the most part bypassed the social effects of the Gulag, which were numerous and massive both for individual prisoners and for the Soviet Union as a whole. It is not meant to be gleaned from this that these social effects were any less significant, as the atrocities caused by the Gulags deserve to be remembered and mourned, but the economic role of the Gulag is the primary topic as it had the most direct effect on the Soviet's ability to participate in the Cold War and even see itself as a global power.
Costs for the Gulag camps were often underestimated--though the labor was seen as free, calculations by the government generally failed to take into account the cost of guards, the cost of transport of prisoners across the country (especially to the remote and mostly uninhabited regions many camps were located in), and the opportunity of cost of using these laborers in a coercive manner rather than the proven more efficient method of allowing them to be free workers.
Ultimately, the Gulag system did more to cripple Soviet society at this time than improve it. The loss in productivity brought on by forced labor in the Gulag compromised the Soviet ability to grow and develop as an economy and to make itself a healthy nation able to engage in war with the U.S. Rather than protecting society as was intended, in truth the Gulag wreak havoc economically on the Soviet Union, and this hugely contributed to political upheaval during and after the Cold War, and domestic issues that plagued the country during the war.
This exploration has for the most part bypassed the social effects of the Gulag, which were numerous and massive both for individual prisoners and for the Soviet Union as a whole. It is not meant to be gleaned from this that these social effects were any less significant, as the atrocities caused by the Gulags deserve to be remembered and mourned, but the economic role of the Gulag is the primary topic as it had the most direct effect on the Soviet's ability to participate in the Cold War and even see itself as a global power.