To get a release from work, a transfer, or a release from the camp under article 458 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, prisoners sometimes use methods and techniques that create pathological conditions similar to those of grave illnesses or an illness that serves as an excuse to get a release from work, a transfer, or an early release on parole.

The most common methods listed below are only typical and do not reflect the full array of techniques practiced by the prisoners. Therefore, each new case has to be carefully studied and made known to free medical workers of the camp where the incident occurred, as well as reported in detail to the GULAG of the NKVD.

The most characteristic techniques of the simulators are:

a. Artificially induced symptoms of myocarditis, heart disease, or nephritic disorders

The most frequently used agents are dry or diluted cooking salt, salted fish, etc., eaten along with drinking large amounts of water, tea […], ersatz coffee (dry and strong brews), tobacco or shag infusions. […]

b. Artificial gastro-enterocolitis

The most common causes: ingesting soap or soapy water, kerosene, a large amount of [household] soda, poisonous raw mushrooms, roots, refuse from garbage pits or garbage cans, as well as raw meat, fish, or water in order to induce diarrhea, etc.

c. Artificial boils or reopening and irritating wounds

Artificial boils are usually created by puncturing the skin and underlying tissue of an extremity with a needle and a thread soaked in kerosene, turpentine, or petroleum or by infecting wounds, scratches, cracks, or abrasions. The puncture is usually made at the mid-or lower shin, at the front, on the edge of the tibia. Sometimes they inject so much kerosene that if the boil is opened soon after that, its contents can burn.

Any unusually slow-healing sores, abrasions, cracks, or wounds should be suspected as the result of artificial irritation. The various agents used for irritation are salt, kerosene, turpentine, cinders, chemical fertilizers, urine, etc. The delay in healing is also caused by mechanical irritation. […]

d. Simulation of fever

Fever is often simulated by a temporary localized increase in temperature at the bodily site where measurements are taken. An armpit with local irritation and inflammation (caused by rubbing in salt, applying a rag soaked in kerosene, etc.) leads to a localized increase in temperature. By measuring under the armpit, the thermometer registers a localized increase in temperature, and an inexperienced medical worker can interpret it as a general fever. If the measurement is conducted in the absence of a medical worker, prisoners can tamper with the reading by quickly rubbing the thermometer on a cloth or by shaking it.

e. Simulation of feebleness and arrhythmia

If one puts under his armpit an object of an appropriate size (a potato, a wooden ball, a thick fold of a jacket) and squeezes his arm to his body, the resulting pressure on the armpit artery allows him to control the strength and rhythm of his pulse, including its complete disappearance. A similar effect can result from applying bandages to a hand above the wrist joint. This simulation is easily exposed by examining the arm and the armpit and by measuring the pulse in a hand spread away from the body.

f. Simulation of venereal diseases

To simulate gonorrhoeal urethritis with secretion, prisoners often directly irritate the urinary tract by injecting soap or kerosene, which leads to symptoms similar to those of acute gonorrhea: secretion, redness of mucous membrane, etc. […]

g. Since it is difficult to describe all cases of simulation and aggravation, the aforementioned serve only as the most typical examples. [Prisoners] often skillfully simulate various mental illnesses, epilepsy, traumatic neurosis, pull out (with their fingers) the mucous membrane of a rectum to simulate prolapse, aggravate illnesses of internal organs, simulate and aggravate the immobility of joints and muscle contractions, blindness, deafness, etc.

h. The most frequent cases of self-injury are: