The fight against escapes is insufficient and is particularly flawed at labor settlement number 2 in Kirovsk. This can be explained by the lack of a regimen in labor settlements, i.e., the commandant of the labor settlement has no administrative rights except to order a search, while the investigative organs and the procuracy offer no help at all. For example, the procurator of Kirovsk district, Com. Aksenov, regarding the return of the labor settlers whose [civil rights] were restored before the [adoption of the] Constitution and who have passports, said: “I have no right to sanction the escorted transfer, and I won't, except for those who have obtained passports illegally.” Therefore, after we take measures to identify the escapee and his location, they request a resolution to transfer him, rendering further implementation, i.e., his return, impossible to accomplish.

Besides that, there are many unauthorized absences, especially during the period of summer vacations. Labor settlers leave on their own for resorts and sanatoriums, and upon their voluntary return to the settlement, the commandant's office cannot take any steps, lacking administrative rights. Thus, it does not prevent unauthorized absences, but encourages other labor settlers to violate the regimen. There even are cases where labor settlers come to the commandant's office and announce their unauthorized departure.

Commandant's offices take measures to exercise their rights, i.e., prosecuting at least those violators who illegally obtained passports. […] A majority of public courts have been passing suspended sentences and ordering fines.

In labor settlement no. 4 in Kandalaksha, the public court of the second precinct reviewed two cases involving escape, that of labor settler Tatiana Mikhailovna Kudriavtseva (born in 1900) and that of labor settler Efim Andreyevich Repin (born in 1917), who had fraudulently and illegally obtained passports and were returned under escort. The court passed a suspended sentence, but the Murmansk provincial court acquitted them and closed the case.

Public courts currently reject such cases, claiming that since the labor settlers were exiled administratively and not by a court, they should be punished administratively. After the trial, the labor settler Repin escaped for the second time and was again returned to the labor settlement and remains unpunished.

It is particularly difficult to conduct a struggle against escapes and unauthorized absences among those labor settlers who had their civil rights restored before the Constitution [was adopted] and have passports, because they do not feel [that] any regimen [is in place], and cannot be effectively controlled, because they live among free laborers, i.e., not labor settlers.

Some organizations often do not want to observe the limitations imposed on labor settlers and issue them vouchers for resorts and sanatoriums without the approval of the commandant's office. There are cases where they were sent on business to other districts, including the regimen zones. For example, according to the People's Commissariat of Fisheries, labor settler Fyodor Yakovlevich Bespalov (his civil rights were restored before the Constitution; he had a passport and was a specialist in fishing) was sent, without the consent of the commandant's office, to the city of Kerch on the Black Sea.

Working in such conditions, where it is impossible to prevent violations [and] escapes, we were forced to ask the GULAG for instructions on how to conduct the fight against escapes. […] Not until on 4 January 1941 did we receive a dispatch […] saying that the escapees should be prosecuted, i.e., considered by the Special Council. This obviously is not enough for the leadership, because we do not know how to process the cases, who should process them and how, and who should arrest the escapees (the Procuracy does not authorize arrests).

In addition to that, an explanation is needed on how to process the resolutions to return the captured escapees to the settlement, both those with and those without passports, and finally, what administrative rights do the commandants' offices have to secure the regimen in the labor settlements?