The Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp (), commonly known as the Vorkuta Gulag or Vorkutlag (Воркутлаг), was a major GULAG labor camp in the Soviet Union located in Vorkuta, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from 1932 to 1962. The Vorkuta Gulag was one of the largest camps in the GULAG system with 73,000 prisoners at its peak in 1951, containing Soviet and foreign prisoners including prisoners of war, dissidents, political prisoners ("enemies of the state") and common criminals who were used as forced labor in the construction of Coal mines, coal mining works and Forestry. The Vorkuta Gulag was the site of the Vorkuta Uprising in July 1953. History Establishment of Vorkutlag, 1932 In 1930 the geologist Georgy Chernov (1906–2009) discovered substantial coal fields by the river Vorkuta. Georgy Chernov's father, the geologist Alexander Chernov (1877–1963), promoted the development of the Pechora coal basin, which included the Vorkuta fields. With this discovery the coal-mining industry started in the Komi ASSR. (At the time only the southern parts of the field were included in the Komi ASSR. The northern part, including Vorkuta, belonged to the Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Arkhangelsk Oblast.) In 1931 a geologist settlement was established by the coal field, with most of the workers being inmates of the Ukhta-Pechora Camp GULAG. The Vorkuta Gulag was established by Soviet authorities a year later in 1932 for the expansion of the GULAG system and the discovery of coal fields by the river Vorkuta, on a site in the basin of the Pechora River, located within the Komi ASSR of the Russian SFSR (present-day Komi Republic, Russia), approximately from Moscow and above the Arctic Circle. The town of Vorkuta was established on 4 January 1936 to support the camp, which was constructed to exploit the resources of the Pechora Coal Basin, the second largest coal basin in the Soviet Union. The camp was constructed mainly for Coal Mining and Forestry, There were approximately 132 sub-camps in the Vorkuta Gulag system during the height of its use in the Soviet prison system. Town status was granted to Vorkuta on November 26, 1943. Vorkutlag, 1932-1962 in 1937 the construction of the Pechora Mainline started, the new railway was an addition to the Northern Railway (Russia) which connected Moscow to Vorkuta, Konosha, Kotlas, the camps of Inta and other Northern parts of European Russia, the Railway was built by prisoners from the Gulag and was