A recent study mapping the link between gulags and regional growth in Russia can teach us something about reviving our own left behind towns, writes economist Paul Ormerod

One of the first academic articles published by the American Economic Association in 2025 began, almost certainly for the first time ever in the history of this august body, with quotes from Lenin and Stalin.

The title of the paper, “Enemies of the People”, is a phrase which has entered the English lexicon. It was famously used by the Daily Mail to describe the Supreme Court judges who tried to block Brexit.

But its first use was in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, when Stalin began his project of liquidating his internal rivals in the Communist Party.

The terror escalated very rapidly. Many were shot, but a much greater number were sent to the labour camps, the notorious Gulag complex scattered all across the Soviet Union.

The paper may from this........

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