EATEN ALIVE Harrowing story of Stalin’s ‘Cannibal Island’ home to 6,000 prisoners who ate each other & hung human flesh from trees
One villager remembered the day a woman came into her home without her calves - only to find out they'd been chopped off and grilled
A TINY island in the middle of a Russian river was once the harrowing home to Stalin's chilling cannibal gulag.
Nazino Island, in Siberia's Ob river, saw thousands of USSR prisoners eating each other alive and hanging human flesh from trees.
Thousands of 'de-classed' Soviet citizens would be shipped off to Nazino Island
People would starve after only being given a few hundred grams of rye flour
Beggars, criminals, prostitutes and former priests were some of the people sent away to the island gulagCredit: YouTube
Dubbed the "Island of Death", the low-lying, swampy strip was a mere 1.9 miles long and less than a mile wide.
It became the bloody ground for horrific deaths that unfolded in a matter of weeks.
In May 1933, some 6,700 prisoners were forcibly relocated to Nazino Island, now Tomsk Oblast, in Russia.
Labelled as “socially harmful and declassed elements”, people like hardened criminals, profiteers, beggars, prostitutes and former priests were sent to frosty Siberia to work for Stalin's state.
Tasked with constructing a settlement and cultivating the land, people were also left with minimal supplies and tools in the island gulag.
For over a month, they were left to their own devices with no shelter or food apart from tiny rations of flour, which would be mixed with river water in a poor attempt to make porridge.
It didn't take long for some to cross the line and start eating their fellow prisoners.
And nearby villagers became the unwitting witnesses of the nightmare unfolding on the island.
One girl, who was just 13 at the time, recalled the horror death of a "beautiful young woman" after she was no longer under a guard's watch, Russia Beyond reported.
She said: "When he left, people grabbed the girl, tied her to a tree and stabbed her to death, eating everything they could. They were hungry and wanted to eat.
"All over the island, one could see human flesh being ripped, cut and hung on trees. The clearings were littered with corpses.”
Within 13 weeks, over 4,000 prisoners had perished or vanished, with many survivors suffering from poor health.
Those attempting to escape the horror island were met with lethal force from armed guards.
'Island of Death'
Upon arrival, the first batch of prisoners found themselves with no bedding or tools to make temporary shelter.
Just two days later, they were met with the below-zero temperatures and freezing rain.
Defenceless against the ruthless Siberian weather, people would sit around campfires and scour the island in the hopes of finding some bark and moss.
Some were also subjected to the violence of some of the guards, who beat them with their rifle butts.
And escape from that "island of death" was difficult since it was encircled by machine-gun crews who shot everyone who attempted to flee.
The cannibal gulag
Cannibalism started to go out of control on Nazino Island took just 10 days after prisoners were dumped there.
The first to cross the line were the hardened criminals among them, who formed gangs and terrorised the hundreds of others.