alexander solzhenitsyn introduced the expression "camps of extermination by labour" in his non-fiction work "the gulag archipelago". in the book, solzhenitsyn argues that the soviet union beat its enemies by making them work as prisoners on big state-run projects (like the white sea-baltic canal, quarries, remote railroads, and urban development projects) under terrible conditions. roy medvedev comments: "the penal system in the kolyma and in the camps in the north was deliberately designed for the extermination of people." alexander nikolaevich yakovlev writes that stalin was the "architect of the gulag system for totally destroying human life."