15 Facts About Naftaly Frenkel

Naftaly Aronovich Frenkel was a Soviet security officer and member of the Soviet secret police.

The given name Naftaly Frenkel is of Hebrew origin, as are the roots of the patronymic Aronovich.

Naftaly Frenkel's prisoner registration card states clearly that he was born in Haifa, then part of the Ottoman Empire.

Naftaly Frenkel was sentenced to 10 years' hard labor at Solovki.

Naftaly Frenkel rose rapidly from prisoner to staff member on the strength of his proposal to the camp administration that they link inmates' food rations to their rate of production, the proposal known as nourishment scale.

How exactly Naftaly Frenkel transformed himself from prisoner to camp commander is mysterious.

Naftaly Frenkel himself claimed that he was whisked off to Moscow to discuss his ideas with Joseph Stalin and Lazar Kaganovich, one of Stalin's closest associates.

Again, the truth is unclear: records show that Naftaly Frenkel met Stalin in the 1930s and was protected by Stalin during the Party Great Purge years; however, no record extant has been found of any meeting in the 1920s.

Meanwhile, the camp administration submitted regular reports to the OGPU about Naftaly Frenkel in glowing terms:.

Naftaly Frenkel emerged as one of the most influential Solovetsky commanders.

Naftaly Frenkel's reputation is controversial: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn claims that Frenkel personally invented the notorious you-eat-as-you-work system, known as the nourishment scale, which destroyed weaker prisoners in weeks and would later cause uncounted casualties; on the other hand, a wide range of Russian and Western historians dismiss the many stories of Frenkel's omnipotence as legend.

The perception that the Solovetsky camps under Naftaly Frenkel were profitable was shared by Stalin: Stalin's preference for prison labour over ordinary labor can be found in Stalin's continuing interest throughout his life in the intimate details of camp administration.

Naftaly Frenkel used the same methods as he had in SLON as well as many of the same prisoner-slaves who were brought to the canal works from the Solovetsky camp.

Naftaly Frenkel was awarded the Order of Lenin three times.

In 2004, Leonid stated that after his break with Vladimir, Naftaly Frenkel became the main paternal figure in his life.