The Real Battle Royale - Nazino Island Tragedy (1933)

On May 18th 1933, on the direct orders of Stalin himself, 5000 men and women arrived at Nazino, a small isolated island on the River Orb, deep in the remote and barren wilderness of Western Siberia. Within a matter of weeks, 4000 of them would either just die from exposure, disappear, drown or be eaten.
This was the real life Battle Royale.

Copyright: DO NOT translate and re-upload our content on Youtube or other social media.

SIMPLE HISTORY MERCHANDISE

Get the Simple History books on Amazon:

T-Shirts

Simple history gives you the facts, simple!

See the book collection here:

Amazon USA

Amazon UK

Credit:
Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Script:
Sebastian Barendt
Conan White
Narrator:

Chris Kane

Sources
Cameron, S. (2018). The Hungry Steppe. Cornell University Press.
Gentes, A. A. (2011). “Completely Useless “: Exiling the Disabled to Tsarist Siberia. Sibirica, 10(2), 26-49.
Khlevniuk, O. V. (2004). The history of the Gulag: from collectivization to the great terror. Yale University Press.
Polian, P. (2003). Against their will: the history and geography of forced migrations in the USSR. Central European University Press.
Weiner, A. (2002). The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 32(3), 450-452.
Werth, N. (2007). Cannibal Island: death in a Siberian gulag (Vol. 2). Princeton University Press.
Wheatcroft, S. G. (2007). Agency and terror: Evdokimov and mass killing in Stalin's great terror. Australian Journal of Politics & History, 53(1), 20-43.
Wheatcroft, S. G. (2008). Lynne Viola. The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin's Special Settlements. New York: Oxford University Press. 2007
A. V. Bol’shakova, Sergei Krasil’nikov, B. P. Trenin, eds. Nazinskaia tragediia: Iz istorii zemli Tomskoi: Dokumental’noe nauchnoe izdanie (Tomsk: Nauka, 2002)

[EasyEighty-Eight]

“Sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.”

[cannonball]

Settler 1: "Comrade, lend me a hand making dinner"
Settler 2: "Sure, Comrade....wait...

[Based_n_Boredpilled]

Animators had some fun making this one as brutal as they could get away with.

[generalgrievous]

I live in Tomsk and actually never beard of this tragedy, It's quite surreal that it actually happened when you think about it. And it happened right in the place I call home

[T-]

The fact that most people will know this more as a ‘real life battle royale/squid game’ than the death of a near absurd amount of people in a brutal manner.

[indialouise]

Everyone saying Squid Game when this is CLEARLY Lord of the Flies

[yfireflyschannel]

Imagine how terrifying it is to be one of those people sent there.
You managed to survive it all and got rescued but you had trauma for years due to seeing
the terror of people killing each other.

[aa]

Their tolerance for incompetence is just amazing.

[aleksandarvil]

South Korea: **Makes Squid Game**

Stalin: _“AMATEURS!”_

[Kriegter]

"I don't like Stalin. He's too mean" - Lenin

Lenin I think Stalin was more than mean

[Orthane]

"Do you know of the tragedy of Nazino Island"

"No of course you wouldn't, it's not something the Communists would tell you about."

[brunocardoso]

Massacre performed by nazis = horrible tragedy

Massacre performed by soviets = dark humor, classical music, popular show reference

[RonZertnert]

I love that every time Simple History shows a gulag he always hides Sergei or Reznov in the background.
SECURE THE KEYS!

[PeterLiuIsBeast]

Actually just replace prisoners with high school children and it's actually similar enough in spirit to the original Battle Royale.

[chaosXPRT]

Under Communism, we're all equal. Some are just more equal than others

[Jnyy]

This is probably the saddest part of human history I've ever heard of. I've heard of many gruesome things but this tops it all for me. I feel overwhelmingly depressed now.

[Ajaws]

Stalin: *doing his absolute best to make sure communism is remembered as the worst thing ever*

[TheJediKnight]

Audience: "The Squid Game can always happen in a capitalist society"
USSR: "Hold my vodka"

[clutchmanwins]

And there are still people out there romanticising Stalin's leading

[rosaria]

All this due to Stalin's iron fist. And then people want to bring this back.