Abstract
Based on the memoirs of former prisoners of the Akmolinsk Camp of Wives of Traitors to the Motherland (ALZHIR), this article examines the characteristics of camp life, forms of labor, and the everyday experiences of women who found themselves behind barbed wire in the 1930s-1950s. Particular attention is given to the psychological aspects of forced separation from children, hunger, humiliation, and hard physical labor. The author emphasizes that despite these harsh conditions, women demonstrated spiritual resistance to the camp system through mutual support, engagement with literature, music, theater, and artistic creativity. These practices not only enabled many women to survive but also to preserve their human dignity. The author concludes that this study makes it possible to comprehend the scale of women's suffering during the period of political repression and their significance for historical memory.