Soviet Union The Norilsk uprising was a major strike by Gulag inmates in Gorlag, a MVD special camp for political prisoners, and later in the two camps of Norillag [ITL], Norilsk, USSR, now Russia, in the summer of 1953, shortly after Joseph Stalin's death.

The preconditions for the uprising can be seen as the following: the arrival of waves of prisoners to the Gorlag, who had participated in the uprisings of 1952, the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953, and the fact that the amnesty that followed his death only applied to (non-political) criminals and convicts with short prison terms, the percentage of which was very low in Gorlag.

All categories of inmates took part in the uprising, with the leading roles played by former military men and participants of national liberation movements of western Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Georgia.

For this reason, the term "Uprising of the Spirit"[4] was suggested, as a form of nonviolent protest against the Gulag system.

[1] An account of life in the Norlisk Gulag, and the uprising, can be found in the memoirs of inmate Danylo Shumuk.