About the book: 2011 / This book brings to the light of day what has been hidden from our eyes for a long time. The talented Latvian young man Eduard Berzin, an artist and architect by training, was seduced by the KGB service. In 1931, Stalin approved him as director of the secret trust Dalstroy. With the help of tens of thousands of prisoners, Berzin built Magadan and extracted 110 tons of gold from the Kolyma mines. A monument to Berzin stands in Magadan on the site of the first prison camp. Many of the documents on which the book is based were identified by the author and are being published for the first time. It also contains memoirs of Berzin’s widow and daughter.