The Conveyor

The basic N.K.V.D. method for obtaining confessions and break­ing the accused man was the "conveyor" - continual interrogation by relays of police for hours and days on end. As with many pheno­mena of the Stalin period, it had the advantage that it could not easily be condemned by any simple principle. Clearly, it amounted to unfair pressure after a certain time, and as actual physical torture later still: but when ? No absolutely precise answer could be given. But, at any rate, after even twelve hours, it is extremely un­comfortable. After a day, it becomes very hard. And after two or three days, the victim is actually being physically poisoned by fatigue. It was 'as painful as any torture'.57 In fact, we are told though some prisoners had been known to resist torture, it was almost unheard-of for the conveyor not to succeed if kept up long enough. One week is reported as enough to break almost anybody.58 A recent description by a Soviet woman writer who experienced it speaks of seven days without sleep or food, the seventh standing up - ending in physical collapse. This was followed by a five-day interrogation of a milder type, in which she was allowed three hours' rest in her cell, though sleep was still forbidden.59