So I working a project comparing the role of the gulag in the USSR with the role of the camp system in Nazi Germany. While drawing parralles I realised the aspect of starting out for imprisonment of key pollitical enemies was more of a common factor between Lenin's labour camps and the early SS camps in 1933 than with Stalin's gulag i.e the way Nazi's first used the camp system to imprison mostly communsits and social democrats Lenin used labour camps to imprison left wing rivals ( e.g anarchists ) people associated with the Tsar's rule the Whites during civil war.

But by the time the camps were expanded into the much larger gulag system rather than dealing with immediate pollitcal enemiesasd seem to have been altered so as to help Stalin imprison technical specialists for the 5 year plan and the "Kulaks" during collectivisation rather than actual politcal enemies.

Maybe I'm missing some key facts over here but does that mean allthough the camps were smaller during lenin's time they played a much bigger role in maintainance of power than the Gulag did under Stalin ?