25,000 people were rounded up, and 6,200 of those people were chosen to move to Nazino Island, around 500 miles North of Tomsk. These settlers were sent to the island without tools, shelter, clothes or food. The only provision given to the settlers was flour, but they had no utensils to cook the flour.
By the time the boat reached the island, 27 people were already dead. During the first snowy night, 300 more people passed away. When those surviving awoke in the morning, they realized that they needed to fight for survival. Many settlers mixed flour with dirty river water, which essentially acted as a poison. Those who drank the water quickly suffered at the hand of dysentery.
Those who tried to escape the island on small rafts were washed ashore dead, or never heard from again. Within a few days, bodies littered the barren wasteland. People became desperate. So desperate, that just after 3 days after landing, the first acts of cannibalism began to happen. Despite this, the Soviet Union kept sending settlers to the island.
Just one month after sending people to the island, the Soviets decided to pull the plug on their special settlement. They removed anyone who was strong enough to walk. Two thirds of the settlers had died, and the reports from those who did survive are some of the most horrific you will ever hear.
