Although Aldira did not maintain conventional concentration camps, and prisons and torture were officially outlawed, forced labor camps operated in the remote Siberian forests. These camps, known as Norik, were frequently compared to Soviet-style gulags and, in many cases, had originated from the repurposing of Soviet-era camp infrastructure after the Soviet government withdrew from the region. They were populated primarily by rebellious dissidents and stateless individuals classified as “social parasites,” who were sent there to be rendered “useful.”

  Conditions in the Noriks were markedly harsher than those of civilian life. On average, camp inmates worked twelve hours a day. Their tasks centered on the extraction of natural resources and their conversion into economic output, including work on hydroelectric power stations, dams, and the construction of port facilities along the Sea of Okhotsk. The material gains from this labor were substantial and were largely diverted to meet the needs of the military.

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  The existence of the Noriks was generally unknown to the public. The camps were deliberately located far from the densely populated southern provinces, remaining a concealed feature of the northern taiga. When individuals disappeared, official explanations typically cited death or unexplained absence, leaving even relatives unaware that the detainees were still alive. Those who eventually returned from the camps rarely spoke of their experiences, not only because of the punishment they had endured, but because they underwent extensive ideological reconditioning prior to release. Discussion of the Noriks was strictly forbidden; violating this taboo could result in reassignment to the camps themselves.