Source: B. P. Kurashvili, Istoricheskaia Logika Stalinizma (Moscow 1996, pp. 159–60).
Numbers of people sentenced for counter-revolutionary and particularly dangerous crimes, and type of penalty imposed. 1921–53.
| Years | total sentenced (persons) | death sent. | camps, colonies prisons | Exiled to* Exiled from | other measures |
| 1921 | 35829 | 9701 | 21724 | 1817 | 2587 |
| 1922 | 6003 | 1962 | 2656 | 166 | 1219 |
| 1923 | 4794 | 414 | 2336 | 2044 | – |
| 1924 | 12425 | 2550 | 4151 | 5724 | – |
| 1925 | 15995 | 2433 | 6851 | 6274 | 437 |
| 1926 | 17804 | 990 | 7547 | 8571 | 696 |
| 1927 | 26036 | 2363 | 12267 | 11235 | 171 |
| 1928 | 33757 | 869 | 16211 | 15640 | 1037 |
| 1929 | 56220 | 2109 | 25853 | 24517 | 3741 |
| 1930 | 208069 | 20201 | 114443 | 58816 | 14609 |
| 1931 | 180696 | 10651 | 105683 | 63269 | 1093 |
| 1932 | 141919 | 22728 | 73946 | 36017 | 29228 |
| 1933 | 239664 | 2154 | 138903 | 54262 | 44345 |
| 1934 | 78999 | 2056 | 59451 | 5994 | 11498 |
| 1935 | 267076 | 1229 | 185846 | 33601 | 46400 |
| 1936 | 274670 | 1118 | 219418 | 23719 | 30415 |
| 1937 | 0665 | 353074 | 429311 | 1366 | 6914 |
| 1938 | 554258 | 328618 | 205509 | 16342 | 3289 |
| 1939 | 63889 | 2552 | 54666 | 3783 | 2888 |
| 1940 | 71806 | 1649 | 65727 | 2142 | 2288 |
| 1941 | 75411 | 8011 | 65000 | 1200 | 1210 |
| 1942 | 124406 | 23278 | 88809 | 7070 | 5249 |
| 1943 | 78441 | 3579 | 68887 | 4787 | 1188 |
| 1944 | 75109 | 3029 | 70610 | 649 | 821 |
| 1945 | 123248 | 4252 | 116681 | 1647 | 668 |
| 1946 | 123294 | 2896 | 117943 | 1498 | 957 |
| 1947 | 78810 | 1105 | 76581 | 666 | 458 |
| 1948 | 73263 | – | 72552 | 419 | 298 |
| 1949 | 75125 | – | 64509 | 10316 | 300 |
| 1950 | 60641 | 475 | 54466 | 5225 | 475 |
| 1951 | 54775 | 1609 | 49142 | 3425 | 599 |
| 1952 | 28800 | 1612 | 25824 | 773 | 591 |
| 1953 (first half) | 8403 | 198 | 7894 | 38 | 273 |
| TOTAL | 4060306 | 799455 | 2634397 | 423512 | 215942 |
* The punishment of exile could take one of two forms. Ssylka refers to being exiled to a specific area and remaining there under police supervision, whether for a set number of years or for life. This was neither a camp nor a prison, but a ‘settlement’, where it was possible to live with one’s family in separate accommodation and perform paid work depending on local possibilities. Vysylka consisted in being banned from living in some particular location (Moscow, say, or Leningrad). Those so condemned could live and work anywhere else. Files on such persons would undoubtedly follow them to their new place of residence.