Yenisseylag (occasionally you may also come across the abbreviation Yenlag) must not get mixed up with the Yonlag (or Ionlag in the Murmansk region), the Yenissey-railroad camp (503rd Stroyka), or the Yenisseystroy (= Yenissey construction complex).
Apart from this, it is necessary to differentiate between these three camps.
"The first" Yenisseylag
In the 1930s "Yenisseylag" meant (and comprised) the complete locally subordinated camp system (later, from 1935, named UITLK = Administration of the Reform Labour Camps and Colonies of the UNKVD (= Administration of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)).
"The second" Yenisseylag
In 1940 the Yenisseylag was segregated from the UITLK of the UNKVD and changed into a separate camp structure with double subordination - regionally as well as centrally (GULPC = Main Camp Administration of Industrial Construction).
This Yenisseylag constructed factories, such as the spirit factories and the hydroelectric stations in Krasnoyarsk and Ust-Abakan (Chakassia), the hydroelectric station in Kansk, which was taken over from the Kraslag in 1941, as well as the metal refinery in Krasnoyarsk (Factory N 169).
In this camp the prisoners there reached 12000 in number, however, political prisoners did not represent the majority.
In 1941 this Yenisseylag with its independent structure was abolished, but its name - as in the 1930s - was obviously used again for a camp system with local subordination.
"The third" Yenisseylag
Between 1947 and 1953 the Yenisseylag operated as SGU (= Special Main Directorate for non-ferrous Metallurgy). Its camp administration (as in the previous case) was situated in Krasnoyarsk, but the camp itself, its zones basically, were an appendage of the "Yenissey Gold Trust", situated almost completely in the North-Yenissey district, North-East of Yenisseysk.
The central zone was situated in the settlement of Sovrudnik (district centre, today North Yenisseysk) at the gold mine, and all the other camp zones, spread all over the district, provided this mine with timber. The camp sub-sector of Teya served as a transit base on the way from Yenisseysk to Sovrudnik, when, in winter, they used the frozen river as connecting road.
Apart from the 4th brick-works zone (on the upper tributary of the Basaikha River) there obviously were no other camp sub-sectors of the Yenisseylag in Krasnoyarsk.
Probably not more than 10000 have gone through this camp, among which the share of political prisoners roughly came to 10-20%.