since I read the Gulag Archipelago. Awful.
One difference back then was that it took place under the umbrella of well-established totalitarianism where everybody was, as you point out, under the thumb of the government. I've heard that there was also a lot of snitching in the USSR.
Another factor IMO is that I believe the Gulags were often out in Siberia. Even if a person could escape the Gulag, where could they go in a country almost twice the size of the next largest country? And how would they get anywhere? And how many other countries spoke Russian? All that would seem to severely limit one's options even without heavy enforcement.
Many of the immigrants in the U.S., on the other hand, obviously have experience with migrating across borders and evading capture. Thus the need for more troops to keep them in place.
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