Surely more than once in films or TV shows you have heard the word "go-go". This is a prison guard, overseer, employee of a closed institution - according to the authors of explanatory dictionaries. But few know exactly where this concept came from. In fact, there are several options and versions that explain the meaning of this word. Let's consider each in more detail.
Rotary Wrench
The first version is related to keys. The prison inspector or overseer, wandering through the corridors of the prison institution, always had with him a large bunch of keys. It is believed that the guard is a person who constantly rotates, shakes with keys. The jargon word Turnkey means "shaking keys" or "rolling keys."
Some believe that this is just a banal translation from English. Others are sure that the theory with the keys is true, because the jailer has a lot of them, and they ring constantly, annoying the prisoners.
"Standing on the tower"
The second version is connected with the military personnel who guarded the territory of the zone, standing on a tower. Who is the guard in the zone? This is a jailer guarding the perimeter. While serving, these servants constantly had to look around, looking for prisoners who could escape. They looked around, or spun, or whirled around.
From this it turns out that "guard" is a synonym for a person who constantly looks around. According to some other versions, jailers also turned around because they stood in the cold, in the wind or in the rain. In the old days, the towers were not closed, with a plank floor. People there were banally cold, and they had to constantly move from place to place. And since this very place on the observation tower was very small, it was more likely that they were simply spinning in a confined space.
The prisoners of the soldiers on the observation towers were not particularly fond of. “Vertuhai” is a word that was then very contemptuous and derogatory. Earners earned good money on parcels and transfers for prisoners. They were obliged not only to share their belongings, but also to additionally pay people on the tower so that they would allow them to pick up the gears thrown through the fence. The “parcel business” in ancient prisons was very lucrative.
The jailer is a rather broad concept. These could be people who served inside the zone. This was the name of both the commanders and ordinary soldiers who walked along the corridors and looked after the behavior of the prisoners. The jailer is a generalized word, but the guard is a specific person standing on the observation tower, on whom the fate of the programs for the convicted depended.
"Loudly screaming"
The third version is very similar to the second. She is also associated with soldiers on the tower. It is only believed that the word "vertuhai" has a twofold meaning. On the one hand - to spin in the cold, looking around and at the same time controlling the possibility of the prisoner's escape. On the other hand, “high” in the jargon of convicts means “screaming, haiti” of someone. That is, the soldiers on the towers not only spun, but also shouted loudly if someone tried to escape.
Both options are associated with turntables on observation towers. But for one translation, the word “spin” is important, and for another version, “shout-haiti”.
"Vertuhai" is a convict
According to people who worked for many years in places not so distant, they never heard that inveterate inmates, knowing the laws and history of their world, called jailers guards. They can be “fascists”, “controllers”, “cops” or “garbage”, but not by anti-aircraft gunners. Why? The history of the word explains this fact.
During the era of Stalin's rule, during repressions and numerous prisons, at times when a huge number of repressed were imprisoned, the word "guard" did not mean a colony worker. They called prisoners that way.
At that time there was a catastrophic understaffing of guards in the camps. There were simply not enough people. Where did they get them from? Of course, from among the prisoners themselves. They were dressed in a special uniform, which differed from both the uniform of the prisoners and the overalls of the prison guards. To monitor and prevent riots on the territory of Russian prisons in 1939 alone, more than twenty-five thousand convicts worked as guards.
In the first years of the war, all the guards, who could for health reasons, went to the front. Inmates also went there at their own request. There were disabled people, women and the elderly. In the post-war period, the Gulag decided to restore the practice of self-protection of the colonies again. Prisoners working as jailers were then allowed two-week leave, a greater number of broadcasts and visits with relatives. However, neglect of the service was unacceptable. For this, they could not only return to general mode, but also extend the term.
"Constantly looking back"
Their work was nervous. On the one hand, it’s necessary to please the bosses, not to miss something important and not to fall inadvertently. On the other hand, when returning to work in their huts after work, it was important to be on the alert, who suddenly “pushed to the peak” for work on the “alien” side. So self-guards walked, constantly looking back, or "whirling around." Gradually, the word "stuck", and they began to call them nothing more than a guard.