"In the early...years...the admissibility of torture..was openly debated. Judging by the subsequent course of events, the answer deduced was positive, although not universally so."  

Authorization For Torture vs Discretion  

 "...If..[at first]..some kind of formal documentation was required preliminary to torture, as well as specific permission for each case under investigation, then [later] in view of the extraordinary situation prevailing, interrogators were allowed to use ...torture...at their own discretion, and in accordance with the demands of their work quotas and the amount of time they were given."  

"..[later] such indiscriminate authorization was withdrawn, and once again written permission was required.. "  

Only Certain Prisoners   

"..Then [still later] certain categories of prisoners were established by decree for whom a broad range of torture was automatically permitted.... especially in those cases where an underground organization existed (or was suspected) that had to be completely uncovered, which meant obtaining the names of everyone involved from those already arrested." 3  

Techniques That Don't Leave Obvious Marks  

"Understanding that their superiors were taking precautions for self-protection, some of the rank-and-file interrogators tried to start off with milder methods, and even when they intensified them, they tried to avoid those that left obvious marks."  

"Indeed, the actual boundaries of human equilibrium are very narrow, and it is not really necessary to use a rack or hot coals to drive the average human being out of his mind. Let us try to list some of the simplest methods which break the will and the character of the prisoner without leaving marks on his body. "   4  

List of Milder Methods  

  "Let us begin with the psychological methods. These methods have enormous and even annihilating impact on rabbits who have never been prepared for prison suffering. And it isn't easy even for a person who holds strong convictions..."   

[text of original abbreviated here in this list]   

1. Night. At night, the prisoner..is more vulnerable
2. Persuasion in a sincere ton
3. Foul language can have a powerful effect on people who are well brought up, refined
4. Psychological contrast, sudden reversals of tone
5. Preliminary humiliation
6. Any method of inducing extreme confusion
7. Intimidation
8. The lie
9. Playing on one's affection for those one loved
10. Sound Effects
11. Tickling
12. Cigarette burns
13. Light effects
14. Continually being led to interrogation, then being sent back to the cell
15. The box
16. Being forced to sit for long periods
17. Kept in a pit
18.  Being forced to stay on one's knees
19. Forced to stand for long periods
20. Water deprivation
21. Sleeplessness
22. Assembly line of continuous interrogators
23. Bugs or insects
24. and 25. Punishment cells
26. Starvation
27. Beatings of a kind that leave no marks
28. Fingernails
29. Strait jacket
30. Bridling, also known as the swan dive.
[each of the above might be combined with others]  

"Is it necessary to go on with the list? What won't idle, well-fed, unfeeling people invent?"   5   

Notes 1,2,3  Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, Harper Paper  1973  page 99, Notes 4,5  ibid pages 103-116