gulag

English - English

Definition of gulag in English English dictionary

A generic name for the system of all Soviet prison camps

A prison camp

A gulag is a prison camp where conditions are extremely bad and the prisoners are forced to work very hard. The name gulag comes from the prison camps in the former Soviet Union. one of a group of prison camps in the former USSR, where conditions were very bad (Glavnoe Upravlenie Ispravitel'no-trudovykh Lagerei ). System of Soviet labour camps and prisons that from the 1920s to the mid-1950s housed millions of political prisoners and criminals. The term (an abbreviation of the Russian words for Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps) was largely unknown in the West until the 1973 publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. The Gulag consisted of hundreds of camps, under the control of the secret police, where prisoners felled timber, worked in the mines, or laboured on construction projects. At least 10% died each year from harsh working conditions, inadequate food, and summary executions. The Gulag reached its height in the years of collectivization of Soviet agriculture (1929-32), during Joseph Stalin's purges (1936-38), and immediately after World War II, shrinking only after Stalin's death in 1953. An estimated 15-30 million Russians died in the camps

a Russian prison camp for political prisoners

{i} prison or labor camp in former Soviet Union used for political prisoners; prison or forced labor camp for political dissenters

Related Terms

gulags

plural of gulag

Hyphenation

Gu·lag

Turkish pronunciation

gyuläg

Pronunciation

/ˈgyo͞olag/ /ˈɡjuːlæɡ/

Etymology

[ 'gü-"läg ] (noun.) 1974. From the Russian acronym ГУЛАГ: Главное управление исправительно-трудовых лагерей, Glávnoye upravléniye ispravítel’no-trudovýkh lageréi (translates to: Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps, Main Directorate for Places of Detention, Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps, etc.)