gulag

[ goo-lahg ]

noun

, (sometimes initial capital letter)

1. the system of forced-labor camps in the Soviet Union.
2. a Soviet forced-labor camp.
3. any prison or detention camp, especially for political prisoners.

Gulag

/ ˈɡuːlæɡ /

noun

1. (formerly) the central administrative department of the Soviet security service, established in 1930, responsible for maintaining prisons and forced labour camps
2. not capital any system used to silence dissents

gulag

1. A system of prison camps inside the former Soviet Union used for political prisoners. Under Joseph Stalin , millions of prisoners in these camps died from starvation and maltreatment. This system was given worldwide attention in the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn . Gulag is an acronym in Russian of the name meaning Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gulag¹

1970–75; < Russian Gulág, acronym from Glávnoe upravlénie ispravítelʾno-trudovýkh lageréĭ Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps

Word History and Origins

Origin of gulag¹

C20: from Russian G ( lavnoye ) U ( pravleniye Ispravitelno-Trudovykh ) Lag ( erei ) Main Administration for Corrective Labour Camps

Example Sentences

It could be a thoughtless joke, reading a banned book, harboring migrants marked for deportation, impeding untrammeled “drill-baby-drill” resource extraction, or attending an underground reproductive health clinic that sends us to the new Trump gulag.

From Salon

"Just a few weeks ago, I was absolutely certain I would die in Putin's gulag," he told the Washington Post on Wednesday.

From BBC

“The fear and terror were overwhelming. I could accept my own death, but I could not bear the thought of my family being dragged to a gulag,” he says.

From BBC

Divorcing education from philosophical, political and social ambitions creates a culture in which people view public-health measures during a pandemic as stepping stones to the gulag.

From Salon

Ordering him to pay up is somehow or other equivalent to being killed in an arctic gulag.

From Salon

Related Words

• gas chamber
• gulag
• internment camp
• prison camp