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

Over the course of a few months, Abrego Garcia has been in at least three immigration detention facilities, one criminal facility, and a foreign gulag entirely unauthorized to receive U.S. detainees, all while the government has failed at every attempt to establish a clear legal basis for his detention.

From Slate

Reuveni was suspended — and then fired — because he admitted, truthfully, that a man sent to a gulag in El Salvador was deported in violation of a court order and that he did not know the legal basis for that decision.

From Salon

To be fair, prominent Cuomo-centric Democrats like Bill Clinton and James Carville and Rep. Jim Clyburn and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand — the last of whom appeared on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show” two days after Mamdani’s victory and strongly implied that he was a supporter of Hamas terrorism and “global jihad” — are not literally calling for him to be “denaturalized” as a U.S. citizen and deported to some foreign gulag, as a few right-wing Republicans have done.

From Salon

Or for that matter, consider Josef Stalin, who was patently less charismatic than the German dictator, yet was worshipped by countless Russians — along with millions of foreigners who should have known better — and whose death occasioned a paroxysm of public weeping that, according to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, even extended to inmates of the Siberian gulag.

From Salon

“People should realize like that artists that make music, and audiences listen to music, may soon be censured. You can be imprisoned, thrown into a gulag. You cannot take those freedoms to be able to say what you want, sing what you want, listen to what you want for granted,” Morello told The Times.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• gas chamber 
• internment camp 
• prison camp