gulag

noun

gu·​lag ˈgü-ˌläg 

often capitalized

: the penal system of the Soviet Union consisting of a network of labor camps

also : labor camp sense 1

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

He’s detained by the authorities, tortured, and sent to a gulag. —Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 24 Jan. 2023

The people who have those markers, who are seen as unsafe for a long time were being shipped off to a gulag of re-education centers. —CBS News, 4 Jan. 2023

The camps, known as penal colonies, are often former Soviet gulag prison camps and inmates are usually kept in crumbling, crowded barracks, sometimes with 50 to 60 sleeping in rows of bunks. —Patrick Reevell, ABC News, 12 Nov. 2022

Reed had developed what was likely tuberculosis in the gulag, and as concern for his health mounted, President Joe Biden relented and approved the swap. —Dallas News, 14 June 2022

They all were held in Mr. Etchecolatz’s gulag, prosecutors say, and six were never seen again by their families. —Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 5 July 2022

Or look at the man who, quite literally, wrote the book on the Soviet gulag. —Casey Michel, The New Republic, 4 Oct. 2022

Bleak canvases by Ukrainian painter Nikolai Getman — who turned his Siberian gulag years into art — adorn the walls. —Justin Wm. Moyer, Washington Post, 20 Sep. 2022

Takahisa’s film, based on real events, tells the story of a Japanese prisoner of war played by who battles to keep hope alive for himself and his fellow inmates in a Siberian gulag after his nation’s defeat in 1945. —Gavin Blair, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Sep. 2022

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Word History

Etymology

Russian, from Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'notrudovykh lagereĭ chief administration of corrective labor camps

First Known Use

1974, in the meaning defined above