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

Examples of gulag in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Now that stores only sell clothes that have been slapped together from plastic sheeting and surgical staples in fast-fashion gulags, what used to be considered basic construction — stuff like finished seams and sturdy material — becomes downright luxurious in comparison. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 16 July 2024

Nikita Khrushchev’s Soviet Union was a murderous gulag. —Bryan C. Donohue, Baltimore Sun, 17 Apr. 2024

Around 200,000 Lithuanians were deported to the gulags during that period, or executed for taking up arms against the occupiers. —Tomas Dapkus, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2024

The World Wars, the gulags, the camps, the colonies, and so on—these dismal chapters of modernity essentially predate our protagonist’s agreeable personal experience of the political sphere. —Willing Davidson, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024

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