gulag
Also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially…Also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s).
» Fyodor spent ten years in a gulag.
Meaning
3 senses(historical)Also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s).
Gulag, Gulag, GULag
ГУЛА́ГGULÁG, ГУЛа́гGULág, Гула́гGulág
ГУЛА́ГHULÁH, ГУТА́БHUTÁB, гула́гhuláh
(broadly)A prison camp, especially one used to hold political prisoners.
a Russian prison camp for political prisoners
(also, broadly, figuratively)A place where, or political system in which, people with dissident views are routinely oppressed.
гулагgulag, ГУЛАГGULAG
Examples
4 sentencesFyodor spent ten years in a gulag.
Tom managed to escape from a gulag in Siberia.
The Russian prison system, known as the Gulag, was a very brutal place.
Stalin studied Esperanto at one point, but in his later years, he had Esperanto speakers executed, exiled, or sent to gulags.
Translations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 2
By meaning 1
Origin
Borrowed from Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG), the acronym of Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-тBorrowed from Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG), the acronym of Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj, “Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps”), the government agency in charge of the Soviet Union’s network of forced labour camps, which was established in 1918 and formally abolished in 1960: see GULAG.
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