Gulag
/ˈɡuːlæɡ/noun
A system of forced-labor camps operated by the Soviet government, or any individual camp in that system.
Did you know?Gulag began as the abbreviation of a Soviet government department, but English eventually transformed the administrative acronym into a common noun for the entire camp system.
Etymological Timeline
1930
Russian
ГУЛАГ (GULAG)
“Initialism for Главное управление лагерей, meaning “Main Administration of Camps””
1930s
Russian
ГУЛАГ
“The Soviet administrative directorate responsible for a large network of forced-labor camps”
1940s
English
Gulag
“A name used in English-language reporting for the Soviet camp system”
1950s–1960s
English
gulag
“An increasingly familiar term for Soviet forced-labor camps and their system of detention”
1973
Russian/English
Архипелаг ГУЛАГ / The Gulag Archipelago
“Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s influential work portraying the camp system as a vast “archipelago” spread across the Soviet Union”
Modern English
English
gulag
“The historical Soviet camp system, or figuratively a harsh forced-labor prison system”
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