How did The Gulag Archipelago describe the Soviet prison-camp system?

In The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn provides an exhaustive literary and historical record of the Soviet prison-camp system, which he characterizes as a vast, irrational network of terror directed against the regime's own population.12

Solzhenitsyn employs the metaphor of an "archipelago" to describe these camps, depicting them as a chain of islands scattered throughout the sea of Soviet civil society, stretching from the Bering Strait to the Bosporus. The work documents the systemic brutality of the regime through a combination of dispassionate historical exposition, the author's own experiences during eight years of detention, and the personal testimonies of other inmates.12

The narrative details the entire process of victimization—from arrest, interrogation, and conviction to transport and imprisonment—covering the period from 1918 to 1956. By compiling these accounts, Solzhenitsyn sought to create a permanent testimonial to the atrocities of the Stalinist era, ultimately challenging the legitimacy of the Soviet system and forcing a global reckoning with the reality of its forced-labour camps.12