Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-Trudovykh Kolony

The Gulag, an acronym for Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-Trudovykh Kolony, was a system of Soviet labor camps, detention centers, and prisons that operated from the 1920s to the mid-1950s. At its peak, the Gulag held millions of political prisoners and criminals from the Soviet Union.12

The system expanded significantly during Joseph Stalin's collectivization of agriculture and his purges. Inmates included peasants, purged Communist Party members, military officers, ethnic minorities, and many innocent individuals. Prisoners endured harsh conditions, long working hours, and inadequate food, leading to tens of thousands of deaths annually. Estimates suggest between 1.2 and 1.7 million people died in the Gulag between 1918 and 1956. The Gulag began to shrink after Stalin's death in 1953 and was officially disbanded in the mid-1950s.2