noun
gulag
GOO-lahg
noun
1
The Soviet system of forced-labor camps and prisons, especially under Stalin.
"Millions of people passed through the gulag system between the 1930s and 1950s."
2
Any prison camp used to hold political prisoners, or by extension a place of harsh political repression.
"Critics called the remote detention center a modern-day gulag."
How to Use Gulag
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe Soviet forced-labor camp system, or loosely, any brutal system of political imprisonment.
When to use it
Often used figuratively and with strong political charge outside its historical Soviet context.
Word Forms
gulaged past tense, gulagged past tense, gulags plural, gulags singular
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Millions of people passed through the _____ system between the 1930s and 1950s.
Etymology
Borrowed from the Russian acronym ГУЛАГ (GULAG), for the Soviet agency that ran the forced-labor camp network from 1918 to 1960.