ГУЛАГ

Gulag (from the Russian ГУЛАГ: Главное Управление Исправительно— Трудовых Лагерей, "Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey", "The Chief Directorate [or Administration] of Corrective Labour Camps") was the branch of the Soviet internal police and security service that operated the penal system of forced labour camps and associated detention and transit camps and prisons. While these camps housed criminals of all types, the Gulag system has become primarily known as a place for political prisoners and as a mechanism for repressing political opposition to the Soviet state. Though it imprisoned millions, the name became familiar in the West only with the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 1973 The Gulag Archipelago, which likened the scattered camps to a chain of islands. See wikipedia:Gulag for more.

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  Gulag prisoners at work, 1936-1937
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  Ein Wachturm des "Projekt 503" im Plan Stalins, eine Eisenbahnlinie durch die Tundra bauen zu lassen, die den Norden Sibiriens erschließen sollte. Etwa eine Flugstunde von Turuchansk (65°51'N - 88°04'E) am Jenissei am noerdlichen Polarkreis entfernt.
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  Interior view of prisoners' house, 1936-1937
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  Ruins of the Camp Commandant’s office and guard house at Butugycheg tin mine