Gulag
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The Gulag was a system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word Gulag originally referred only to the division of the Soviet secret police that was in charge of running the forced labor camps from the 1930s to the early 1950s during Joseph Stalin's rule, but in English literature the term is popularly used for the system of forced labor throughout the Soviet era. The abbreviation GULAG (ГУЛАГ) stands for "Гла́вное Управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х ЛАГере́й", but the full official name of the agency changed several times.
A punishment cell block in one of the subcamps of Vorkutlag, 1945
Genrikh Yagoda (middle) inspecting the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal, 1935. Behind his right shoulder is a young Nikita Khrushchev.
The fence at the old Gulag camp in Perm-36, founded in 1943, turned into a museum. Many Ukrainian nationalists were repressed and held at this camp.
Central shop in Norilsk built by prisoners of the Norillag
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1991.
Ministry of Internal Affairs headquarters in Moscow