Gulaglistenⓘ (from the RussianГУЛАГ:ГлавноеУправление Исправительно— ТрудовыхЛагерей, "GlavnoyeUpravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykhLagerey", "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 ofAleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 1973The Gulag Archipelago, which likened the scattered camps to a chain of islands. Seewikipedia:Gulag for more.
