Escaping the Gulags

The Gulag system of Soviet Russia was a vast network of forced labor and concentration camps that operated primarily from the 1930s to the 1950s. Comprising internment camps, forced labor sites, and psychiatric facilities, it was intimately tied to the Soviet state's efforts at industrialization and punishment. Known mainly through Western accounts and firsthand prisoner stories, the Gulag has become a symbol of brutality, exile, and political repression in both Soviet and global consciousness.