Etymology

gulag

gu·lag
G2U1L1A1G2

Today it means: Also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s). Full definition →

Russian ГУЛА́Г
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gulag · noun, verb1

  1. Russian · borrowed fromГУЛА́Г
  2. English todaygulag

Borrowed from Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG), the acronym of Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj, “Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps”), the government agency in charge of the Soviet Union’s network of forced labour camps, which was established in 1918 and formally abolished in 1960: see GULAG.

GULAG · proper noun, noun2

  1. Russian · borrowed fromГУЛА́Г
  2. English todayGULAG

Borrowed from Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG), the acronym of Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj, “Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps”): see the definition.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.