Introduction Summary

The introduction gives a brief history and account of the Gulag system and situates it within the larger context of concentration camps globally. The acronym GULAG stands for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, which translates to "Main Camp Administration." Generally, however, this acronym came to stand for not only the administration of the Russian camps but also the entire system of Soviet slave labor from the 1910's through the 1980's. Even more broadly, it represented the entire repressive Soviet system and its arrests, forced labor, exiles, and deaths.

The Gulag began shortly after the Russian Revolution in 1917, and by 1921 there were eighty-four forced labor camps in various parts of the USSR. From 1929 to 1953, estimates indicate that around 18 million individuals passed through the system, with the total number of prisoners around two million at any given time. While the system of mass forced labor gradually disappeared...