Details

Subject(s)

• Political prisoners—Soviet Union—History [Browse]
• Prisons—Soviet Union—History [Browse]
• Internment camps—Soviet Union [Browse]

Publisher

• Oxford University Press [Browse]

Series

Very short introductions [More in this series]

Summary note

"A vast system of prisons, camps, and exile settlements, the Gulag was one of the defining attributes of the Stalinist Soviet Union and one of the most heinous examples of mass incarceration in the twentieth century, combining the functions of a standard prison system with the goal of isolating and punishing alleged enemies of the Soviet regime. it stretched throughout the Soviet Union, from central Moscow to the farthest reaches of Siberia. From its creation in 1930 to its partial dismantling in the mid-1950s, approximately 25 million people passed through the Gulag. Prisoners and exiles were forced to work in brutal conditions, and millions perished. Although the majority of prisoners and exiles were released after Stalin's death, this was not an end to their struggles. Survivors attempted to reintegrate themselves into a Soviet political, social, and economic system that was hardly welcoming. Although some former prisoners wrote or spoke about their experiences in the years and decades after release, it was not until after the collapse of the Soviet Union that a full reckoning became possible." -- Provided by publisher.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographic references (pages 117-128) and index.

Contents

• What was the Gulag?
• The origins and evolution of the Stalinist Gulag
• The people of the Gulag
• Survival, illness, and death
• Economics and labor in the Gulag
• After the Stalinist Gulag.

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ISBN

• 9780197548226
• 0197548229 ((paperback))

OCLC

1374423143

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