Joseph Stalin's gulag system was a network of labour camps across the USSR, which were, from 1930, used to detain criminals and anyone considered enemies of the state. A wide spectrum of Soviet society found themselves deported to these remote camps, including farmers who resisted Stalin's collectivisation of agriculture, workers who failed to meet up to Stalin's Five-Year Plans for Industry, intellectuals, scientists, religious leaders, and Communist Party rivals. The Soviet economy came to depend on what was effectively a form of slave labour where inmates worked in mines, lumber yards, and on state projects like new roads and canals. The gulag camps, where millions died of starvation and overwork, continued to operate until 1960.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/3025/stalins-gulag-system/.
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