) | 1. | the system of forced-labor camps in the Soviet Union. |
| 2. | a Soviet forced-labor camp. |
| 3. | any prison or detention camp, esp. for political prisoners. |

A system of prison camps inside the former Soviet Union used for political prisoners. Under Joseph Stalin, millions of prisoners in these camps died from starvation and maltreatment. This system was given worldwide attention in the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Gulag is an acronym in Russian of the name meaning Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps.