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. It combined a standard prison system with the goal of
isolating and punishing alleged enemies of the Soviet regime. More than 25 million people
passed through the Gulag from its creation in 1930 to its dismantling in the 1950s. By
presenting both the everyday experiences of ordinary prisoners and the overall political and
economic background of the system The Gulag: A Very Short Introduction offers a succinct and
comprehensive study of the Gulag and its legacy in the former USSR.
