Gulag

The Gulag was a system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union that operated from the 1930s to the early 1950s, during Joseph Stalin's rule, and was used as a major instrument of political repression. The camps housed both ordinary criminals and political prisoners, with a large number of whom were convicted by simplified procedures, and it is estimated that between 1.5 to 1.7 million prisoners perished in the camps between 1930 and 1953. The Gulag system was officially abolished in 1960, but the practice of sentencing convicts to penal labor continues to exist in the Russian Federation.learn more on wikipedia