The Gulag was the Soviet Union's sprawling network of forced labor camps that imprisoned millions between 1930 and 1953. Under Joseph Stalin's rule, this system combined political repression with brutal economic exploitation. Approximately 14 million people passed through the labor camps and another 4 million through labor colonies during this period. Prisoners faced starvation rations, extreme weather, exhausting work quotas, and summary executions. Between 1.5 and 1.7 million prisoners died in