[[File:Olkhon Island gulag.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Remains of a Soviet gulag, Olkhon Island, Russia.]]
The '''Gulag''' is the extensive network of prison camps used in the Soviet Union and other socialist societies to imprison people who opposed [[Marxism]] or failed to live up to [[Socialist]] principles. It is an acronym for Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps, spelled G.U.L.A.G. Corrective labor is intended for [[politically incorrect]] action, words, or thinking.
The name derives from an acronym for the Chief Directorate of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies, ''Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii'' (Russian: ''Главное управление лагерей и мест заключения''), and became well known by its use in the title of the compilation of personal historical accounts by [[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]] ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]''.