The Gulag Archipelago

Black Maria is the name given to the darkened trucks and vans which the authorities used to round up members of the public.

The Bluecaps were the secret police who arrest many people in The Gulag Archipelago. The name is a reference to the blue hats worn by the police officers. These hats were inherited from the Tsar’s own secret police, though the Bluecaps practiced a graver and more constant form of violence which distinguishes them from their forebears. In Solzhenitsyn’s view, the only resemblance between the Soviet and Tsarist police is the color of the cap on their heads.

The Bolsheviks were a Russian political party which rose to power in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Led by Vladimir Lenin, the party was influenced by writings of Karl Marx and sought to institute a communist government in Russia by overthrowing the Tsar. After an internal political struggle and the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks became the only political party in the newly-formed Soviet Union.

Bourgeoisie is a term referring to a specific social class, typically equivalent to the middle class. The bourgeoisie are usually relatively wealthy and have privileged access to financial and cultural capital. In Marxist thought, the bourgeoisie are defined in opposition to the deprived working class (or proletariat).

Cheka is an abbreviation for the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, a secret police force formed in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Though the Cheka were eventually replaced by a string of secret police organizations such as the GPU, the OGPU, and the NKVD, the term Cheka was used to refer to all secret police organizations in the Soviet Union. In The Gulag Archipelago, the Cheka are responsible for arresting people to be thrown into the labor camps. Their methods were often violent and concerned only with meeting internal targets for arrests.

The Russian Civil War lasted from 1917 until 1923. In the months immediately after the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups tried to gain control of Russian society. They were opposed by forces loyal to the Tsarist monarchy, capitalists, rival revolutionaries, and groups funded by Western powers such as Great Britain, France, and the United States of America. The Red Army of the revolutionaries eventually triumphed and took control of Russia, allowing the Bolsheviks to attempt to institute a communist society.

Communism is a political theory proposing that society be organized in such a way that property is owned by everyone within the society, allowing each person to contribute in accordance to their ability and to receive the benefits of the society in accordance to their needs. Developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, communism advocates for a classless society in which workers own the means of production (such as factories). Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks based their ideology on communism and sought to establish a communist society in the Soviet Union.

The Gulag is the name given to a system of labor camps established in the Soviet Union from the late 1920s until the mid-1950s. Solzhenitsyn claims that millions of people were sent to the Gulag during Stalin’s office (as well as many before and after Stalin). Of these millions of people, many died and most were tortured, starved, or abused in some fashion. The Gulag Archipelago seeks to explain the intricacies of the Gulag system.

A labor camp is the term given to a prison camp in which the inmates carried out forced labor. The Gulag was a type of labor camp, in which inmates were forced to build infrastructure projects to benefit the Soviet Union.

The NKVD was a Soviet secret police organization and a successor to the Cheka. Like the Cheka, its members were responsible for the arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment of many people in the Soviet Union. They were renowned for their violent methods, particularly under the control of Lavrentiy Beria.

Proletariat is a term referring to the working class, particularly in Marxist ideology. In Marxism and communism, the key definition of proletariat workers is that they do not own the means of production (such as factories). As such, they are forced to sell their labor. Marxists and communists view this imbalance of power as unfair and seek to build a society in which such class differences are removed.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 (also known as the October Revolution) was a social uprising in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party, which aimed to establish a communist government in the then-monarchy. The Revolution took place following decades of unrest and civil resentment. Tsar Nicholas II and his family were removed from power and executed. Following a Civil War, the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary parties took power. Eventually, the Bolsheviks consolidated power under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin.

SMERSH was a counterintelligence agency based in the Soviet Union during World War II. The agency’s goal was to prevent infiltration in the Soviet Union by spies from Nazi Germany. The agency also sought out any ‘anti-Soviet’ activity, which led to many Russians being sent to the Gulag, often on unsubstantiated charges.

The Soviet Union (also known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the USSR) was a socialist state which existed from 1922 to 1991. The territory of the Soviet Union covered large parts of Asia and Europe, largely based in Russia and the surrounding countries. The Soviet Union was established in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and continued until 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Tsar is the title given to a ruling Russian monarch before 1917. The word derives from the Latin word for emperor, Caesar. The feminine equivalent of Tsar is Tsarina. The final Tsar of Russia was Nicholas II, who was ousted and executed during the Russian Revolution.

Urki is a Russian slang word for criminal or thief. Urki were placed in the Gulag system alongside political prisoners. Whereas the political prisoners were arrested and sentenced on flimsy premises, many of the urki were members of criminal organizations. These career criminals had their own codes of honor and their own culture within the prison system of the Soviet Union.