History of the Gulag (2004 Pulitzer Prize) is the first systematic work devoted to the chronology, causes and consequences of the development of the repressive apparatus of the Soviet Union and the system of concentration camps as a component of it. Based on the facts, the author proves that the system of Soviet punitive labor camps was an unprecedented in scale and cruelty instrument of exploitation, oppression and extermination by the communist authorities of the peoples of the Soviet Union. Ann Applebom draws on both already known published evidence and the results of her own large research work in the archives of the former Soviet Union.