"Atlas of the Gulag: Kolyma" is a continuation of a series of publications on key facts, dates, and events in the history of the Gulag.

Kolyma will forever remain in the public consciousness as a symbol of the Gulag and slave labor. The state-owned Dalstroy Trust, created to develop the territories of Russia's Far Northeast, used forced labor from its very first days. Kolyma camp inmates explored and extracted the region's natural resources, building roads, settlements, processing plants, and cities.

The harsh climate, the incredibly beautiful nature, and the vast gold-bearing territory are interspersed in our minds with unfreedom, lawlessness, forced labor, and the intolerable living conditions of hundreds of thousands of prisoners.