Katorga

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Katorga (Russian: ка́торга, IPA: [ˈkatərɡə]; from medieval and modern Greek: κάτεργον, romanized: katergon, lit. 'galley') was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire^[1] and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union).

Prisoners were sent to remote penal colonies in vast uninhabited areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East where voluntary settlers and workers were never available in sufficient numbers. The prisoners had to perform forced labor under harsh conditions.