katorga

From Russian ка́торга (kátorga, “penal servitude”).

katorga (countable and uncountable, plural katorgas)

1. Penal servitude in a Russian or Soviet labour camp.
   • 1912, Alexander Berkman, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist:

     Sentenced to ten years of hard labor in the Siberian mines, he defied the Russian tyrant by his funeral oration at the grave of Dmokhovsky, his boldness resulting in an additional fifteen years of katorga.

   • 1991, Alan Wood, The History of Siberia: from Russian conquest to revolution:

     However, brutal floggings, increased terms of katorga, starvation diets, permanent chaining to a wheelbarrow and other fearsome sanctions failed to staunch the flow.

   • 2007, Edward Crankshaw, Cracks in the Kremlin Wall:

     Under the Bolsheviks there was going to be an end to the katorga.

2. A Tsarist or Soviet labour camp.

Borrowed from Russian ка́торга (kátorga), from Byzantine Greek κάτεργον (kátergon, “galley; penal labor”), from Ancient Greek κάτεργος (kátergos).

• IPA^(key): /kaˈtɔr.ɡa/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔrɡa
• Syllabification: ka‧tor‧ga

katorga f

1. (historical, Soviet Union) katorga (penal servitude in a Russian or Soviet labour camp)
2. chore

• katorga in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• katorga in Polish dictionaries at PWN

katorga f (plural katorgas)

1. (historical) katorga (penal servitude in a Russian or Soviet labour camp)
2. (historical) katorga (a Tsarist or Soviet labour camp)