zek
/zɛk/noun
Elementary
1
A prisoner at a Russian prison, especially (historical) at a Soviet labour camp.
“Every prisoner who recants is a potential influence on other zeks to do likewise.”
“There are the zeks, the survivors of the gulags, some honest about their experiences, others still deluded or traumatised decades later.”
From Russian зэ́к (zɛ́k), probably representing a pronunciation of з/к (z/k), Soviet abbreviation of заключённый каналоармеец (zaključónnyj kanaloarmejec, “prisoner member of the [White Sea–Baltic] Canal army”).
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