World Prisons
All prisons

Kazakhstan

Karlag

Closed 1959Low
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit Karlag

Step-by-step guidance using the Kazakhstan system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of Karlag
Photo by File:Gulag Location Map.svg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • "АЛЖИР" тұтқыны Л. Френкельдің үстел шамы.jpg

    Photo by Muzaffar Turgunov via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

  • Kartegulagnr17.JPG

    Photo by Tosa1 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Number of prisoners in the Karlag camp over the years.png

    Photo by ZMCS2 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

  • Акмолинский лагерь жён изменников Родины памятник.JPG

    Photo by Tosa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Арка скорби в селе Акмол.jpg

    Photo by Tosa1 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • Жапондық әскери тұтқын Итагава Ацусидің құжаттары 1946 ж.jpg

    Photo by Muzaffar Turgunov via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

  • Ð¥. Мұратбековтың Бүкілодақтық коммунистік партия (большевиктер) билеті. 1972 ж.jpg

    Photo by Muzaffar Turgunov via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Background

Karlag (Karaganda Corrective Labor Camp, Russian: Карагандинский исправительно-трудовой лагерь, Карлаг) was one of the largest Gulag labor camps, located in Karaganda Oblast (now Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan), Kazakh SSR, USSR. It operated during 1930—1959.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

—

Current population

—

Occupancy

—

Year opened

1930

Closed 1959

Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

—

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1930

Region

—

Security level

—

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky
    Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky
    1900–1981 · entomologist

    Nikolay Vladimirovich Timofeev-Ressovsky (Russian: Николай Владимирович Тимофеев-Ресовский, romanized: Nikolay Vladimirovich Timofeyev-Resovskiy; 20 September [O.S.

  • Jānis Bankavs
    1886–1953 · politician
  • Mökärrämä Qorbanğalieva
    1904–1949 · radiologist

Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

—
Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Related facilities

All in Kazakhstan →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Karlag. Retrieved October 15, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/karlag
Chicago
"Karlag." World Prisons. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/karlag.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-karlag,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Karlag},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/karlag},
  urldate = {2026-10-15}
}