Russian camps and Italian dictionaries

The lexicon of Russian concentration camp literature translated into Italian hasn’t been studied yet, nor have its entries in Italian dictionaries been considered. Thе article analyses the entries of the words gulag and lager in the major Italian dictionaries. It is pointed out that their definitions in such dictionaries do not correspond to the meaning that gulag and lager have been taking on either in Russian concentration camp literature and memoirs or in scientific writings on this topic. It is observed, on the one hand, that in Italian lexicography the word gulag has taken on the meaning of “ one soviet forced labor camp”, which is unusual in Russian and in concentration camp literature translated into Italian. On the other hand, it can be noticed that lager exclusively refers to the German concentration camp system. This can be explained as a consequence of the ideological-political conditionings which were typical to postwar Italian history.