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The Gulag, GULAG, or GULag (Russian: ГУЛАГ, ГУЛаг, an acronym for Гла́вное управле́ние лагере́й, Glávnoje upravlénije lageréj, "chief administration of the camps") was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labor camps set up by order of Vladimir Lenin, reaching its peak during Joseph Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s. English-language speakers also use the word gulag to refer to all forced-labor camps that existed in the Soviet Union, including camps that existed in the post-Lenin era.

The Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. The camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers of whom were convicted by simplified procedures, such as by NKVD troikas or by other instruments of extrajudicial punishment. In 1918–22, the agency was administered by Cheka, followed by the GPU (1922–23), OGPU (1923–34), later by the NKVD (1934–46), and in the final years by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). The Solovki prison camp, the first corrective labor camp constructed after the revolution, was established in 1918 and legalized by a decree, "On the creation of the forced-labor camps", on April 15, 1919.

The internment system grew rapidly, reaching a population of 100,000 in the 1920s. According to Nicolas Werth, the yearly mortality rate in the Soviet concentration camps strongly varied, reaching 5% (1933) and 20% (in the wartime years of 1942–1943) but dropping considerably in the post-war years (about 1 to 3% per year at the beginning of the 1950s). In 1956 the mortality rate dropped to 0.4%. The emergent consensus among scholars who utilize official archival data is that of the 18 million who were sent to the Gulag from 1930 to 1953, roughly 1.5 to 1.7 million perished there or as a result of their detention. Some historians question the reliability of such data and instead rely heavily on literary sources that come to higher estimations. Archival researchers have found "no plan of destruction" of the gulag population and no statement of official intent to kill them, and prisoner releases vastly exceeded the number of deaths in the Gulag. This can be partly attributed to the common practice of releasing prisoners who were either suffering from incurable diseases or near death.

Almost immediately following the death of Stalin, the Soviet establishment took steps in dismantling the Gulag system. A general amnesty was declared in the immediate aftermath of Stalin's death, though it was limited to non-political prisoners and political prisoners sentenced to no more than five years. Shortly thereafter Nikita Khrushchev was elected as First Secretary, initiating the processes of de-Stalinization and the Khrushchev Thaw, triggering a mass release and rehabilitation of political prisoners. The Gulag system ended definitively six years later on 25 January 1960, when the remains of the administration were dissolved by Khrushchev. The legal practice of sentencing convicts to penal labor, though restrained, was not fully abolished and continues to this day, although to a far more limited capacity, in the Russian Federation.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who survived eight years of Gulag incarceration, gave the term its international repute with the publication of The Gulag Archipelago in 1973. The author likened the scattered camps to "a chain of islands", and as an eyewitness he described the Gulag as a system where people were worked to death. In March 1940, there were 53 Gulag camp directorates (colloquially referred to simply as "camps") and 423 labor colonies in the Soviet Union. Many mining and industrial towns and cities in northern and eastern Russia and in Kazakhstan such as Karaganda, Norilsk, Vorkuta and Magadan, were originally blocks of camps built by prisoners and subsequently run by ex-prisoners.

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The Carlucci American International School of Lisbon (known as CAISL) is a prominent private international school in Linhó, Sintra, a wealthy suburb of Lisbon on the Portuguese Riviera. Founded in 1956, CAISL is the oldest American school in the Iberian Peninsula and the only U.S. State Department school in Portugal. It is named in honor of Frank C. Carlucci III, former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal and U.S. Secretary of Defense. Hillary Clinton, at the time First Lady of the United States, officially inaugurated CAISL's current campus in Linhó in 1998.

CAISL operates as a dual American and International Baccalaureate (IB) program and is one of Portugal's most expensive schools. CAISL's student population is largely international, with most students connected to diplomatic missions and embassies in Lisbon, followed by Portuguese nationals, and a sizable minority of Americans. CAISL has numerous partnerships with institutions, such as the prestigious Gulbenkian Foundation, to support research initiatives into teaching methods, philanthropic outreach, and to host international conferences and cultural exhibitions. In 2016, Hewlett-Packard (HP) awarded CAISL with the HP Award for Innovation in Education. CAISL alumni have gone on to hold influential positions, both abroad and in Portugal, and have included Grammy Award-winning artists, Presidents of Portugal, Yamaha Artist-awarded concert pianists, and world-renowned journalists.

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The Temerty Faculty of Medicine (previously Faculty of Medicine) is the medical school of the University of Toronto. Founded in 1843, the faculty is based in Downtown Toronto and is one of Canada's oldest institutions of medical studies, being known for the discovery of insulin, stem cells and the site of the first single and double lung transplants in the world.

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Established in 1990, The Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC) has grown to become one of the largest and most influential business organizations and is by far the leading Hispanic business group in the state of Illinois. IHCC works to generate resources and advocate on behalf of Hispanic businesses and is the preferred source of guidance, assistance, and networking opportunities for Hispanic business owners in Illinois.

The chamber enjoys outstanding relationships with Hispanic and other key stakeholders including elected officials and community leaders. IHCC has a membership base 1,400 strong and access to networks that enable it to reach thousands of Hispanic businesses beyond its membership. IHCC works in close partnership with Hispanic and non-Hispanic business organizations throughout the State of Illinois.

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A chart datum is the water level surface serving as origin of depths displayed on a nautical chart. A chart datum is generally derived from some tidal phase. Common chart datums are lowest astronomical tide (LAT) and mean lower low water (MLLW). In non-tidal areas, e.g. the Baltic Sea, mean sea level (MSL) is used.

A chart datum is a vertical datum and must not be confused with the horizontal datum for the chart.

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