Drawings from the Gulag presents 130 drawings by Danzig Baldaev, an artist who worked as a guard in St. Petersburg's notorious Kresty prison. Born in 1925, Baldaev, inspired by his ethnographer father, documented the tattoos of criminals, gaining unexpected support from the K.G.B. The book delves into the history and horror of the Gulag system, chronicling everyday life, torture methods, and the transformation of individuals into survivors or victims. Baldaev vividly portrays characters, from inmates to violent thieves, providing shocking insights into the closed world of the Gulag.