The launch of the ERC Project GULAGECHOES took place on the weekend of the 9-10 February. Twenty people, including members of the project’s Advisory Board and prospective team members attended the workshop. On Saturday morning, Professor Pallot introduced the project outlining its aims and objectives, and identifying its principal challenges. The participants present who will be involved in various different capacities in the research, learned from this how their individual contributions will fit into the wider picture. After the Introduction, there were presentations by participants describing the findings of the project’s pilot study, the sources and methodologies that will be being used and pre-existing research relevant to the project’s research questions.