Butugychag, a corrective labor camp, was part of the Tenylag, a division of the Gulag. It operated from 1937 to 1956 in what is now the Magadan region. The camp is infamous for its dangerous uranium and tin mines, where extraction was done manually and without protective equipment. It was one of the few camps where prisoners continued to mine uranium after World War II. Butugychag included several separate camp points: "p/y No. 14", "Diesel", "Central", "Kotsugan", "Sopka", and "Vakhanka".

In local folklore, this area is called the Valley of Death. This name was given by nomadic tribes who raised reindeer in the region. Traveling along the Detrin River, they discovered a vast field strewn with human skulls and bones. Soon their reindeer began to suffer from a strange disease, the first sign of which was hair loss on their legs, and then the animals stopped walking. This name later became associated with the camp of the 14th department of the Gulag, which was led by Beria.