Gulag Museum

The State museum of GULAG is devoted to the gloomiest times of our history. Gulag is the acronym for Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies but nowadays this word has come to mean the Soviet repressive system itself.

The museum was founded by Anton Antonov-Avseenko, a well-known historian, writer, public figure, and the son of a famous revolutionary. Soon after the execution of his father in 1938 Anton was arrested for being the son of the "enemy". He went through 6 labor camps and spent there 10 years of his life. But only in 2001 his dream of the museum foundation came true.

The tour of the museums starts in front of the map showing the Gulag camps. The scale of the political repressions in the USSR won't leave you indifferent. About 14 Millions of people passed through the Gulag "labor camps", millions were killed by the brutal policy of the Soviet regime.  The museum halls house the documentary archives and personal belongings of witnesses that lived through the hell of the political repressions. Documents, letters and memoirs of the former GULAG inmates tell you the story of the creation of the first concentration camps in 1918, the formation of the Gulag in the 30s, the tightening of the purges in 1937, the eviction of the Volga Germans, and further mass deportation of peoples in 1943-44.

The museum staff carefully traces the tragedy of one family after another. Okudzhava, Antonov-Ovseenko, Zhdanov and hundreds of thousands of known and unknown families experienced a horror of the great purge.

An important section of the museum is the reconstruction of some details of camp's environment: the barrack of prisoners; the punishment cell; the investigator's office, the watch-tower for guards (in the courtyard). In the courtyard the museum hosts theatre performances, concerts, readings and other events.

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