Gulag: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom

Description

The National Park Service, in a unique partnership with the Gulag Museum at Perm-36, the International Memorial Society, and Amnesty International USA, is presenting the first exhibition on the Soviet Gulag in the United States.

This exhibit traces the history of the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system and its impact on Russia and the world today. The vast network of labor camps, which at its height imprisoned or internally exiled over five million citizens, both repressed political opposition and provided labor to fuel the Soviet Union's economic engine.

Highlighted in the exhibit is the history of one camp in Russia's Ural Mountains, Perm-36, and how Russians committed to preserving the memory of the Gulag have transformed the labor camp into a historic site and museum.

GULAG contains four sections. The first part details the growth of the Gulag under Josef Stalin, describes the prisoners and their supposed "crimes," and depicts a typical day in the life of a Gulag prisoner; the second section highlights the human rights movement in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s and details how Perm-36 was converted into a high security camp for political prisoners; the third section examines the legacy of the Gulag in Russia today and focuses on the efforts of the Gulag Museum at Perm-36 to educate young Russians on the history of the Gulag and the totalitarian state. This final section shows the links between the efforts of Russia's Gulag Museum and historic sites around the world that endeavor to explore and give meaning to the difficult histories in their own countries.

Host Sites, Locations, and Dates