About this Project

The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University presents Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives, which immerses viewers in the history of the Soviet Union’s vast system of forced labor camps.

Millions of prisoners suffered the brutal assault on human dignity that was the Gulag. Many Days, Many Lives presents the history of this system through a browseable archive of video, art, artifacts, photographs, and the life stories of former Gulag prisoners. Online exhibitions take visitors on a thematic exploration of Gulag life, including a virtual tour of the reconstructed camp and museum made possible by the Gulag Museum at Perm-36. Teaching resources for introducing the Gulag's history into middle and high school classrooms are available.

We would like to thank the the Blackwell Corporation, the Evans-McCan Group, and the producers and directors of Stolen Years: Neal B. Freeman, Executive Producer; Bruce Young, Director; and Jennifer Law Young, Producer

The project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities; Title VIII, The U.S. Department of State; Kennan Institute; and Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

The site was produced in association with the Gulag Museum at Perm 36, Perm, Russia (2004-2014) and the International Memorial Society, Moscow, Russia.

Project Staff

  • Roy Rosenzweig, Principal Investigator
  • Tom Scheinfeldt, Co-Principal Investigator
  • Steven A. Barnes, Project Director and Lead Historian
  • Elena Razlogova, Associate Producer
  • Gwendolyn White, Project Manager (2006-07)
  • Sheila Brennan, Project Manager (2007-08)
  • Anastasia Mikheeva, Translator and Researcher
  • Misha Griffith, Research Assistant
  • Alexis Hurter, Research Assistant
  • Lee Ann Ghajar, Research Assistant
  • Mjiriana Visintin, Researcher
  • ,Jeremy Boggs, Web Designer
  • Stephanie Hurter, Web Designer
  • Laura Veprek, Web Designer
  • Kristopher Kelly, Programmer
  • Amanda Shuman, Programmer
  • Andrew Graulich, Media Editor
  • Misha Vinokur, Media Editor

Russian Associates

Memorial Moscow

  • Nikita Okhotin, Director, Museum Art and Material Culture of the Gulag
  • Alena Kozlova, Director, Manuscript Division
  • Svetlana Fadeeva, Archivist, Museum Art and Material Culture of the Gulag
  • Natalia Malykhina, Photo Archivist

Gulag Museum, Perm, Russia

  • Viktor Shmyrov
  • Tatiana Kursina
  • Oleg Trushnikov

Advisory Board

  • Joshua Brown, American Social History Project
  • Viktor Shmyrov, Gulag Museum at Perm 36
  • Lynne Viola, University of Toronto
  • Amir Weiner, Stanford University