Public Perceptions of Russia’s Gulag Memory Museums

ABSTRACT

In this article we address the question of how residents of several Russian urban centers perceive museums with displays highlighting Soviet political repressions (in particular, the Gulag). The empirical base consists of focus groups with different age groups. The method of intergenerational analysis was used to compare respondents’ narratives in order to understand how their different life experiences and time distances from the tragic events of Soviet history affect their attitudes to such museums in urban spaces and their perceptions of how these museums shape local identities.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to all the participants of the project “In the Gulag’s Shadow: Producing, Consuming and Perceiving Prisons in the Former USSR,” especially its leaders Professor Laura Piacentini and Dr Gavin Slade and the staff of the Center for Youth Studies, namely: Irina Lisovskaya, Iskender Yasaveev, Dmitry Omelchenko, and Yulia Epanova. The authors would like to express their gratitude to reviewers and editors for their deep insight, valuable comments, and corrections that have helped us to improve this article. Special thanks to participants in the focus groups and the staff of the museums who took part in the study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. International Historical Educational Charitable and Human Rights Society “Memorial” (International Memorial) is a noncommercial organization studying political repressions in the USSR and in present-day Russia and promoting moral and legal rehabilitation of persons subjected to political repressions. On December 28, 2021, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled to close International Memorial.

2. The Association’s official site: http://memorymuseums.ru/.

3. “Memorial” has been removed as a member from the association’s website at the time of publication of this article.

4. The museum exhibition that the Sakharov Center organizes is dedicated to the history of oppression and resistance to oppression in the USSR (Soviet ideology and myth, the Gulag and political repression, dissident and nonconformist movements) and to the life and works of Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Andrei Sakharov (www.sakharov-center.ru).

5. This paper presents findings from the project “In the Gulag’s Shadow: Producing, Consuming and Conceiving Prisons in the Former Soviet Union,” funded by The Economic and Social Research Council (UK) of the United Kingdom (Grant reference: ES/R005192/1). The support from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) is gratefully acknowledged. Lead institution: The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Principal Investigator, Dr Laura Piacentini, Professor of Criminology, the School of Social Work and Social Policy, the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. The Research Councils accept no liability, financial or otherwise, for expenditure or liability arising from the research funded by the grant, except as set out in the terms and conditions, or otherwise agreed in writing. In Russia, the project is being implemented by the Center for Youth Studies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg under the leadership of Professor Elena Omelchenko. The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.

6. Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the USSR, the so-called political article: from “counter-revolutionary activity” and “anti-Soviet agitation” to “contacts with foreigners with counter-revolutionary purposes” and “urging a foreign entity to [conduct] aggressive actions against the USSR.”

7. According to the creators of the exhibition, the old name of the old exhibition was not suitable for the new exhibition (opened in November 2020). But, the exhibition was officially renamed after our FGs. We invited participants to the exhibition “Guilty by Article 58.”

8. The Tomsk Museum together with the Memory Fund was developing the new exhibition during our research. The new extented exhibition was opened on November 8, 2022.

9. The official site of the Gulag History Museum: https://gmig.ru/.

10. All names were anonymized.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the The Economic and Social Research Council (UK) of the United Kingdom [ES/R005192/1].