Things to do in Urals: the GULAG museum Perm-36
the GULAG museum Perm-36
We all know that the history is cyclic and is used to repeat. People should know where some events will lead us to, based on a huge experience of mankind.
One of the most terrible pages of newest history of Russia is the repression period, the time of GULAG. We decided that for better understanding of this period we have to merge into the atmosphere of that time. That’s why we went to the unique GULAG museum, which was founded by people who were convicted in political crime and exonerated after the USSR destruction.
The museum was founded on remains of the prison camp Perm-36 for political prisoners. This prison camp was founded in 1940 during the GULAG period and was closed in 1988, when “perestroika” started in USSR. The camp was designed to hold 1000 prisoners and contained few barracks, auto repair shops, depots and administrative buildings. Prisoners worked on logging and small technical works which didn’t require professional skills.
History of the camp has few periods during which the the camp was a prison for criminals, a place of detention for officers of Ministry of Home Affairs after Stalin’s death and his conviction, a camp for special danger political prisoners, who had particular treatment, when prisoners saw only bars on a window and a brick wall behind the window for many years. The camp was closed in 1988. After that the part of its buildings, such as the burglar alarm, was dismantled, and the other began to deteriorate rapidly. But the decision to reconstruct the prison camp to the museum stopped destruction.
So, we’re staying near the entrance door of the new administrative building of the camp, which was built during the last period of the prison. It’s only left to open the door and turn out behind the bars, the fences and the barbed wire. When we freely and without any checks went through the pass area we found ourselves in the square with a side about 700 meters, which was walled by several fences and lines of barbwire. The electronic security system wasn’t preserved, but the view of the walls helps to imagine it.
 administrative building of the camp |
 remains of the security system |
Thereby we are inside the area of the high security. It’s noteworthy that during the last camp period there were two security modes in the the camp: high and special, which varied significantly by prisoners, stretches and conditions.
Our guide Sergey leaded us in the camp along the high security buildings. He told us the history of this place and about prisoners who were serving their sentence and often were staying in this place forever.
the GULAG exhibition
The museum contains saved buildings of the camp headquarters, the house of penalty isolation, administrative buildings, the high security barrack, the building of the camp club, remains of internal fences. Unfortunately when we visited to the camp the special security area was under a restoration, but our guide told us that the restoration finishes in summer.
the freedom path; the barrack on the left, the club on the right
In the last of the saved barracks there is a museum with an exhibition about GULAG, where there are many photos, documents, reconstructions and things regarding prisoners, the camp and GULAG in whole. Also in the barrack there are some rooms restored in the form they were while the camp was functioning.
 a prisoner |
 behind bars |
plank beds
When we went out of the barrack, we came to the house of penalty isolation of a high security. As our guide said, the administration could put a prisoner there for any thing, such as a button sewn incorrectly, too freely smile in the column, incorrect answer to the overseer and other similar things. While the high security area was a camp, the penalty isolation area was really a prison. In the wards, which were constructed to hold 2 prisoners, people were staying for few weeks, a meal was very scant and not every day. The same time the prisoners had to work, but not on the tree felling as other prisoners in the high security area – they laboured inside the isolation area on works, which didn’t require a mental processes. For example, they did cable terminals for popular electric irons.
 the house of penalty isolation |
 the prison cell |
After the penalty isolation area Sergey invited us to go to the camp club. This club placed some services, the cinema, and rooms of investigators worked inside the camp. Thеy say that walls in the investigator’s rooms was unreasonable wide, because nobody should know what was happening on аn interrogation.
The most interesting exhibition in the club, created by the founders of the museum, is photos of people who condemned, people who were imprisoned, people who dead in the camp. When we looked at these photos we could imagine that from the active part of soviet people only 10-15 people from the high government could feel safe, while all the others had a chance to go to the similar political camps.
inside the club, the inscription tells Marxism is eternal because it's true
After we see a video about the camp in the club, the museum and it’s history, we’re going out. The last photo of me behind the bars and.. freedom!
from inside
Visiting this place made us to understand feelings of people, who were unfairly arrested and imprisoned for 5-10-15-25 years. The museum dramatically recreates the atmosphere of the past which is impossible to forget.
