In 2015, on the national day of remembrance of the victims of political repression, Moscow’s Gulag Museum was reopened in new, much larger, premises. The old museum had existed since 2001 and was located among designer clothes shops on Ulitsa Petrovka. Its new location, albeit further out of the centre, seems more appropriate.

The five-storey building has a whole range of items, including modern electronic displays, to educate people about the system of camps set up by Stalin where it is estimated that as many as 20 million people may have died. In addition to an enormous map of the Soviet Union displaying the locations of the camps, there are also original artifacts from camps, including prison doors, and markings on the floor depicting the size of cells and details of how many people would have been held there. Many personal belongings of prisoners are on display, such as glasses, sketches, eerie homemade masks to protect faces from the bitter cold and makeshift toys. It is also possible to read information boards or watch short videos about former prisoner’s personal experience of the Gulag.

In addition a memorial garden is planned to be developed on the complex. All in all, these new premises serve this dark chapter of history of the country much more fittingly.

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