Russia plans to replace Moscow’s Gulag museum with a new exhibition documenting Nazi crimes against the Soviet Union during World War II, officials said Friday, the latest move in a crackdown on institutions documenting Soviet-era repression.
Authorities closed the Gulag History Museum in November 2024, citing “fire safety violations”, in a move widely seen by critics as an attempt to quash the award-winning venue’s work.
It was one of the last institutions dedicated to documenting Soviet-era political repression in Russia and contained thousands of artefacts from Gulag victims, among them letters and personal belongings.
Critics have accused the Kremlin of attempting to rehabilitate the Soviet Union’s legacy, downplaying its human rights abuses while championing its role as a victor during World War II to foster patriotism.
“The new museum will feature an exhibition covering all stages of Nazi war crimes during the Great Patriotic War,” Moscow’s city government said in a statement, using the official Russian name for World War II.
The museum will also document “biological weapons testing on Soviet citizens by the Japanese”, as well as showcasing the Red Army’s victories, it added.
The Gulag was a vast network of prison labour camps set up in the Soviet Union.
Millions of alleged traitors and enemies of the state were sent there, many to their deaths, in what historians recognise as a period of massive political repression.
A source close to the museum told AFP the Gulag exhibition as it used to exist “is being completely dismantled”.
“The museum’s staff are deeply concerned about what will happen next,” the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Russia under President Vladimir Putin has taken many steps in recent years to restrict critical interpretations of the Soviet Union.
In 2021, authorities ordered the liquidation of Memorial, the Nobel Prize-winning NGO that records victims of Soviet and modern-day repression.
The Returning of the Names, an annual commemoration in Moscow for victims of Soviet state repression, has been effectively banned since 2020.
The Soviet Union lost almost 27 million people in World War II, the highest war toll of any country.
The Council of Europe awarded the Gulag History Museum its top museum award in 2021.
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