Russia's Only Gulag Museum Shuts Doors Amid Mounting State Pressure

A museum commemorating the victims of Soviet-era political repressions is closing down after months of government pressure. Perm-36 — the only museum in Russia created on the site of a former gulag camp — is "ceasing its activities and beginning the process of self-liquidation," the museum said in a statement Monday.

The shutdown comes at a time when the number of Russians viewing Soviet dictator Josef Stalin positively has risen to more than half of the population (52 percent), according to a recent Levada Center poll, and amid heightened government rhetoric extolling Soviet-era achievements.

Government investigators reportedly inspected Perm-36 — named for the infamous labor camp on whose site it was created more than two decades ago — for "extremism" last year, following a complaint by a television viewer who felt prompted to act by a program aired by state-run broadcaster NTV titled "Fifth Column." The program argued that the museum vindicated Lithuanian and Ukrainian nationalists who had been imprisoned in the labor camp for fighting against the Soviet Union, newspaper Kommersant reported at the time.

Perm-36 was also nominated for a UNESCO designation as a world heritage site, the museum said on its website. But "starting in 2012, the attitude of the regional authorities toward the monument and museum has changed drastically," the statement said. "The financing of restoration work has completely stopped, and so has the campaigning for including the museum in the UNESCO World Heritage list."

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russia-s-gulag-museum-shuts-doors-amid-mounting-state-pressure/516920.html

"Starting in 2012 attitudes toward the monument and museum have changed drastically." I wonder what happened in 2012.