U.S. Exhibition of the Gulag Museum / Eastern National
Whom It May Concern:
…….., 2004
Re: Inquiry Letter for Possible Grant for the U.S. Exhibition “Gulag: Soviet Labor
Camps and the Struggle for Freedom”
I represent the Gulag Museum located in Perm, Russia, and I am charged with finding
support for a traveling exhibition entitled "Gulag: Soviet Labor Camps and the Struggle
for Freedom." The project is a cooperative effort between the Gulag Museum, the US
National Park Service (NPS), and the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of
Conscience. In Russia, the Gulag Museum serves as a memorial to the millions
arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned, and forced to work on massive infrastructure projects
throughout the former Soviet Union. It also serves as a place to ask how this brutality
happened, who was responsible, and how it can be prevented from reoccurring.
The organizers of the U.S. Gulag exhibition strongly believe that the Gulag Museum
provides an international model for the role that historic sites should play in teaching
history to the general public, making history relevant to visitors, and providing serious
and engaging educational outreach programs.
We are currently seeking additional funds needed to bring this exhibit to the US.
Attached you will find the description of the project. We believe that the mission of the
US Gulag exhibition may fit into the types of projects you supported in the past. You will
find all required organizational and budgetary information on page 2 and a more detailed
description of the project on pages 3 to 5.
Please let me know if the US Gulag Exhibition is within the scope of your current
interests. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yulia Zaks, PhD
Gulag Museum Liaison
27 Harris Road, Princeton NJ 08540
(h) 609-683-7114
(cell) 201-406-9628
e-mail: yulia.zaks@verizon.net
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U.S. Exhibition of the Gulag Museum / Eastern National
General Information about U.S. Gulag Expo Project
Eastern National , 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in the United States
Organization Contact:
Executive officer: Chesley A. Moroz, President
Address: 470 Maryland Drive, Suite One, Ft. Washington, PA 19034
Telephone: (215) 238-6900 x 126 Fax: (215) 283-6923
E-mail: checleym@easternnational.org
Website: www.easternnational.org
Project director: Victor Shmyrov, Director, Memorial Center of Political Repression
(Gulag Museum Perm-36)
Address: Popova street, 11, suit 312, third floor
614990 Perm, Russia. Memorial Center for Political Repression at
"Perm-36" (GULAG Museum). Tel. & FAX 3422-36-30-66 and
Tel. 3422-36-36-62
E-mail: museum@permnet.ru
Website: www.perm36.ru and www.sitesofconscience.org/eng/gulag.htm
Project Information
Country for the Project:
Names of key project
participants:
Budgetary Information:
Total of funds already
received or committed:
References:
Names of key project
participants:
The US Exhibition “Gulag: Soviet Labor Camps and the Struggle
for Freedom” - December 2003 to December 2006
The United States of America & Russia
Chesley A. Moroz, US
Victor Shmirov, Russia
Total project budget: $400,000
US National Park Service:
$66,000 (2003)
Boston University:
$15,000 (2003)
The Trust for Mutual Understanding
$25,000 (2004)
Gulag Museum and Russian donors
$34,000 (2004)
Marie Rust, Regional Director, National Park Service
US Custom House, 200 Chestnut St. Room 502, Philadelphia, PA
19106. Tel. (215) 597-7103 e-mail: Marie-Rust@nps.gov
Ruth Abram, President, Lower East Side Tenement Museum
90 Orchard St., New York, NY 10002. Tel. (212) 431-0233
e-mail: LESTM@tenement.org
Chesley A. Moroz, US
Victor Shmirov, Russia
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U.S. Exhibition of the Gulag Museum / Eastern National
U.S. Exhibition “Gulag: Soviet Labor Camps and the Struggle for
Freedom”
The Gulag Museum is seeking funds to cover expenses associated with the US openings
of the large-scale traveling exhibition entitled “GULAG: Soviet Labor Camps and the
Struggle for Freedom. The Gulag Museum is a member of the International Coalition of
Historic Site Museums of Conscience. This exhibition is a joint international project of
the Gulag Museum, the Northeast Region of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and
the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. The exhibit is being
developed cooperatively with national parks across the country. Eastern National will act
as a fiscal administrator of the grant.
The Gulag Museum is located within the walls of the former labor camp near Perm in
Russia. The “Perm-36” labor camp was built of timber by prisoners in 1946 and was one
of the most notorious Soviet labor camps. It is recognized by the World Monuments Fund
(2003 list) as one of the 100 most endangered historical sites (New York Times,
December 16, 2003 “Uncertain Future for the Past’s Treasures” by Herbert Muschamp)
In Russia today, the Gulag Museum and Perm-36 historic site serves as a memorial to the
millions arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned, and forced to work on massive infrastructure
projects throughout the former Soviet Union. But perhaps more importantly, the museum
serves as a place to ask how this brutality happened, who was responsible, and how it can
be prevented from reoccurring.
The Gulag exhibition will travel to the following US venues:
Ellis Island Immigration Museum, New York City
Boston NHP and Boston African-American NHS
Brown v. Board of Education NHS, Topeka, KS
Manzanar National Historic Site, Independence, CA
Martin Luther King, Jr., NHS, Atlanta, GA
Eleanor Roosevelt NHS, Hyde Park, NY
May - September 2006
October - January 2007
February - May 2007
June - August 2008
Dec. 2008 - February 2009
March - May 2009
The Gulag Museum, known within Russia as The Memorial Center of the History of
Political Repression “Perm-36”, was founded in 1995 and received official government
recognition in July of 1997. The Gulag Museum interprets the site of “Perm-36” labor
camp, one of the most severe and isolated Gulag’s camps of the Soviet era . Built under
Josef Stalin’s rule in 1946, Perm-36 served initially as a timber production hard labor
camp. Its purpose was to help rebuild the cities and factories of central Russia and the
Volga region, which were decimated by the battles of World War II. In the 1970's and
1980's, the Soviet government converted Perm-36 into a special labor camp for
dissidents. The regime attempted to break these prisoners through a combination of
forced labor, mental, and sometimes physical abuse. Conditions were very harsh. Many
of the former USSR’s most prominent dissidents served their sentences there, including
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Vladimir Bukovsky, Alexander Ginzburg, Sergei Kovalev, Yuri Fedorov, Eduard
Kuznetsov, Anatoly Marchenko, Yury Orlov, Vasyl Stus, Gleb Yakunin, and many
others. The last political prisoners were released from Perm-36 in December of 1987.
In 2003 over 30,000 people visited Perm-36 or one of its traveling exhibits and school
programs. The Museum also has a scientific research area and a library. To date, the
Gulag Museum has focused most of its efforts on the preservation and reconstruction of
Perm-36, much of which was destroyed by the government in 1989 after
Estonian/Ukrainian television crews filmed the abandoned camp. In order to reconstruct
the site accurately, the Museum staff conducts historical research of primary documents
and artifacts, performs archaeological digs, and collects oral testimony from former
Perm-36 inmates.
Short Description of the Gulag Exhibit
The traveling exhibit “GULAG: Soviet Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom”
traces the history of Soviet repression in the country’s forced labor camp system,
highlights the role of Perm-36, and examines the history of the human rights movement.
The exhibition focuses on the historical development of society and political repression in
the Soviet Union and within the Gulag labor camps between the 1920s and 1980s. The
exhibit will occupy approximately 1,200 square feet. It will feature oral interviews with
former prisoners, archival footage, full-scale recreations of prison camp cells, prisoner
artwork, maps, historic photographs, and many more other artifacts depicting daily camp
life. Working with a network of former prisoners who will volunteer their time at the
host sites, the exhibit will offer visitors opportunities to speak with people who had direct
experience with the camps and the Gulag system. A special part will raise open questions
about the relationship of the Gulag past to current events and future societal
developments in Russia. The proposed retrospective will help viewers better understand
the complexity of the current social and political environment in Russia which has been
greatly influenced by its communist totalitarian past. It also serves to promote democratic
values and civil consciousness through the presentation of the last political camps as a
vivid reminder of repression and as an important historical and cultural monument.
The exhibition also will feature a dozen original drawings and sketches by camp
prisoners who portrayed the daily toil of living inside the zone, including images of the
cold punishment unit, the camp hospital, the arrival of new prisoners and a night search.
These works provide a haunting and powerful portrayal of the Gulag from the prisoner's
viewpoint and add drama and texture to the photographs, cast figures, and artifacts in the
exhibition.
This Gulag exhibition is the culmination of a series of visits and meetings conducted by
the Gulag Museum staff between 2000 and 2003. In February 2000, the Museum’s
Director, Victor Shmyrov, visited the U.S. to garner support for the International
Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. The Gulag Museum was a founding
member of the Coalition. Other founding members include District Six Museum (South
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U.S. Exhibition of the Gulag Museum / Eastern National
Africa); Liberation War Museum (Bangladesh); Lower East Side Tenement Museum
(USA); Maison Des Esclaves/Slave House (Senegal); National Park Service (USA);
Projecto Recordar/To Remember (Argentina); Terezin Memorial (Czech Republic); and
The Workhouse (United Kingdom.)
The Gulag exhibition is intended to serve as both a proving ground and an experimental
laboratory for developing better tools for promoting the democratic and humanitarian
values that are implicit in the interpretation of a historic site based on the experience of
political repression. The first is an international conference on the Gulag is being
developed by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard and planned
for October 2005, at the same time that the exhibit will be in Boston. The second
international conference is being developed by the NPS and Harvard University: on the
topic of teacher curriculum packets to assist middle and high school teachers in the US
teach about the Gulag in the classroom.
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