The Moscow Museum of the History of the Gulag, dedicated to the memory of Soviet repression and the concentration camp system, is closed. “temporarily” since Thursday, officially for fire safety shortcomings. “Gulag History Museum temporarily suspends work from November 14, 2024”the museum announced in a press release. From inspections have uncovered “fire safety violations which “present a threat” for visitors, according to the museum, which did not specify a date for a possible reopening. The contents of the museum’s website could no longer be consulted on Thursday, with only the announcement of the closure available on the front page, as well as access to the online bookshop, AFP noted.

Contacted by AFP, the museum administration declined to comment. Created in 2001, the museum brings together numerous official and family archives, objects and photos that belonged to victims, ordinary people or celebrities such as the writers Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Varlam Shalamov. It houses a permanent exhibition devoted to the history of Soviet camps from 1918 to 1956, as well as temporary exhibitions. Shows, concerts and lectures are regularly organized. The museum also houses a documentation center to help visitors find information on family members who were victims of the Soviet camps. Stalinism. In Russia, the figure of Stalin, responsible for gigantic repressions that left millions dead, is ambivalent.

The Kremlin increasingly downplays Stalinism

While Russian President Vladimir Putin occasionally condemns the excesses of Stalinism, the political line taken by the Kremlin is generally to minimize them. The millions of victims of political repression are minimized in history textbooks. Stalin is presented primarily as the hero of the Second World War and the crusher of Nazism, in a context of patriotic exaltation and glorification of the USSR’s military power, particularly since the attack on Ukraine.

Those who criticize this approach fall foul of the authorities. Memorial, the major NGO recording both Soviet repression and that of the current regime, has been classified as a “non-governmental organization”. “foreign agent then banned at the end of 2021. Memorial created the “return of namesan annual day on which citizens come together on October 29 to call out the names of victims of repression. Since 2020, however, it has not been possible to hold this event in Russia: the authorities cite the Covid pandemic as a reason for banning all gatherings. On October 30, Moscow’s Gulag Museum organized a similar action: throughout the day, people read out the names of those killed during the Soviet terror.