Raising the Dead and Stalin, Too

What is it about the history of justice and injustice within a nation (particularly, one's own) that causes one to take notice and remember?

In Russia, the history and extent of The Gulag system is only now coming more fully to light. With the recent move to have excerpts of one of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's classic works shared as part of the curriculum in her schools, there appears to be some sign of hope for that.

There is also, the little known, "Virtual Museum of the Gulag," which since 2004, has aimed (according to the website) toward:

1. The preservation of memory, museum initiatives and unique testimonies. The introduction of our accumulated experience and knowledge into the public sphere.

2. To collate [resource] the uncoordinated initiatives regarding the preservation of memory and testimonies about the Soviet past into a single information. To overcome the regional or confessional divisions in our consciousness of the Terror and the Gulag.

3. To provide information and advice for provincial museums.

4. The creation of a public and generally accessible national museum.

5. Public discussion of the past and the role of such a social and historical legacy.

6. The instruction and education of the younger generation.

As of Autumn 2005, a list of the “Museums of the Gulag” comprising 290 historical sites in the Russian territory and the countries of the former Soviet Union has been compiled. Geographical expansion of the project in the museums of eastern Europe is foreseen.

An online exhibit hosted by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and a traveling exhibit (last year) in cooperation with the (American) National Park Service, The Gulag Museum at Perm-36, the International Memorial Society, and Amnesty International USA may or may not have been noticed.

 

Perm-36 or ITK-6

Meanwhile, Russia's Stalin Revival continues in this report from Miriam Elder of GlobalPost in Moscow.

Outside Russia, the legacy of Stalin, who ruled as a dictator from the 1920s until his death in 1953, is pretty clear. Killing millions of his own people landed him in the pantheon of the world’s worst dictators, alongside Hitler and Pol Pot. His name conjures images of domestic terror, nighttime arrests and a megalomaniacal paranoia that prompted fatal campaigns against perceived enemies.

Inside Russia, the story is more complicated. He was, according to a school textbook adopted last year and endorsed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a “competent manager” who committed atrocities at home out of necessity.

Earlier this year, Stalin nearly won a nationwide call-in poll asking people to vote for the person who best represents Russia.

 

In front of Stalin's Museum

Holding up (and kissing) Stalin - "a shining star?"