The action group was aware of the value of the unmatched moment, the only surviving one of many hundreds of the GULAG camp sites, and got down to conserving, preserving, restoring and repairing the buildings and structures of the former Perm-36 camp in 1994. All work was carried out by a building/repair team recruited by the activists themselves, according to projects and under supervision of Perm developmental restoration shops.
The repair and restoration was much assisted by Memorial’s international volunteer camps, Ural-Service Perm Youth Student Union, and the student building team of Perm Polytechnic Institute.
When the 2020s began, the restoration program was within the reach of completion. In the summer of 2011, repair of the last old camp buildings began. However, this work remained unfinished: in 2012, the new regional authorities defunded it completely.
Site “GULAG. History of one camp” is devoted to the history of Perm-36, the last political zone of the Soviet Union, and the Public Museum, which was created on the remains of this zone by a group of enthusiasts.
Nowadays the museum with all its collections, archives, expositions and exhibitions is seized by the officials from the Ministry of Culture of Perm region.
This project is an attempt to create a universal model of a museum, which exists only in the virtual space and enables almost all kinds of activities of a real museum: scientific, educational, expo-exhibition and excursion.
The initiator of the creation of this resource was the International Coalition of Museums of Conscience, created in 1999, one of the founders of which was the Public Museum “Perm 36”.
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