Back in the first ten years, Perm-36 Memorial Center of History of Political Repression partnered with Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), one of the world’s leading museum design companies which created over two hundred museums across the world. The founder and president of RAA, Ralph Appelbaum regards the Holocaust, nuclear bombardment of Japan and GULAG as humankind’s greatest disasters, his company built several Holocaust museums and museums exhibits, including the world-famous Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the Peace Museum in Hiroshima dedicated to nuclear bombardment of that city, the Memorial Prison Museum in Robben Island in Capetown, and was very eager to create a GULAG museum.
Several meetings between the Memorial Center’s staff and the RAA representatives resulted in a draft concept of further museumization of the former Perm-36 camp and establishment of the GULAG museum which was submitted to the regional governor, Oleg Chirkunov by representatives of RAA and Perm-36 Memorial Center in 2011 году. The Governor approved it, and decided the new stage of negotiations for discussing the design proposal and signing the design contract to be held in May, 2012.
RAA designed such a proposal. The project provided for the exhibits to be designed stage by stage and built within five years. Arseny Roginsky, the President of Memorial International Society and Anne Applebaum who won a Pulitzer Prize for the ‘GULAG’ book agreed to act as academic advisers for the project, Ralph Appelbaum, the RAA President as the supervisor.
In early May, 2012, the Governor was replaced so the Memorial Center agreed on the new negotiation date with the new Governor via his assistant. However, when the RAA team headed by the company’s Vice President, Ralph Appelbaum and Perm-36 Memorial Center’s managers arrived to the negotiations at the set time, the Governor refused the meeting, and told via his secretary that this topic is ‘off the table’ to him.
The design proposal by Ralph Appelbaum Associates Incorporated
