At The KarLag Museum Of Political Repression

Everyone knows about gulags and Siberia. Drop a banana peel on a street in Stalin's USSR, off you could go. Siberia wasn't the only place for prisoners, enemies, minorities, litterers. Stalin established a large network of gulags in Kazakhstan, near a town called Dolinka, way up on the Central Asian steppe, south by a few hours from Astana.

Kazakh gulags were established in 1931 and lasted until 1959. As many as 800,000 prisoners passed through the camps, working at construction, building munitions. Practically every German person from the captured Volga region was moved to Dolinka.

A museum was opened in 2011 in a former administrative building.

The museum is heavy on re-creation, if a bit bereft of actual artifacts. History starts with life before the gulags, focusing on who lived in the area, what they did for work. A Kazakh peeps and a woodworking shop. Nice stuffed monkey.

Bucolic, agrarian life, farm with a surprising mix of animals. Noah must have paid a recent visit.

A timeless annoyance, waiting for the husband to fix a flat.

First sign of the gulag state, a baby crib with wood block toy that spells out Stalin's name. Indoctrinate them early.