More Gulag Life At The KarLag Museum Of Political Repression

Continuing the tour, hitch, sentence at the KarLag Museum. Here's the warden in his big office, looking kinder and gentler. Don't be fooled, Stalin is watching.

Pained woman in the infirmary. Unpleasant. The nursery.

A prisoner in the women's bunk. Passing time. Slowly.

One of the officers, maybe about to issue a torture directive. The torture room. Bloody hell.

It's not all drudgery at the gulag. A little traditional entertainment, casually monitored by a guard. We see you. 

Gulag Life At The KarLag Museum Of Political Repression

The heart of the KarLag museum is a series of full size dioramas, re-creations of what life was like in one of the prison camps, gulags. Call it the banality of evil.

When you arrive, have a seat for your identification card picture. Snap.

Maybe the doctor sees you for an evaluation. Or a horrible scientific experiment. Or both. Not your call. All this processing has you tired, we get it. Head for the bunks, grab something with the most straw.

You were surly? Isolation for you.

Good folks get to use the library. Bad folks get to use the hole.

A guard, not your friend. 

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.

Taking In The Saken Seifullin Museum

Saken Seifullin was a Kazakh writer and political activist, born in 1894. He supported the Bolshevik revolution and he headed the Kazakh delegation at Lenin's funeral. No matter, the Soviets under Stalin turned on him and he was shot and killed in 1938. It doesn't pay to be an educated intellectual, even one supporting the cause.

The museum is located in a period log cabin, originally built for a merchant.

A couple of rooms in the house continue the period theme, re-creating Seifullin's study and his family bedroom.

Super friends. The front room contains large, life-like statues of Seifullen's contemporary writers. Nice robes, make sure you always have at least one hand on it.

(Getting) Personal effects. Various writings and a sample suit.

Next to the museum, a statue of our suave, relaxed hero was erected in 1994, marking the centenary of his birth. The babushka is not impressed.

The Fayzulla Khodjaev House Museum

How did the 1% live in the late 19th century in Bukhara? No surprise: well. Fayzulla's daddy, Ubaydullokhoja, made the money for the family, doing an, ahem, killing in karakul (sheep) pelts that were sold in Russia, Germany, and other places that needed warm wraps. The Bukharan provides.

Main house front facade. A classic example of Bukhara architecture of that period.

Facade detail. It takes an army of carvers and painters. Re-created kitchen in an outbuilding. No sense burning down the main house when toast blows up. 

One of the main reception rooms. Ikea need not apply.

Getting personal. The family did well as Bolshevik buddies until Stalin canceled them and they lost the house. Inevitable.

The history lives. The house is now a favorite for photo shoots, especially wedding portraits, engagements. Be the 1% for a day.

Visiting Minsk, A Communist Model City

A lot has changed in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War. Governments have fallen; countries have regained independence from Russia. The world moves on.

In Belarus, leaving the Soviet Union didn't mean leaving the Communist way of life. On the contrary, if you want to get a good idea what Soviet times looked like, it's better to head to Minsk rather than Moscow. Despite being independent from Russia and having an elected leader, Belarus is still living in a Communist system.

Welcome to Minsk, every bit the Stalin-built city. Is there any doubt you're in Victory Square?

The main boulevard, Prospekt Niezaliezhnasci, Independence Avenue. It's a mega-wide strip, passing through many squares, perfect for big parades, military and otherwise.  A typical municipal building in the Stalinist style.

Mounted tank.

Older architecture, a church and the apartment building where Lee Harvey Oswald lived for a bit. Yep, it's a fact.

The new Great Patriotic War Museum. It's interesting to get the Eastern front perspective on WWII.

Influences from Moscow, the circus and the theater.

Another government building, looming rooftop figures.

Back To Gruto Parkas, Part Two

Continuing an encore tour, more highlights from Gruto Parkas.

Busy Brezhnev.

Witnesses to a revolution, famous and obscure, all preserved.

Looming Stalin.

Empty officer. Rallying the youth troops.

Communist Easter Island.