Text taken from an article posted in vott.ru
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] The Gulag History Museum has suspended operations
The museum will temporarily close for an indefinite period due to fire safety violations.
The GULAG History Museum in Moscow will temporarily close on November 14, the institution’s website reports.
“As a result of an inspection of the museum by specialists from the Center for Expertise, Research, and Testing in Construction, fire safety violations were identified. According to the conclusion, they pose a threat to the safety and comfortable stay of museum visitors and must be eliminated,” the museum explained the reason for the closure.
Visitors who have purchased tickets can return them at any time. The period of suspension of work is not specified.
The GULAG History Museum is a state institution located in the center of Moscow, on 1st Samotechny Lane. It was founded in 2001, and the exhibition opened three years later.
The museum was founded by Anton Antonov-Ovseenko, a historian, publicist, and public figure, the son of revolutionary Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko. Antonov-Ovseenko’s mother was arrested in 1929 and committed suicide in 1936; father was shot in 1938. The founder of the museum himself was arrested in 1940 (he was 20 years old then). In prisons and camps, he spent a total of about 13 years. In 1956-1957, father and son Antonov-Ovseenko were rehabilitated. Anton Antonov-Ovseenko was first the director of the museum, then its honorary president. He died in 2013.
The museum contains documents, letters, personal belongings, memoirs of former GULAG prisoners, items from the locations of the camps. The exhibition covers the period of the formation of the camp system in the USSR from 1918 to the end of the terror in 1956, with an emphasis on the influence of the GULAG on the fates of people.
The time will come and this garbage dump will be closed permanently. Together with the Yeltsin Center.