A bow-saw made and used in the 1930s-1940s in the timber expeditions of the ViatLag (Kirov oblast’). During the war a family of Leningrad evacuees, the Ponomarevs, obtained the saw in exchange for groceries from people living in the Kaisk region of Kirov oblast’. During the exchange, they were told...

Nail-scissors, belonging to Mira Aleksandrovna Fainiut (1907-2002), who in 1939-1947 was a prisoner in the Kolyma Camps. In 1937, M.A. Fainiut was given a five-year camp term and in April, 1938, together with her seven-month-old daughter, was sent from Iakutsk to the Administration of the North-East...

Sketch of the title-page of “the Half- Yearly Report on the activity of the Technical Section of the Economics Department” of the Plenipotentiary Representation of the OGPU to the Leningrad Military District. It is dated 13.08.1932. It was drawn up by the imprisoned architect Nikolai Evgenevich Lansere...

Snow shoes on stilts - a device allowing the user to walk on the snow and not leave any traces. It was used by partisans when they returned to their bunker, to avoid revealing its location. Used between the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s. It is kept in the Museum of Exile and Resistance...

Spade – tool used by prisoners of the BelBaltLag (White Sea – Baltic Canal Camp) during the construction of the White Sea – Baltic Canal (1931-1933). Found in 2004 on the bottom of the canal, in the stretch between Locks 10 and 11, during repair-work. The spade is on show in the permanent exhibition...

A stamp with the inscription “OGPU B.B.L. [BelBaltLag][The OGPU White Sea-Baltic Camp]. 1930s. The stamp was used for marking packaging (sacks, bales and boxes) with items produced by the garment industry in Vegeraksha – one of the divisions of the BelBaltLag. It was found during earth works by a person...

“Rehabilitated”. A self-portrait of N.I. Getman, 1978. Canvas, Oil. A genuine certificate of rehabilitation is fixed to the canvas. Nikolai Ivanovich Getman (1917-2004) was an artist. He was the author of a series of paintings called “The GULAG through the eyes of an artist” (1953-2004). In the period...

A home-made shoe. 1940s-1950s. Noril'Lag (Norilsk Camp). Made of felt, with a rubber sole. Found in 2006 on the territory of one of the former camp sections around Mine No.3/6 (“Taimir”) during an expedition led by the State Museum of the History of the Gulag. Shown in the Museum’s permanent exhibition....