Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 11 – The small settlement
of Tugach in the Eastern Sayan mountains of Siberia aren’t Stalinists and don’t
want a repetition of the Great Terror, but they hope that they can exploit the
fact that their village was once at the center of a GULAG camp system to
attract visitors and save their homes, Denis Bevz says.
Tugach has a history like many
Siberian villages, the Sibreal journalist says. It arose when people moved into
the region as a result of the Stolypin affairs and then grew with the
establishment of Kraslag, a section of the GULAG in Stalin’s times. Many residents
today are descendants of guards and prisoners (sibreal.org/a/29804134.html).
After the camps were shut down in the
1950s, Kraslag’s wood harvesting and processing operation was transformed into
a collective farm. Then in the 1990s, it was privatized and went bankrupt. As a
result, there were no jobs and almost all the younger people moved away. Those
who couldn’t are now dying out.
Tugach has no jobs for its people,
no Internet connectivity. And its residents say they have been forgotten by
everyone. And so some of them have come
up with an idea that might retire for all time any award given to those who,
given lemons, make lemonade. They have decided to turn their town into a tourist
attraction by establishing a GULAG museum.
A year ago, some Tugach residents
decided to crate a memorial complex under the name, “Top Secret—the Tugach
Kraslag.” Many are enthusiastic about
the project, but some object that it is an effort to make money off of a
tragedy. But its defenders are numerous
and they have a ready answer.
“We want the preservation of
history,” they say. We want people who come out of our museum to understand that
personal choices matter and could at various times lead to horrible
consequences. We want people to reflect on how they should live their lives
now. In short, we want our museum to force people to turn on the brains” rather
than live like zombies.
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