Museum of Memory: ‘Soviet Genocide’ museum to replace museum of the history of GULAG
In November 2024, Museum of the History of GULAG was suddenly closed, allegedly, for fire safety violations, which were labelled as “strange” by many Muscovites who believed that this was a part of a broader effort by the authorities to downplay Stalin’s atrocities. Its closure came as Russian authorities have worked to downplay Soviet-era repressions in recent years, an effort that has intensified since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin has regularly evoked World War II history in justifying the invasion, claiming it was needed to “denazify” Ukraine and stop “genocide” against the Russian-speaking population of partially occupied eastern Ukraine.
Today, an announcement came that the museum will at last re-open – but in a rebranded capacity, as a Museum of Memory, dedicated to the genocide of the Soviet nations by the Nazis. The newly appointed director of the museum Kalashnikova defined the mission of the new museum as “cultivating a strong rejection of Nazism in all its forms in the current generation.”
The Stalin’s GULAG system was comprised of around 30,000 labor camps. According to the estimates, between 14 and 25 million Soviet citizens were imprisoned in the GULAG between 1929 and 1953 (the year when Stalin died). Contrary to popular belief, the majority of inmates were not political prisoners but were often held for petty crimes, such as being late to work or “theft of state property” (like taking a few potatoes from a field). The low estimate of deaths in the GULAG stands at 1.5 million people, while some estimates place it much higher, up to 15 million. Stalin’s mass repressions caused mass death and suffering, affecting most families in the USSR.
In 2001, the GULAG museum was founded by one of the system’s survivors, Anton Anton-Ovsyenko, eventually becoming a large state-funded museum. Its vast collection of personal testimonies and artefacts served to document the Soviet repression and Stalinist crimes against their own people.
P.S. In the beginning of this week two European structures of the Memorial, International Memorial Association and the Zukunft Memorial were added to the list of “undesirable” organizations of Russian Justice Ministry, so they can’t legally operate in Russia any more.
The Memorial is the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the oldest organisation specialised on the history of the Soviet repressions. Andrei Sakharov was its first chairman.
In Memoriam: Semyon Gluzman (10.09.1946 – 16.02.2026)
Upon graduating from a medical school where he earned his M.D. qualifications as a psychiatrist, Gluzman became the first Soviet medic to openly oppose the use of psychiatry for political purposes. In 1971, he wrote an absentia report on General Piotr Grigorenko, declaring him sane. Grigorenko was committed to a psychiatric hospital for urging Crimean Tatars to fight to reverse the consequences of Stalin’s ethnical cleansing. In response to this direct challenge to the Soviet regime, Gluzman was arrested, charged with anti-Soviet agitation and sentenced to seven years in labor camps for defending Grigorenko. Amnesty International then recognized him as a medic imprisoned for his political beliefs.
In 1991, upon disintegration of the USSR, Gluzman founded the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association, setting out to break up the Soviet legacy of dehumanizing the most vulnerable and bringing rehabilitation and modern healthcare to Ukrainian hospitals.
Gluzman’s exceptional courage and adherence to ideals of humanism, renunciation of using psychiatry against political dissidents as well as for dissemination of ethical principles during the reform of mental health service in Ukraine earned him many awards and recognitions from international organizations, including the Geneva Prize for Human Rights in Psychiatry from the World Psychiatric Organization.
Gluzman refused to evacuate from Kiyv, his birthplace, when the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine began four years ago. He remained living on the 15th floor of a tower block in the suburb of Kyiv, with increasingly frequent blackouts caused by Russia’s incessant targeting of civilian infrastructure, which often kept him unable to leave the building. At the end, the combined toll of his labor camp past and deprivations caused by the war were too much. On February 16th, Gluzman died in a hospital in his beloved Kiyv.
Please read a beautiful tribute to the man “whose only currency was truth”, written by his long-term comrade-in-arms Robert van Voren. Robert is a distinguished human rights activist who frequently visited Gluzman in Kyiv and carries out important work supporting mental health of Ukrainians affected by the war.
Elena Bonner Human Rights School
Admissions for the 12th Course Open Until 1 March 2026
Join thousands of graduates of the online human rights defence school named after Elena Bonner. The course is completely free for successful applicants. The course runs over a period of three months, with twice weekly evening or weekend online lectures, seminars and workshops, providing a balanced mix of theory and practice in the field of human rights defence.
Originally founded by Sakharov Center in Moscow in 2020, the school has been run as an independent project after Sakharov Center’s forced liquidation in 2023. The current intensive program, taught by experienced lawyers and human rights activists, is aimed at those living in Russia and Russians abroad. An important feature of the program is helping like-minded individuals to find each other while learning about human rights advocacy.
Personal data of participants is not collected, out of concern for everyone’s safety.
Additional information either through Telegram bot https://t.me/HRschool_bot or at https://bonner.center/
Sakharov Under Surveillance. An Exhibit at The Nobel Prize Museum. 6 February 2026
The Nobel Prize Museum jointly with a journalist Anna Narinskaya curated an exhibit, which will open in Stockholm on February 6th and will be on display till March 29th.
A unique art piece at the center of the exhibition is formed by KGB surveillance footage, which was secretly filmed during the nearly seven years of Andrei Sakharov’s exile in the city of Gorky. The stunning art piece offers just one facet of the continuous and comprehensive surveillance, which Andrei Sakharov was subjected most of his life but especially during the exile in 1980 – 1986.
Anna Narinskaya provided the following narration:
“In Gorky, Sakharov and his wife Elena Bonner were placed in an apartment without a telephone. KGB officers were always on duty in the entrance hall. When no one was at home, the apartment was regularly searched. KGB cars followed Sakharov and his wife wherever they went.
But even this massive surveillance wasn’t enough. Sakharov was watched by lots of agents with hidden cameras who pretended to be ordinary passersby, shop assistants, and clinical staff. In addition, cameras were installed in many places that Sakharov visited regularly, such as the hospital.”
During the years of Perestroika, when the KGB archives were briefly made available, the surviving video footage was handed over to the Sakharov’s family.
Recognising outstanding leadership of scientists on behalf of human rights
Since 2006, the American Physical Society awards a biennial Sakharov Prize so named in recognition of courageous and effective work of the Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov furthering human rights and peaceful coexistence among the nations.
Once every two years, the award, consisting of a diploma and a $10,000 check, is presented at the annual general meeting of the APS. While full of meaning and with an impressive list of past recipients, the APS Sakharov Prize mostly stays out of the limelight. It would be hard to imagine a recipient deciding to bestow his or her diploma onto a political leader, in hope that it would, for example, safeguard their government research funding. But never say never.
This year’s recipient, who will collect his prize at the March general meeting of the APS, is Yoel Fink, an MIT professor and a leading expert in photonics and materials science. Somewhat worryingly, his award is described as: “For defending the academic freedom and human rights of scientists working in the U.S.” Something that for decades had been taken for granted – academic freedom in the U.S. – got eroded to such an extent that defending it takes courage, with a possible detriment to one’s own scientific career or even liberty, as was the case with Andrei Sakharov.
Congratulations, Professor Fink! We stand with you, defending academic freedom as a crucible of a free and democratic society.
Wishing you peace, joy and happiness in this festive season!
As this year draws to a close, we extend our sincere gratitude for your continued commitment to the values of Andrei Sakharov. His dedication to peace, human dignity, and scientific progress remains profoundly relevant in today’s challenging global environment.
We are deeply grateful to each of you who has stood with us, who believes that Sakharov’s values still matter, and who understands how urgently the world needs voices like his today.
Please consider supporting our work furthering the legacy of Andrei Sakharov!
The Andrei Sakharov Foundation
Peace, Progress, Human Rights — half a century since Sakharov’s award
On 10th December 1975, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, a man who became known as the father of the H-bomb and a courageous human rights defender, failed to show up at the Oslo City Hall. Andrei Sakharov — the ‘conscience of humanity’, who was so styled by the Nobel committee and regularly referred as such by President Ronald Reagan,— was instead standing outside a court building in Vilnius, attempting to attend the trial of Sergey Kovalev. Thus, the day could have been counted as a double failure: earlier, the Soviet authorities refused to allow Andrei Sakharov to travel to Norway to accept his award; presently, they blocked his attempts to enter the court room.
Yet, Sakharov’s wife and comrade-in-arms Elena Bonner made it to the ceremony delivering Sakharov’s Nobel lecture, which led to a standing ovation and revolutionized the international politics.
Ever a visionary with ‘planetary thinking’ and deep empathy for the mankind, Sakharov shared insights so profound and left a legacy so impactful that it’s as relevant today as it has ever been.
The world finds itself in a precarious state as today. There is a full-blown war in the heart of Europe, casually thrown nuclear threats, and widespread doubts of countries’ commitments to international treaties — not least, within NATO where the trust in the US offering nuclear umbrella had been deeply dented. At the same time, most world leaders agree that there is a burning need to overcome all these challenges.
Sakharov insisted that human rights must be at the forefront of any negotiations — only adhering to international human rights allows achieving a just and lasting peace and maintain international security. May it be the time to re-visit Sakharov’s ideas in attempt to deal with today’s complex challenges?
A public discussion in Berlin, December, 10, taking place on the 50th anniversary of Sakharov’s Nobel Peace Prize, will address those questions. The discussion organised by the German Sakharov Society.
Location: Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (Leibniz Hall), Jägerstraße 22/23, 10117 Berlin, from 18.00 to 22.00
The event will be held in Russian and German with translation.
The Last Train / Последний Вагон
Vernissage on November 19th, 2025, at 6-9 PM at The Old Waiting Room, Peckham Rye Station in London, UK, November 19-22.
Fifteen artists, many of whom are recent immigrants from Russia, will take part in the exhibition, which opens at 6 PM on November 19th. The title of the exhibit conveys emotional turmoil of people who are forced to move out of their country, rejecting its aggressive war and growing authoritarianism. The topic hits the raw nerve as the artists process their feelings about the war, emigration and adaptation to their new home countries. Value of their art goes far beyond entertainment, providing emotional release and furthering viewer’s understanding of the life events.
Artists taking part in the exhibit are: Kirill Basalaev, Ekaterina Belukhina, Konstantin Benkovich, Polina Egorushkina, Konstantin Gladkov, Katya Granova, Olesya llenok, Valya Korabelnikova, Sergey Novikov, Pavel Otdelnov, Pomidor Duo, Sasan Sahafi, Sila Sen, Alexander Tarasenko and Sima Vassilieva.
The ASF is proud to be among the sponsors of the Last Train exhibition.
The Country and the World: Russian Realities 2025
Berlin, November 21-22
Organized by “Strana i Mir” in partnership with Radio Sakharov
https://russianrealities2025.sakharov.world/
Why has Trump’s quest for peace in Ukraine not succeeded? Will Putin wage war forever? How lasting will be the damage from the wartime economy? Register through the link above for a chance to listen to the leading experts tackling those topics!
The eighth international conference “The Country and the World” will kick off in two weeks in Berlin, where it is held annually since 2022. Prior to that, the conferences were held in Moscow and were organized by the now closed Sakharov Center.
In the course of the two-day conference, we will hear leading political scientists, sociologists, and economists discussing the most critical topics about Russia. Among them are the transformation of Russia’s political regime, its ideology and repressive policies, the wartime economy, changes in public sentiment, as well as responses to Russia from across the world, including, from Europe and the US.
Among the prominent scholars and journalists attending the conference are Ekaterina Shulman, Kirill Rogov, Andrei Kolesnikov, Alexander Morozov and Lev Gudkov.
The conference will be streamed on the «Country and World» YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Ostraneimire
Celebrating 165th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Sakharov, Andrei’s formidable grandfather
