Exhibition «Material»

Women's memory of the Gulag

 

The exhibition is dedicated to the material memory of the Gulag.

A major part of the objects and documents that are displayed in the exposition and reminiscent of the years spent in prison, were preserved and donated to the International Memorial by former female prisoners and their descendants.

This exhibition does not aim to cover an enormous topic of «A woman in Gulag», which is hardly possible to do within one exposition. We only intended to show how the memory of the camp is manifested in a few unique things and what meaning these objects, reminiscent of the fate of many thousands of female prisoners, convey. Those women, who managed to save their belongings, understood the message these things would carry.

What could be accumulated during the years of camp life? When you are finally at liberty, what can you take with you in a handmade plywood suitcase? What can you save for years without having your own corner? The collection of the International Memorial, collected over 30 years, clearly shows that most often these are objects made of fabric, from various materials that had such a big value for incarcerated women.

Mended, sewn from scraps, knitted and embroidered by women in prison cells and camp barracks, the objects are very different. Everything that they wore for years: an old padded jacket, a dress with a camp number, a prison dress that consisted of nothing but patches, a sleeveless jacket with prayers sewn into the lining – shabby, darned, faded. Nowadays it says nothing about warmth and security, but clearly shows the impossibility of escaping from the cold, frostbite and injuries of any kind.

A thread for cutting bread and a bag for storing rations; recipes written on old sheets’ scraps remind us not of food, but of constant hunger. Samples of skillful embroideries are showing the results of hard work in the Gulag garment factories, whose products were also exported. Bright skullcaps, napkins, handbags, made with great skill, speak not of relaxation and needlework, but of the desire to get away from the dullness and colorlessness of camp life, its dirt, cruelty, violence and humiliation. These things testify to what each thread, each rag meant, because imprisoned women used them to sew clothes, dolls, books and to embroider runners for their children, which were sent to freedom and connected women with their children and their loved ones.

Memory of the Gulag was preserved for many decades, mainly in archival documents, millions of investigative cases, orders, reports and regulations. This highly classified memory of the state system was opposed by a private one – in written and oral testimonies left by the survivors.

Yet there is evidence, captured not only in words, but in fabric as well – it became the material for the story of women’s fate next to the general memory of the Gulag.

The exhibition used quotes from the memoirs of:

Olga Adamova-Sliozberg, Nina Bardina, Rosalia Block-Baers, Margaret Buber-Neumann, Zayara Veselaya, Jadwiga Verzhenskaya, Khava Volovich, Raisa Volynskaya, Nina Hagen-Thorn, Evgenia Ginzburg, Nadezhda Grankina, Maria Goldberg, Marina Dushkina, Elena Zhukovskaya, Veronika Znamenskaya, Yuliana Ilzen-Titkova, Maria Ioffe, Lyudmila Kasyan, Irina Kulle, Valentina Kurilkina, Ekaterina Kukharskaya, Nadezhda Larina-Bukharina, Galina Levinson, Tatiana Leshchenko-Sukhomlina, Fanny Lukashova, Zoya Marchenko, Agnessa Mironova, Paulina Myasnikova, Ekaterina Olitskaya , Tamara Petkevich, Susanna Pechuro, Angelina Rohr, Maria Sandratskaya, Maria Sevortyan, Galina Semyonova, Ruth Tamarina, Vera Uspenskaya, Vera Ustieva, Hella Fisher, Vera Schultz, Tsilia Yankovskaya

Curators – Irina Shcherbakova, Irina Ostrovskaya, Alena Kozlova

Exhibition architecture – Nadya Korbut, Kirill Ass, Katya Tinyakova

Texts – Irina Shcherbakova

Graphic design – Natalia Toropitsyna, Nadya Korbut, Kirill Ass

Photography – Yury Palmin

Audio content directing – Anna Bulgakova

Sound engineering – Maria Ushenina

Coordination – Anna Bulgakova

Producer – Elena Zhemkova

Construction and installation – MEA Architecture and Management; ATE-Montazh LLC

Displays – Piotr Seybil, Sergey Saigakov

Quotes (graphics on the wall) – Natalia Toropitsyna, Arina Kozeeva, Ellen Avakyan, Daria Akimova, Alexandra Prisenko, Diana Simonyan

The following people worked on the exhibition

Irina Galkova, Nikolay Gladkikh, Valentin Grinchuk, Daria Zhuravleva, Galina Iordanskaya, Natalya Kataeva, Nikita Lomakin, Konstantin Lvov, Alexander Mitkovsky, Oksana Mikhailova, Nikolai Mikhailov, Svetlana Fadeeva, Daria Fadeeva, Natalya Shuvalova

Special thanks to

Lyubov Grishina, Daniil Dynin, Yuri Ermakov, Alena Zueva, Dorothea Kolde, Daria Krotova, Maxim Lypkan, Sergei Ovcharenko, Mikhail Pogorelov, Fedor Saenko, Petr Seibil, Sergei Saigakov

Exhibition partners

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland

Heinrich Böll Foundation’s branch in Russia


The exhibition is open from October 6, 2021 to March 15, 2023 daily, except Sunday and Monday, from 11.00 to 19.00

Schedule of curated tours of the exhibition can be found here

Since January 18, 2022, the exhibition is temporarily closed to visitors due to the aggravation of the epidemic situation in Moscow

 

 

 

Events
Excursion

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29.01.2022 16:00
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29.01.2022 12:00
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28.01.2022 19:00
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27.01.2022 17:00
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26.01.2022 19:00
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25.01.2022 17:00
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22.01.2022 16:00
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21.01.2022 19:00
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20.01.2022 17:00
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19.01.2022 19:00
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18.01.2022 17:00
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15.01.2022 16:00
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15.01.2022 12:00
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14.01.2022 19:00
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13.01.2022 17:00
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12.01.2022 19:00
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11.01.2022 17:00
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08.01.2022 16:00
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05.01.2022 16:00
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04.01.2022 16:00
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29.12.2021 17:00
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25.12.2021 16:00
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25.12.2021 12:00
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24.12.2021 19:00
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22.12.2021 19:00
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21.12.2021 17:00
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19.12.2021 16:00
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19.12.2021 12:00
Round Table

Женская память о ГУЛАГе через призму художественной литературы

17.12.2021 19:00
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17.12.2021 19:00
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15.12.2021 19:00
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12.12.2021 16:00
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12.12.2021 12:00
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11.12.2021 16:00
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11.12.2021 12:00
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10.12.2021 19:00
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09.12.2021 17:00
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04.12.2021 16:00
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04.12.2021 12:00
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03.12.2021 19:00
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02.12.2021 17:00
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01.12.2021 19:00
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30.11.2021 17:00
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28.11.2021 16:00
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28.11.2021 12:00
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27.11.2021 16:00
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27.11.2021 12:00
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26.11.2021 19:00
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25.11.2021 17:00
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24.11.2021 19:00
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23.11.2021 17:00
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21.11.2021 16:00
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21.11.2021 12:00
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20.11.2021 16:00
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20.11.2021 12:00
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19.11.2021 19:00
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18.11.2021 17:00
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17.11.2021 19:00
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16.11.2021 17:00
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13.11.2021 16:00
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13.11.2021 12:00
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11.11.2021 17:00
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09.11.2021 17:00
Discussion

Женщины в ГУЛАГе: как говорить и как помнить

03.11.2021 15:00
Seminar

Женская память о ГУЛАГе и будущее «Мемориала»

01.11.2021 19:00
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28.10.2021 17:00
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26.10.2021 17:00
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23.10.2021 12:00
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21.10.2021 17:00
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19.10.2021 17:00
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16.10.2021 12:00
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14.10.2021 17:00
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12.10.2021 17:00
Exhibition

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06.10.2021 11:00