58°15′47.2″N 57°25′55.6″E / 58.263111°N 57.432111°E / 58.263111; 57.432111

Perm-36 (also known as ITK-6) was a Soviet forced labor colony located near the village of Kuchino,^[1] 100 km (60 miles) northeast of the city of Perm in Russia. It was part of the large prison camp system established by the former Soviet Union during the Stalin era, known as the Gulag. Since 1972 the camp was designated a "strict regime" and "special regime" (строгого режима, особого режима) camp used exclusively for the incarceration of "especially dangerous state criminals", mostly Soviet dissidents.^[1][2][3]

Built in 1946^[1] and closed in December 1987,^[1] the camp was preserved in 1994^[2] by the Russian human historical and human rights organization Memorial.^[4] In 1995^[2] the following year it was opened to the public as The "Perm-36" Museum of the History of Political Repression^[2] (known popularly as the Gulag Museum).^{[2][failed verification]} It was run by an NGO called the Perm-36 Memorial Center of Political Repression".^[2] It was the only surviving example of a Gulag labor camp, the others having been abandoned or demolished by the Soviet government before the dissolution of the Soviet Union.^[1]

The museum was a founding member of the International Coalition of Historic Sites of Conscience.^[2] and received an average 35,000 visitors a year.^[2] There were hopes that the museum might be incorporated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2004, however, the World Monuments Fund included Perm 36 in its Watchlist of 100 Most Endangered Sites.^[5]

Later various bodies of Perm Krai administration withdrew support and funding, forcing the museum to close in April 2014.

The corrective labour colony later known as Perm-36 was established in the mid-1940s as part of the Soviet system of forced labour camps administered by the Gulag.^[6] Like many camps in the Urals, it initially functioned as a logging camp supplying timber to the post-war economy.^[7] During this period the camp primarily held criminal prisoners and operated under conditions typical of the late Stalinist camp system.^[8]

Following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 and the subsequent reorganisation of the Gulag, the function of many camps changed.^[9] Although the overall number of camps declined, a smaller network of colonies continued to be used for prisoners regarded by the authorities as posing a political or ideological threat to the state.^[10] By the late 1960s and early 1970s, several camps in Perm Oblast were repurposed to hold political prisoners convicted under articles of the RSFSR Criminal Code relating to “especially dangerous crimes against the state”, including anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.^[11]

In 1972 the colony later known as Perm-36 was redesignated as a strict-regime and special-regime camp.^[12] Camps of this type represented the most severe category within the late Soviet penal system.^[13] According to historical research, special-regime camps were intended for prisoners who had already served previous sentences for political offences and were considered persistent opponents of the Soviet system.^[14] Conditions in such camps were characterised by increased isolation, constant surveillance, and severe restrictions on correspondence and contact with the outside world.^[15]

Contemporary documentation from Soviet dissident sources, including the samizdat periodical A Chronicle of Current Events, provides detailed information about prisoners held in Perm-36 during the 1970s.^[16] These materials describe inmates convicted for a wide range of political activities, including participation in samizdat publishing, human-rights advocacy, nationalist movements in the Ukrainian and Baltic republics, Zionist activism, and attempts to leave the Soviet Union without official permission.^[17] Several well-known Soviet dissidents were imprisoned in the Perm camp system during this period.^[18]

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Perm-36 functioned as part of a small network of late Soviet political camps rather than as a mass labour facility characteristic of the Stalin era.^[19] Historians of the Gulag have noted that, although the scale of repression had diminished compared with the 1930s and 1940s, political imprisonment remained a structural element of the Soviet system until its final years.^[20] The camp ceased operations in the late 1980s, as political prisoners were released during the period of perestroika.^[21]

From 2005 onwards there was an annual international forum at Perm-36, called "Pilorama" ("The Sawmill" (more precisely "Power-saw bench") ru:Пилорама (форум), with meetings It brought together famous people, film screenings, exhibitions and concerts and attracted thousands of people, including former prisoners and human rights activists, including the Human Rights Commissioner in Russia Vladimir Lukin.

The "Sawmill" was not popular with everyone. It was criticized and attacked by former prison guards of Perm-36 and some of the social movements of Stalinist focus. They argued that the forum organizers deliberately exaggerated the severity of custody "for anti-Soviet propaganda", while ignoring, as they said, prison records and evidence of the guards themselves.^[22][23]

In autumn 2013 an autonomous NGO calling itself the "Perm-36 Memorial Museum of the History of Political Repression" was granted the status of a federal NGO and the museum was included in a list of Russia's "National Sites of Remembrance". The next year a State-funded museum with a similar name was created and gradually began to take over the management of the Perm-36 museum.^[24]

Coming at a period of nostalgia for the Soviet Union in Russia and patriotism due to the annexation of Crimea, these changes were seen by many as an organized campaign against the original museum "of political repression". Official Russian media and some nationalist organisations (e.g. the Sut' Vremeni) began describing the museum established in 1995 as a fifth column.^[25]

The NGO eventually disbanded after repeated arguments with Perm-36 officials.^[26][27] The museum and its exhibits were refurbished to remove references to Stalin.^[27][28]

• Perm-36 Official website (in Russian)
• A Chronicle of Current Events, 1968-1982.