Museum of Local Lore and History of the Nenetsk District

The permanent exhibition ‘On the Tracks of Repression’ opened in 1992 and was dismantled in 1997 due to the Museum moving into another building. The exhibition consisted of photographs and other material documenting the history of dekulakisation (repression of wealthy peasants) and collectivisation of the Nenetsk settled inhabitants and of nomad reindeer-breeders in the district in the 1930s and 1940s. Items of everyday camp life and items belonging to the camp’s production units were also exhibited. The temporary exhibition ‘At the Origins of Nation States. The Nenetsk District in the 1920s and 1930s’, created for the 70th anniversary of the Nenetsk Autonomous District in 1999, dedicated a section to the Gulag topic.

The Museum is presently being reconstructed, and the first two halls opened on 6 September, 2004. One showcase in the section ‘Development of the District’s Industry’ is dealing with the Gulag topic.

Material on the history of the Gulag has been collected since 1989. The material is assigned to separate collections: the collection ‘The Vaigach Expedition of the OGPU (United State Political Directorate)’ and the collection ‘The Repressed of the District ‘ contain about 315 items, such as documentary photographs and copies of documents from state and private archives. Items of everyday camp life are of special interest to the Museum, and many of them were collected by staff in 1990at the sites of the Vaigach Expedition of the OGPU (1930-1936), that is, the settlements Chabarovo, Amderma and the island Vaigach.