Museum to the Glory of Labour of the Sovkhos ‘Novyi Bor’

The sovkhos (agricultural collective) ‘Novyi Bor’ was founded in 1931 by dekulakized peasants, that is, peasants deemed wealthy and on these grounds deported from the Arkhangelsk and Vologda Regions to become ‘special settlers’ in Komi. In addition to the sovkhos there was a forced labour camp division in the village. The sovkhos and the camp were subordinate to the farming administration of Vorkuta camp. In 1942 the camp Division was disbanded and special settlers started joining the camp, most of them deported Soviet Germans who had been working in the mines of Vorkuta and deemed unfit for hard work. They lived in a camp-like situation until 1947.

The Museum to the Glory of Labour of the Sovkhos ‘Novyi Bor’ opened in August 1991 on the premises of the S. M. Cherepanov Secondary School. In 2004 it moved into the building of the Novyi Bor branch of ‘Komi- Energo’. The Museum’s spacious exhibition (about 80m 2) is subdivided into the following sections: ‘Organisers of the Sovkhos ‘Novyi Bor’ and their Successors’, ‘The Pre-War Period’, ‘The War Period’,’ The Post-War Period’, ‘Their Homeland Rewarded Them’ and several others. The exhibition focuses on the settlers’ labour activities. There is no special emphasis on the topic of political repression, but it is nevertheless represented in documents and other items that belonged to outstanding production workers. The exhibition provides detailed documentation of the arrival of the German special settlers in Novy Bor and of their living conditions in the first years of residence in the settlement. The overall objective of the exhibition is the presentation of the biographies of the settlers.

The ‘Museum to the Glory of Battle of the Sovkhos ‘Novyi Bor’’ has existed on the premises of the secondary school since 1978. Today the museum occupies three halls with combined 110m 2 floor space. On display is material on the participation of Novyi Bor’s inhabitants in the Civil War, the Great Patriotic War (World War II) and the Afghanistan War, such as posters, schematic maps, information material, personal documents, photographs and detailed biographies of front soldiers living in Novyi Bor. A considerable part of the exhibition is reserved to the Hero of Soviet Union S. M. Cherepanov and his family. They were also special settlers, deported after dekulakization.

The Museum’s general collection contains documents from the sovkhos’ archive and from the archive of the department of special management, photographs, documents and personal belongings of the special settlers from the 1931-1933 and 1943-1944 period.

Both Museums were founded on the initiative of A. T. Kurengin with the support of the school and the head of the sovkhos.