“Famous Names of ALZHIR”
On July 28, 2022, an exhibition titled “Famous Names of ALZHIR” was held in the “Alash” hall. Its aim is to preserve the memory of the tragic events of the 1930s–1950s and to restore justice for the innocent victims of totalitarian...
On July 28, 2022, an exhibition titled “Famous Names of ALZHIR” was held in the Alash Hall. Its aim is to preserve the memory of the tragic events of the 1930s–1950s, to restore justice for the innocent victims of the totalitarian system, to foster patriotism and moral values in the younger generation, and to promote the work of the museum.
More than 18,000 women passed through the Gulag camps, being constantly transferred from one camp to another. About 8,000 women served their entire sentences in ALZHIR. Most of them were Russian women: 4,390 people (50%), followed by Jewish women: 855 (20%), Ukrainian women: 740 (15%), and Kazakh women: 87 (2%). German, French, Swedish, Japanese, Norwegian, Austrian, Polish, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Lithuanian, and Latvian women, among others, also served their sentences in the camp. About 600 women died in the camp (the exact figure is being clarified). For the most part, they were wives of prominent state, political, and public figures whose names are widely known across the entire post-Soviet space: Aziza Ryskulova and her mother Arifa Yessengulova, Damesh Zhurgeneva, Rabiga Asfendiyarova, the singer Lidia Ruslanova, the writer Galina Serebryakova, women from the family of the executed Marshal Tukhachevsky, Kira Andronikashvili, wife of the writer Boris Pilnyak, Evgenia Lurie, wife of Yuri Trifonov, and the mothers of Bulat Okudzhava and Maya Plisetskaya.
The exhibition presents photographs, archival documents, and personal belongings of ALZHIR women prisoners whose husbands held high government positions in the 1930s and were later executed as “enemies of the people.”
More than 18,000 women passed through the Gulag camps, being constantly transferred from one camp to another. About 8,000 women served their entire sentences in ALZHIR. Most of them were Russian women: 4,390 people (50%), followed by Jewish women: 855 (20%), Ukrainian women: 740 (15%), and Kazakh women: 87 (2%). German, French, Swedish, Japanese, Norwegian, Austrian, Polish, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Lithuanian, and Latvian women, among others, also served their sentences in the camp. About 600 women died in the camp (the exact figure is being clarified). For the most part, they were wives of prominent state, political, and public figures whose names are widely known across the entire post-Soviet space: Aziza Ryskulova and her mother Arifa Yessengulova, Damesh Zhurgeneva, Rabiga Asfendiyarova, the singer Lidia Ruslanova, the writer Galina Serebryakova, women from the family of the executed Marshal Tukhachevsky, Kira Andronikashvili, wife of the writer Boris Pilnyak, Evgenia Lurie, wife of Yuri Trifonov, and the mothers of Bulat Okudzhava and Maya Plisetskaya.
The exhibition presents photographs, archival documents, and personal belongings of ALZHIR women prisoners whose husbands held high government positions in the 1930s and were later executed as “enemies of the people.”