Gulag Museum rebrand marks latest phase in Kremlin’s assault on free speech

Russia is reorienting Moscow’s Gulag Museum away from documenting Stalin-era repression, a shift reported by independent outlet Verstka on 13 April as exhibitions were packed up and removed. The change follows Russia’s supreme court ruling on 9 April that Memorial—founded to document Stalin-era crimes and labeled a “foreign agent” in 2016—is an extremist organization and is banned, prompting institutions like the Yeltsin Presidential Center in Yekaterinburg to remove references to Memorial. The Gulag Museum’s website content was replaced in February with text announcing a new “Museum of Memory” focused on Nazi crimes against the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War, including claims about “manifestations of Nazism” and the Red Army’s “liberation mission.” After the museum’s 2024 shutdown for purported fire-safety violations, Natalia Kalashnikova was appointed director on 20 February, and official messaging has aligned with the Kremlin’s wartime narrative following Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Read the full article at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events