Remembering and forgetting the Gulag: prison tourism across the post-Soviet region

Slade, G. (2017) Remembering and forgetting the Gulag: prison tourism across the post-Soviet region. In: Wilson, J. Z., Hodgkinson, S., Piché, J. and Walby, K. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism. Series: Palgrave studies in prisons and penology. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137561343

Abstract

This chapter provides a comparative account of prison tourism in the post-Soviet region. It juxtaposes prison tourism in the Gulag center of Russia and Kazakhstan – countries where the Soviet system of labour camps was most prevalent - with the Gulag periphery of the Baltic States – countries where less remains of Soviet penal structures, but a sense of national victimhood is higher. The chapter is broadly organized around four key variables for comparison: the physical location of the sites; the representations of victims and perpetrators in museum objects; the degree of commercialization; and the narrative of making a break with the past and concealing continuities with the Soviet system. The chapter finds big differences across the cases in terms of these variables. However, it argues that one thing prison museums throughout the region share is a lack of engagement with the issue of penal reform and the degree to which elements of the Soviet system of punishment still endure.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Slade, Dr Gavin
• Authors: Slade, G.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Central and East European Studies
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• ISBN: 9781137561343
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 Palgrave Macmillan
• First Published: First published in The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher