Website: European Gulag Memories (museum.gulagmemories.eu)

Website of the GULAG Memories project published by the Centre for Russian, Caucasian and Central European studies (“Centre d’études des mondes russes, caucasien et centre-européen”) and Radio France Internationale in Paris.

View the original website https://museum.gulagmemories.eu

Contact: eurgulmem@ined.fr.

With support from Radio France Internationale (RFI), a research team of European anthropologists, geographers, historians and sociologists set out to find archival documents, survivors’ testimonies, objects and personal documents relating to the deportation to the Soviet Union of citizens of the Central and East European countries annexed, occupied or “liberated” by the Soviets during or after the Second World War.

They recorded their memories in their countries of origin — Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Ukraine — and the countries where they settled after their liberation, such as France, Italy and the UK. They also went to Siberia and Kazakhstan to find those who stayed where they had been resettled.

The aim is to preserve the life stories of witnesses and to show the key events which many of them shared. Combining theme and biographical rooms, maps and timelines, the project makes known the witnesses’ lives and points out the relationship between their life stories and historical events.

Seven programmes of “La Marche du monde” presented by Valérie Nivelon, were broadcast on RFI as part of this project.
The Shoah Memorial in Paris, as a partner, held a conference attended by some of the witnesses.
The Fondation pour la mémoire de la Shoah supported the research leading to the design of the project.

Project leaders: Alain Blum (CERCEC, EHESS and INED), Marta Craveri (CERCEC), Valérie Nivelon (RFI).
Project team : Mirel Banica (University of Bucharest), Juliette Denis (University of Paris Ouest and IHTP), Marc Elie (CERCEC, CNRS), Catherine Gousseff (Marc Bloch centre, CNRS), Malte Griesse (University of Bielefeld), Emilia Koustova (University of Strasbourg), Anne-Marie Losonczy (EPHE, IRIS), Jurgita Mačiulytė (University of Vilnius), Françoise Mayer (CEFRES), Agnieszka Niewiedzial (CERCEC), Isabelle Ohayon (CERCEC, CNRS).