The museum-memorial complex of victims of political repression and totalitarianism “ALZHIR” is a unique historical monument of the past years, opened by the initiative of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayevon May 31, 2007 in the village of Akmol, Tselinograd district, Akmola region, on the territory of the former Akmola camp of wives of traitors to the Motherland.
The opening of the museum was timed to the 10th anniversary of the adoption in 1997 of the “Decree on the Establishment of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repression - May 31”, the 70th anniversary of the beginning of mass political repression that claimed millions of lives.
The museum-memorial complex "ALZHIR" is the only one not only in the post-Soviet space, but throughout the world, a unique museum dedicated to the memory of women prisoners of 62 nationalities, victims of the totalitarian system of the last century.
Over 18 thousand women have passed the stage through the camps of the Gulag, they are constantly moved from one camp to another. About 8,000 women served time in “ALZHIR” from the beginning to the end. Most of them are Russian women - 4,390 people (50%), then Jewish - 855 people (20%), Ukrainian women - 740 people (15%) and Kazakh women - 87 people (2%). Also in the camp served time the Germans, French, Swedish, Japanese, Norwegian, Austrian, Polish, Georgian, Armenian, Azeri, Lithuanian, latviski, etc. died). About 600 women died in the camp (the exact figure is being specified).
These were mainly wives of well-known state, political and public figures whose names were widely known throughout the former Soviet Union: AzizaRyskulova and her mother ArifaYesengulova, DameshZhurgeneva, RabigaAsfendiyarova, singer Lydia Ruslanova, writer Galina Serebryakova, women from the family of the executed Marshal Tukhachevsky,the wife of the writer Boris Pilnyak Kira Andronnikoshvili, Yuri Trifonov, Yevgeny Lurie, the mothers of BulatOkudzhava and Maya Plisetskaya.
The main activities of the Museum and Memorial Complex "ALZHIR" are stock, research and exhibition and exhibition work.
The museum-memorial complex includes a museum, a monument "Tribulation Arch", a memorial "The Wall of Memory" with the names of 7620 dead prisoners of the camp, two sculptural compositions "Despair and Impotence", "Struggle and Hope", "Tears" stele, “Stalin's wagon”, the park "Alash" two alleys, and the museum itself.
The exposition of the Museum is presented on two floors. The exhibition hall "Alash" presents the history of Kazakhstan since the entry of Kazakhstan into the tsarist Empire, as the Soviet period, mass repression in 1937. The history is presented in the form of archival documents, photos and videos, interrogation Protocol, orders for executions, personal files of the repressed.
The exhibition and exhibition hall on the first floor of the “Prisoner of “ALZHIR”is devoted to the history of Akmola camp of the wives of traitors to the Motherland, innocent women who did not commit any crime who had to serve a sentence. The exhibition presents family photos, personal items, work done by the hands of prisoners in the camp.
One of the most unique exhibits of the Museum "ALZHIR" are miniature sculptures of bread crumb, made in the camp by the prisoners of "ALZHIR", depicting mothers with children, reflecting the fact that most worried about women who were in captivity, the pain of losing children; children's letters to their mothers in the “ALZHIR”, one of which is sister of Ira and Zoe Novikov asked the people's Commissar Beria to return to their mother; the blanket of Yanina Germanovich in the camp swaddled his four-month-old daughter Maya, and the belt embroidered by her in the camp. Before the transfer of the blanket to the Museum it was kept as the most expensive family heirloom.
The first monument to the victims of political repression "Kak aiyrylgan zhuldyz- Broken Star” was installed in the village of Malinovka (now Akmol) in 1989, when the topic of repression was not openly discussed in society. At the same time, on the outskirts of the village, places of mass graves of ALZHIR prisoners and their children were discovered. Now there are memorial signs.
In memory of those who suffered in the years of repression, was the hell of the camps on the territory of the Museum there is a stele "Tears", which depicts a map of the Gulag, title 11 of the camps, the tears of the women and children behind barbed wire.
Every year on May 31, Kazakhstan celebrates the day of memory of victims of political repression and hunger. On this day, the Ceremony of laying flowers at the Memorial to the victims of political repression and totalitarianism, as well as a rally in memory of the repressed is held on the territory of the Museum.
