+----------------------------+------------------+---+-------------------+
| National Park Service      | Manzanar         |   | PO Box 426        |
|                            |                  |   |                   |
| U.S. Department of the     | National         |   | 5001 Highway 395  |
| Interior                   | Historic Site    |   |                   |
|                            |                  |   | Independence, CA  |
|                            | Use the complete |   | 93526             |
|                            | site name here   |   |                   |
|                            | (e.g. Palo Alto  |   | 760 878-2194      |
|                            | Battlefield      |   | phone             |
|                            | Historic Site).  |   |                   |
|                            |                  |   | 760 878-2949 fax  |
+----------------------------+------------------+---+-------------------+

![](media/image1.png){width="0.5597222222222222in"
height="0.7201388888888889in"}

**Manzanar National Historic Site** News Release

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Use a "short-hand" version of the site name here (e.g. Palo Alto
  Battlefield not Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Site).

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For Immediate Release: November 16, 2006

Contact: Gretel Enck

Phone: 760 878-2194 ext. 2713

**GULAG exhibit comes to Independence, California, in February, 2007**

The National Park Service, in a unique partnership with the Gulag Museum
at Perm-36, Russia, the International Memorial Society, and Amnesty
International USA, is presenting the first exhibition in the United
States on the Soviet Gulag. As a part of the National Park Service
commitment to civic engagement at Manzanar National Historic Site and
other sites, *GULAG: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for
Freedom* opened on Ellis Island in May, 2006, and will travel to
National Park Service venues around the country including Boston,
Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Independence, California.

This exhibit traces the history of the Soviet Union's forced labor camp
system and its impact on Russia and the world today. The vast network of
labor camps both repressed political opposition and provided labor to
fuel the Soviet Union's economic engine. Highlighted in the exhibit is
the history of one camp in Russia\'s Ural Mountains, Perm-36. Russians
committed to preserving the memory of the Gulag have transformed the
labor camp into a historic site and museum.

GULAG was the acronym for the Soviet bureaucratic institution Glavnoe
Upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh Lagerie (Main Administration of
Corrective Labor Camps). This branch of the secret police oversaw the
Soviet forced labor camp and internal exile system. Between the Russian
Revolution in 1917 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, some 25
million people were held in the Gulag system. The combination of endemic
violence, extreme climate, hard labor, meager food rations, and
unsanitary conditions led to extremely high death rates in the camps.

The GULAG exhibit contains four sections. The first part details the
growth of the Gulag under Josef Stalin, describes the prisoners and
their supposed \"crimes,\" and depicts a typical day in the life of a
Gulag prisoner. The second section highlights the human rights movement
in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s and details how Perm-36 was
converted into a high security camp for political prisoners. The third
section examines the legacy of the Gulag in Russia today and focuses on
the efforts of the Gulag Museum at Perm-36 to educate young Russians on
the history of the Gulag and the totalitarian state. The final section
depicts efforts of Russia\'s Gulag Museum and historic sites around the
world to explore and give meaning to the difficult chapters of history
of their own countries. The exhibit features archival footage,
full-scale recreations of prison camp cells, prisoner artwork, maps,
historic photographs, and artifacts depicting daily camp life.

The exhibit enjoyed a successful opening run at Ellis Island in New York
where tens of thousands visited the exhibit, and it received significant
critical acclaim. The New York Times (June 7, 2006) called the exhibit
"powerful" and declared that "small things tell large truths\... in
spareness and simplicity." The Wall Street Journal (June 27, 2006) wrote
that the small artifacts with which the story is told "are strikingly
effective" and overall the exhibit has an "affecting, mesmerizing
quality" which dramatically engages visitors. The National Review Online
(August 1, 2006) congratulated the exhibit organizers for bringing "the
often overlooked horrors (and lessons) of the Gulag to a wider
audience."

Manzanar National Historic Site and the Eastern California Museum host
*GULAG: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom* February
17 to October 21, 2007. The exhibit will be on display at the Eastern
California Museum in Independence, California. Manzanar Superintendent
Tom Leatherman notes, "We are honored to be the only west coast venue
for this powerful exhibit. And we are delighted once again to partner
with the Eastern California Museum which has worked with us for the past
three years to bring this exhibit to Inyo County."

Eastern California Museum is located at 155 North Grant Street, 3 blocks
west of the courthouse, in Independence. The Museum is open every day
except Tuesdays. The Museum's phone number is 760.878.0258. Admission is
free.

Manzanar National Historic Site is located six miles south of
Independence on U.S. Highway 395 and contains exhibits and audio-visual
programs related to the World War II internment of Japanese Americans.
For more information please visit [www.nps.gov/manz or call
760.878.2194](http://www.nps.gov/manz or call 760.878.2194), ext. 2710.

Please visit [www.gulaghistory.org](http://www.gulaghistory.org/) to
take a virtual tour of the exhibit, learn more about the Gulag
experience, and follow the traveling exhibit.

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