This has never happened here, so people remain unwilling to focus on the guilt of the old regime. People are struggling with so many other problems, they don't have time to be weighed down by the past. Perm 36 was bulldozed by the KGB after closure to prevent it from becoming a pilgrimage spot. Volunteers recently rebuilt it and opened Russia's first gulag museum, in tribute to the victims of political repression. But because the country remains in denial about this aspect of its past, the museum has not attracted anything like the number of visitors to German camp memorials.
People have such short memories and are thirsting again for strong government.