KARLAG GULAG

Karlag is simply an abbreviation of KARaganda gouLAG. Built under Stalin in the village of Dolinka, some 50 km southwest of Karaganda, the labor camp covered no less than 60,000 ^km2, an area in fact divided into a multitude of camps, only a tiny fraction of which can be visited today, the others being occupied by the army. The prisoners were mainly used for coal mining. After independence, the buildings were converted into a museum, offering visitors a glimpse into the harrowing world of Soviet-style concentration camps. The first building, which housed the camp's administrative services, is the only one worth seeing for its neoclassical Russian architecture. The others are more interesting for what they contain. The tour takes us from vast corridors lined with narrow cells to interrogation chambers and rooms where prisoners were executed out of sight. Archival documents and mannequins illustrate life in the Gulag through a museography that was completely overhauled in 2011 and ranks this museum among the most interesting in the country.

On the other side of Karaganda, you can stop off at the village of Spassk. A memorial has been erected where over 5,000 victims of the Karlag camp are buried. As far as the eye can see, crosses emerge from the steppe, a reminder of the diversity of ethnicities and religions that fell victim to Stalin's concentration camps.