44 Lenin Avenue

A researcher's journey to Siberia

Architecture of Repression

The building at 44 Lenin Avenue was of course originally an educational institution. It became a site of repression (*nods to Foucault*), serving as one of two local headquarter buildings for the OGPU/NKVD from 1922-1944. Structurally, this involved converting the basements (of both buildings, if I’m not mistaken) into a remand or investigative prison (следственная […]

Does the murder method matter?

Filed under: Conferences & Presentations,Ignatii Dvernitskii — Wilson Bell at 3:17 pm on Wednesday, November 6, 2019  Tagged ,

When I presented at Dalhousie’s Stokes Seminar in September, one interesting question that came up in discussion related to the method of murder in the Ignatii case. Krista Kesselring, Chair of the history department and expert in the history of crime in early modern England, noted that in her research she found that only about […]

Poem about Klyuev

Filed under: Tomsk Memorial NKVD Remand Prison Museum — Wilson Bell at 5:46 pm on Tuesday, November 5, 2019  Tagged , , ,

Vasilii Khanevich and the staff at the Memorial Museum: NKVD Remand Prison in Tomsk (44 Lenin Avenue) are constantly adding information and material to the museum’s website. While browsing, today, I came across this video of Tomsk singer Pavel Evgrafov singing a poem by Mikhail Andreev about the 1937 execution of Nikolai Klyuev. Evgrafov is […]