44 Lenin Avenue

A researcher's journey to Siberia

Klyuev in Tomsk: A story worth exploring?

Filed under: Late-Soviet Period,NKVD,Stalinist repression,Tomsk Memorial NKVD Remand Prison Museum — Wilson Bell at 4:36 pm on Wednesday, February 19, 2020  Tagged , , , , ,

One of the more interesting stories in Tomsk in the 1930s was that of poet Nikolai Kliuev (sometimes spelled Klyuev), discussed earlier in this blog. While I’m still not fully committed to a focus on Kliuev, he draws together some interesting threads from other subjects I’ve been working on in the 44 Lenin Avenue project. […]

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 […]

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 […]

30 Years of the Tomsk Memorial Museum, “NKVD Remand Prison”

Filed under: Stalinist repression,Tomsk Memorial NKVD Remand Prison Museum — Wilson Bell at 8:21 pm on Tuesday, June 18, 2019  Tagged , , ,

Just a brief post, but I wanted to highlight a recent exhibition at the NKVD Remand Prison Museum in Tomsk (44 Lenin Avenue), on the 30th anniversary of the local authorities’ decision to designate space to help perpetuate the memory of Stalinist repression, a decision that led to the founding of the Museum. Follow the […]