44 Lenin Avenue

A researcher's journey to Siberia

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 […]

Podcasts: Stalin’s Gulag at War

Filed under: Gulag,Knowledge mobilization — Wilson Bell at 4:41 pm on Tuesday, May 21, 2019  Tagged , , ,

Not directly related to the 44 Lenin Avenue project, but just another brief research update: So far, I’ve taken part in two podcasts related to my book, Stalin’s Gulag at War (UTP, 2019). Sean Guillory of the SRB Podcast interviewed me in February. I’ve known Sean since we were both doing our doctoral research in Moscow in […]

Resurrecting this Blog!

Filed under: Conferences & Presentations,Knowledge mobilization — Wilson Bell at 8:28 pm on Wednesday, May 15, 2019  Tagged , ,

So, it has been a while… I was very active on this blog for the first year or so of the 44 Lenin Avenue project, but as it came time to complete the finishing touches on my book, as well as getting bogged down by various other aspects of my job, I have not had […]

Research progress

Filed under: Conferences & Presentations,Gulag,Knowledge mobilization — Wilson Bell at 5:56 pm on Wednesday, July 4, 2018  Tagged , , ,

It has been awhile since I’ve posted, here. Just a quick update, and perhaps I’ll make some of these items into larger posts: My first publication based on the 44 Lenin Avenue project came out in January: Wilson T. Bell, “Tomsk regional identity and the legacy of the Gulag and Stalinist repression,” in Edith Clowes, […]

On collaborative projects

Filed under: Conferences & Presentations,Methodology,NKVD — Wilson Bell at 6:24 pm on Tuesday, November 14, 2017  Tagged , ,

While not directly related to the “44 Lenin Avenue Project,” I thought I’d highlight a recent collaborative publication in which I participated with Alan Barenberg, Sean Kinnear, Steve Maddox, and Lynne Viola. At the May 2017 meeting of the Canadian Association of Slavists (Ryerson University, Toronto), we participated in a roundtable discussion on new directions […]

Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions

Filed under: Monument square,Stalinist repression — Wilson Bell at 4:45 pm on Monday, October 30, 2017  Tagged , , , , , ,

Just a quick note: In Russia, October 30 is officially the “Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions.” As the museum at 44 Lenin Avenue is run by the Tomsk chapter of the Memorial Society, dedicated to preserving the memory of the victims of Soviet-era repression, it’s a key day for the museum […]

CAS Conference, May 27-29

Filed under: Conferences & Presentations,Ignatii Dvernitskii,Methodology — Wilson Bell at 7:46 pm on Tuesday, May 9, 2017  Tagged , , , ,

I’m excited to be presenting, “The 1909 Murder of Ignatii Dvernitskii: A microhistorical approach,” as part of a panel on microhistory approaches to Russian and Soviet history at the annual convention of the Canadian Association of Slavists, part of the larger Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences that will take place at Ryerson University […]