Tomsk regional identity and the legacy of the Gulag and Stalinist repression 1

Using oral history interviews conducted in 2016, local sources, and secondary materials, this chapter argues that the Tomsk Memorial Society has succeeded in establishing and running a prominent museum devoted to issues of Soviet-era repression. Tomsk Memorial’s success is due to its activities in the late 1980s and early 1990s, its partnership with the Tomsk Local History Museum (kraevedcheskii muzei) in establishing the museum, and to the tireless work of the museum’s director, Vasilii Khanevich. Nevertheless, the memory of the Gulag remains contested memory, both locally and nationally.