The "Perm-36" camp operated for more than 40 years. It was founded in 1943. In 1946 it was transferred to its current location. Till 1953 it served as a typical logging camp found throughout the country. After Stalin‘s death, the camp was converted to house officials of the repressive organs accused of organizing "groundless repressions" under the Stalinist regime. In 1972 the camp was converted into the harshest political camp of the country and operated till it closed in 1988. There was a special regime facility, the only one of its kind in the country, to house political prisoners in twenty-four-hour closed cells They continued their intellectual struggle against the regime and its ideology after release from their first prison terms and were considered to be especially dangerous by the State. All of them, as a rule, were sentenced to 10 years.
During two and a half decades, since the end of the 1920s and till the day of Stalin‘s death, GULAG (abbreviation for "MainAdministration of Camps" ) was not only a huge camp agency containing thousands of camps and millions of convicts, but the country‘s way of life. GULAG was an absolutely necessary element of the system. Without the GULAG cheap slave labour, Stalin‘s socialist modernization programme of the country‘s economy would have been impossible. Without the total fear in the face of the horrors of repression and camps, the totalitarian regime and strict discipline and total subjection for those "at liberty" would have also been impossible. After the death of Stalin the number of camps in the USSR decreased, but the communist political system remained repressive till its collapse. In 1960-80s thousands of dissidents were placed in prisons, political camps, mental hospitals.
"Perm-36" Memorial Museum is the only preserved саmр of the GULAG еrа throughout the former USSR. The museum presents аll the periods of the repressive роliсу and the USSR penitentiary system history starting from the first years of Soviet power and theGULAG to the ending of political camps and political prisoners оn the еvе of the communist system collapse. Exposition, exhibition, and authentic саmр interiors аrе placed in different саmр buildings and structures, the latter were constructed and reconstructed during 1946-80.
The museum finds, collects, and studies various materials оn the history of political repression. The museum's exhibitions аrе displayed in different regions of Russia and abroad.
The Museum is located near the village of Kuchino, Chusovoy district, Perm region.〔() Museum Perm-36〕