Around 20 million people went through the horrors of Soviet labor camps. At least 1.6 million of them died. Among the victims of Soviet repression were also people from the U.S.A. and Europe. Currently, with the exception of former Perm-36 project, there are no museums in Russia at places of former Gulag camps from Stalin’s era. However, hundreds of abandoned camps are still hidden away in the Siberian taiga. A small group of enthusiasts visit and document these sites to preserve them virtually and make them accessible to the general public through virtual and augmented reality. Štěpán Černoušek, head of the Gulag Online Virtual Museum and chairman of the Gulag.cz Association (Czech Republic), will speak about the project and its task of documenting the gulags and creating VR and AR experiences for the online museum. The event will include VR and AR demonstrations and a screening of “A Journey to the Gulag,” a documentary based on Černoušek's expeditions to the Gulag (2019, 30 minutes). The event is co-hosted by the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, a host organization of Černoušek's current Fulbright scholarship in the U.S.
A Journey to the Gulag. Film screening, virtual reality experience, with Štěpán Černoušek
