ALZHIR memorial

ALZHIR memorial - darkometer rating : 7 - One of the main two gulag memorial sites in Kazakhstan (the other being KarLag at Dolinka near Karaganda ), a complex of monuments, sculptures and, most significantly, a modern memorial museum. For the dark tourist this makes for a very worthwhile half-day excursion from Astana . > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: the cryptic acronym ALZHIR (pronounced just like the capital of Algeria ) stands for the Russian for "Akmolinskiy internment camp for the wives of the betrayers of the homeland". This was the particularly Stalinist gulag for wives (and children) of political prisoners who were deemed traitors. The wives were simply considered as guilty as their husbands by association. The German language has a concise word for this: "Sippenhaft" – which only lamely translates into English as 'clan liability' or 'collective punishment' (although it has elements of both). It wasn't exactly an invention of Stalin's ( Hitler did it too), but he practised it possibly more ruthlessly than anyone during the 1930s purges and during WWII . The camp was in operation from the 1930s through to the early 1950s (more precise figures claim from 1937 to 1946) and was one of the most notorious camps in central Kazakhstan – not just because of its special role as a women's camp within the gulag system, but also because it had several high-profile prisoners, including artists and actresses. Living conditions were just as harsh as in any gulag . Accommodation was in the form of wooden barracks with as many as 400 bunk beds each. Food rations were meagre (porridge, cabbage and potatoes the only regular staples).