surrounded by panels featuring Kazakh nationalist intellectuals from the early 20th century . There are seven exhibits with photos and document facsimiles , two of which deal specifically with the political repression of the 1930s . The visit ends in a Hall of Sorrow with the names of local victims . Furthermore , the museum is located a few metres from the huge memorial in Gloria dedicated to the struggle and the fallen in the Great Patriotic War , the Second World War in the West . It might be a model example of a Soviet memorial in Victory – common in many former Soviet cities – were it not for the fact that it was inaugurated in 2010 . All this makes for a good metaphor for the coexistence ( or cohabitation ?) of different narratives about the Soviet historical past in Kazakhstan : on the one hand , one that glorifies what the USSR meant and its goals , and another that disassociates itself by asserting a Kazakh tradition and identity and bringing its repressive dimension to the fore . All this goes beyond the anecdotal and also affects memory policies and the place that Soviet history occupies in the collective imagination . Finally , and in conclusion , there is an uncritical view of the subject matter . In addressing Stalinist repression , many events in Tsarist Russia , or the demands for self-government in the late 1980s , are dealt with at length , while more contemporary cases of political repression are overlooked .
4 . Mamochkino cemetery in Dolinka . Picture by Marc Díaz Planas .
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Observing Memories Issue 7