TOMSK, Feb 15 – RIA Tomsk.
The Russian Fund "Perpetuating the Memory of Victims of Political
Repressions" (Memory Fund) bought out for the Tomsk memorial museum
"NKVD Remand Prison" the adjacent room in a building at 44 Lenin Avenue;
after the renovation the area of the museum will double, it will
update the exposition and open a cafe, museum director Vasily Khanevich
told.
Earlier it was reported that in 2019 the Memory Fund
helped the Tomsk Museum "NKVD Remand Prison" to raise funds for the
purchase of premises at 44 Lenin Avenue, where the main exhibition is
located. The owner (a local entrepreneur) intended to sell this
property, and in order to keep it for the museum, the head of the
Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights was involved in
the negotiations.
According to Khanevich, the fund has
bought other areas on the basement floor, where the internet cafe was
previously located, and in 2021 they will be transferred to the museum.
"The
exposition of the memorial museum will be expanded. In the part where
there was an internet cafe, there will be an exhibition hall and the
entire infrastructure of the museum: reception area, cafe, documents
center, library and premises for employees. All this will be a single
whole, as it was planned at one time at the very beginning, in the
1990s", – the agency's interlocutor said, noting that the museum's area
will more than double.
© Предоставила Наталья Квасникова
The Memory Fund plans to create
several museum centers in Russia dedicated to the history of political
repression. "Such a Center is being created on the basis of our museum,
but it will still be located in the structure of the regional museum of
local lore", – Khanevich said.
"When the center for the
protection of monuments signs all the approvals (the building is still
historical), the renovation of the museum will begin, it will be closed
to visitors. A completely new exposition will be more modern. The walls
where they were removed will be restored, additional doors will be
added", – Khanevich added, having specified that the renovation will
begin in 2021.
Earlier it was reported that the state
museum "NKVD Remand Prison" is located in the basement, which from 1923
to 1944 was the inner prison of the Tomsk city department of the NKVD.