The gloomy basement of this former NKVD (proto-KGB) building is now a memorable Oppression Museum. Tours are recommended, but should be ordered in advance. Look out for the stunning Gulag map, the system of Soviet labour camps depicted as an uncountable mass of red dots across the territory of the former USSR.
Prisoners who passed through here included gulag chronicler Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya and the family of the purged Kazakh writer Akhmet Baytursinuli. Outside the museum are two monuments to victims of Stalinist repression – the larger to local victims, the second to Poles slaughtered by Uncle Joe and his cronies.
