In the Gulag's Shadow: Producing, Consuming and Perceiving Prisons in the Former Soviet Union

Lead Research Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Social Work and Social Policy

Abstract

The Soviet Gulag was one of the most awesome expressions of penal power in world history. Yet, thirty years after the end of the Soviet Union research into punishment in the former Soviet Union is limited. Whereas criminology as a discipline is burgeoning in North America and Western Europe, in the former Soviet Union varying incarceration rates and the social and cultural legacies of the Gulag's continent-sized system of punishment has not been systematically studied. Yet, the region presents a number of puzzles that touch on our wider understanding of penal policy, cultures of punishment and societal attitudes. We describe these puzzles below. To explore them, we have chosen to compare Russia and Kazakhstan - the two biggest countries in the former Soviet Union that held the most Gulag sites during the Soviet period.

Firstly, how do we map and explain change in prison rates and conditions across the post Soviet region? How can we understand why, since the year 2000 and against all predictions, many prison populations across the former Soviet Union have gone into decline? What political economic factors might explain this? How did policy makers in Russia and Kazakhstan go about constructing a penal policy and what shaped their preferences? What might it tell us about the driving factors that can explain decarceration in other contexts?

Secondly, what do Russians and Kazakhs think about state-sanctioned punishment? Many political scientists believe that the rise of strong leaders and authoritarianism in Russia is a result of political culture. On this view, Russian attitudes - forged by history, geography and culture - favour particular undemocratic governance forms. Yet, despite the size and scale of the Gulag we know very little about how Russians or Kazakhs think about punishment, its predictability and severity, and how this mediates the relationship of citizens with their states and what citizens want from prisons today.

Thirdly, how is punishment constructed culturally in products such as TV shows, films, songs and prison museums? How do Russians and Kazakhs consume these products and what meanings are conveyed through them? Theorists have debated the ways in which punishment is also a cultural practice. Despite the fact that one of the legacies of the Gulag has been a visual and musical culture that has become popularized in the present day, there has been no systematic study of this in the former Soviet Union, still less on the various prison museums that have emerged there. This is an important question as how citizens spectate on prisons and punishment often from afar can help to maintain a system of power.

In investigating these questions, this research project aims to produce a unique, in depth study of the construction of punishment through state policy, societal attitudes and cultural forms in Russia and Kazakhstan. The project utilizes mixed methodologies taken from across academic disciplines. The methods include a social survey, interviews with policy makers, documentary analysis and desk-based statistical analysis as well as in situ cultural exploration at museum sites and interactions with cultural consumers.

The research speaks to important topics about the nature of punishment, its embeddedness in society, culture and the economy and how this impacts upon prison rates and prison conditions. The project is high impact, generating unique data on: prison population trends, a documentary film on penal spectatorship, a large survey database on attitudes to punishment and focus groups for others to use and analyse. The project works with a number of key stakeholders who wish to better understand the use and meaning of prison in Russia and Kazakhstan today. These include government bodies such as the general prosecutor's office of Kazakhstan, national NGOs in the post-Soviet region, and international organizations such as the Council of Europe.

Planned Impact

After the collapse of the USSR, the post-Soviet region went through a turbulent process of societal, political and economic change. This is especially true of criminal justice. Despite this, imprisonment, once so integral to the construction of Soviet power through the Gulag, has left an extraordinary and resilient legacy, in the societies, culture and economies of the former Soviet Union. This legacy has not yet been fully explored in the fields of world prison sociology and comparative penal policy. This ambitious project will produce a forward-looking agenda that links historical developments with current trends that are relevant for understanding concrete penal choices in the former Soviet Union (fSU) and the contexts within which they are made.

The programme of impact activities planned has been designed to deliver substantial capacity building by developing new networks of collaboration between a range of stakeholders allowing for knowledge exchange and longer term synergy between policy and third sector groups in two jurisdictions of the fSU. We will use the contacts and professional relationships that Slade, Piacentini, Omelchenko and Trochev have developed - over decades - with a range of organisations, researchers and policy makers in Europe, Russia and in Kazakhstan. Through this network we will document and disseminate the results of the project showing the social and cultural factors that impact on the endurance of prison systems and prison rates and the influence of these and other economic structural factors on penal policy decision making.

The direct impacts of this project are significant, as indicated by the high level of support for this work from a range of organisations both locally in Russia and Kazakhstan and internationally from for example the Council of Europe (see Letters of Support). Policy impact will be maintained through our international Co-Investigators who will oversee our local engagement. Our International Advisory Group will help support the reach of the learning amongst networks and contacts beyond this context, advising us on the implications in other world contexts. To ensure that impact is achieved in the medium term and longer term, we will conduct an impact survey designed by all project partners to be issued after the project into stakeholder perceptions of whether the research has improved knowledge and understanding about attitudes to punishment in the fSU.

A range of audiences will benefit from participation in events and opportunities to share experiences and understandings of punishment in the fSU targeted at improving public knowledge of prison populations and of attitudes to punishment in localities that share Gulag history. We will carefully document the changes in policy and practice and, crucially, share the learning about the process of change as well as the impacts achieved. We will have a range of dissemination channels to ensure the project process, findings and impacts are shared widely including websites, blogs, newsletters, briefing papers, storyboards, and social media, to ensure we reach everyone effectively as possible. A final symposium in London with the Institute of Criminal Policy Research will be an important opportunity to bring policy-makers and practitioners together from across the globe to share knowledge on the cultural and societal context of the making of penal policy.

Our impact plan is threefold:

POLICY ENGAGEMENT:
International Advisory Group
Tool-Kit for Measuring and Understanding Attitudes to Punishment
Symposium on Factors Affecting Decarceration

LOCAL ENGAGEMENT:
Exhibitions at six well-established Gulag museums
Six student symposia, four at museum sites and two in St Petersburg and Moscow
Two workshop engagement events in Kazahkstan and Russia for local policy and third sector audiences

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT:
Website and Social Media
Short Documentary Film on Penal Spectatorship
Online Survey and Impact Data

Publications

10 25 50
 
Title A Long Way Back: In the Shadow of the Gulags 
Description This unique sociological documentary film is a story about the fates of people who found each other and believed in a possible salvation, not only in a metaphysical world, but here and now. The film will tell the biographies of several parishioners and the pastor of the Pentecostal Church in the city of Tomsk (Russia). 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2021 
Impact Film screenings at various locations in the UK and North America. Events attended by academics, students and film makers. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZbM3y2OEEM
 
Title Cultural Remains 
Description From the film maker, Dimitiry Omelchenko: Marina Kleshcheva has been committed to the theatre all her creative life, even though part of her civilian life was spent in prison. The protagonist tells about the ways to realize herself outside the prison walls, in which she was and is supported by Moscow's famous theatre venue, Teatr.doc Her story about herself in the theatre is woven into the Gulag heritage with cultural codes, indirect connotations, emotional reflection and performance. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2021 
Impact The film was shown to audiences in Moscow and St Petersburg who come from activists, student and film maker communities. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzzpQklImXg
 
Title Memory Remains 
Description A life that has spanned so many eras could have been anything but useless. This is the story of the elderly woman told in our project that needs to be heard. In this film, Dimitriy shows how Special resettlers were exiled from various regions of the country to the mostly Siberian wastelands with no means of livelihood, where they were forced to establish new settlements. Some of them are still alive today. This is one story from that time. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2021 
Impact The three films from the project were presented at film documentary festivals and in academic universities over 2021 and 2022. Audiences included student film makers, film makers and academics who shared their knowledge and insights on making documentaries on former sites, and in places, of political oppression. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Vws11i094
 
Title Remains of Legacy: Museums 
Description From the Director Dimitriy Omelchenko: "Historical memory in Russian visual culture is still a controversial phenomenon and will forever remain multifaceted. We understand that it is necessary to speak and to remember and to show and to interpret. Shall we do it by pushing on unhealed wounds or maybe to tell quietly, giving a historically accurate summary, or maybe to make academic efforts to develop this topic, having long-term plans, in any case, we never have to allow repetition of what has been passed. There are many museums, many dedicated people who have devoted their careers and interest to tell what happened in the Gulag era. It seems to us that a reading of the past can go along with contemporary interpretations of prison culture, which has clearly inherited the cultural codes of the inmates of the past. Here is a film about three very different prison museums in different Russian cities: Moscow, Tomsk and Uglich". 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2021 
Impact The film screening was attended by students of the film, activists and film makers. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h4KB_7gaYc
 
Title The Gulag's Shadow is the provisional title of a film we have commissioned with the film-maker Dimitrii Omel'chenko that began shooting in January 2020. 
Description Filming started in January 2020. The film will span the spatial and temporal landscape of Russia to capture various 'audiences'' understanding of, and engagement with, the prison in society in Russia today. It will be concerned with 'penal spectatorship' in all it's forms, both local and national, within diverse communities to better understand how contemporary Russia comes to terms with it's past penal trauma. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2020 
Impact Impacts not yet established as film is currently being made. 
 
Description What were the most significant achievements from the award?

This project, comparing the historical legacies of the two largest penal systems of the former USSR, the penal cultures of Russia and Kazakhstan, was completed despite significant geo-political turbulence that led to a re-purposing of the study in 2022. The Covid 19 global emergency shut down access to field sites across Russia and Kazakhstan for 18 months between March 2020 and October 2021. An attempted military coup in Kazakhstan in January 2020 created acute instability in the region leading to a pause in fieldwork in Kazakhstan, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led to the ending of the Russian part of the study due to full international sanctions, and the cessation of contracts with seven staff in St Petersburg. Given this serious and unprecedented global turbulence, outside of our control, and the impact on the personal safety of staff in Russia and, moreover, the ending of all professional communication with our Russian team, what we have achieved is beyond our imagination and, moreover, beyond the typical ups and downs, stops and starts, of major research projects.

The most significant achievements of this award were as follows:
1. We successfully delivered a huge range of outputs and different types of dissemination that exceeded our objectives (overall, circa 67 different forms of output).
2. We published, at the time of this ResearchFish submission, 9 peer-reviewed papers in the top, world-leading academic journals.
-----Two further peer review papers are expected (one under review and one accepted not yet published), bringing the total to 11, peer reviewed papers. This is more than double our original plan in our application of five peer-review papers.

3. Two of these peer-review papers led by LP and GS have been cited as 'game changers' in global punishment studies.
4. We have won two film awards from the four films made. This is well in excess of our stated plan of one film.
5. We have led on the design of a sophisticated, new web-site for the study.
6. We built capacity: several of our Early Career research team from both countries have gone on to high quality jobs around the world (mostly, but not exclusively, in world leading research roles).
7. We have also supported precarious independent researchers in Russia following the aggression in Ukraine: several of our team have, with agreements from the UK Govt, UKRI and our Universities, published as independent researchers with us.
8. We have built disciplinary dialogues with new fields: political science of authoritarian regimes; global south criminology; de-colonisation studies of the former USSR and Central Asia and histories of punishment in Russia's sub-alterns.
9. We delivered nearly 40 engagement events (workshops/seminars/conferences/public speaking to policy audiences) over the course of the study which is an exponentially higher figure than the original grant application proposal of seeking to attend six-eight public engagement events.
------In summary, despite the devastating toll that the war in Ukraine has had on our Russian team, and, possibly, on our future plans in that country specifically, we have delivered way in excess of our aims and objectives.

To what extent were the award objectives met? If you can, briefly explain why any key objectives were not met.

We have met and exceeded our objectives in the following ways.

1. We mapped prison rates and conditions as outlined in the original application, AND we exceeded this by producing a highly sophisticated new geo-mapping outline of Gulag camp locations that has not been done ever before. The new mapping we undertook gives promise of radically altering how Gulag maps were generated and where sites have been assumed to be.

2. Two surveys on attitudes to punishment: our two surveys were unique and statistically significant. We delivered these and in excess of our second project aim as we have developed collaborative links with scholars at McGill University to disseminate and pull the surveys into publication. The re-purposing of the project, following the war in Ukraine, has delayed further work temporarily.

3. Qualitative analysis of the cultural representations of punishment as understood by visitors to museums dedicated to former political oppression. Despite Covid 19, and the war in Ukraine leading to full sanctions and cessation of all UKRI work with Russian partners, we did deliver on this aim and exceeded it by extending to new sites and engaging with new representations using some of the geo-mapping technology mentioned above.

How might the findings be taken forward and by whom?

1. The academic work may inform new conceptual and theoretical analysis of cultures of punishment in the Global North and South and draw researchers and early career academics to the subject area.
2. The research design is original and innovative insofar as never before has there been studies undertaken which bring together national, public attitude surveys, museum visits, and elite interviews with prison officials to create a full picture of a national 'culture of punishment'. Our ultimate aim is that this research design, that brought three separate but interrelated aims, could be replicated in other jurisdictions.
3. Our project has brought a full and dynamic way of thinking about Empires as events and cultures that exist only in Western contexts.
4. Our project adds to the body of North American work on how we might theorise penal culture beyond current analysis of populations and policy work.
Exploitation Route Academia:
Piacentini and Slade's publication profile is contributing to significant development in the conceptual and the theoretical debates on, for example, sociological analysis of memory and the uses and organisation of 'found objects' associated with national traumas in public consciousness (Slade and Piacentini), and to the the Global North to Global South transfer debate by asking: where s the Global East (Piacentini and Slade). Both Piacentini and Slade have been invited to contribute to international events, to give plenaries, contribute to Handbooks, edited collections and Special Issues on how the erasure of former USSR has impacted on the development of criminological, sociological and post-colonial thinking and on punishment practices, systems and cultures. This can be evidenced in successful publications and follow on grant capture.

Policy:
Slade, Horn and Trochev published in the high-rankling global foreign policy organisation, PONARS. https://www.ponarseurasia.org/how-punitive-are-russians-insights-from-a-national-survey-on-law-enforcement-in-russia/
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Creative Economy

Education

Government

Democracy and Justice

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

 
Description In the current climate of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, our work is starting to make non-academic impact in areas of policy where we have been invited to write a blog for the high-profile post-Soviet political science organisation PONARS (Slade). We are also making an impact in the EU context of the war with Piacentini being invited to write a blog for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at the University of London. The blog will be on the Council of Europe removing Russia and the impact on penal reform in the region. Piacentini and Slade's writing and new theoretical innovation is being picked up by global scholars and has led to many invitations to contribute to accessible scholarly and public debates on punishment cultures in the Global East. Slade is regularly invited to contribute new thinking about, and reform of, criminal justice and policy making in Kazakhstan.
First Year Of Impact 2022
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description The Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) is a network of over 140 academics, mainly from North America and post-Soviet Eurasia, advancing new approaches to research on security, politics, economics, and society in Russia and Eurasia. Its core missions are to connect scholarship to policy on and in Russia and Eurasia and to foster a community, especially of mid-career and rising scholars, committed to developing policy-relevant and collaborative research.PONARS Eurasia offers analysis and influences policy debates through its Policy Memos, Commentaries, Events, Conferences, Workshops, Digital Resources (Online Academy Videos, Podcasts, Recommended Videos), and special projects such as Point & Counterpoint and Policy Perspectives volumes. The program's annual conference brings over 30 leading scholars together with nearly 200 members of the DC policy, NGO, and academic community. Its signature workshops and conferences produce innovative discussions and widely-distributed publications on contemporary political, economic, and social topics.
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to new or improved professional practice
 
Description Central Asia's Gulag: Mapping and Managing Penal Heritage in Kazakhstan
Amount £14,238,029,332 (KZT)
Organisation Nazarbayev University 
Sector Academic/University
Country Kazakhstan
Start 01/2024 
End 01/2026
 
Title - The survey was piloted, first at a workshop involving NU SOC/ANT majors who provided feedback on the tool, and secondly with 60 households in Astana 
Description Pilot survey work was conducted with the survey company in Kazakhstan called PORI. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact A highly successful pilot was carried out before the major survey work in Autumn 2019. 
 
Title A sampling strategy was created to oversample former Gulag sites in the two countries 
Description see above 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Our sampling strategy is world leading and has been informed by world experts. 
 
Title A unique survey tool was created to measure attitudes to the Gulag and punitiveness in Kazakhstan and Russia 
Description Following on from our previous research implementation tool, our survey instrument is unique in world criminology. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We intend to publish the tools after project completion. 
 
Title Statistical data gathering using new innovative methods hitherto not gathered in global criminology 
Description Statistical data was collected from all 15 former Soviet countries concerning political economic variables and criminal justice statistics since 1991 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We have designed, implemented and delivered unique data on public attitudes to prisons and punishment in two former countries of the USSR. 
 
Title Dr Dan Horn is compiling an online data base of prison trends and statistics for workstream 1. 
Description As above, Dr Dan Horn, the RA on the project is compiling an accessible and detailed data base on global penal trends using data from the World Prison Brief and other global sources. This is technically complex work because data is gathered from multiple sources and there is no one, universal go-to source. The planned output intends to be the first of its kind in the world and will be open access for criminologists, policy makers and NGO groups engaged with penal trends and penal cultures. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The data base is under construction and will be available at the end of the project. 
 
Title We developed a detailed and large data set management system from Nvivo.12. 
Description Qualitative data from two country jurisdictions was uploaded securely through the University of Strathclyde. 
Type Of Material Data analysis technique 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We were able to pull data from the data set and share with the project team using editing software. We were able to develop the majority of our academic papers from the data set. 
 
Description - A memorandum of cooperation was created to present to the Prison Service of Kazakhstan with a view to involving the service in the project in 2020 
Organisation Government of Kazakhstan
Country Kazakhstan 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution A new MOA was established between the project partners at the University of Nazarbayev, in Astana and the Kazakh prison service with the aim of fostering collaboration and building capacity.
Collaborator Contribution Meetings and networking events.
Impact An MOA was produced.
Start Year 2019
 
Title We have launched a new Website that is dynamic, international sophisticated but accessible. 
Description This new web-site has been designed by one of the best tech companies in Kazakhstan and will allow users to interface with maps, surveys, the projects outputs and with the wide range of public engagement activities we have delivered. 
Type Of Technology Webtool/Application 
Year Produced 2022 
Open Source License? Yes  
Impact User voice, user pick up, accessible engagemtn, a multi-language forum. 
URL http://www.gulag.net
 
Description - A working trip was made after the conference to the Dolinka Gulag museum in Karaganda. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The working group aimed at capacity building and the project was welcomed by representatives of the local Akimat and featured on local television.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description American Society of Criminology Conference Presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Professor Piacentini presented a paper "Shadowy prowler or reflexive scholar? : The precarious world of online prison research within and with Russian prisoners".at the annual American Society of Criminolgoy Conference, 2018, Atlanta Georgia. This was a specially convened panel of scholars working in Gulag Studies and Post-Soviet Imrprisonment to engage audiences on the legacies of Gulag culture and memorialisaion on the development of penal systems in the former USSR. This sparked a discussion about a) what is prison in Russia today, b) can we reach an intellectual consensus on Russia's political economy of punishment and c) how and which methdologies are useful, relevant and appropriate for contemporary research in Russia. This paper spoke directly to this project and, subsequently, has generated interest in the research from other leading Gulag scholars and methods experts across the world (Wilson Bell, Jeff Hardy).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description American Society of Criminology Conference Presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Dr Gavin Slade presented a paper "The Gulag as a Reputation System" at the annual American Society of Criminolgoy Conference, 2018, Atlanta Georgia. This was a specially convened panel of scholars working in Gulag Studies and Post-Soviet Imrprisonment to engage audiences on the legacies of Gulag culture and memorialisaion on the development of penal systems in the former USSR. This sparked a discussion about a) what is prison in Russia today and b) can we reach an intellectual consensus on Russia's political economy of punishment. This paper spoke directly to this project and, subsequently, has generated interest in the research from other leading Gulag scholars across the world (Wilson Bell, Jeff Hardy) and political scientists (Favid Skarbarek).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description British Association of Slavonic, Euarasian and East European Studies Annual Conference, April 2023, Glasgow University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact In our major ESRC study: In the Gulag's Shadow: Producing, Consuming and Perceiving Prisons in the Former USSR, we are concerned with the urgent question of what is the culture of penal punishment in two of the former USSR's most punitive nations: Russia and Kazakhstan? Why is the former USSR absent from debates and theorisations on global punishment systems? What has the invasion of Ukraine delivered in terms of situating penal-politics in authoritarianism contexts? Criminology and Area Studies continue to either neglect, or partially engage with, the East in debates on the Global South and Global North. East is defined in this paper as including the former USSR. This status confusion creates a pronounced cleavage; a frame of coloniser versus colonised. Inevitably, this has erased a more fluid politics of representation, of contexture. This presentation explores what contexture might mean through situating the former USSR inside geo-political, carceral discourse. I argue that the former USSR is a subaltern Empire, hidden, absent and poorly theorised. It is not a place or a region but a relational context. My paper holds ideas that are in development, but my aim is to address the erasure of the East in global carceral studies by disrupting assumed categories of coloniser/colonised and, therefore, contesting current geo-politics of criminological knowledge.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Development of film 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact A concept paper for a documentary film to be produced in 2020 was created and a filmmaker selected to carry out the filming.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description During the year more than 30 expert in depth and on the record interviews were collected with respondents in Almaty, Astana, Karaganda, Moscow and St Petersburg 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Professors Slade and Piacentini conducted fiedlwork in Moscow and Astana with former prison elites and policy makers as part of workstream 1.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Ethnographic observatoin 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Work began on ethnographic observation, starting in St Petersburg in July, two researchers from HSE St Petersburg spent a month at the State History Museum conducting focus groups, observations and interviews. Further observation began at a second site, the NKVD Museum in Tomsk in November
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Fieldwork in St Petersburg, Winter 2019 FOCUS GROUPS 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact The project partners, the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg, delivered a range of Focus Groups in museums of former political oppression in St Petersburg over 2 months. This formed part of workstream 3,
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019,2020
 
Description Fieldwork in Tomsk, Siberia, Autumn 2019 FOCUS GROUPS 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact The project partners, the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg, delivered a range of Focus Groups in museums of former political oppression in Tomsk Siberia over 2 months. This formed part of workstream 3,
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Film presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Kravtsova A.N. Participation in a discussion on the topic of research in museums. V All-Russian Museum Forum on Children's, Adolescent and Family Programs (23-27.11.2021).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Film presentation and discussion about the three films produced for the Gulag Shadow study. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Omelchenko D.A., Kravtsova A.N. Assembly "Project about memory" in the Museum of the History of the Gulag. Film presentation and discussion (03.12.2021, offline event).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description International seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Piacentini July 2021 Punishment in Global Peripheries, University of Oxford, UK
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Kravtsova A.N. Presentation "Museums of memory in the space of Russian cities" on Russian Conference "Forget and Remember: Forms and Limits of Soviet Memory" (01-06.02.2021, Virtual Event ) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Kravtsova A.N. Presentation "Museums of memory in the space of Russian cities" on Russian Conference "Forget and Remember: Forms and Limits of Soviet Memory" (01-06.02.2021, Virtual Event )
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Omelchenko D.A. Presentation and discussion of the documentary: 'The long way home'. Workshop: 'Politics in motion: Using video and film-based practices in/on Eastern Europe' (May 20th, 2021, Virtual Event) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Omelchenko D.A. Presentation and discussion of the documentary: 'The long way home'. Workshop: 'Politics in motion: Using video and film-based practices in/on Eastern Europe' (May 20th, 2021, Virtual Event)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Omelchenko E., Lisovskaya I, Kravtsova A. Assembly "Museums of memory of the Gulag in Russian cities." The event was held as part of the methodological seminar of the CYS "SOC UP" (30.03.2021, Virtual Event) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact This was an event on the methods used to make our films,
Omelchenko E., Lisovskaya I, Kravtsova A. Assembly "Museums of memory of the Gulag in Russian cities." The event was held as part of the methodological seminar of the CYS "SOC UP" (30.03.2021, Virtual Event)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Participation in Visiting Fellowship Scheme at the Aleksanterii Institute for Slavic Studies, Helsinki, Finalnd (Slade) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Professor Slade has been a Visiting Fellow at Aleksanterii from Jan - March 2023 and involved in a series of public engagement events.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Piacentini, L. Public engagement conference on the Gulag legacies in the former USSR, held at the University of Nazarbayev, Astana, Kazakhstan 07-11 Ocotber 2019. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Professor Piacentini participated in an event held at the University of Nazarbayev on the legacies of the Gulag in former Soviet countries. The event was led by Professor Gavin Slade, the International Co-I on the ESRC study, In the Gulag's Shadow. The event attracted presentations and attendees from criminal justice agencies, advocacy and activist groups and NGOs working in Kazakhstan and Russia. This was a policy event that enabled the team to make important connections to key stakeholders in the regions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Professor Piacentini, Conference Paper and Invited Speaker for the event: Russian Readings https://russian-readings.org/event/crime-and-punishment-the-geographies-of-penitentiary-system-in-post-soviet-russia/ 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The event was held March 13-15 2019.

The panel session was opened by Laura Piacentini, Professor of Criminology at the University of Strathclyde. In her presentation, entitled Shadowy prowler or reflexive scholar? : The precarious world of online prison research within and with Russian prisoners, Prof. Piacentini talks of the EXTENDED impact and challenges that the scant attention to criminology in the contemporary Russian penal system and to the absence of Russia in theoretical and empirical understandings of world penal development has had on methodological approaches to the study of post-Soviet punishment, not least researcher positionality, self-reflexivity, ethical ambiguities, and sample sizes. Building from her decades ling work, and with an emphasis on the legacies of the Gulag, the paper seeks to both develop and disrupt conventional methodological frameworks for exploring the post-Soviet penal system by providing a critical, methodological account of new social media approaches to prison research in Russia. The findings draw down from a UK Leverhulme study into the sociology of rights consciousness amongst Russian prisoners who are engaging in online prisoner blogging using illicit communication devices.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Professor Slade - leading on fieldwork and coordination in Moscow 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Professor Slade is the lead international Co-I on the project. He spent two months in Autumn 2019 overseeing and particpating in fieldwork with the Russian reserah team at the Higher School of Econmics, St Petersburg. This involved: overseeing the fiedlwork, conducting engagement activities in musuems to build early networks, meeting museum curators, meeting local advocates for penal reform, meeting community groups and setting up links for research further into 2020. This was a hugely successful trip, not only in realising project deliverables but in ensuring that team were all well and managing the work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Professor Slade fieldwork and fieldwork planning 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Professor Slade made connections with former prison officials as part of the ESRC study, in the Gulag's Shadow. Professor Slade interviewed Kairbolat Eskaliev, former Deputy Director of the Kazakh Prison Service and former head of the Karaganda Oblast (region) prison service. Professor Slade also interviewed Mikhail Lirchikov who is the long-time governor of the Almaty Pre-Trial Detention Centre in the 2000s and deputy head of the Almaty Oblast prison service. These interviews were part of workstream 1.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Professor Slade fieldwork and fieldwork planning 2 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Professor Slade made connections with former prison officials as part of the ESRC study, in the Gulag's Shadow. Professor Slade interviewed Mikhail Lirchikov who is the long-time governor of the Almaty Pre-Trial Detention Centre in the 2000s and deputy head of the Almaty Oblast prison service. These interviews were part of workstream 3.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Professor Slade fieldwork and fieldwork planning 3 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Professor Slade made connections with former prison officials as part of the ESRC study, in the Gulag's Shadow. Professor Slade interviewed Husssein Valiev, The Head of the Kazakh Prison Service in the 1990s and the producer of the first penal code of Kazakhstan in 1997. These interviews were part of workstream 1.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Professor Slade, Conference Paper and Invited Speaker for the event: Russian Readings https://russian-readings.org/event/crime-and-punishment-the-geographies-of-penitentiary-system-in-post-soviet-russia/ 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The event was held on March 13-15, 2019.

The closing contribution to the session was made by Dr Gavin Slade, Associate Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan. Prof. Slade discussed the state of criminology in Russia, criminological approaches to understanding prison rates and punitiveness, and analysed the factors that drive qualitative and quantitative dimensions of punishment in a country, offering a sociological perspective in his talk. The presentation involves comparison with other post-Soviet states in regards to punishment practices, notably with Georgia and Kazakhstan. Prof. Slade also drew attention to the ESRC-funded project 'In the Gulag's Shadow', that tries to bring together major strands of criminology to understand the trends in Russia, Kazakhstan, and across the former Soviet Union.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Professors Piacentini and Slade engaging in fieldwork and fieldwork planning Moscow, June 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Professors Piacentini and Slade interviewed the former head of the Kazakh Prison Service and Head of the Moscow Prison Service Pytor Posmakov. The interview was conducted as part of workstream 1.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Project web-site, Twitter feed and Facebook accounts established in November and December 2018. The web-site for the project: www.gulagshadow.org. Twitter account: @InGulag. Facebok account: "In the Gulag's Shadow" 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact The PI (Piacentini) and international Co-I (Slade) led on the development of a project web-site that is hosted by the lead institution, The University of Strathclyde. The PI is the lead on the Twitter account and the RA (Horn) oversees with the Facebook account. The intended purpose is to facilitate of these three forms of public engagement is to generate public awareness and engagement, knowledge mobilisation and to build capacity in prisons and punishment in the former USSR and in mass incarceration more broadly.

The Twitter account has generated a significant following of nearly 200 diverse followers within two months of launching and is generating interest from academics, PhD students, activists and practitioners in global criminology. The Twitter account has also generated contact from experts who can help with networking into the fSU countries and this has led to questions and discussion about fieldwork sites and access increasing our understanding of the region.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2019
URL http://www.gulagshadow.org/
 
Description Round table 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Slade: Sep 2021 Collective Memory in Contemporary Russia, University of Uppsala, Sweden
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Slade Feb 2022 Rethinking the Gulag, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, US
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Piacentini Mar 2022 Southernising Criminology, University of Oxford, UK
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Slade and Piacentini Mar 2022 Social Analysis of Penality across Boundaries, University of Glasgow, UK
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Slade July 2021 Punishment in Global Peripheries, University of Oxford, UK
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Slade: Nov 2021 Centre for Russia & Central Asia Seminar Series, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Special event of the pioneering penal reformer Valerii Abramking 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Yasaveev I.G. Presentation "After prison: Narratives of former prisoners about their state after release (based on research interviews)". Abramkin's Readings Conference (May 19, 2020, Virtual Event).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description The Gulag's Shadow study has produced three path breaking films on penal culture on post-Soviet Russia. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact An International film screening of world leading films (3) from the Gulag's Shadow study. Omelchenko D.A. Presentation and discussion of the film: A Long Way Back: In the Shadow of the Gulags. Film Department, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen's University (June 23, 2021)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Work began on ethnographic observation, starting in St Petersburg in July, two researchers from HSE St Petersburg spent a month at the State History Museum conducting focus groups, observations and interviews. Further observation began at a second site, the NKVD Museum in Tomsk in November 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact This is work going towards work-stream three.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Slade Mar 2022 PSIR Seminar Series, Nazarbayev University, KZ
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Slade Mar 2022 PSIR Seminar Series, Nazarbayev University, KZ
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Slade Feb 2022 Exploring Incarceration Trends, University of Turin, Italy
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022