Museum of Victims of Political Repression in Tashkent

Museum of Victims of Political Repression in Tashkent

"Qatag'on Qurbonlari Xotira Muzeyi"
Established	2002.08.31
Location	Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Type	Public
Founder	Islam Karimov

The Museum of Victims of Political Repression in Tashkent (Uzbek: Qatagʻon qurbonlari xotirasi muzeyi) is a museum which tells the history of Uzbekistan during the political repression in the Soviet Union, in particular that of the people killed at that time.

The museum is dedicated to the memory of the people who fought for the independence of Uzbekistan and who were killed by the government. The museum is one of the youngest museums in Uzbekistan as it was established on 31 August 2002, by President Islam Karimov. The Museum was first located in a very small park area in front of the Tashkent Tower. The museum has expanded rapidly, and has become part of a large memorial complex. The museum shows the legacy of controversial periods of Uzbekistan's history from the mid-19th century to the second half of the 20th century.

The museum's exhibits consist of photographs, documents and personal belongings of those killed. The repression started in 1860 when the Russian Empire waged a colonial war in Central Asia. The empire did not only destroy and conqueror the cities, but they also killed a huge number of people. Instead of this, the exhibits describe the time of the Soviet Union, after the October Revolution; about Stalin's regime which was one of the bloodiest periods in the history of modern Uzbekistan; and about the more than 800 criminal cases under the "Cotton case" of the late 1980s. There are maquettes of the concentration camps and prisons where prisoners lived. The biggest stand at the Museum is the "Prison van", on which people were taken to the prison by the commissars.

The Museum of Victims of Political Repression in Tashkent's objectives for improvement are:

• Studying and learning tragic events of the colonial period
• Doing scientific research in public and private archives, in order to find the documents. Photographs and various artefacts related to the museum
• Studying lives and social activities of the victims
• Preparation and publication of literary and scientific contributions of the victims
• Arranging the spiritual and educational activities amongst young generations of Uzbekistan
• Preparation of calendars and posters about the victims

The museum is located in the territory of Shakhidlar Hotirasi, which is translated from Uzbek as the "In Memory of Martyrs"). It is located in front of the Tashkent TV tower. The choice of location of the museum was reinforced by the fact that during construction a number of graves were found of people presumably killed during the Soviet period.^{[1][2][3][4][excessive citations]}

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