The National Museum of History of Moldova  opened on Tuesday, June 28 2016, the photo and documentary exhibition „Bessarabians in the Gulag", dedicated to the victims of Stalinist deportations.
 
The event included the presentation of book „Arhivele memoriei" (Archives of Memory), elaborated within the Public Project „Recovery and historic valorization of the historical memory of the victims of totalitarian communist regime from Soviet Moldavia during the years 1940-1941 and 1944-1953".

The exhibition has on display about 130 photographic images and documents reflecting the experience in the Gulag of Bessarabian families which were raised in three mass deportation waves conducted by the Soviet authorities in 1941, 1949 and 1951. The deportees come from different parts of the country. The display order follows the chronology of deportation operations. Besides photos of deportees, there are shown a few maps of Soviet Gulag, decisions and documents issued by bodies of repression revealing the conduct of deportation operations, working and living conditions in Siberian colonies, regime and everyday live in the Gulag.

A compartment of the exhibition includes several images of monuments installed in memory of the victims of communism. They are meant to remind visitors the need for in-depth study of the totalitarian past, for perpetuation of the memory of the victims of totalitarian communism by building memorial complexes, opening local museums and installing memorial plaques in places of committed crimes and horrors of communism. These actions should be regarded as an imperative of our time, an honorable obligation to history and memory of our predecessors.

The exhibition is displayed on the upper lobby of the museum.