Museum of Victims of Political Repressions, Turkistan Region, Kazakhstan

4Anthony W 5:00 PM Jul 20, 2016

Check address; well worth while
The museum covers a part of Kazakh history all too often ignored. Not just in Kazakhstan but the whole former Soviet Union. The events during the Stalinist era were all the more tragic for the Kazakhs as they also destroyed their traditional way of life. After some initial frustration (see below) one of the museum workers showed us around the museum and explained each part (in Russian; fortunately my friend could translate). Most of what she said was in the English guide but I really appreciated the gesture. The workers seemed extremely pleased that a foreigner would take an interest in this aspect of their history. There are certainly some negatives about this museum. It's irritating to pay more as a foreigner and find the exhibition in Kazakh only and that you need to buy an English pamphlet. All up I paid 600T including pamphlet, where a local pays 200T. It's not a huge sum, even for a backpacker but the irony bites a little. This history is very interesting to me and I think it's very important that people are aware of it. I thoroughly recommend you spend the time (and extra Tenge) to visit it

3thys77 5:00 PM Apr 20, 2017

Friendly staff, not in English
This is a small museum located across from Abai park near the corner of Ryskulbekov & N Torequlov streets. The staff person on duty was friendly and chatted with us at length about the museum as she showed us the different displays. However, she was speaking in Kazakh which none of us understands, so we only got a very rudimentary understanding of the material. The written descriptions were also in Kazakh so we weren't even able to use google translate to help us understand more. The staff person did lend us a pamphlet that contained a very brief English summary of the museum, but it didn't help with the displays at all. It was a nicely presented museum and certainly gave us a quick look into the lives of Kazakhs under Soviet rule, but in about 15 minutes we got everything we could out of it. The opening hours seemed a little random - we asked our hotel to call and verify they were open before we went.