This illustration series is dedicated to the memory of special settlements—isolated Soviet settlements where entire families were exiled without trial in the 1930s. The first special settlers were «kulakized» peasants, stripped of their homes, property, and freedom of movement.
These special settlements emerged in remote regions—Siberia, the Urals, the North, and Kazakhstan. These were often guarded territories, and leaving them was forbidden, with escape resulting in punishment. The residents were utilized as cheap labor in logging operations, construction sites, mines, and agriculture.
This series of illustrations presents the human dimension of this history: the fragility of human life amidst the harsh northern landscape, the memory of family as the final form of resistance and dignity, and the necessity of remembering those whose voices have barely survived in official history.
