A chilling look inside a former Soviet gulag

At the height of the gulag system, millions of Russians were imprisoned and put into forced labor. 

The gulag system housed citizens ranging from wayward peasants to political dissidents. Each year Stalin was in power, the gulag system grew larger.

Now, gulags are being turned into museums so Russians can learn the past atrocities commited under the Soviet Union.

Visitors to the Perm-36 museum in the Urals can stroll through a well-preserved prison camp of the Gulag system established by Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

But despite the authenticity of the site, the museum's new curators are downplaying the camp's role in the repressions of the Stalin era.

A stanza of the Soviet hymn from the late Stalin period is written on the wall facing museum visitors as they enter from the prison guard headquarters.

The prison guards' headquarters at the entrance to the camp

The “strict regime” zone of the prison camp