Designing Memory: The Fate of Soviet Jews in the Stalin Era

In 2016, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center commissioned Lorem Ipsum to create a new exhibition section chronicling the fate of Soviet Jews in the post-World War II era. Our team crafted an immersive narrative that explores the period’s initial hope and subsequent descent into fear, weaving together stories of prominent Jewish intellectuals who lived through this turbulent time.

The exhibition explores key events and themes of the era, including the formation of Israel, the USSR’s role in that process, and the subsequent wave of anti-Semitic repression under Stalin. It delves into the persecution of Jewish intellectuals, the notorious “Doctors’ Plot,” and concludes with Stalin’s death and the beginning of the Thaw period.

Visitors are engaged through a combination of cutting-edge multimedia installations and meticulously recreated historical environments.

A standout feature is the full-scale reconstruction of a prison cell from the notorious Lubyanka secret police building, offering a chilling glimpse into the reality of political repression.

The exhibition culminates in a powerful, large-screen memorial experience commemorating all victims of Stalin’s post-war repressions. In this immersive display, each star crossing the night sky represents an individual, with their name read aloud alongside their birth and death dates. This moving tribute runs on a loop, taking three hours and forty-two minutes to complete — a testament to the scale of the tragedy.

The Art Newspaper called the exhibition “one of the most vivid and honest museum exhibits dedicated to the history of mass repression in the USSR.”

For its work on the project, Lorem Ipsum received the Fiddler on the Roof award from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR) for outstanding contributions to the country’s cultural and social life.