Following our expeditions in 2021 and 2025, this is already our third trip to the Kazakh steppes. This time we are heading near the town of Zhezkazgan, to the village of Terekty, where we will be researching and documenting the remains of a camp that was part of the Steplag camp complex. Between 1948 and 1956, tens of thousands of political prisoners of more than 40 nationalities passed through this complex. Among them were also dozens of Czechoslovaks.

Together with the archaeologists, we identified the site for research back in 2025, primarily because it has survived in a relatively undisturbed state. This year, we will therefore try to uncover what remains of the camp, how it operated, and what its remains can tell us about the people who were imprisoned there.

However, archaeology will not be the only source of new knowledge. Thanks to the gradual opening of Kazakh archives, we also have a chance to learn more about the fates of specific prisoners. According to our estimates, hundreds of Czechs and Czechoslovak citizens passed through the camps in Kazakhstan. So far, however, we know their stories only in a handful of individual cases.

This time, you can be there with us!

A complete video report from the expedition can be found on our YouTube channel.

We are bringing regular up-to-date information, photographs, videos and research findings straight from Kazakhstan at this Facebook event, as well as on our Facebook and Instagram.

Follow us on the trail of the Gulag!

Last year's survey alone already produced many results and interesting finds, including a spent cartridge case at the site of a guard tower, as well as a nearby camp cemetery.

„This is a unique and very striking find, which shows us what a tragic chapter of history this is, and how much remains unknown and unresolved. We don't know who is buried in these graves, nor what nationality they were, but given the diverse composition of Steplag's prisoners, we cannot rule out a Czech connection either,“ explains Štěpán Černoušek, chairman and founder of Gulag.cz, who is leading the expedition to Kazakhstan.

The archaeological research itself is led by Pavel Vařeka, head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Pilsen. He identified the camp together with Štěpán Černoušek during last year's reconnaissance expedition. „On site there are almost untouched ruins of prisoner barracks and other buildings, barbed-wire fencing, and a large number of discarded or lost objects documenting everyday life in a special camp for political prisoners,“ adds Vařeka.

The research will mainly take the form of surface collection and other non-invasive methods. Excavation work is planned only for later phases in the coming years. In addition to the Gulag.cz team, the research also involves students and PhD candidates from the University of West Bohemia. On the Kazakh side, it is backed by archaeologists from the Kazakh Institute of Archaeology and Buketov University in Karaganda, with whom we began cooperation during last year's expedition, culminating this June in the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the universities in Pilsen and Karaganda. Historians from Buketov University in Karaganda have also promised to help search local archives, which could shed more light on the topic of repression against Czechs on the territory of Soviet Kazakhstan. We will also be accompanied on site by historian Turganbek Alanijazov from Zhezkazgan, a leading expert on the history of Steplag.

The research is part of the cooperation between Gulag.cz and the University of West Bohemia within the long-term project Zdivočelá země (Land Gone Wild): archaeological and transdisciplinary research of resilience strategies in the 20th century.

More about the September 2025 survey HERE.
More about the November 2021 survey HERE.