The horrors of the past, the wasted lives, the remains of uranium mines and labour camps - the forgotten history of Kyrgyzstan is slowly being taken away by time. Among the victims of Soviet repression there were also many Czechoslovak citizens. The Gulag.cz expedition set out to the sites of this troubled history in August 2024 on the occasion of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the founding of the "Interhelpo" cooperative by our compatriots in Kyrgyzstan.

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The result is a documentary film entitled "Buried Hopes", charting the search for traces of terror, meeting and interviewing descendants of the Czechs, survivors and local experts against the backdrop of Kyrgyz cities and exotic landscapes. All the findings of the expedition will also be freely available on a special website. The film and the website will be presented to the public in April 2025. The premiere of the film will take place on 24 April in Prague's Cinema Aero and on 28 April in DK Poklad in Ostrava.

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In the spring of 1925, hundreds of Czechoslovakians set off thousands of kilometres into the remote steppes of the foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains. In a backward corner of the Soviet empire, they built a thriving community. But their success was cruelly redeemed by disease, death and the growing Stalinist terror. It is thanks to the expedition that the names of more than 50 Czechs and Slovaks who became victims of Soviet repression have been traced. Over two dozen of them were executed on the spot under Stalin.

Where did our countrymen die? What are the Kyrgyz archives hiding and what is the local memory of the Soviet terror? In the dark past of the Soviet Union there are still many questions to be answered and many lives lost that should not be forgotten.

There are also links to the expedition diary at the end of this page.