BEAUTY IN HELL: CULTURE IN THE GULAG
Prisoners
Name: Vladimir Zotov
Born: 1904, Moscow
Occupation: Set Designer, Museum Keeper
Sentence: 3 years imprisonment.
Reason for Arrest: When arrested, Zotov was a university student in Moscow. He was deeply involved in the Scout movement, having organised many groups in Moscow. In Soviet Russia, the Scout movement was heavily repressed and Zotov was arrested in 1925.
Activity within the Camp: Zotov arrived in 1926 on the Solovki Archipelago and started working at the biological station. He was then transferred to work at the museum, then to the mainland in Kem’, where he worked as book keeper and copyist for the camp administration.
After the Solovki: In 1928 Zotov was released and sent to three years in exile in the Southern Ural region, where he remained until 1932. During this period, he worked as set designer. He then settled in Kaluga, where he worked at the local theatre as set designer and at the local museum as keeper. He died in 1978 in Kaluga.