«A.L.ZH.I.R.»

A.L.ZH.I.R. - the Akmola Camp for Wives of Traitors to the Motherland.

Built in 1937 by a special order of the NKVD, this camp for the wives of so-called «enemies of the people» became known to all as ALZHIR - a place of torment where up to twenty thousand women were imprisoned. Founded as the 26th site after the 17th division of the Karaganda camp, it turned into a true hell on earth. Here, the wives, daughters, and sisters of some of the nation’s most respected figures suffered unjustly. Among them were well-known names across the Soviet Union: Aziza Ryskulova and her mother Aripa Esengulova, Damesh Zhürgenova, Rabiga Asfendiyarova, the singer Lidia Ruslanova, and many other wives of statesmen, politicians, and public figures.

ALZHIR was dissolved in the early 1950s: some prisoners were transferred to other camps, while those who had served their sentences were released. Yet until 1956–1957, when the rehabilitation of victims of political repression began, most of them were forbidden to return to their former homes. Only by the late 1980s did the truth about ALZHIR begin to be spoken of openly and written down. Based on a work by Armyal Tassybekov on this subject, the play «A.L.ZH.I.R.» was brought to the stage.