Thursday, January 24, 2008

"KGB Beatings" Theme Park

Disneyland is know as the "Happiest Place on Earth."

This theme park isn't quite so happy.

Gulag tourists line up for 'KGB beatings'

AN adventure park offers a journey back to the Soviet Union with KGB interrogation methods and "beatings" with a leather belt.

The 1984 Soviet Union theme park is located outside the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in an old bunker which served as a secret TV station in case of a nuclear attack.

Visitors to the park pay to be "beaten, interrogated and shouted at" by tour leaders dressed as agents of the Russian secret police, the KGB.

Throughout the Cold War, the KGB became increasingly obsessed with hunting down allegedly ideological subversives in the Soviet Bloc. Most dissidents were sent to gulags for indefinite periods.

Organisers say they wanted to show life under Soviet rule. For those old enough to remember, the two-hour tour can aid in the healing process.

"There are still many people in Lithuania who are sick with Soviet nostalgia so we've started this show to help them recover," a spokeswoman for the park told Reuters.

For the younger visitors who did not live through the years of KGB terror, the park is an effective lesson in Soviet era history.

At the conclusion of the tour, visitors receive a special certificate to honour their two hours as "Soviet citizens" and a shot of vodka, presumably to settle their nerves.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is some information about the "real" KGB Museum (Museum of Genocide Victims), which is in a former KGB headquarters/prison also in Vilnius, (and only costs about 1 Euro, not 35):

http://www.inyourpocket.com/lithuania/vilnius/sightseeing/essentialvilnius/venue/12587-KGB_Museum.html

"Outside the building, the names of victims have been carved into the stone walls. It’s not fun. It’s not supposed to be. It’s about understanding and respect, and will certainly leave an impact."

http://www.genocid.lt/muziejus/en/380/a/

The place in this Reuters piece must be some private entrepreneurial venture profiting from sensationalism, not a serious cultural institution like the Genocide Victims Museum.

Mary said...

The experience is supposed to give those too young to remember Soviet rule a taste of what it was like.

For those old enough to remember, it's supposed to help them heal.

I think it's a money making venture, pure and simple.