In the course of studying the discipline "Contemporary History of Kazakhstan", students from India visited the Museum of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression Karlag on October 26, 2017, located in Dolinka, Karaganda region.

In my classes, I try to make the study of this discipline a cognitive and living process that allows us to touch our past. In this significant role is played by museums, where students can not only see, feel, but also feel the atmosphere of the past. And thanks to our unique museum of remembrance of victims of political repression, our students have such an excellent opportunity.

     Students 1-001 and 1-002 groups, with a total of 29 people of the specialty "General Medicine" of the International Medical Faculty at exactly the appointed time, literally lined up like soldiers in the hall of their Hostel #7, awaiting the arrival of the bus.

    At 14:00 we already had an excursion in the museum with an English-speaking guide, Anna Turlybekova, who showed high professionalism and good organization of the excursion, for which we were very grateful. Our guys, for their part, behaved very disciplined and even asked some questions. After the excursion the students were very impressed by everything they saw and heard: they could not believe how in such inhuman conditions prisoners could be, especially women with infants and children. Here are the words of Geetanjali the student of the 1-001 group, after visiting the torture chamber: "It was not easy to get out of this torture chamber. My eyes were filled with tears, and I was ready to cry, it was very difficult to control their emotions."

Indeed, now the guys really understood and presented what the totalitarian regime means. And after visiting the museum students received an assignment to write an essay "My impressions of visiting the Karlag Museum", in which the guys expressed their feedback.

O.A. Kovtun

Senior teacher of the department

of History of Kazakhstan and

socio-political disciplines,

Dean's office of international medical faculty