Can one illustrate Soviet Terror?

Tugan: Tale of the Great Tatar Sorrow is an illustrated book based on the life story of my dad’s aunt Minzifa, who had endured true tragedies and hardships of the Soviet Terror. Throughout the book we follow her experiences surviving Dekulakization, post-war famine in Tatarstan and the Gulag concentration camps. Minzifa’s story speaks of state violence, human cruelty and kindness, of injustice and resistance. It’s a story about a Tatar woman, written and illustrated by a Tatar woman. Tugan is my personal attempt to reflect on the traumatic past of my people and to reconnect with my family's roots, as well as a chance to investigate my country's repressive heritage and the memorial practices that surround it.

Project supervised by Varya Yakovleva and Marcello Barison