From 1972 onwards, “particularly dangerous State criminals” were held in Perm 36 or, to give it its full name Institution VS-389/36, a division of the Skalninsky or Perm corrective-labour camps. Among those convicted of treason, espionage, contraband and murder were prisoners sentenced under Article 70 of the new RSFSR Criminal Code (1958). This replaced Article 58 (“counter-revolutionary activities”) of the previous code and imprisoned citizens for “Anti-Soviet Activities”. Perm 36 was a special-regime camp where all prisoners were held under prison conditions, in individual cells with only one hour outside during the day. (Their changing identity and activities were recorded in the samizdat periodical A Chronicle of Current Events.)

Soviet political prisoners who died at the camp were buried in a separate section of the Borisovo village graveyard, ten kms from the camp. They were given individual graves, each marked by a wooden pillar with its own metal number plate. In total, no less than 11 people were buried there. The names of three deceased and interred dissidents are known: Yury T. Litvin (1934-1984) from Ukraine, Armenian Ishkhan [“Prince”] Mkrtchan (1957-1985) and the Ukrainian poet and activist Vasil Stus (1938-1985). The director of Perm 36, A.G. Dolmatov, was himself buried there in 1989, by which time all the Soviet-era politicals had been released.

In February 1989, there was a secret exhumation of Mkrtchan’s remains. They were transferred to Armenia and reburied in the village of Saratak (Artiksky district). The pole bearing the number plate was left in place of his grave. On 17 November 1989, the remains of Litvin and Stus were exhumed and two days later they were triumphantly reburied in the Baikovsky cemetery in Kiev. Empty coffins took their place in Borisovo graveyard and the poles with number plates remained (by 2004 they had vanished).

On 2 September 1994, Perm Memorial put up a commemorative cross on Mkrtchan’s grave and in 2004, thanks to the efforts of Perm-36 Museum staff, it was replaced with a new cross. That year a Catholic memorial cross was erected on the edge of that part of Borisovo graveyard.

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At its peak museum received an average 35,000 visitors a year. It was a founding member of the International Coalition of Historic Sites of Conscience. In 2004, the World Monuments Fund included Perm 36 in its Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.

After 2012 the museum faced a withdrawal of support and funding by regional government, which forced it to close in April 2014. Coming during a period of renewed popularity and nostalgia in Russia for the Soviet Union and patriotism due to the Crimean crisis, this was seen by many as an organized campaign against the Museum.