How Museums in Central and Eastern Europe Tell the Complicated Story of Life Behind the Iron Curtain

Dr. Elizabeth Spalding, Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and Founding Director of the VOC Museum, spoke with Alice Popovici of Smithsonian Magazine about the importance of exposing the “sober” and “troublesome” aspects of life under communism.

As the article notes, “In part because of the violent history of communism, some caution that museums dealing only with the lighter aspects of this era, such as everyday life and pop culture, are not presenting a complete picture of the time period.

‘It’s very hard to say that you’re going to have a museum that tells about everyday life in communism without covering the sober parts of it and the troublesome parts of it,’ says Elizabeth Spalding, founding director of the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington D.C., which traces the human toll of communism worldwide.

Spalding, who describes herself as a third-generation anti-communist in her online bio, says immersive experiences about everyday life have a role to play, but they should be balanced out by context about the harsher realities of life during communism.

‘You don’t check truth at the door,’ she adds. ‘If it’s something that, in the end, is making it seem like this was somehow a good kind of regime, then that’s fundamentally a problem.‘

Read the full article in Smithsonian Magazine.

Dr. Elizabeth Edwards Spalding is Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) and Founding Director of the Victims of Communism Museum.