ALZhIR

The name comes from the fact that the majority of the inmates were the ChSIR: members of the families of traitors to the Motherland after NKVD Order 00486 of 15 August 1937.

[citation needed] The name was an ironical joke of the inmates,[1] because "Алжир" means "Algeria" in Russian.

It was established in August 1937 by the village of Malinovka (now Tonkeris [ru]) southwest of Akmola (now Astana).

It was closed in the beginning of 1950[2] Today, the camp houses a museum-memorial complex of victims of political repression and totalitarianism, which opened on 31 May 2007 as part of an initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

[3] After the closure of the prisons in 1953, it was reported that 1,507 of the women gave birth as a result of being raped by the guards.