I believe in the healing power of reflection, and my personal experience of living in countries with an opposed attitude to a collective memory supports my belief. The ongoing "GULAG portraits" series is devoted to female lives in GULAG, forced labour camps in USSR. The embroidery itself has a special significance in female lives at GULAG and soviet prisons: on one hand, it testifies to the hard work of prisoners, from another hand it means connectivity with their relatives, especially with their left children. The series is based on research of accessible documents, each portrait has its name and story, leaving no place for anonymity and obscurity. Memory is a key point to preventing a repeat of such terror, art can provide society with a visuality of historical documents and statistics.