The People's Security Museum

Soviet Russian era military vehicles.

Soviet Russian era fire truck.

Soviet-Russian era Lada police car.

Entrance hall of the People's Security Museum.

"Regulations for visiting People's Security Museum."

WHILE DRIVING BY I happened to notice  The People's Security Museum. Seeing Russian vehicles out of the Soviet era, parked on pedestals in front of an imposing building, drew my interest. The next day I was able to locate this unusual site while visiting the nearby That Luang Stupa. As it turned out the vehicles in the front, seemed to my way of thinking, to be the most interesting exhibits of all. The displays inside were overt propaganda messages, presented through naive and static means. The present museum was opened in 2011 to commerate the 50th anniversary of Laos's revolutionary past and the founding of the Lao Public Security Forces.

It should be noted that Laos is a communist single-party socialist republic, at least in principle, and that the only legal political party is the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). Not all however appears as it seems. Some kind of status quo exists between the Party and the Buddhist establishment as well as with very strong business interests. In any case I saw very few visitors here. For a rare change no admission was charged.