Historical and memorial Museum of political prisoners was founded in Ternopil in 1996 in the basement of the investigative isolator of KGB, through which passed thousands of Ukrainian patriots fighting against Bolshevik totalitarianism. It was here, at the initiative of members of the Union of political prisoners and the organization "memorial", and decided to establish a thematic Museum, which became a branch of Ternopil state Museum. Head of the Museum, was elected a former linguist, dissident J. Pawlak, and as a senior researcher oleschuk - a former political prisoner.

In 1944-1986, this building housed the office of the NKVD-KGB remand prison. In the basement there was a camera in the detention facility, where he conducted the interrogations and inhumane torture of detainees. Posted in cameras exposure realistically recreate the conditions of prisoners, the prisoners stay in the camps and methods of interrogation. Camera, "punishment cells", locks, doors, instruments of torture - all this keeps a history of violent abuse of the punitive system.

Wall stands are dedicated to the leaders and commanders of the armed underground: R. Shukhevych, V. Sidor, D. Kleczkowska, General Ian Goncharenko, E. Field, Colonel "Aeneas", etc. the Museum Also features personal belongings of political prisoners, layouts Siberian concentration camps, and wagon-"calf house, which was equipped with racks for transporting prisoners. In addition, the Museum preserves the evidence of the repression of the Bolsheviks in the territory of the West Ukrainian lands in 1939-1941.

In 2002 for the 60th anniversary of the UPA, here on the facade of the building on the street Copernicus, 1 was a memorial stele, which reads: "Here, in detention centers KGB convicted, tortured and executed thousands of Ukrainian patriots. Memory of victims of political repressions".