Memories tend to be materialised as things that are objective and complete, and stand for persons and their lives. These memories are individual, and at the same time they embody national histories, and images. The paper discusses the ways in which the creating of handicrafts is a way of remembering that appears to be a political act of resistance, and a way to keep people, things, lives, and community undamaged under conditions of political imprisonment and displacement. The empirical ground of discussion is the handicrafts done secretly in Soviet prison camps and deportation, and their stories.