On 20 June, appeals in support of Yury Dmitriev were broadcast by writer Dmitry Bykov and musician Boris Grebenshchikov on the Echo Moskvy radio station. On its website the radio station also published a list of several hundred people who have signed a petition in support of the historian.
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In Petrozavodsk City Court the hearing continues of the case of Yury Dmitriev, a well-known historian. A Gulag researcher and compiler of several “Books of Remembrance”, he is among those who created the memorial complexes in Karelia at Sandarmokh and Krasny Bor, and the memorial graveyard at Sekirnaya Hill on Solovki.
Dmitriev is accused of making child pornography, depraved actions and the unlawful possession of a firearm. The hearings are taking place behind closed doors and the media are not permitted into the courtroom. There are serious grounds for believing that the accusation is a deliberate provocation, aimed at ending the historian’s activities and destroying his reputation.
For more information about the Dmitriev Affair and the charges brought against him, see articles on the internet by Shura Burtin (“Gandalf’s Case“), Anna Yarovaya, (“The Dmitriev Affair“), and Irina Galkova (“My path to Golgotha“).
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We do not know a single person who believes that Dmitriev is guilty. Many thousands, on the contrary, express their admiration and support for him. Among them are the outstanding people whose appeal we publish below.
The following 320 individuals, and six organisations or collective letters, are among those that have already voiced their support for Yury Dmitriev [individuals marked * later recorded a video clip about the case, ed.]:
SIGNATORIES
- Archpriest Kirill Kaleda, incumbent of the Church of New Martyrs and Confessors at BUTOVO,[1] who is a member of the Patriarch’s ecclesiastical council for the Commemoration of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian church;
- Archpriest Mikhail Nikolayev, incumbent of the Lodeinopolsky Church of SS. Peter and Paul in Karelia. [Built on a killing field identified by Dmitriev and others, ed.]
WRITERS AND POETS [40]
Ludmila Ulitskaya*, Boris Akunin, Vladimir Voinovich*, Alexander Arkhangelsky*, Alexander Gelman*, Yevgeny Vodolazkin, Olga Sedakova, Denis Dragunsky*, Lev Rubinstein*, Igor Irtenyev, Grigory Kruzhkov, Mikhail Yasnov, Victor Shenderovich,
Alisa Ganieva*, Lev Timofeyev, Alla Bossart*, Nune Barsergyan [A. Nune], Dmitry Vedenyashkin*, Leonid Bakhnov, Vitaly Dikson, Yevgeny Yermolin, Victor Yesipov, Natalya Ivanova, Gennady Kalashnikov, Sergei Kostyrko, Anatoly Kurchatkin, Natalya Mavlevich, Sergei Makhlov, Maxim Nenarakomov, Nikolai Podosokorsky, Natalya Sivokhina, Vladimir Sotnikov, Anna Berseneyeva, Dilyara Tasbulatova, Sergei Task, Igor Kharichev, Oleg Khlebnikov, Andrei Chernov, Tatyana Shcherbina* and Sergei Yakovlev.
- Anatoly Razumov[2], director of the “Return the Names” centre at the Russian National library in St Petersburg, and a member of the St Petersburg commission for restoring the rights of the rehabilitated victims of political repression;
- Lidia Golovkova, senior research associate of the history of the Solovki Archipelago[3] (the Solovetsky Museum and Conservation Area);
- Olga Bochkareva, senior research associate of the history of the Solovki Archipelago (the Solovetsky Museum and Conservation Area);
- Mikhail Rogachev, board chairman of the Repentance Foundation, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Honoured worker of the Republic of Komi;
- Nikolai Olshansky, director of the Society of the Rehabilitated for the Novgorod Region [NW Russia];
- Victor Kirillov, professor of the State Professional-Pedagogical University, director of the “Their Names Restored” project, Doctor of Historical Sciences.
JOURNALISTS [13]
Sergei Parkhomenko, Yevgenia Albats, Shura Burtin, Zoya Svetova, Victoria Ivleva, Mikhail Fishman, Akram Murtazayev, Leonid Bakhnov [2nd entry, see Writers List], Julia Vishnevskaya, Pavel Gutiontov, Diana Kachalova, Maria Krongauz, Oleg Pshenichny and Olga Beshlei.
RIGHTS ACTIVISTS [7]
Yuly Rybakov, Pavel Kudyukin*, Leonid Romankov, Alexander Feduta, Sergei Sharon-Delaunay, Grigory Pasko, Pavel Litvinov.[4]
POLITICIANS [3]
Boris Vishnevsky, Dmitry Karaulov and Lev Shlosberg*;
POLITICAL SCIENTISTS [and other academics, 11]
Lidia Shevtsova, D.Sc (history), Mark Urnov, D.Sc (history), Igor Klyamkin, D.Sc. (philosophy) and Alexander Feduta, D.Sc. (philology) …
The Dmitriev Affair 