“The events of the last few weeks have been depressing, but it’s true to say that almost everyone knows the word Sandarmokh today; before it was only known in Karelia. No excavations by the Russian Military Historical Society can change that. Only people who do not see the significance of the subject are inclined to believe that Red Army soldiers lie buried there.”
Yury Mikhailin, Moscow International Film School
In a recent interview on TV Rain, commentator Nikolai Svanidze repeats the story of the discovery of Sandarmokh and the fate of the lost Solovki transport.
Abroad, the battle over the interpretation of the site moved into a new phase when articles in Finnish and Swedish media outlets rejected the “Finnish atrocity” story, reports Gleb Yarovoi. Multilingual members of the Dmitriev Supporters Facebook page provided further valuable detail. Swedish-language articles were published in Huvudstatsbladet in Finland and Dagens nyheter in Sweden (though the latter is behind a paywall). The Soviet soldiers shot unlawfully during the Continuation War, the prominent Finnish expert on the subject Antti Kujala said, were buried in a collective grave elsewhere.
The Facebook page of Dmitriev supporters, with its 5,000+ followers, is the source of this and so much other invaluable detailed information about the second round in the Dmitriev Affair.
The Dmitriev Affair 