Gulag specialist Andrea Gullotta explains what’s at stake in the criminal case against historian Yury Dmitriev.
On 22 July, the Petrozavodsk City Court will render its verdict in the case against historian Yury DMITRIEV, who’s accused of sexually abusing his foster daughter. State prosecutors have asked the judge to imprison him for 15 years, though Dmitriev’s friends and colleagues insist on his innocence.
Human rights activists say the case is political and warn that Dmitriev is being persecuted for investigating mass graves from the Stalinist period. To learn more about Dmitriev’s contributions to the study of Soviet repressions and how scholars in the West view his trial, Meduza spoke to Andrea Gullotta, a lecturer in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow, who specializes in Gulag literature.
The Dmitriev Affair 