On Tuesday, 19 December 2017, there will be a discussion at Pushkin House (London, WC1A 2TA) of 21st-century Russia's unexpected cause célèbre, the arrest and prosecution of historian YURY DMITRIEV. The event begins at 7.30 pm. The next hearing of Dmitriev's case at the Petrozavodsk City Court is scheduled for 26-27 December. His latest term … Continue reading “The Dmitriev Affair – What Next?”
John Crowfoot
The view from above (29 October 2017)
Two last shots of Sunday's unofficial commemoration, "Restoring the Names". Someone took these and many other photos from the viewing platform of the toy shop Detsky Mir across Lubyanka Square (see https://www.facebook.com/Memorial.International/?hc_ref=ARRrH5pwXB-ynweSTfLoh5aK8Fk6QbY_9HGh--pFEZODZ3krh5kAP4Sstx-Ym4P7-oY) Behind the hoardings stands the pre-Revolutionary Polytechnical Museum, where lectures were read and poetry recitals were given — by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Osip … Continue reading The view from above (29 October 2017)
“Abandon all hope …”
For decades the killing fields of the Stalin regime remained unmarked and abandoned, the only clues to their presence being that all the trees were of the same age, unlike a natural forest or grove, and the distinctive outlines of the burial pits, though these were fast disappearing beneath the undergrowth ... People knew or … Continue reading “Abandon all hope …”
Accusations of child sexual abuse
As the Dmitriev trial got under way this summer, journalist Maria Eismont concluded an article about the case ("Dmitriev should be a State-Prize nominee", 6 June 2017) with the following words: "There is another important thing about the Dmitriev case: the charge his persecutors chose for him. He was not charged with 'extremism' or 'separatism', … Continue reading Accusations of child sexual abuse
The charges
Between 1 June 2017 and 5 April 2018, YURY DMITRIEV was on trial in Petrozavodsk charged under Article 242.2 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code (“Use of a minor for the purposes of preparing pornography”) and Article 135 (“Perverted acts without the use of force against a minor”). For further details of these laws and … Continue reading The charges
The Dmitriev Affair 