Memorial observers monitor the activities of the Russian Military History Society
Continue reading“New hypothesis”
Barbaric excavations again under way at Sandarmokh
New excavations are underway at the Sandarmokh Clearing in Karelia which holds the last remains of thousands of victims of the Great Terror of 1937-1938, writes Halya Coynash.
Any pretence that the excavations by a body linked to the Russian Minister of Culture are not aimed at rewriting history has been dispelled by a letter from the Karelian Ministry of Culture. This openly questions the internationally-recognized fact that the mass graves are of victims of the Terror, and, since this “damages Russia’s international image”, asks for another hypothesis, unbacked by any documentary proof, to be “investigated”.
Continue readingSandarmokh — Moscow press conference
Collage by Kirill Shuchalin (7×7)
Just as 80 years ago, arbitrary and lawless acts today define Sandarmokh.
At a press conference in Moscow, activists and public figures have spoken out in defence of the Karelian memorial to the victims of Stalin’s Terror.
Were the 2018 excavations at Sandarmokh legal?
As the prosecution continues to present its evidence of “new offences” by Yury DMITRIEV at his second trial in the Petrozavodsk City Court in Karelia, a related dispute is being pursued at the national level over the identity of those executed and buried at Sandarmokh.
In early February, the Kommersant daily newspaper reported on this “second front” in the Dmitriev Affair.
Continue readingSecond Time Round …
Yury DMITRIEV was first arrested on 13 December 2016, a date that marks the formal beginning of The Dmitriev Affair. Its roots go deeper and further back in time, naturally.
Over two years earlier, at the annual Day of Remembrance at Sandarmokh on 5 August, Dmitriev made critical comments about the annexation of Crimea and events in eastern Ukraine. In a long interview in 2015 Dmitriev alluded to official pressure and obstruction that was making him consider leaving the country (“If I stay here [in Russia] everything will be lost.”)
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The Dmitriev Affair 