A short animated film made by Alexandra (Sasha) Kononova for her friend Yury DMITRIEV's foster daughter Natasha. Under present circumstances, sadly, they are no longer in touch. https://youtu.be/g5qkLIxTa5w A Story for Natasha (7 minutes long) The film, made by animators Sasha and Yury Mikhailin, has been entered for the ArtDocFest festival in Riga (Latvia).
Restoring the Names (2)
Since the late 1980s volunteers all over Russia and other former Soviet republics have compiled lists naming the men and women arrested, imprisoned and shot during Stalin’s time, and published regional Books of Remembrance about them. Working with Ivan Chukhin, Yury DMITRIEV compiled such a volume for Karelia. Published in 2002, it contains over 14,000 … Continue reading Restoring the Names (2)
Appeals to be Heard on 16 September
On Wednesday, 16 September 2020, the High Court of Karelia will hear the appeals submitted by both defence and prosecution after the 22 July verdict and sentence in the trial of Yury DMITRIEV. The investigation and prosecution of the historian and head of the Memorial Society in Karelia began in December 2016 and has lasted … Continue reading Appeals to be Heard on 16 September
“Special” Settlements, 1930-1933
Dispossession, imprisonment, deportation and famine After experimenting in Siberia the previous autumn and winter, the November 1929 plenum of the Communist Party Central Committee decided to proceed with the forced collectivization of the countryside and the “liquidation of the kulaks as a social group” (a process also known as “dekulakization”). The collectivization campaign supported a … Continue reading “Special” Settlements, 1930-1933
The Guardian of History
On 22 August, an exhibition opened in the Chamber Theatre («Петербургский интерьерный театр») at 104 Nevsky Prospect in St Petersburg about the historian and rights activist Yury DMITRIEV, the man who investigated one of the most terrible commemorative sites of the Great Terror, the Sandarmokh Clearing in Karelia. The organiser was Svetlana Kulchitskaya. She decided … Continue reading The Guardian of History
The Dmitriev Affair 