The information gathered in the 1990s in Russia’s Books of Remembrance about “victims of political repression” mainly derives from the records of the Soviet police and security services. Even that thin evidence provides glimpses of human suffering that are shocking both in scale and persistence. These examples from the 1930s begin with the forced collectivization … Continue reading Deported, Rearrested, Imprisoned, Shot
Books of Remembrance*
Those who did not return
“I would like to recall them all by name, but they’ve taken the list, there’s no way to find out” Anna Akhmatova wrote Requiem, from which this famous couplet is taken, over almost thirty years (1935-1961). In Russia the poem could not be published in full until 1987. Nikolai Gumilyov, Anna Akhmatova and their son Lev (1915) … Continue reading Those who did not return
Thirty Years On …
On 23 June 1992 Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued Edict no 658, declassifying legislative and other acts that “served as the basis for mass repressive measures and violations of human rights”. This clearly applied to KGB [NKVD] archives and the Great Terror of 1937-1938. Yet as Sergei Krivenko and Sergei Prudovsky of Memorial noted in … Continue reading Thirty Years On …
Remembrance (1): Lists and Names
Faced by the grim and relentless persecution of Yury DMITRIEV over the last four years, it’s easy to lose sight of the achievements of the past quarter century, those countless acts of remembrance across Russia and former Soviet states that make any simple return to the past unthinkable. Yury Dmitriev resumes work, 2018 During the … Continue reading Remembrance (1): Lists and Names
A wonderful person, a wonderful historian
On 3 January 2021 Mikhail ROGACHOV passed away in St Petersburg. He created "the best Book of Remembrance in Russia, the Komi Republic’s “Repentance” Martyrology," commented Anatoly Razumov and referred to his deceased colleague as "A wonderful person, a wonderful historian." Mikhail ROGACHOV (born Riga 1952; died 2021 of Covid-19 in Kronstadt hospital) Razumov continued: … Continue reading A wonderful person, a wonderful historian
The Dmitriev Affair 