Sergei KOLTYRIN, director of the Medvezhyegorsk district museum, has been detained "with an accomplice" on suspicion of paedophilia, a source within law enforcement told the local Respublika website. This was later confirmed by the Investigative Committee of Karelia. Sergei Koltyrn, director of Medvezhyegorsk district museum Koltyrin has been heavily involved with the Sandarmokh memorial complex, … Continue reading Museum director detained “on suspicion of paedophilia”
Russian Military History Society*
Memory Wars?
A lengthy article about the POW execution theory in Russia’s Kommersant newspaper (7 September 2018) is even-handed and thorough. It needs little more than the following passage, however, to show the "new hypothesis of Karelian historians" for what it is: “Officially, there is no data to show that the Finns carried out mass executions at … Continue reading Memory Wars?
“They were in a great hurry”: The Russian Military-Historical Society presents its findings
On 4 September, Karelian historian Sergei Verigin and spokesmen for the Russian Military-Historical Society held a press conference about their recent excavations at Sandarmokh. Their words were widely reported by the official RIA Novosti / Russia Today news agency -- but only in Russian. The usual simultaneous publication in English and other languages was, for … Continue reading “They were in a great hurry”: The Russian Military-Historical Society presents its findings
Everyone has now heard of Sandarmokh
"The events of the last few weeks have been depressing, but it's true to say that almost everyone knows the word Sandarmokh today; before it was only known in Karelia. No excavations by the Russian Military Historical Society can change that. Only people who do not see the significance of the subject are inclined to … Continue reading Everyone has now heard of Sandarmokh
Politically-motivated excavations
Russia has turned to politically-motivated excavations to rewrite the history of the USSR in the late 1930s, writes Halya Coynash, after jailing a major historian of Stalin's Great Terror yet again. A new attempt to rewrite the history of the Great Terror in the Soviet Union appears to be under way in Russia. This renewed … Continue reading Politically-motivated excavations
The Dmitriev Affair 