Over the past five years Yury DMITRIEV has become known far beyond his native Karelia, throughout Russia and around the world. Dmitriev with his foster daughter Natasha, b. 2005 (photo Novaya gazeta) He has received prizes since his first arrest in December 2016, from the Moscow Helsinki Group and most recently the Norwegian Sakharov Award. … Continue reading “He deserves a medal for what he did!” [1]
Sandarmokh*
“Judges” and Executioners [1]
It has been suggested that Yury DMITRIEV attracted the wrath of the authorities by exposing the members of the troika that issued thousands of death sentences in Karelia during the Great Terror or by naming the NKVD executioners who shot those thousands of men and women. Ivan Chukhin (photo) Yet as Irina FLIGE describes in … Continue reading “Judges” and Executioners [1]
Half those shot in 1937-1938 … lie buried at Sandarmokh?
During the Great Terror almost 11,000 men and women were executed in Karelia. In his database Yury DMITRIEV followed NKVD reports and noted that during those months the death sentence was carried out 4,975 times “at the Medvezhya gora rail station”. Sandarmokh monument as originally designed with Guardian Angel This is not surprising. The headquarters … Continue reading Half those shot in 1937-1938 … lie buried at Sandarmokh?
The Great Terror in Karelia
On 31 July 1937 NKVD head Yezhov's Secret Order 00447 ("the Kulak operation") allocated the Karelian troika a quota of 300 to be shot and 700 sent to the camps. This marked the beginning of the Great Terror. By the end of the Terror in November 1938 at least 10,779 people had been shot and … Continue reading The Great Terror in Karelia
Sandarmokh, Restoring the Names
For six hours on Thursday, 5 August 2021, volunteers read out the names of those shot at Sandarmokh, Karelia's largest killing field, during the Great Terror in 1937 to 1938.
The Dmitriev Affair 