The memory of the persecuted in Russia

Once again this year, despite bans and restrictions, the celebration of the “Restitution of Names” of Soviet-era victims was held in more than 100 cities in Russia and abroad, gathering at different places and times than usual to evade police controls. Meanwhile, Moscow authorities report that plans are afoot to remove the Lubyanka Stone for “renovation work” on the square.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - October 29 marked the commemoration of victims of persecution in the Soviet period, the ritual of the “Restitution of Names” (Vozvraščenie imen) held regularly between 2007 and 2019 in all cities of Russia starting with Moscow, in front of the headstones with lists of names solemnly proclaimed by their descendants or representatives.

In late October in Russia the winter snowfall and frost may have already begun, but from early morning long queues formed in front of the memorial sites, which continued until late in the evening especially in Moscow near the Lubyanka building, the historical headquarters of the KGB.

During the Covid years these demonstrations were suspended and organized only online, while with the invasion of Ukraine the bans were exacerbated by accusations of “discrediting” Russian law enforcement and the military in a regime increasingly regressed to Stalinist times and systems.

In addition to the list of the 40,000 people shot in the 1930s of terror in the corridors of the Lubyanka, more and more names are being added in Moscow of people who ended up under the mallet of Putinist terror, starting with the martyr Aleksej Naval'nyj.

The names of the oppressed resonate “like sparks in the night,” as Radio Svoboda columnist Sergey Medvedev comments, evoking the tribunals subjected to the orders of the ČeKa, Gpu, Nkvd and KGB, and today the FSB, arrests and torture, poisonings and killings.

Again this year, despite the bans and restrictions, the celebration was held in more than 100 cities in Russia and abroad, gathering at different places and times than usual to evade police controls such as in St. Petersburg, where officers arrived late and still managed to arrest a few participants, threatening to apply charges of “impermissible actions that create conditions for violations of the law.”

In Moscow at the Solovki Stone, which was erected more than 30 years ago near the Lubyanka, any mass demonstration was banned under the now farcical justification of “coronavirus prevention,” and only a few foreign diplomats along with a group of representatives of the dissolved Memorial Association were allowed to gather.

Much more well-attended were the celebrations in Prague, where on Uezd Street the thousands of Czechoslovak citizens were remembered along with persecuted Russians, including political prisoners still held in Putin lagers.

Russia's censorship agency Roskomnadzor has in recent weeks blocked all sites calling for “Name Restitution,” and in each case Memorial activists in Russia and abroad broadcast the initiatives on YouTube.

Victims' memory has also been severely dismantled in Russia by the recent “historical truth” laws, a formula included in the 2020 Putin constitution, which remove from the rehabilitated lists all those suspected of “rehabilitation of Nazism,” especially victims of Ukrainian, Polish, Finnish, or Japanese nationality.

Talking about “Stalinist terror and repressions” is increasingly seen as an “anti-state formula” to be avoided, and in general, the memory of the past becomes an increasingly difficult space to assume at the social level, the “thousand-year history of Russia” being an intangible heritage of the current regime, at the political, cultural and religious levels.

After the Remembrance Days, Moscow authorities announced that there are plans to remove the Lubyanka Stone for “renovation work” on the square, sparking many protests that were immediately stifled. As Medvedev states, “even if they really remove it, for those who still know, remember and have feelings, the Solovki Stone will always remain firmly in their hearts.”

Opponents abroad Ilja Jašin, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Julia Naval'naja have announced that a large anti-war demonstration will be held in Berlin on November 17, a march calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, judging Vladimir Putin as a war criminal and freeing all political prisoners held in Russia.

• Russia
• Moscow
• communism
• persecution
• Putin
• Lubjanka
• Naval'nyy