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Memorial ( rus, Мемориал, p=mʲɪmərʲɪˈaɫ) is an international human rights organisation, founded in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...
during the fall of the Soviet Union to study and examine the
human rights violations Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
and other crimes committed under Joseph Stalin's reign. Prior to its dissolution in Russia, it consisted of two separate legal entities, Memorial International, whose purpose was the recording of the crimes against humanity committed in the Soviet Union, particularly during the Stalinist era, and the Memorial Human Rights Centre, which focused on the protection of human rights, especially in conflict zones in and around modern Russia. A movement rather than a centralized organization, as of December 2021 Memorial encompassed over 50 organisations in Russia and 11 in other countries, including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Belgium and France. Although the focus of affiliated groups differs from region to region, they share similar concerns about human rights, documenting the past, educating young people and marking remembrance days for the victims of
political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereb ...
. Memorial emerged during the
perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
years of the late 1980s, to document the crimes against humanity committed in the USSR during the 20th century and help surviving victims of the Great Terror and the
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
and their families. Between 1987 and 1990, while the USSR was still in existence, 23 branches of the society were established."Structure and organisation"
(2018) Memorial website, ''www.memo.ru''
When the Soviet Union collapsed, branches of Memorial in Ukraine remained affiliated to the Russian network. Some of the oldest branches of Memorial in northwest and central Russia, the Urals and Siberia later developed websites documenting independent local research and publicized the crimes of the Soviet regime in their region. After the
Russian foreign agent law The Russian foreign agent law requires anyone who receives "support" from outside Russia or is under "influence" from outside Russia to register and declare themselves as "foreign agents". Once registered, they are subject to additional audits a ...
was passed in July 2012, Memorial came under increasing government pressure. On 21 July 2014, the Memorial Human Rights Centre was declared a "foreign agent" by the
Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...
. The label was extended in November 2015 to the Research & Information Centre at St. Petersburg Memorial, and on 4 October 2016 to Memorial International itself. On 28 December 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia ordered Memorial International to close for violations of the foreign agent law. A lawyer for Memorial said it would appeal. The Memorial Human Rights Centre was ordered shut by the
Moscow City Court The Moscow City Court (russian: Московский городской суд (Мосгорсуд), Moskovsky gorodskoy sud (Mosgorsud)) is the highest judicial body of the city of Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Моск ...
on 29 December 2021; state prosecutors accused it of breaching the foreign agent law and supporting terrorism and extremism. On the same day, the European Court of Human Rights applied an interim measure instructing Russia to halt the forced dissolution of Memorial, pending the outcome of litigation. Memorial as a legal entity in Russia was closed and liquidated on 5 April 2022. Some of Memorial's human rights activities have continued in Russia. Memorial continues to operate in other countries, notably in Germany where its oldest and largest non-Russian chapter is based. In October 2022, Memorial was one of the three laureates of that year's Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Ukrainian human rights organisation Centre for Civil Liberties and Belarusian activist
Ales Bialiatski Ales Viktaravich Bialiatski ( be, Алесь Віктаравіч Бяляцкі, Alieś Viktaravič Bialiacki; born 25 September 1962) is a Belarusian pro-democracy activist and prisoner of conscience known for his work with the Viasna Human ...
, for their efforts in "document ngwar crimes, human rights abuses, and the abuse of power".


Early history and predecessors

Memorial's creation was a response to growing public awareness of historic abuses within the Soviet Union (USSR) during the 1980s, as well as concern about contemporary human rights, especially in certain hotspots around the USSR. This took place within the context of (reconstruction) and (openness), policies pursued by president Mikhail Gorbachev which led to increased government transparency and tolerance of civil society. An earlier statement of the goals later pursued by the Memorial Society was made by
Brezhnev era Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and 198 ...
dissidents in February 1974, following the deportation of dissident writer
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repres ...
from the USSR. They called for publication in the USSR of Solzhenitsyn's ''
The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' (russian: Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, ''Arkhipelag GULAG'') is a three-volume non-fiction text written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr S ...
'', the opening of all secret police archives relating to the past, and the organisation of an international tribunal to examine the crimes of the
Soviet secret police The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. Some of these goals became feasible in the late 1980s when several activists such as
Lev Ponomaryov Lev Aleksandrovich Ponomaryov (russian: Лев Алекса́ндрович Пономарёв, September 2, 1941) is a Russian political and civil activist. He is an executive director of the all-Russian movement "For Human Rights." He is a mem ...
, Yuri Samodurov, Vyacheslav Igrunov, Dmitry Leonov, and
Arseny Roginsky Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (russian: Арсе́ний Бори́сович Роги́нский; 30 March 1946 – 18 December 2017)Luxmoore, Matthew (23 December 2017).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2 ...
proposed a complex to commemorate the victims of Stalinism. Their concept included a monument, a museum, an archive, and a library. An "all-Union informal movement" organized and submitted a petition to the
19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The 19th All-Union Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a party conference held by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 28 June to 1 July 1988. The conference was attended by 4,991 delegates. The conference The Gene ...
(CPSU) in 1988, and that body supported Politburo proposals for the creation of a monument to the victims of political repression during the
cult of personality under Stalin Joseph Stalin's cult of personality became a prominent feature of Soviet popular culture in 1929, after a lavish celebration of his purported 50th birthday. For the rest of Stalin's rule, the Soviet press presented Stalin as an all-powerful, ...
. A similar decision by the 22nd Congress of the CPSU in 1961 had been ignored for many years. A significant juncture in Memorial's development was its Moscow conference on 29–30 October 1988. After the failure of officialdom to force the postponement of the conference, it gathered 338 delegates from 57 cities and towns. In a report to the Politburo dated 16 November the new KGB head,
Vladimir Kryuchkov Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov (russian: Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович Крючко́в, link=no; 29 February 1924 – 23 November 2007) was a Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB, member of the Politburo of the ...
, observed that 66% of the delegates came from Moscow and the Moscow Region. Kryuchkov decried "provocative statements" made by dissidents and young activists during the two-day event. Secretaries of several creative unions (architects, designers, artists and filmmakers) were present as potential trustees of the proposed organization. More radical voices were also heard, including those of the Moscow Popular Front, the newly founded Democratic Union, and uncensored periodicals such as ''Glasnost'' and '' Express Chronicle''. Members of the Moscow Action Group of Memorial were among the radicals. The conference was addressed by dissidents
Larisa Bogoraz Larisa Iosifovna Bogoraz (russian: Лари́са Ио́сифовна Богора́з(-Брухман), full name: Larisa Iosifovna Bogoraz-Brukhman, Bogoraz was her father's last name, Brukhman her mother's, August 8, 1929 – April 6, 20 ...
and
Elena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) ...
(wife of dissident scientist
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...
), and by the octogenarian writer
Oleg Volkov Oleg Volkov (born 1958) is a Russian pianist. Early life and education Volkov was born in the south of Russia in 1958. He began his musical studies at the age of seven, studying in Russian music schools, where he graduated with honors. His studies ...
, an early inmate of the
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
's Solovki camp. In a report to the Politburo, KGB head Kryuchkov singled out
Arseny Roginsky Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (russian: Арсе́ний Бори́сович Роги́нский; 30 March 1946 – 18 December 2017)Luxmoore, Matthew (23 December 2017).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2 ...
, future chairman (1998–2017) of International Memorial, as particularly outspoken. Memorial should become an heir to the Helsinki Groups of the late Soviet period, said Roginsky, and he named the ''Chronicle of Current Events'' (1968–1982) and its compilers as a model to be emulated. Memorial was founded on 26–28 January 1989 as a "historical and educational" society at a conference held in the Moscow Aviation Institute. Two years later a distinct Memorial Civil Rights Defense Center was also set up. In a random poll conducted on the streets of Moscow, respondents named many whom they thought suitable candidates for the Memorial Society's board of trustees. The second most popular was
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...
, who had won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his efforts to promote
civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
within the Soviet Union; Sakharov became the first Memorial chairman. The exiled Solzhenitsyn was also named but he declined the invitation, saying he could do little to help from abroad; in private, he told Sakharov that the scope of the project should not be restricted to the Stalin era because repressive measures had begun with the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
under Vladimir Lenin. Memorial was not formally recognised until 1990 when the organisation acquired official status. On 19 April 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Memorial was reconstituted as an International
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active i ...
, a "historical, educational, human rights and charitable society", with organisations in several post-Soviet states (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
), as well as in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, and France.


Mission and activities

According to its post-Soviet 1992
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
, Memorial pursued the following aims: *To promote mature
civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.democracy based on the rule of law and thus prevent a return to
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...
; *To assist the formation of public awareness based on the values of democracy and law, to extirpate totalitarian patterns
f thought and behaviour F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...
and to firmly establish human rights in everyday politics and public life; *To promote the truth about the historical past and perpetuate the memory of the victims of
political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereb ...
carried out by totalitarian regimes. Its online database contains details of the victims of political repression in the USSR; the fifth version contains over three million names, although Memorial estimated that 75% of victims had not yet been identified and recorded.''The Victims of Political Terror in the USSR'' (in Russian)
''base.memo.org''
Memorial organized assistance, both legal and financial, for the victims of the Gulag. It conducts research into the history of political repression and publicizes the findings in books, articles, exhibitions, museums, and the websites of its member organizations.


Day of Remembrance

Moscow Memorial was among the organisations that persuaded the Russian authorities to follow the long-standing dissident tradition of marking 30 October each year, transforming it into an official
Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions The Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression (russian: День памяти жертв политических репрессий) is an annual day when victims of political repression in the Soviet Union are remembered and mour ...
. Over the next thirty years this date was adopted across Russia: by 2016 annual events were held on 30 October at 103 of the 411 burial grounds and commemorative sites included on the "Russia's Necropolis" website. Memorial worked on the law "On Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression".


Research and education

Throughout its existence, but particularly since 2012, the International Memorial Society has widened its range of activities. Today these include the
Last Address The Last Address (russian: «Последний адрес», translit="Posledniy adres") is a civic initiative to commemorate the victims of repressions in the Soviet Union. The essence of the initiative is that ordinary people deserve to be co ...
project and, following the example of Berlin and its Topography of Terror excursions and exhibitions, the society has organised similar educational ventures about the Soviet era in Moscow and other Russian cities.


Archives and online database

In 2005, Memorial's database contained records of more than 1,300,000 victims of political repression in the Soviet Union. First issued as a CD, by 2020 the fifth edition of the database was available online and held over three million entries of those shot, imprisoned or deported during the Soviet period. Another project is the "Open List" database, created in several languages of the former Soviet Union (Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian and Belorussian) to encourage relatives and descendants of those shot, imprisoned and deported to contribute information about the victims and their families. This expanded sources of information beyond the case files kept on individuals by the Soviet security services or the police. Memorial's archives have been used by historians such as Briton
Orlando Figes Orlando Guy Figes () is a British historian and writer. Until his retirement, he was Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. Figes is known for his works on Russian history, such as '' A People's Tragedy'' (1996), ''Nat ...
.


School programmes

Since 1999, Memorial has organised an annual competition for secondary school students around the theme of "The Individual and History: Russia in the 20th century". It received between 1,500 and 2,000 entries each year. Authors of the 40 best contributions are invited to Moscow to attend a special school academy and the awards ceremony. The jury has been headed in the past by Otto Sigurd,
Svetlana Aleksiyevich Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich (born 31 May 1948) is a Belarusian investigative journalist, essayist and oral historian who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suf ...
and Ludmila Ulitskaya. To date, 26 collections of winning entries have been published: the majority of these can be found on the "Lessons of History" website.


"Virtual Gulag" museum and ''Russia's Necropolis'' website

In the early 21st century, Memorial in St. Petersburg worked to create the "Virtual Gulag" Museum in order to bring together research and archives from all over the former Soviet Union and to commemorate and record the existence of the Gulag and the lives of its inmates. Disrupted by the 2008 seizure in St. Petersburg of much of the materials on which the project was based (see for further information), and faced with a need to update the information (and the technology), it was decided to create a map of the burial grounds, graveyards and commemorative sites across Russia. Launched in Russian in 2016, an English-language version, "Russia's Necropolis of Terror and the Gulag" followed in August 2021. This resource documents over 400 sites, some dating back to the
Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
, noting their state of preservation, monuments and ceremonies, and whether they have protected status. It includes the killing fields of the Great Purge such as Krasny Bor, the abandoned burial grounds of the Gulag, and also 138 graveyards of the "special" settlements to which "dekulakized" peasant families and then Poles, Lithuanians and others were deported in their tens of thousands. At the Kovalevsky Woods near St. Petersburg, Memorial attempted to construct a National Memorial Museum Complex to commemorate the 4,500 victims who were killed and buried there during the Red Terror. Memorial workers discovered the bodies in 2002. A memorial complex already exists at the Sandarmokh killing field (1937–1938) in Karelia, thanks to the efforts of Yury A. Dmitriev. In July 1997, a joint expedition of the St. Petersburg and Karelian Memorial Societies led by Dmitriev, Irina Flige, and Veniamin Joffe found 236 common graves containing the bodies of at least 6,000 victims of Stalin–era purges, executed in 1937 and 1938. In 2016, the Russian government attempted to revise this account, claiming that among the dead were Soviet POWs shot by invading Finns in 1941–1944. Memorial representatives challenged both the motivation behind this claim and the purported new evidence intended to support it.


''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (1968–1982)

In 2008, Memorial HRC launched an online version of the noted publication ''
A Chronicle of Current Events ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (russian: Хро́ника теку́щих собы́тий, ''Khronika tekushchikh sobytiy'') was one of the longest-running ''samizdat'' periodicals of the post-Stalin USSR. This unofficial newsletter reported v ...
,'' which had been distributed in the Soviet Union. Appearing at irregular intervals during the year, it was circulated in typescript form () in the USSR from 1968 to 1983. All of its 63 issues were also translated into English and published abroad. Western observers and scholars considered it to be a key source of trustworthy information about human rights in the post-Stalin Soviet Union. The launch of the online version was held at Memorial's office in Karetny pereulok. Many former editors of the underground publication attended, including
Sergei Kovalev Sergei Adamovich Kovalyov (also spelled Sergey Kovalev; russian: link=no, Сергей Адамович Ковалёв; 2 March 1930 – 9 August 2021) was a Russian human rights activist and politician. During the Soviet period he was a diss ...
and Alexander Lavut.


Media

Memorial has funded or helped to produce various publications and films related to human rights. This included the documentary ''The Crying Sun'' (2007), which focused on the village of Zumsoy in Chechnya, and the struggle of its citizens to preserve their cultural identity in the face of military raids and enforced disappearances by the Russian army and guerilla fighters. The 25-minute film was produced in collaboration with
WITNESS In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...
.


International Memorial outside Russia

International Memorial has branches in several European countries. Memorial Germany was founded in 1993 in Berlin to support the organization in Russia. Over time it has become an independent human rights organization based in Germany. Memorial Italia has been operating since 2004. Memorial Belgium was founded in 2007. Later, branches of the International Memorial were also set up in the Czech Republic (2016) and most recently a French branch came into existence in April 2020. In eastern and southern Ukraine, as noted earlier (§), Memorial organisations set up during the late Soviet period have remained affiliated with the Russian network. A noted centre for work both on historical materials and current human rights concerns is the
Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KhPG) is one of the oldest and most active Ukrainian human rights organizations. As a legal entity, it was established in 1992, but it has been working as a human rights protection group in the Ukrainia ...
, an affiliate organisation since February 1989, which today runs the "Human Rights in Ukraine" portal.


Awards and nominations

In 2004, the Memorial Human Rights Centre (HRC) was among the four recipients of the
Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob ...
, for its work in documenting violations of human rights in Russia and other former states in the USSR. Quoting the RLA jury: " for showing, under very difficult conditions, and with great personal courage, that history must be recorded and understood, and human rights respected everywhere if sustainable solutions to the legacy of the past are to be achieved." In the same year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) named Memorial HRC as the winner of the annual
Nansen Refugee Award The Nansen Refugee Award is awarded annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to an individual, group, or organization in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees, displaced, or stateless people. Th ...
for its wide range of services on behalf of forced migrants and
internally displaced people An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee. ...
in the Russian Federation, as well as refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In 2008, Memorial won the
Hermann Kesten Prize The Hermann Kesten Prize (german: link=no, Hermann-Kesten-Preis), formally the Hermann Kesten Medal (german: link=no, Hermann-Kesten-Medaille), is a German literary award presented annually for outstanding efforts in support of persecuted write ...
. In 2009, Memorial won the Sakharov Prize of the European Union, in memory of murdered Memorial activist
Natalya Estemirova Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova (russian: Наталья Хусаиновна Эстемирова; 28 February 1958 – 15 July 2009) was a Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian human rights organization Memorial. ...
. Announcing the award, President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek said that the assembly hoped "to contribute to ending the circle of fear and violence surrounding human rights defenders in the Russian Federation".
Oleg Orlov Oleg Petrovich Orlov (russian: Олег Петрович Орлов) (born April 4, 1953, in Moscow) is a participator in post-Soviet human rights movements in Russia, chairman of the Board of Human Rights Center “Memorial,” executive board mem ...
, a board member of Memorial, commented that the prize represents "much-needed moral support at a difficult time for rights activists in Russia", and that he considers the prize "a mark of the high value placed on the work of Memorial and that of all of our colleagues – Russian rights activists who are working in a very difficult situation". A cash reward, which comes with the prize, of
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...
50,000 was awarded to Memorial in December 2009. The writer and historian
Irina Scherbakowa Irina Lazarevna S(ch)herbakova (in Russian : Ирина Лазаревна Щербакова) (born 1949) is a Russian historian of the modern age, an author and a founding member of Memorial. She was awarded the Carl von Ossietsky Prize for Co ...
, a founder and staff member of Memorial, was given the
Ossietzky Award The Ossietzky Award ( no, Ossietzkyprisen ) is a prize awarded by the Norwegian chapter of P.E.N., for extraordinary contributions to freedom of speech. The prize is named after writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Carl von Ossietzky. Recip ...
and the Goethe Medal for her work relating to Memorial's activities. In 2009, Memorial HRC was awarded the
Victor Gollancz Prize The Victor Gollancz Prize is an international human rights prize awarded by the Society for Threatened Peoples. It is named for British humanitarian Sir Victor Gollancz. The prize is awarded in Göttingen. Laureates *2000 The society Mothers ...
by the
Society for Threatened Peoples The Society for Threatened Peoples International STPI (german: Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker-International, GfbV-International) is an international NGO and human rights organization with its headquarters in Göttingen, Germany. Its aim ...
. In 2012, Memorial was awarded the Custodian of National Memory prize by the
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
. On 4 February 2015, Lech Wałęsa nominated Memorial International for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Memorial was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize along with Belarusian human rights activist
Ales Bialiatski Ales Viktaravich Bialiatski ( be, Алесь Віктаравіч Бяляцкі, Alieś Viktaravič Bialiacki; born 25 September 1962) is a Belarusian pro-democracy activist and prisoner of conscience known for his work with the Viasna Human ...
and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Centre for Civil Liberties.
Berit Reiss-Andersen Berit Reiss-Andersen (born 11 July 1954) is a Norwegian lawyer, author and former politician for the Norwegian Labour Party. She is chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the 5-member committee that awards the Nobel Peace Prize. She is also a ...
, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, stated that the recipients "have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses and the abuse of power", however the committee stated that the choice was not made against Putin, who launched an
invasion of Ukraine The territory of present-day Ukraine has been invaded or occupied a number of times throughout its history. List See also *List of invasions * List of wars involving Ukraine References {{Europe topic, List of wars involving, title=List ...
in February of that year.


Recent operations


International Memorial

In April 2021, Memorial researchers Sergei Krivenko and Sergei Prudovsky published a study of the "national" operations conducted by the NKVD during the
Great Terror The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
, 1937–1938. Examining the available documents, they noted that the FSB, successor to the NKVD and
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
, had still not fulfilled the terms of a June 1992 edict issued by President
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
. This demanded that all legislative acts and other documentation that "served as the basis for mass repressive measures and violations of human rights" should be declassified and made publicly available within three months. The Great Terror, among other Soviet campaigns of repression, were such "crimes against humanity" and therefore were subject to no statute of limitation. In 1968, the USSR had acceded to the UN
Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity The Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by United Nations General Assembly resolution 2391 (XXIII) of 26 November 1 ...
, yet decades later, and thirty years after the 1992 presidential edict, the researchers were filing cases in the courts to pressure regional branches of the FSB to release documents about the Great Terror over 80 years earlier. Krivenko was an academic and a founding member of Memorial,V. Kryuchkov, "The provocative statements by certain participants at the conference of the Memorial Society", KGB report to the CPSU Central Committee, 16 November 1988
his remarks are quoted at the bottom of page three. ''bukovsky-archive.com'', accessed 9 January 2022
while Prudovsky began by researching the fate of his grandfather and has spent the last ten years on a wide-ranging study of political repression in the 1930s.


Memorial Human Rights Centre

An ever-growing list of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in today's Russia (the Memorial Human Rights Centre issued its latest list of 377 names on 9 November 2021) is seen as a clear link drawn by Memorial from the outset between past atrocities and today's human rights violations. This refers, on the one hand, to hotspots around the Soviet Union and Russia, the two wars in Chechnya, or recent conflict with neighbouring countries – such as
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
and Ukraine – and, on the other, to the current domestic regime, which has arguably been becoming increasingly repressive under Vladimir Putin and his government.


Persecution

In the 1990s, Memorial researchers gained access to central FSB archives and many significant documents about collectivisation, the Gulag and the Great Terror were found and published. Outside the capital, the situation across the country varied considerably. After the third-term re-election of Vladimir Putin in 2012, civil society as a whole and Memorial, in particular, were increasingly out of favour. Memorial's chronicling of historic purges frequently conflicted with Putin's attempts to venerate Soviet history.


Confiscation of the digital archive, 2008

On 4 December 2008, Memorial's St. Petersburg office was raided by the authorities. Officers confiscated 11 computer
hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magneti ...
s containing 20 years of research. The information was being used to develop "a universally accessible database with hundreds of thousands of names." Director Irina Flige thought Memorial was being targeted because it was on the wrong side of
Putinism Putinism (russian: путинизм, translit=putinizm) is the social, political, and economic system of Russia formed during the political leadership of Vladimir Putin. It is characterized by the concentration of political and financial po ...
, specifically the idea "that Stalin and the Soviet regime were successful in creating a great country".Galpin, Richard
Stalin's new status in Russia
''news.bbc.co.uk''. 27 December 2008.
The raid was supposedly related to a xenophobic article in a June 2007 issue of the ''Novy Peterburg'' newspaper. Memorial denied any link to the publication. Some human rights lawyers in Russia speculated that the raid was a retaliation for the St. Petersburg Memorial screening of the banned film '' Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case'' (2007), which is about the murder of Russian ex-spy
Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Valterovich "Sasha" Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised i ...
in Great Britain in 2006. Allison Gill, director of
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ri ...
in Moscow, said, "This outrageous police raid shows the poisonous climate for non-governmental organisations in Russia ��This is an overt attempt by the Russian government ��to silence critical voices". Academics from all over the world signed an open letter to then-President
Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
that condemned the seizure of disks and material. The United States declared itself "deeply concerned" about the raid: State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack Sean McCormack (born 1964) is a former United States Assistant Secretary of State. He was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Department Spokesman on June 2, 2005, and served until January 20, 2009. McCormack is curren ...
said, "Unfortunately, this action against Memorial is not an isolated instance of pressure against freedom of association and expression in Russia". On 20 March 2009, the city's Dzerzhinsky district court ruled that the December 2008 search and confiscation of 12 HDDs were carried out with procedural violations; the actions of law enforcement bodies were illegal. Eventually, the 12 hard drives, plus optical discs and some papers, were returned to Memorial in 2009.


Chechnya and the North Caucasus, 1994–2018

Activists linked to Memorial played a key role during the first Chechen conflict (1994–1996) when Russia's human rights ombudsman Sergei Kovalyov spent days in Grozny under bombardment by federal aviation. They moved between the two sides of the conflict, searching for the missing and arranging exchanges of those killed during the fighting. It became much harder for human rights activists to act impartially during the second Chechen conflict (1999–2005). Memorial's office in Grozny was frequently raided by the authorities. Memorial activist Natalia Estemirova, a close colleague of the murdered journalist
Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...
(1958–2006), investigated murders and abductions in Chechnya until she herself was kidnapped in
Grozny Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a po ...
and shot dead in neighbouring
Ingushetia Ingushetia (; russian: Ингуше́тия; inh, ГӀалгӏайче, Ghalghayče), officially the Republic of Ingushetia,; inh, Гӏалгӏай Мохк, Ghalghay Moxk is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in the North Caucas ...
on 15 July 2009. BBC reporters suggested her death was connected to her investigations of government-backed militias in the country. Three days later, Memorial suspended its activities in Chechnya, stating "We cannot risk the lives of our colleagues even if they are ready to carry on their work."
Oleg Orlov Oleg Petrovich Orlov (russian: Олег Петрович Орлов) (born April 4, 1953, in Moscow) is a participator in post-Soviet human rights movements in Russia, chairman of the Board of Human Rights Center “Memorial,” executive board mem ...
, a Memorial board member with experience in the North Caucasus, accused Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov of being behind the murder, and claimed that Kadyrov had openly threatened her. Kadyrov denied his involvementChechen leader sues rights group after activist murder
AFP, 18 July 2009. Retrieved on 19 July 2009.
and sued Memorial for defamation, naming Orlov specifically in his complaint. Several years later the case was yet to be resolved. On 17 January 2018, masked arsonists set fire to Memorial's
North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
office in Nazran, Ingushetia.


"Foreign agent" status, 2014–2020

According to the 2012 foreign agent law, "groups must register with the Justice Ministry as “foreign agents” if they receive even a minimal amount of funding from any foreign sources, governmental or private, and engage in 'political activity'". The first part of Memorial to be declared a "foreign agent" was its Moscow-based Human Rights Centre in July 2014. The following year, the Ministry of Justice designated the Research & Information Centre at St. Petersburg Memorial, two Memorial organisations in Yekaterinburg and another one in Ryazan " foreign agents". On 4 October 2016, the law requiring organizations that accepted funds from abroad and engaged in "political activities" to register and declare themselves as a "foreign agent" was applied to Memorial International. Memorial HRC and International Memorial disputed this designation of their status in the courts and, having exhausted such legal recourse with the Russian judicial system, applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. The Research & Information Centre at Petersburg Memorial declared that it would continue its work and projects but "did not intend to mark all its publications with such a stamp", designating it a foreign agent. It informed, "all interested persons that RIC Memorial's public activities would be continued by the Joffe Foundation". In its 2015 annual "foreign agent" audit, Russia's Ministry of Justice accused the Memorial Human Rights Centre of "undermining the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation" and of calling for "a change of political regime" in the country. Memorial International's designation as a "foreign agent" was part of the State's ongoing battle with NGOs and civil society. By autumn 2019, Memorial and its new chairman, Yan Rachinsky, faced fines of 3,700,000 roubles for infringing the terms of the foreign agent law: a sum that was raised through crowdfunding. In 2020, Memorial submitted a complaint to the ECHR about excessive fines and harassment.


Intimidation and order to close, 2021

On 14 October 2021, around 20 men broke into the Moscow offices of Memorial and interrupted a public film screening of '' Mr Jones'' with hostile chants. Memorial staff called the police, but by the time the officers arrived most of the intruders had dispersed, and police led away the three who remained. Then, without explanation, the police shut the people who had been watching the film in the Memorial building and held them there for hours, late into the night. Everyone was forced to provide full personal details from their passports, their residential address and phone number, as well as information about their education, workplace, and work title. The first calls for the closure of Memorial were made in 2014 by Minister of Justice Aleksandr Konovalov in an application to the Supreme Court. If Memorial was closed, commented its chairman
Arseny Roginsky Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (russian: Арсе́ний Бори́сович Роги́нский; 30 March 1946 – 18 December 2017)Luxmoore, Matthew (23 December 2017).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2 ...
, then the organisation's many branches would have to re-register and thereafter restore contacts with one another across the country. In January 2015, the Court announced that it would not uphold the Ministry's request. On 11 November 2021, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office announced that it had submitted a lawsuit to the Supreme Court, seeking to close Memorial International over violations of the Russian foreign agent law. The following day, it became known that the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court requesting the closure of the Memorial Human Rights Centre. The lawsuits would be heard on 26 and 23 November, respectively. More than 120,000 people signed a petition to save the group. On 28 December 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia ordered the International Memorial Society and its regional branches to close because it had violated the 2012 foreign agent law. During the court hearing, state prosecutor Zhafyarov accused Memorial of "creating a false image of the Soviet Union as a terrorist state" and "making us repent for the Soviet past, instead of remembering glorious history ��probably because someone is paying for it". A lawyer for Memorial said it would appeal against the decision in both Russian courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, which has jurisdiction over Russia. The following day, the
Moscow City Court The Moscow City Court (russian: Московский городской суд (Мосгорсуд), Moskovsky gorodskoy sud (Mosgorsud)) is the highest judicial body of the city of Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Моск ...
announced its decision to shut down the Memorial Human Rights Centre.


International response to the threat of closure

On 29 December, the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva described the Russian courts' rulings as "further weaken ngthe country's dwindling human rights community". This was followed by the application of an emergency interim measure by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), ordering the Russian government to halt the abolition of the two organisations. , both organisations were party to a pre-existing ECHR complaint concerning the
Russian foreign agent law The Russian foreign agent law requires anyone who receives "support" from outside Russia or is under "influence" from outside Russia to register and declare themselves as "foreign agents". Once registered, they are subject to additional audits a ...
. On 31 December 2021, a joint statement was released by the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom criticising the Russian courts' decisions to shut Memorial and calling on Russia "to uphold its international human rights obligations and commitments".


See also

* Day of Remembrance, 30 October each year * Kommunarka "firing range" *
Last Address The Last Address (russian: «Последний адрес», translit="Posledniy adres") is a civic initiative to commemorate the victims of repressions in the Soviet Union. The essence of the initiative is that ordinary people deserve to be co ...
project *
Arseny Roginsky Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (russian: Арсе́ний Бори́сович Роги́нский; 30 March 1946 – 18 December 2017)Luxmoore, Matthew (23 December 2017).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2 ...
* Sandarmokh forest and memorial * Solovki "special" prison * Solovetsky Stone, Moscow * Topography of Terror excursions


References


Further reading

* * Cathy Merridale (2000), ''Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Russia'', Granta publishers: London * Anne Applebaum (2003), ''Gulag: A History of the Soviet camps'', Allen Lane: London


External links

*
Victims of Political Terror in the USSR
(Memorial). Online database with over 3 million entries (in Russian)
Russia's Necropolis of Terror and the Gulag
(Joffe Foundation). A select directory of burial grounds and commemorative sites (in English)
Open List of the Victims of the Soviet Regime, 1917–1991
Moscow (in Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian and Belorussian) * {{Authority control 1989 establishments in the Soviet Union Organizations established in 1989 Post-Soviet states Political repression in the Soviet Union Commemoration of communist crimes Sakharov Prize laureates Non-profit organizations listed in Russia as foreign agents 2021 disestablishments in Russia Organizations disestablished in 2021 Organizations awarded Nobel Peace Prizes Nansen Refugee Award laureates