Memorial (organization)
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Memorial ( rus, Мемориал, p=mʲɪmərʲɪˈaɫ) is an international
human rights organisation A human rights group, or human rights organization, is a non-governmental organization which advocates for human rights through identification of their violation, collecting incident data, its analysis and publication, promotion of public awareness ...
founded in
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
during the
fall of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...
to study and examine the
human rights violations Human rights are universally recognized moral principles or norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both national and international laws. These rights are considered inherent and inalienable, meaning t ...
and other crimes committed under
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's reign. Subsequently, it expanded the scope of its research to cover the entire Soviet period. Memorial is the recipient of numerous awards, among others the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
in
2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
. Prior to its dissolution in Russia in early 2022, it consisted of two separate legal entities, Memorial International, whose purpose was the recording of the
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
committed in the Soviet Union, particularly during the
Stalinist era Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism inc ...
, 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 unitary system, as of December 2021 Memorial encompassed over 50 organizations in Russia and 11 in other countries, including
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
,
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
and
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. 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, thereby ...
. Memorial emerged during the
perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...
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 The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the assassination of Sergei Kirov by Leonid Nikolaev ...
and the
Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
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 published the crimes of the Soviet regime in their region. After the
Russian foreign agent law The Russian foreign agent law requires any person or organization receiving any form of support from outside Russia or deemed to be under foreign influence to register as a "foreign agent". Unlike the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act ...
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 justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
. 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 The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation () is a court within the judiciary of Russia and the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law, criminal law and commercial law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts ...
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 (HRC) was ordered shut by the
Moscow City Court The Moscow City Court () is the highest judicial body of the city of Moscow on civil, criminal, administrative and other cases. District courts of Moscow External links Official website
{{Authority control Courts in Russia Governme ...
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 The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
applied an interim measure instructing Russia to halt the forced dissolution of Memorial, pending the outcome of litigation. On 29 December 2021, Memorial HRC as a legal entity in Russia was closed and liquidated by the Moscow City Court for violating the foreign agent law. On 5 April 2022, the Russian Court of Appeal confirmed the dissolution. Some of Memorial's human rights activities 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 (; born 25 September 1962) is a Russian-born Belarusian democratization, pro-democracy activist and prisoner of conscience known for his work with the Viasna Human Rights Centre. An activist for Belarusian independen ...
, 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 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
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 (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982 as well as the fourth chairman of the Presidium ...
dissidents in February 1974, following the deportation of dissident writer
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...
from the USSR. They called for publication in the USSR of Solzhenitsyn's ''
The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' () is a three-volume nonfiction series written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident. It was first published in 1973 by the Parisian ...
'', the opening of all secret police archives relating to the past, and the organization of an international tribunal to examine the crimes of the
Soviet secret police There were a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The Okhrana was abolished by the Provisional government after the first revolution of 1917, and the first secret police after the October Revolution, created by Vladimir Leni ...
. Some of these goals became feasible in the late 1980s when several activists such as
Lev Ponomaryov Lev Aleksandrovich Ponomaryov (, 2 September 1941) is a Russian political and civil activist. He is an executive director of the all-Russian movement "For Human Rights." He is a member of the Federal Political Council of Solidarnost, and was de ...
, Yuri Samodurov, Vyacheslav Igrunov, Dmitry Leonov, and
Arseny Roginsky Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (; 30 March 1946 – 18 December 2017)Luxmoore, Matthew (23 December 2017).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2017. was a Soviet dissident and Russian historian. He was one of t ...
proposed a complex to commemorate the victims of
Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...
. 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 Gen ...
(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. 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 Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov (; 29 February 1924 – 23 November 2007) was a Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Initially working in the Soviet justice system a ...
, 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 (, full name: Larisa Iosifovna Bogoraz-Brukhman, Bogoraz was her father's last name, Brukhman her mother's, August 8, 1929 – April 6, 2004) was a Soviet dissidents, dissident in the Soviet Union. Biography Born in ...
and
Elena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) was a human rights activist in the former Soviet Union and wife of the physicist Andrei Sakharov. During her decades as a dissident, Bonner was noted for her characteristic blunt ho ...
(wife of dissident scientist
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet Physics, physicist and a List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Alt ...
), 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 was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
's Solovki camp. In a report to the Politburo, KGB head Kryuchkov singled out
Arseny Roginsky Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (; 30 March 1946 – 18 December 2017)Luxmoore, Matthew (23 December 2017).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2017. was a Soviet dissident and Russian historian. He was one of t ...
, 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 (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet Physics, physicist and a List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Alt ...
, who had won a
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
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 of ...
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 Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
because repressive measures had begun with the
October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
under
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
. On 6 July 1989, Memorial organized its first public event by picketing the Chinese Embassy in Moscow in protest over the
Tiananmen Square Massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...
. Memorial was not formally recognized until 1990 when the organization acquired official status. On 19 April 1992, after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...
, Memorial was reconstituted as an International
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...
, a "historical, educational, human rights and charitable society", with organizations in several
post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...
(Russia, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
,
Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
, and
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
), as well as in Germany, the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
, 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 ...
, 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 Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
based on the
rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...
and thus prevent a return to
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...
; *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 of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounce ...
and to firmly establish
human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
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, thereby ...
carried out by totalitarian regimes. Its online database contains details of the victims of
political repression in the USSR Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, tens of millions of people suffered political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution. It culminated during the History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), Stalin er ...
; 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 shares 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 () is an annual day when victims of political repression in the Soviet Union are remembered and mourned across the Russian Federation. Origins The day has been observed since 30 Octobe ...
. 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 (Masha Lipman"Humble Memorials for Stalin’s Victims in Moscow". The New Yorker. 13 December 2014/ref>) is a large-scale public memorial project designed to commemorate the memory of innocent people who died as a result of Repre ...
project and, following the example of Berlin and its
Topography of Terror The Topography of Terror () is an outdoor and indoor history museum in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings, which during the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime from 1933 to ...
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 Belarusian) 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 (; born 20 November 1959) is a British and German historian and writer. He was a professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he was made Emeritus Professor on his retirement in 2022. Figes is known f ...
.


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 su ...
and
Ludmila Ulitskaya Lyudmila Evgenyevna Ulitskaya (, born February 21, 1943) is an internationally acclaimed modern Russian novelist and short-story writer who, in 2014, was awarded the prestigious Austrian State Prize for European Literature for her oeuvre. In 2006 s ...
. To date, 26 collections of winning entries have been published: the majority of these can be found on the "Lessons of History" website.


The Katyn Massacres

Memorial had a special Polish programme headed by
Aleksandr Gurianov Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are A ...
. Together with the Polish
KARTA Center The KARTA Center () or The KARTA Center Foundation () is a Polish non-governmental public benefit organization, whose aim is documenting and popularizing the recent history of Poland and history of Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion ...
, the Memorial Polish programme researched the mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military officers and soldiers, policemen, officials, intelligentsia and others conducted at Stalin's order by the NKVD in Katyn, Kalinin,
Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
,
Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
and probably near
Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...
in April and May 1940. The result of this research are four publications on the murders, all edited by Gurianov: one volume on Katyn, where NKVD officers murdered at least 4,400 regular army officers and reserve officers; and three volumes on Kalinin, were 6,300 policemen and prison guards and border guards were shot dead. Both titles contain an introduction on the crime and the exhumations, and a roll-call of the respective victims with biogram and picture, where available. They are based on analogous Polish publications, but include additional information on the Katyn Massacre and expanded biograms. The four publications are: Gurianov Aleksandr, ed. ''Those Killed in Katyn. The Memorial Book of Polish Prisoners of War - Prisoners of the Kozelsk NKVD Camp, Shot Dead at the Order of the Politburo of the Bolshevic Communist Party from 5 March 1940 Onwards'' (Moscow 2015), with 4 415 biograms of the victims. Gurianov Aleksandr, ed. ''Those Killed in Kalinin, buried in Mednoye. The Memorial Book of Polish Prisoners of War - Prisoners of the Ostashkov Soviet NKVD Camp, Shot Dead at the Order of the Politburo of the Bolshevic Communist Party from 5 March 1940 Onwards'' (Moscow 2019) * Vol. 1, "The Biograms of Polish POWs. A-L" * Vol. 2, "The Biograms of Polish POWs. M-Ya" * Vol. 3, "What do we Know about Mednoye" Both titles were launched on 17 September, to the date on the anniversary of the
Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...
: the book on Katyn in 2015, on the 75th anniversary; and the three volumes on Mednoye on the 80th anniversary, in 2019. Memorial was planning to continue the project and publish a volume on the Katyn Massacre committed at the Kharkov Regional Directorate of the NKVD, however the events after 2019 (the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
and the policy pursued by the Russian Federation after its invasion of Ukraine, including the closure of Memorial) made this impossible as of 2024.


"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 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
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 The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
, noting their state of preservation, monuments and ceremonies, and whether they have protected status. It includes the killing fields of the
Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
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 The Red Terror () was a campaign of political repression and Mass killing, executions in Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia which was carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police ...
. Memorial workers discovered the bodies in 2002. A memorial complex already exists at the
Sandarmokh Sandarmokh (; ) is a forest massif from Medvezhyegorsk in the Republic of Karelia where an unknown number, estimated in the thousands, of victims of Stalin's Great Terror were executed. More than 58 nationalities were shot and buried there by ...
killing field (1937–1938) in Karelia, thanks to the efforts of
Yury A. Dmitriev Yury Alexeyevich Dmitriev (; born 28 January 1956, Petrozavodsk) is a local historian and activist in Karelia (Northwest Russia). Since the early 1990s, he has worked to locate the execution sites of Stalin's Great Purge, Great Terror in Karelia an ...
. 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 In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...
, 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'' () was one of the longest running ''samizdat'' periodicals of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. This unofficial newsletter reported violations of civil rights and judicial procedure by the Soviet government and res ...
,'' 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. Many former editors of the underground publication attended, including
Sergei Kovalev Sergei Adamovich Kovalyov (also spelled Sergey Kovalev; ; 2 March 1930 – 9 August 2021) was a Russian human rights activist and politician. During the Soviet period he was a dissident and, after 1975, a political prisoner. Early career and ...
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 Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...
, 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, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or claim to know. A witness might be compelled to provide testimony in court, before a grand jur ...
.


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 Ukrain ...
, 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 vo ...
, 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 The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, l ...
(UNHCR) named Memorial HRC as the winner of the annual
Nansen Refugee Award The Nansen Refugee Award is a medal issued 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 pe ...
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. I ...
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 (), formally the Hermann Kesten Medal (), is a German literary award presented annually for outstanding efforts in support of persecuted writers, on behalf of PEN Centre Germany according to the principles of the Chart ...
. In 2009, Memorial won the
Sakharov Prize The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought. Named after Russian scienti ...
of the European Union, in memory of murdered Memorial activist
Natalya Estemirova Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova (, ; 28 February 1958 – 15 July 2009) was a Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian human rights organization Memorial. Estemirova was abducted by unknown persons on 15 July 2009 arou ...
. Announcing the award,
President of the European Parliament The president of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. They also represent the Parliament within the European Union (EU) and internationally. The president's signature is required for Euro ...
Jerzy Buzek Jerzy Karol Buzek (; born 3 July 1940) is a Polish politician and former Member of the European Parliament from Poland. He has served as Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001, since being elected to the European Parliament in 2004, he serv ...
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 (; born April 4, 1953) is a Russian human rights activist who has participated in post-Soviet Union human rights movements. He serves as the chairman of the Board of Human Rights Center “Memorial,” and is an executive boa ...
, a board member of Memorial, commented that the prize represents "much-needed moral support at a difficult time for rights activists in Russia". 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. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...
50,000 was awarded to Memorial in December 2009. The writer and historian
Irina Scherbakowa Irina Lazarevna Scherbakowa (Sherbakova) (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 Pr ...
, a founder and staff member of Memorial, was given the
Ossietzky Award The Ossietzky Award () 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. Recipients * Aziz Nesin (19 ...
and the
Goethe Medal The Goethe Medal, also known as the Goethe-Medaille, is a yearly prize given by the Goethe-Institut honoring non-Germans "who have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations". It is an offici ...
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 of ...
by the
Society for Threatened Peoples The Society for Threatened Peoples International STPI (-International, GfbV-International) is an international NGO and human rights organization with its headquarters in Göttingen, Germany. Its aim is to create awareness of and protect minorit ...
. 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 (, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecutio ...
. On 4 February 2015,
Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 Polish presidential election, 1990 election, Wałę ...
nominated Memorial International for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Memorial was awarded the 2022
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
along with Belarusian human rights activist
Ales Bialiatski Ales Viktaravich Bialiatski (; born 25 September 1962) is a Russian-born Belarusian democratization, pro-democracy activist and prisoner of conscience known for his work with the Viasna Human Rights Centre. An activist for Belarusian independen ...
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 a member 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 The Norwegian Nobel Committee () selects the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize each year on behalf of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's estate, based on instructions of Nobel's will. Five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. ...
, 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 in February of that year. Memorial also received the 2022
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...
Democracy Defender Award, jointly with Ukrainian Human Rights Centre ZMINA, for courageous and important efforts to promote human rights and democracy.


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 The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
during the
Great Terror The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the assassination of Sergei Kirov by Leonid Nikolaev ...
, 1937–1938. Examining the available documents, they noted that the FSB, successor to the NKVD and
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
, had not fulfilled the terms of a June 1992 edict issued by President
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...
. 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 involved "crimes against humanity" and was therefore subject to no statute of limitation. In 1968, the USSR 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 ...
. 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

The growing list of prisoners of conscience and political prisoners in Russia (the Memorial Human Rights Centre issued a list of 377 names on 9 November 2021) reflected the link always drawn by Memorial between past atrocities and present-day violations of human rights. This referred, on the one hand, to hotspots around the Soviet Union and Russia, the two wars in Chechnya, conflicts with neighbouring countries, especially
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
and
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, and, on the other hand, to the regime within Russia under
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
and his administration.


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 Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
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 hard disk drive platter, pla ...
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 () is the social, political, and economic system of Russia formed during the political leadership of Vladimir Putin. There are three stages of Putinism; ''Classical Putinism'' (1999–2008), ''Tandem-Phase'' (2008–2012) and ''Devel ...
, 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 Litvinenko (30 August 1962 ( at WebCite) – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime, ...
in Great Britain in 2006. Allison Gill, director of
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
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 (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...
that condemned the seizure of disks and material. The United States declared itself "deeply concerned" about the raid:
State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
spokesman
Sean McCormack Sean McCormack (born 1964) is the Vice President of Communications at Chevron U.S.A. Inc. McCormack is responsible for corporate and brand communications, in addition to reputation management, employee and executive communications. He is a forme ...
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 Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...
and the
North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...
, 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 Sergei Adamovich Kovalyov (also spelled Sergey Kovalev; ; 2 March 1930 – 9 August 2021) was a Russian human rights activist and politician. During the Soviet period he was a dissident and, after 1975, a political prisoner. Early career and ...
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 Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova (, ; 28 February 1958 – 15 July 2009) was a Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian Human rights in Russia, human rights organization Memorial (society), Memorial. Estemirova was abducted ...
, a close colleague of the murdered journalist
Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russians, Russian investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005). It was her repor ...
(1958–2006), investigated murders and abductions in Chechnya until she herself was kidnapped in
Grozny Grozny (, ; ) is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 328,533 — up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Russian Census, 2002 ce ...
and shot dead in neighbouring
Ingushetia Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country o ...
on 15 July 2009. BBC reporters suggested her death was connected to her investigations of government-backed
militias A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or serve ...
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 (; born April 4, 1953) is a Russian human rights activist who has participated in post-Soviet Union human rights movements. He serves as the chairman of the Board of Human Rights Center “Memorial,” and is an executive boa ...
, a Memorial board member with experience in the North Caucasus, accused Chechen president
Ramzan Kadyrov Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov (born 5 October 1976) is a Russian politician and current head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated with the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Chechen independence movement, through his father who was the ...
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, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...
office in
Nazran Nazran (; ) is the largest city in Ingushetia, Russia. It served as the republic's capital from 1991 to 2000, until it was replaced by Magas, which was built for this purpose. It is the most populous city in the republic: Etymology The name ...
, 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 A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign principal while located in another host country, generally outside the protections offered to those working in their official capacity for a diplomatic missi ...
". 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 The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
(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 (; 30 March 1946 – 18 December 2017)Luxmoore, Matthew (23 December 2017).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2017. was a Soviet dissident and Russian historian. He was one of t ...
, 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 The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation () is a court within the judiciary of Russia and the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law, criminal law and commercial law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts ...
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 The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
(ECHR) in Strasbourg, which has jurisdiction over Russia. The following day, the
Moscow City Court The Moscow City Court () is the highest judicial body of the city of Moscow on civil, criminal, administrative and other cases. District courts of Moscow External links Official website
{{Authority control Courts in Russia Governme ...
announced its decision to shut down the Memorial Human Rights Centre. Video clips covering the harassment, trial, and closure of Memorial are shown in a 2024 documentary, ''Of Caravan and the Dogs.'' Like most independent Russian media and rights bodies, Memorial is now "forced to operate outside the country, and some of memorial's activists have been jailed. But the body continues to campaign vocally on social media, and the Nobel Prize committee hailed its efforts to document war crimes and other abuses of power." In February 2024, Memorial's co-chair, Oleg Orlov, was sentenced to two years in prison having been convicted of "repeatedly discrediting" the Russian military.


International response to the threat of closure

On 29 December, the
UN Human Rights Office The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...
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 The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
(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 any person or organization receiving any form of support from outside Russia or deemed to be under foreign influence to register as a "foreign agent". Unlike the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act ...
. 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 (Masha Lipman"Humble Memorials for Stalin’s Victims in Moscow". The New Yorker. 13 December 2014/ref>) is a large-scale public memorial project designed to commemorate the memory of innocent people who died as a result of Repre ...
project *
Arseny Roginsky Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (; 30 March 1946 – 18 December 2017)Luxmoore, Matthew (23 December 2017).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 25 December 2017. was a Soviet dissident and Russian historian. He was one of t ...
*
Sandarmokh Sandarmokh (; ) is a forest massif from Medvezhyegorsk in the Republic of Karelia where an unknown number, estimated in the thousands, of victims of Stalin's Great Terror were executed. More than 58 nationalities were shot and buried there by ...
forest and memorial * Solovki "special" prison *
Solovetsky Stone The Solovetsky Stone () is a monument on Lubyanka Square in Moscow to the victims of political repression. It is in close proximity to the Lubyanka Building, headquarters since 1918 of various Russian security services, from the Cheka to today's ...
, Moscow *
Topography of Terror The Topography of Terror () is an outdoor and indoor history museum in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Niederkirchnerstrasse, formerly Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, on the site of buildings, which during the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime from 1933 to ...
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 Belarusian) * {{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