Russia launches program memorializing victims of Soviet repression

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a state policy framework on memorializing the victims of Soviet political repression. Medvedev signed the proposal by the Justice Ministry on August 15.

The document states that “Russia cannot become a state governed by the rule of law, or a leader in the international arena, without perpetuating the memory of millions of citizens who fell victim to political repression.”

The document refers to political repression in the form of the persecution of religious people in the Soviet Union, the persecution of Tsarist elites, forced collectivization, and “mass repressions, during which millions of people lost their lives, became prisoners of the Gulags [a Soviet system of forced labor camps], lost their property, or faced deportations.”

The new framework stipulates granting public access to archives that contain documents about Soviet repression, setting up monuments at mass burial sites of victims, and creating educational programs dealing with the topic. The framework also states that denouncing “the ideology of state terror” is an integral part of the program.

The framework will be implemented in two stages, between 2015 and 2016, and between 2017 and 2019.

During the realization of the Framework, museum-memorial complexes and thematic exhibitions on the history of political repression will be set up; curricula and teaching aides will be distributed; databases will be opened; books, magazines, and audiovisual products will be published; and research projects, seminars, conferences [will take place].

Millions of Soviet citizens fell victim to political repression over the course of the 20th century. October 30 marks the “Day of Victims of Political Repression” in Russia, yet there is no national landmark memorializing the victims, and many mass burial sites across the country still remain unmarked.

Earlier this year, Perm-36, Russia’s only Gulag museum located in an actual forced labor camp complex, was closed by the government. See Meduza’s photo series: A maximum security museum: Russia’s only Gulag memorial shuts its doors. A photo series