The Russian authorities are secretly destroying Soviet Gulag records

Executing a secret government order from 2014, the Russian authorities have reportedly started destroying archival records documenting the imprisonment of people during the Soviet era, according to a letter from Roman Romanov, the director of the Gulag History Museum, addressed to Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Fedotov, the head of Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council.

A researcher working with the museum says he discovered a confidential interdepartmental order issued on February 12, 2014 — signed by Russia’s Interior Ministry, Justice Ministry, Emergency Management Agency, Defense Ministry, Federal Security Service, Federal Drug Control Service, Federal Customs Service, Federal Protective Service, Foreign Intelligence Service, Attorney General’s Office, and State Courier Service — mandating the destruction of special Gulag registration cards after former convicts turn 80.

What are these records? The USSR indefinitely archived the records of Gulag inmates who died as prisoners, but these case files were destroyed if inmates survived their incarceration. Upon release, prisoners were issue a special registration card that recorded their information and Gulag record. The Russian government has reportedly started destroying archives containing these “card” records, jeopardizing the work of professional historians and making it far more difficult for ordinary people to find out what happened to relatives who were sent to the Gulag.

Speaking to the newspaper Kommersant, Mikhail Fedotov promised to address the issue, saying, “This is fundamentally important, as we’re talking about a means of countering the falsification of history. When you’ve got the document, it’s nearly impossible to falsify it. When there’s no document, you can make up whatever you want.”

Historians don’t know exactly how many people were imprisoned in the Soviet repressions, but the human rights group “Memorial” says it was at least 13 million.