A historian who studied political repression in the Urals has been detained and transferred to a pre-trial detention center in Yekaterinburg. His name is Oleg Novoselev.
Law enforcement sources told the Russian news outlet 66.ru that Novoselev was arrested on suspicion of “inciting or recruiting assistance in terrorist activities.” He has been added to the list of terrorists and extremists maintained by Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service.
No further details about the case were available at the time of publication.
Novoselev had been researching Soviet-era repression through documents held at the State Archive of Administrative Bodies of the Sverdlovsk Region, publishing his findings in his Telegram channel, the Russian news outlet It’s My City notes.
In 2025, Novoselev drew attention to Russian archives having stopped releasing files on victims of political repression to anyone unable to prove family relationship, citing an order from the Federal Archival Agency.
The Russian news outlet 66.ru reports that Novoselev conducted his research as a volunteer with the Ural branch of the human rights group Memorial. On April 9, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the “international Memorial movement” an “extremist” organization and banned its activities in Russia. Whether his case is connected to Memorial in any way is unknown.
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