Russians throughout the country on October 29 commemorated the victims of Soviet repression with an annual event organized by the Memorial human rights group, which itself was banned and shut down by the increasingly repressive government of President Vladimir Putin.
"Against the backdrop of mass killings and arrests, wherever they occur, the reminder of the cost of each individual life is felt all the more poignantly,” the Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights organization said in an online statement.
It remains “important today, for a variety of reasons, to preserve the memory of the victims of Soviet state terror," it added about the event, which takes place on the eve of Russia's traditional Remembrance Day For The Victims Of Political Repression, which was first sanctioned by the authorities in 1991 after the fall of communism.
Memorial has since 2006 organized the Returning Of The Names event at which people read out the names of victims of repression under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The authorities since 2020 have denied permission for the event.
In Moscow, the commemoration took place under the watchful eyes of security forces at the Solovetsky Stone memorial on Lubyanka Square, where police cordoned off the square in the morning hours.
Memorial said two police wagons and police cars were parked at the square as only groups of three or fewer people were allowed to pass through.
"For the first time, perhaps, when we came to the Solovetsky Stone, we saw that the square was cordoned off. Today, this is the attitude toward the memory of the victims of repression. Not to gather more than three -- it looks like a mockery of the memory of the victims," veteran human rights defender Yan Rachinsky said.
A police officer looks on as candles and flowers are placed at the Solovetsky Stone memorial for the victims of political repression in Moscow on October 29.
Rachinsky, Memorial co-chairman Oleg Orlov, and diplomats -- including the U.S. and U.K. ambassadors -- were among those who solemnly placed flowers at the site as names were read out.
OVD-Info, which monitors repression in Russia, said security forces detained photographer Danila Gulin, who was taken to a local police station but later released without charges.
Similar events were reported in several other Russian cities and in a variety of countries throughout the world as well.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement that “the European Union honors the victims of political repression in Russia and commends those who continue to work on the remembrance of past victims and against attempts to manipulate and erase the historical memory of political repression in the country.“
“Over recent years, we have witnessed an unprecedented disrespect for human rights in Russia. The dismantling of organizations like Memorial is an irreplaceable loss for the Russian people and the rest of Europe,” the statement added.
Under Stalin, millions of Soviet citizens were killed, tortured, imprisoned, or exiled by the Soviet state. Nostalgia for Stalin and for the Soviet Union has flourished under Putin, a former KGB officer who has praised the dictator as an “effective manager.”
The October date for the event was chosen to honor gulag inmates in the Russian regions of Mordovia and Perm who started a mass hunger strike on that day in 1974, protesting political persecutions in the Soviet Union.
In October 1991, after the fall of communism, Russian authorities adopted a resolution On The Establishment Of The Day Of Remembrance Of The Victims Of Political Repression, after which it became the officially recognized Day of Remembrance before running afoul of authorities in recent years.
Memorial, founded in 1987 to remember victims of Soviet repression, was closed down by Russia’s Supreme Court in November 2021 -- citing the so-called "foreign agents" law -- although it still functions outside the country and has managed to continue some activities inside Russia.
Amnesty International at the time called the shutdown of Memorial an "insult" to the memory of the victims of Soviet gulags.
Memorial was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for its longtime "fight for human rights and democracy."