The Return of Names: Chronicles of Prohibitions
How the state directly or indirectly prohibits the memory of victims of political repression
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression is observed annually on October 30th with memorial services and flower-laying at monuments to victims of repression. Since 2007, the "Return of Names" event has been held on the eve of the event, with participants taking turns reading the full names of those executed in 1937-1938. There are so many names that the reading begins at 10 a.m. and doesn't finish until 10 p.m. The country's main event takes place at the Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. The stone was brought in 1990 by members of the International Historical, Educational, Charitable, and Human Rights Society "Memorial" from the site of the former Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp for political prisoners. It is considered a symbol of resistance to state repression, as it stands opposite the KGB (FSB) building.
The Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repression was officially established by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in 1991. For a quarter of a century, children and grandchildren of the innocently convicted, concerned citizens, historians, officials, and representatives of religious faiths commemorated the murdered, unveiled monuments, and declared, "This must never happen again!" At some point, attitudes toward the memorial day, past and present repressions, began to shift invisibly. Instead monuments to the repressed — monuments to Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, and the Chekists; instead of declassifying the archives of those years, there was the liquidation of Memorial, the destruction of media outlets covering the repressions, and the repeated cancellation of the "Return of Names" campaign. How this "cancellation" of this date, as well as the memory and condemnation of state repression itself, is taking place in the "NotMoscow" timeline.
Numbers · 1930th — early 1950s-x
3 778 234people were arrested by security agencies
786 098people of them were shot
USSR KGB statistics 1988, according to the FSB archive
Numbers · today
5 155people is being pursued for political reasons right now
2 366of them are in places of imprisonment
12political prisoners died only during 2026
According to human rights projects Memorial and OVD-Info
- Promo
- Monuments and museums
- Organizations and media
- Authorities and laws
- People
2016
Ryazan branch of Memorial recognized A foreign agent was designated following a complaint from a local resident to the authorities that the organization was "creating a website about human rights in Russia and publishing anti-government materials." This marked the beginning of pressure on regional branches.
The foundation stone of the future monument to the victims of repression, 2019. The monument still hasn't been built. Flowers at the wall of memory On October 4, the Russian Ministry of Justice added International Memorial to the register of NGOs acting as "foreign agents." The organization was regularly fined millions of rubles for failing to label its materials as "foreign agents." This marked the beginning of the organization's official dismantling.
On December 13, Yuri Dmitriev, a local historian, head of the regional Memorial organization, and organizer of expeditions that discovered and examined the burial sites of victims of political repression in Sandarmokh and Krasny Bor, was detained and later arrested. He was accused of producing pornography featuring his underage adopted daughter and of indecent assault against her. In April 2018, the court acquitted Dmitriev of these charges but sentenced him to restricted freedom for possession of parts of a hunting rifle. In June 2018, the verdict was issued. canceledDmitrieva was arrested on a new charge—forcible sexual assault. Human rights activists call the case fabricated.
Sandarmokh. Photo: Novaya Gazeta
2018
Moscow City Hall for the first time tried to cancel The "Return of Names" event at the Solovetsky Stone was canceled, citing renovations on Lubyanka Square. Officials recommended that Memorial relocate the event to the Wall of Grief on Sakharov Avenue. After a public outcry, the event was allowed to proceed at its original location.
2020
2021
The Supreme Court liquidated the International Memorial Society following a lawsuit filed by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression disappeared From the "Calendar of Educational Events" (a document in which the Ministry of Education recommends that schools include a specific date in their educational activities). Prior to this, schools held "Memory Lessons."
Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan toughened Yuri Dmitriev's sentence from 2020 was up to 15 years in prison. His relatives called the sentence a "death sentence" for the elderly and frail man.
Sandarmokh. Photo: Novaya Gazeta On October 30, participants in human rights pickets were detained in Moscow, Ivanovo, and Voronezh.
2022
Novaya Gazeta suspended publication. In September, the Basmanny Court, following a lawsuit filed by Roskomnadzor, annulled the registration of the paper version of the newspaper and the Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta, and in November Roskomnadzor blocked the website. Novaya Gazeta, a publication that was one of the first to publish investigations into the crimes of the Soviet regime against citizens, demanded the declassification of the KGB (FSB) archives.
2023
The campaign has begun The destruction of the "Last Address" project plaques (plaques on building facades that served as the final living addresses of political prisoners). Hundreds of such plaques were destroyed in Russian cities over the summer and fall.
A Polish monument and a Lithuanian cross in memory of the repressed dismantled In the village of Pivovarikha, at the site of mass graves. In 1937, a special burial site for those executed was located nearby. Between 15 and 17 victims of the Great Terror are buried within its grounds.
The "Return of Names" campaign not allowed Due to COVID restrictions, the monument was fenced off with bars, and only a few people at a time were allowed in to lay flowers.
Memorial action banned at the request of the prosecutor's office. Previously, these were rare events that didn't bother anyone.
promotion banned The event took place in its usual location—the Memorial Square for the Victims of Political Repression. It was held in Hyde Park.
In Tomsk, the NKVD Investigative Prison Museum suddenly cancelled its memorial event, and in Kazan, the E Center set up an ambush activists at the monument to victims of political repression and handed out summonses for questioning to students in Volgograd banned go to the "Return of Names" event.
2024
The Russian government has amended the Concept of State Policy for the Perpetuation of the Memory of Victims of Political Repression. стало известно In September. The new edition removed references to the mass repressions, forced collectivization, and the associated famine. It's impossible to understand from the text who carried out the repressions and who bears responsibility for them.
Since 2022, the Prosecutor General's Office has reviewed more than 14,000 decisions on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression and achieved the cancellation 4,000 of them.
On February 16–17, citizens in many regions came to lay flowers at monuments to victims of political repression in memory of politician Alexei Navalny, who died in prison. In St. Petersburg, at the Solovetsky Stone, a memorial event was subject to administrative penalties. attracted 198 people were arrested, 177 of whom were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 14 days. In subsequent years, arrests for laying flowers on the anniversaries of deaths were repeated.
Roskomnadzor blocked The website of the "Return of Names" campaign. The agency that ordered the blocking is hidden from the registry; Roskomsvoboda believes it is the Prosecutor General's Office.
Tomsk City Hall demolished Memorial pillars bearing the names of those repressed stand on Mount Kashtak. They bear portraits and stories of those executed during the Terror. Scholars estimate that approximately 9 people were executed in the ravines of Kashtak.
The mayor's office has once again refused to allow the "Return of Names" event to take place at the Solovetsky Stone, citing coronavirus restrictions.
Authorities banned to hold a memorial event in Tomsk, Ulyanovsk, Novosibirsk, and Vologda.
2025
Forced to resign Vasily Khanevich, founder of the NKVD Investigative Prison Museum. He worked at the museum for 36 years and compiled a database of nearly 200,000 people who had been through the repressive judicial system of the Tomsk region. From 2002 to 2019, Khanevich directed the museum; since 2019, it has been headed by retired FSB Colonel Valery Uimanov.
The NKVD Pre-Trial Prison Museum, Tomsk. Photo: museum website Chairman of the Communists of Russia party Sergei Malinkovich proposed abolish the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression and remove the Solovetsky Stone from Lubyanka Square in Moscow.
2026
On January 18, in a building on Lesnaya Street, a plaque erected in memory of human rights activist and journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed on October 7, 2006, was destroyed for the first time. Responsibility for this took over neo-Nazi group. Since that day, the sign has been destroyed (and activists restored her) dozens of times.
The decision was made Instead of a large-scale "Memory Museum," which was supposed to tell the story of the Gulag and political repression, a local history and patriotic complex was built. Over the years, an average of 870 people passed through the Magadan and Kolyma camps (the Dalstroy system and Sevvostlag).
On April 9, the Supreme Court, at the request of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation recognized The international public movement "Memorial" was declared an extremist organization and its activities were banned.
On the night of April 19, in the Memorial Square near the NKVD Investigative Prison dismantled The Stone of Sorrow and other memorial stones erected in memory of repressed Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians, and Kalmyks. The mayor's office explained this by citing the threat of a garage collapse and then deleted the post.
On June 4, Rosfinmonitoring added Memorial and more than 30 affiliated organizations to its list of "terrorists and extremists." OVD-Info, Revolt Center, and Perm-36 were also added to the list. Details.
