Memorial (society)

Memorial (Russian: Мемориа́л, IPA: [mʲɪmərʲɪˈaɫ]) was formally established in Moscow in January 1989 as an international historical and civil rights society. Between 1987 and 1990, while the USSR was still in existence, 23 branches of the society were set up and became active.[1] When the Soviet Union collapsed, branches of Memorial in east and south Ukraine remained affiliated to the Russian network.

Memorial
Мемориал
FoundedJanuary 28, 1989 (1989-01-28)
TypeNon-profit
NGO
Location
ServicesHistory of totalitarianism, protecting human rights
Key people
Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989), Arseny Roginsky (1947-2017), Sergei Kovalev (b. 1930)
Award(s)Right Livelihood Award (2004), Nansen Refugee Award (2004), Hermann Kesten Prize (2008), Sakharov Prize (2009), Victor Gollancz Prize (2009), "Freedom of Expression Prize" Index on Censorship (2012), "The Guardian of National Memory" Award from Polish Institute of National Memory (2012)
WebsiteMemorial International (in English) Memorial Human Rights Centre (in English)

Some of the oldest branches of Memorial in northwest and central Russia, the Urals and Siberia have since developed their own websites, documenting independent local research and publicising the crimes of the Soviet regime in their region: for example, St Petersburg,[2] Ryazan,[3] Perm,[4] Tomsk,[5] and Krasnoyarsk.[6]

A movement rather than a centralised organisation, by 2018 there were over 60 branches of Memorial and affiliated organisations scattered across Russia.[7] A quarter of these branches were established in 2014 or later. They share similar concerns about human rights, documenting the past, educating the young, marking Days of Remembrance for the "victims of political repression" and guarding against a return to the totalitarian past,[8] but the focus varies from region to region, depending on local needs, membership and circumstances, e.g. the Ryazan Memorial website is titled "HRO.org" (Human Rights Organisation) while that of Tomsk Memorial is "nkvd.tomsk.ru".

Since the passing of the Russian foreign agent law in July 2012 Memorial has come under increasing official pressure. On 4 October 2016 Memorial International was declared a "foreign agent" by the RF Ministry of Justice; soon after the Research and Information Centre at St Petersburg Memorial was awarded the same status.

Beginnings

Memorial came into existence in response to the revelations during perestroika about the Soviet past and concern about human rights in the present, especially in certain "hotspots" around the USSR.[9] A key moment in the society's development was the Moscow conference on 29-30 October 1988. After the failure of officialdom and moderates to ensure the conference was postponed, it gathered 338 delegates from 57 towns and cities. In a report to the Politburo dated 16 November the new KGB head Vladimir Kryuchkov noted that 66% of the delegates came from Moscow and the Moscow Region. His main focus was on the "provocative statements" made by former dissidents and young activists during the two-day event.[10]

Secretaries of several creative unions (Architects, Designers, Artists and Film-makers) were present as potential trustees. More radical voices were also to be heard: the Moscow Popular Front and the newly-founded Democratic Union, uncensored periodicals such as Glasnost and Express Chronicle. Many of the Moscow Action Group of Memorial were to be found among the radicals.[11] The conference was addressed by veteran dissidents Larisa Bogoraz and Elena Bonner, and by the octogenarian writer Oleg Volkov, an early inmate of the Solovki camp. In his report to the Politburo KGB head Kryuchkov singled out Arseny Roginsky, future chairman (1998-2017) of International Memorial, as particularly outspoken. Memorial should become an heir to the Helsinki Groups of the late Soviet period, said Roginsky, and he named the Chronicle of Current Events (1968-1982)[12] and its compilers as a model to be emulated.[13]

Mission and activities

After the Soviet Union was dissolved in December 1991, Memorial reconstituted itself as International Memorial, a society engaged in "Historical, Educational, Human Rights And Charitable" activities. According to its post-Soviet 1992 charter, Memorial pursued the following aims:

  • To promote mature civil society and democracy based on the rule of law and thus to prevent a return to totalitarianism;
  • To assist the formation of public awareness based on the values of democracy and law, to extirpate totalitarian patterns [of thought and behaviour], and to firmly establish human rights in everyday politics and public life;
  • To promote the truth about the historical past and perpetuate the memory of the victims of political repression carried out by totalitarian regimes.[14]

Over the past twenty years, for instance, it has built up an online database of the victims of political repression in the USSR. Its fifth version contained over three million names and yet it was estimated that 75% of the victims had not yet been identified and recorded.[15] This resource was created by entering information accumulated all over Russia since the late 1980s in Books of Remembrance, short biographical entries of those sent to the Gulag or shot during the Great Terror (1937-1938). [16] Commenting recently on this work Memorial had the following to say about this apparently "impressive number":[17]

"The present version contains, we estimate, no more than a quarter of the victims of political terror [in the USSR], even if we restrict ourselves to individuals covered by the terms of the October 1991 Law 'On the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Political Repression' and include only those who were executed, imprisoned or deported."

Memorial organizes assistance, both legal and financial, for the victims of the Gulag. It also conducts research into the history of political repression and publicizes the findings in books, articles, exhibitions, museums, and websites of its member organizations.

Rehabilitation and remembrance

A day and place of remembrance

Moscow Memorial was among the organisations that persuaded the Russian authorities to follow the longstanding dissident tradition of marking 30 October each year,[18] transforming it into an official Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions. Over the next thirty years this commemorative date was widely adopted across Russia.[19]

On 30 October 1990 a plain boulder from the Solovki prison camp on the White Sea, was erected in front of the Polytechnical Museum on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. This placed it in close proximity to the headquarters of the KGB and its Soviet predecessors since 1918, and of the present Federal Security Service (or FSB). The base of the monument reads: "To the Victims of Political Repression". Its appearance resolved a long and inconclusive public discussion about the form that such a monument should take.

The Solovki Stone

The Solovki Stone was a reminder that the USSR's first permanent concentration camp was set up in 1923 when Lenin was leader of Soviet Russia. In Solzhenitsyn's vivid analogy, the Solovki prison camp was the cell from which the entire Gulag evolved.[20] In time the Stone on Lubyanka Square became the focus of remembrance in Moscow. The idea was copied more than once, in St Petersburg, for instance, when it erected a similar memorial in 2004. The original impulse came from northwest Russia.

In 1990 the local "Sovest" (Conscience) society was preparing to erect such a boulder in Arkhangelsk for the same commemorative purpose. Hearing of this proposal, Moscow Memorial requested Sovest to select a similar boulder and arranged for its transport to Moscow where it was erected on Lubyanka Square. For the next nine months the Solovki Stone faced the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka, which stood in the centre of the square. After the attempted August 1991 coup the Dzerzhinsky statue, first erected in 1958, was toppled and removed.[21]

In the 1990s the Stone became the site for the commemoration in Moscow of the "Day of Remembrance" on 30 October each year. Later, from 2007 onwards, it was also the focus of a yearly ceremony "Restoring the Names" held on the previous day, 29 October. For hour after hour, a long queue of volunteers waited to read out one or more names of those who were imprisoned or executed in Moscow and the Moscow Region during the 1930s. In 2016 the recitation continued for 12 hours.[22]

October 1991 Law on Rehabilitation

Memorial was among the many organisations and individuals that worked to draft and then secure the passing through the RSFSR Supreme Soviet of the "Law on Rehabilitation of the Victims of Political Repression". Under its terms, up to 12 million Russian citizens and their descendants qualified as Victims of Political Repression. An achievement for its time, the law is now seen as too restrictive, only admitting those formally rehabilitated under Khrushchev in 1956-1964 or under Gorbachev in 1985-1991. It excludes, for instance, many of the peasant families "dekulakized" and deported during the forced collectivisation of agriculture (1928-1933) who only began to receive rehabilitation in the 1990s.

Attempts to backtrack by the city and federal authorities

In 2018, the Moscow authorities suggested that acts of commemoration henceforth take place at the new Wall of Sorrow, opened on 30 October 2017 by President Putin and Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church.[23] By then the tradition and public feeling were too strong for the event to be moved anywhere else but the Solovki Stone across the road from FSB headquarters.

As of 2020, however, no direction to the monument has been added to the pedestrian passages that run under Lubyanka Square. There are directions to the Biblio-globus bookshop, the Detsky Mir toyshop and the "Lubyanka Square" metro station. Yet after many years, nothing indicates the way to FSB (KGB) headquarters or the Monument to the Victims of Political Repression.

In December 2020, the suggestion was made that Dzerzhinsky's statue resume its former place in the centre of Lubyanka Square. A group calling themselves "The Officers of Russia" began a campaign to this end. Opponents encouraged those opposed to this action to vote against the proposal.

Research, education and information

Archives

Memorial also helps individuals to find documents, graves, etc., of politically involved relatives. As of 2005, Memorial had a database with records of more than 1,300,000 names of such people.[24] The archives have also been used by historians, such as British historian Orlando Figes when he was researching his 2008 book The Whisperers: Private Lives in Stalin's Russia.[25]

Media

Memorial funds or helps to produce various publications and films related to this topic. One such film was the documentary The Crying Sun (2007), focusing on the life of people from the mountain village of Zumsoy in Chechnya, and their struggle to preserve their cultural identity in the face of military raids and enforced disappearances by the Russian army and guerilla fighters. The 25-minute film was produced in collaboration with WITNESS.[26]

Virtual Gulag

In the early 21st century, Memorial is working on a project to create the Virtual Gulag Museum. This will be a way to bring together research and archives from all over the former Soviet Union to commemorate and record the existence of the Gulag and the lives of its captives.[27]

Kovalevsky Forest

Memorial are trying to build a National Memorial Museum Complex in Kovalevsky Forest to commemorate alleged 4,500 victims of the Red Terror who were killed and buried there.[28] Memorial workers discovered the bodies in 2002.[29]

Sandarmokh killing field, 1937–1938

In July 1997 a joint expedition of the St Petersburg and Karelian Memorial societies located a massive killing field not far from the town of Medvezhegorsk, capital of the pre-war White Sea Canal project. Led by Yury A. Dmitriev, Irina Flige, and the late Veniamin Joffe, the expedition found 236 common graves containing the bodies of over 7,000 victims of Stalin, who were executed in 1937 and 1938. A memorial graveyard was established there and became known as Sandarmokh.

In 2016, the Russian government attempted to revise this account of the shootings at Sandarmokh, and claim that among the dead were Soviet POWs, shot by invading Finns in 1941–1944. Memorial representatives challenged both the motivation behind this claim and the purported new evidence intended to support it.[30]

A Chronicle of Current Events (1968–1982)

In 2008 Memorial HRC launched an online version of the noted samizdat publication, A Chronicle of Current Events, which had been distributed in the Soviet Union.[31] Appearing at irregular intervals during the year, the Chronicle had circulated in typescript form (samizdat) in the USSR from 1968 to 1983. All of its 63 issues were also translated into English and published abroad.[32] Western observers and scholars considered it to be a key source of trustworthy information about human rights in the post-Stalin Soviet Union.

The launch of the online version was held at Memorial's office in Karetny pereulok. Many former editors of the underground publication attended, including Sergei Kovalev and Alexander Lavut.

History

Andrei Sakharov wrote that Lev Ponomaryov, Yuri Samodurov, Vyacheslav Igrunov, Dmitri Leonov, Arseny Roginsky and others proposed in the late 1980s to create a memorial complex to victims of Joseph Stalin's repression. The concepts included creating a monument, a museum, an archive, and a library.

An all-Union informal movement expanded the original goals. It organized a petition to the 19th Conference of the CPSU. The petition resulted in the conference authorizing creation of a monument to victims of repressions. A decision of the 22nd Congress of the CPSU was earlier ignored.[33][34]

The Memorial was founded as the historical and educational society at the conference held in the Moscow Aviation Institute 26–28 January 1989. In 1991 a Civil Rights Defense Center "MEMORIAL" was founded.[35]

A poll was conducted in Moscow streets to identify candidates to be nominated to the Public Council of the society. Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was named, but the refused to join. In his talk with Andrei Sakharov, he motivated his decision by his opinion that it was not right to restrict the scope of the project to the Stalin era since the repressive era in Russia had started as early as 1917.[33]

The Memorial was officially founded as the International Volunteer Public Organization "MEMORIAL Historical, Educational, Human Rights And Charitable Society" on 19 April 1992.[36]

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the society became international, with organizations in several post-Soviet states: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Georgia, as well as in Italy (since 20 April 2004).[37]

Awards and nominations

In 2004, Memorial was among the four recipients of the Right Livelihood Award, for its work in documenting violations of human rights in Russia and other former states in the USSR.[38] Quoting the RLA jury: "... for showing, under very difficult conditions, and with great personal courage, that history must be recorded and understood, and human rights respected everywhere, if sustainable solutions to the legacy of the past are to be achieved."

In the same year, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) named Memorial as the winner of the annual Nansen Refugee Award for its wide range of services on behalf of forced migrants and internally displaced people in the Russian Federation, as well as refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.[39]

In 2008, Memorial won the Hermann Kesten Prize. In 2009, Memorial won the Sakharov Prize of the European Union, in memory of murdered Memorial activist Natalya Estemirova.[40] Announcing the award, President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek said that the assembly hoped "to contribute to ending the circle of fear and violence surrounding human rights defenders in the Russian Federation".[40] Oleg Orlov, the chairman of Memorial, commented that the prize represents "much-needed moral support at a difficult time for rights activists in Russia",[41] and that he considers the prize "a mark of the high value placed on the work of Memorial and that of all of our colleagues - Russian rights activists who are working in a very difficult situation".[42] A cash reward, which comes with the prize, of €50,000 is to be awarded to Memorial in December 2009.[40]

The writer and historian Irina Scherbakowa, who was a founder member and an employee of Memorial, was given Ossietzky Award[43] and the Goethe Medal for her work relating to Memorial's activities.

Memorial was awarded the Victor Gollancz Prize by the Society for Threatened Peoples in 2009.[44][45]

On 4 February 2015 Lech Wałęsa nominated Memorial International for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize [46]

Persecution

Confiscation of digital archive

On 4 December 2008, Memorial's St Petersburg office, which houses archives on the Gulag, was raided by the authorities. Officers confiscated 11 computer hard disks containing the entire digital archive of atrocities committed under Stalin, representing 20 years of research. The information was being used to develop "a universally accessible database with hundreds of thousands of names." Office director Irina Flinge believes that Memorial was targeted because their organization is on the wrong side of Putinism, specifically the idea "that Stalin and the Soviet regime were successful in creating a great country".[47][48]

Officially, the raid was related to an article published in the Novy Peterburg newspaper in June 2007.[49] Memorial denies any link to that article. Some human rights lawyers in Russia have speculated that the raid was retaliation for Memorial screening a banned film Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case (2007), about the murder of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in Great Britain in 2006. The film was distributed in the West under the title Poisoned by Polonium.[27][50]

According to historian Orlando Figes, the raid "was clearly intended to intimidate Memorial".[51] Allison Gill, director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow, said "This outrageous police raid shows the poisonous climate for non-governmental organisations in Russia [...] This is an overt attempt by the Russian government [...] to silence critical voices."[51] Academics from all over the world, signed an open letter to Dmitry Medvedev that condemned the seizure of disks and material.[27] The United States declared that it is "deeply concerned" about the raid: State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "Unfortunately, this action against Memorial is not an isolated instance of pressure against freedom of association and expression in Russia."[27]

On 20 March 2009, the court of Dzerzhinsky District ruled that the search on 4 December 2008, in Memorial and confiscation of 12 HDDs was carried out with procedural violations, and actions of law enforcement bodies were illegal.[52][53][54] Eventually the 12 hard drives, plus optical discs and some papers, were returned to Memorial in 2009.[55].

Activities in Chechnya

Memorial had an office in Chechnya, to monitor human rights issues there. It was frequently raided by the authorities. A Memorial activist Natalia Estemirova, who investigated murders and abductions in Chechnya, was abducted in Grozny and shot to death in Ingushetia on 15 July 2009.[56] BBC reporters have suggested her death was connected to her investigations of government-backed militias in the country.[57] Memorial's chairman Oleg Orlov accused Ramzan Kadyrov of being behind the murder,[58] and claimed that Kadyrov had openly threatened her.[59] Kadyrov denied his involvement[60] and sued Memorial for defamation, naming Orlov specifically in his complaint.[60][61]

On 18 July 2009, Memorial suspended its activities in Chechnya, stating "We cannot risk the lives of our colleagues even if they are ready to carry on their work."[62]

Foreign agent

Russian authorities declared that Memorial was a "foreign agent" under the Russian law that requires organizations that accept funds from abroad and engage in "political activity" to register and declare themselves as a "foreign agent". The management of Memorial has argued that the society's activities of the society do not meet the criteria of "political activity" under this law.[63]

Following this designation, Russia's Justice Ministry, in its annual "foreign agent" audit, accused Memorial of "undermining the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation" and of calling for "a change of political regime" in the country.[64][65][66] As of June 2017, Memorial was still listed on Russia's "foreign agents" registry.[67]

Possible closure

In 2014, the Russian Minister of Justice Aleksandr Konovalov called for Memorial to be liquidated. The lawsuit concerned technical details over the legal registration of Memorial.[68][69][70]

Arson attack

On 17 January 2018, masked arsonists set fire to Memorial's North Caucasus office in Nazran, Ingushetia.[71]

See also

References
  1. "Structure and organisation", 2018 web page on Memorial website.
  2. Research and Information Centre, St Petersburg Memorial.
  3. Human Rights in Russia.
  4. The Perm Regional Branch of Memorial.
  5. The NKVD Prison, a Memorial Museum.
  6. .
  7. "Structure and organisation", 2018 web page on Memorial website.
  8. International Memorial website.
  9. Memorial Human Rights Centre.
  10. V. Kryuchkov, "The provocative statements by certain participants at the conference of the Memorial Society", KGB report to the CPSU Central Committee, 16 November 1988.
  11. They included former dissidents Dmitry Leonov and Vyacheslav Igrunov, unofficial historian Arseny Roginsky, and academics Lev Ponomaryov and Yury Samodurov.
  12. A Chronicle of Current Events (Moscow), 1968-1982.
  13. KGB report on Memorial conference to the CPSU Central Committee, 16 November 1988.
  14. "MEMORIAL Charter". Archived from the original on 6 September 2006. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  15. The Victims of Political Terror in the USSR (in Russian) .
  16. "Жертвы политического террора в СССР". lists.memo.ru. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  17. "About this project", The Victims of Political Terror in the USSR.
  18. "Political prisoner's day, 30 October 1974", A Chronicle of Current Events (33.1), 10 December 1974.
  19. See reports 2016-2020
  20. "The Archipelago metastasizes", Chapter 3, Part III, The Gulag Archipelago, 2018, abridged English edition (pbk), pp. 193-210.
  21. removal of Iron Felix
  22. Dmitriev site
  23. suggestion
  24. FAQ about Memorial Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
  25. "Stalin's new status in Russia". 27 December 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2018 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  26. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 7 December 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  27. "Gulag files seized during police raid on rights group".
  28. "A national museum to the victims of Stalinist repression: words not deeds?", opendemocracy.net
  29. "Предание". predanie.org. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  30. Yarovaya, Anna (13 December 2017). "Who is trying to rewrite the history of Sandarmokh – and why?". 7×7 – Horizontal Russia (in Russian).
  31. Khronika tekushchikh sobyty (Хроника текущих событий)
  32. A Chronicle of Current Events, April 1968 to June 1982
  33. Andrei Sakharov, Gorky, Moscow, Later Everywhere, 1990, Chekhov Publishing Corp. (Russian edition), pp. 101–102
  34. Sakharov, Andrei (1991). Moscow and Beyond, 1986 to 1989. Antonina Bouis (trans.). Knopf. pp. 168. ISBN 978-0-394-58797-4.
  35. "МЕМОРИАЛ: ПРАВОЗАЩИТА". www.memo.ru. Archived from the original on 5 March 2007. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  36. "Memorial Charter". Archived from the original on 6 September 2006. Retrieved 1 April 2004.
  37. Memorial-Italia Archived 30 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine(in Italian)
  38. 2004 Right Livelihood Award: Memorial (Russia) Archived 2014-08-01 at the Wayback Machine
  39. Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "News". Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  40. "Russia rights group wins EU prize". BBC. 22 October 2009.
  41. "Political Sakharov Prize Goes To Russian Rights Activists". Forex TV. 22 October 2009.
  42. "Russia's Memorial group wins EU's Sakharov Prize". RIA Novosti. 22 October 2009.
  43. Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Russische Publizistin Scherbakowa erhält Ossietzky-Preis | DW | 04.05.2014". DW.COM (in German). Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  44. "Waynakh Online » Memorial Received the Victor Gollancz Prize". www.waynakh.com. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  45. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  46. "Лех Валенса выдвинул Международный "Мемориал" на Нобелевскую Премию Мира - Права человека в России". www.hro.org. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  47. Galpin, Richard. Stalin's new status in Russia. BBC. 27 December 2008.
  48. "Eleven hard disks". openDemocracy. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  49. "Memorial will have the property back but not the reputation", Fontanka.Ru, 20 January 2009 (in Russian)
  50. "Russia: raid on Memorial HQ". openDemocracy. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  51. Harding, Luke (7 December 2008). "Russian police raid human rights group's archive". Retrieved 11 January 2018 – via www.theguardian.com.
  52. "'Memorial' reverted the searches". Kommersant (in Russian). 21 March 2008.
  53. HDDs will be returned to "Memorial" in presence of the Ombudsman, Fontanka.Ru, 27 March 2009 (in Russian)
  54. Memorial Vindicated Again, by Sean Guillory, 31 March 2009
  55. Memorial got back its confiscated HDDs Archived 16 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Lenizdat.Ru, 6 May 2009 (in Russian)
  56. "Vow to catch Chechnya assassins". BBC News. 16 July 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  57. "Russian activist found murdered". 15 July 2009. Retrieved 11 January 2018 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  58. According to Orlov, "Я знаю, я уверен в том, кто виновен в убийстве Наташи Эстемировой. Мы все этого человека знаем. Зовут его Рамзан Кадыров, это президент Чеченской республики.
  59. "Она рассказывала, что Кадыров ей угрожал, говорил буквально: "Да, у меня руки по локоть в крови. И я не стыжусь этого. Я убивал и буду убивать плохих людей."
  60. Chechen leader sues rights group after activist murder, AFP, 18 July 2009. Retrieved on 19 July 2009.
  61. Schwirtz, Michael (18 July 2009). "Chechen Leader Sues Over Accusations of Ordering Activist's Death". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 July 2009.
  62. "Rights group halts Chechnya work". 18 July 2009. Retrieved 11 January 2018 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  63. "Мосгорсуд нашел в деятельности "Мемориала" признаки иностранного агента". Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  64. Service, RFE/RL's Russian (10 November 2015). "Russian Justice Ministry Accuses Memorial Of Calling For Regime Change". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  65. Hille, Kathrin (10 November 2015). "Russia accuses human rights group of seeking regime change". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  66. "Russia censures Memorial rights group as 'foreign agent'". BBC News. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  67. "Russia: Government vs. Rights Groups". Human Rights Watch. 28 June 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  68. Rainsford, Sarah (30 October 2014). "Russian Soviet-era remembrance group Memorial risks closure". BBC. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  69. Birnbaum, Michael (13 October 2014). "Russia's Justice Ministry targets Memorial, a human rights defender". Washington Post. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  70. "Russian Justice Ministry asks to close Memorial Rights Group". Radio Liberty. 10 October 2014.
  71. "Arsonists Torch Memorial Human Rights Office in North Caucasus". 17 January 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2018.

Further reading
  • Adler, Nanci (1993). Victims of Soviet terror: the story of the Memorial movement. Praeger. ISBN 0275945022.
  • Cathy Merridale (2000), Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Russia, Granta publishers: London
  • Anne Applebaum (2003), Gulag: A History of the Soviet camps, Allen Lane: London

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