Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression. “There can be no oblivion” (Methodological materials)
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Today is the day of remembrance of the victims of political repression. On October 30, 1974, prisoners of the Mordovian and Perm camps went on a hunger strike to protest against political repression in the USSR and against the inhumane conditions of detention in prisons and camps. 17 years later, in post-Soviet Russia, this date acquired the official status of Remembrance Day.
Russia pays tribute to the victims of political repression. Muscovites with flowers come to the Wall of Sorrow, a memorial opened exactly a year ago.
“We have been working towards this monument for many years, because the initiative arose both under Khrushchev and in the 80s and early 90s, and only now this monument has appeared,” says Roman Romanov, director of the Gulag Museum.
This type of rail was used by guards at Gulag camps to wake up prisoners. Now this sound is heard in the Russian capital as a sign of memory and grief for the victims of repression. In addition to politicians and public figures, relatives of those whose destinies were affected by the skating rink of the Great Terror also come here today. And they say that this simply has no right to be forgotten.
“Innocent people. I think the most loyal people to their country were there. Including my father. He came here to build communism or socialism. In order for him to be sentenced to 10 years, and then another seven years,” says Irina Nusomova, Muscovite.
And Tomsk, on the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression, joined the “Return of Names” campaign, which simultaneously takes place in more than 30 cities in Russia and neighboring countries.
“The repressions began as soon as the Bolsheviks came to power, and they did not stop until Stalin’s death. They continued after that - only selectively. They are still going on selectively, these repressions against oppositionists and people protesting against certain actions of the authorities,” says a historian from Tomsk Victor Kiselev.
At the Stone of Sorrow next to the NKVD Investigative Prison museum, a Prayer of Memory was sounded - for the first time, Metropolitan Rostislav of Tomsk and Asinovsk conducted a funeral service for those killed during the years of great terror.
“First of all, it's memory. What can we do - pray and read the names,” says Efrosinya Semenova, student of the Theological Seminary.
The names of Tomsk residents were read for four hours - until eight o'clock in the evening - everyone lined up in a live line to read out the names and surnames from the lists of those who were shot in the 1930s on Tomsk soil. Some Tomsk residents came to the Stone of Sorrow with portraits of repressed relatives.
“I have a grandfather whom I never saw, he was shot under Article 58. I learned about this, of course, from my father, Viktor Feliksovich Trusevich. I found many documents stating that he was shot in 1937. And here’s a photograph - that’s all we can see,” says Lyudmila Bargus, granddaughter of a repressed person.
“The history that happened to our country should not be repeated. And if we don’t have memory, then anything can happen to us personally and to the country,” he believes Tamara Meshcheryakova, resident of Tomsk.
That’s why we are here today,” say Russians gathered at the monuments to victims of repression.
Yaroslav Steshyk, Larisa Konovalova, Belsat
The Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression in Russia is celebrated annually on October 30. It was on this day in 1974 that political prisoners in a camp in Mordovia went on a mass hunger strike, protesting in such a demonstrative way against political repression in the Soviet Union. The official status of Remembrance Day was assigned to this date by a special resolution of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, dated October 18, 1991.
Traditionally, on this autumn day, crowded rallies, rallies and various events are held to recall this national tragedy, honor the memory of the numerous victims of repression, and also draw the attention of young people and the whole society to the problem of intolerance and violence towards people with other political views and beliefs.
Day of Remembrance, Day of Mourning, Day of Sorrow
Left a mark on your heart forever.
When the leaders shouted to everyone about peace,
You have experienced death, hundreds of troubles.
Auschwitz and the Gulag firsthand
Familiar to you until it hurts at the temples,
Concentration camp... like a nuclear explosion
He exterminated all the “rebels” then.
We will not forget and remind the children
What a cruel path you have walked,
And your pain will not be scattered by the wind,
We will learn a lesson from your words...
May the sky be peaceful and transparent,
And let peace reign throughout the entire earth,
We will not forget the victims of political repression:
Their feat burns with flame in the heart.
Let us remember all the victims of repression today,
Who suffered for politics?
Let the feat not sink into eternity,
Let both old and young know everything.
I wish you to live under a peaceful sky,
Have your own position
Express your ideas
Without fear of burning for words.
Today we remember the victims of repression,
We are sad that there was such evil in the world,
And we sincerely wish everyone in the world,
So that this terrible time goes away
And never came back again
So that our good people live in peace,
And families were never destroyed,
And peace reigned in the world from year to year!
There are so many lies and evil in politics,
She took so many lives!
Repressions, executions and interrogations,
Many people were simply bombarded with threats!
There were many “victims of the regime” back then
The cruelty of those authorities is incomprehensible!
The number of people is scary
What perished at the hands of the former “leaders”!
Let's remember those who suffered
Who gave their lives for nothing,
You can't put up with injustice
To all those who went through the camps, barking dogs and convoys,
Who was convicted under article fifty-eight,
Who was betrothed with shackles, thorns, chains,
From us there is only sorrow, only tears and eternal memory...
On the penultimate day of October
We will remember this terrible “page”:
Repression and torture, camps -
May this never happen again!
To everyone who suffered for their beliefs
And for political views,
We'll show respect today
Because you didn't ask for mercy!
You walked forward proudly and did not break,
We fought for the idea to the end,
Although you may have been afraid of death,
The peace never left your face!
Victims of political repression,
How many of you were there? Can't count!
Everyone who suffered in this process,
Let's remember today!
When they cut down a forest, they don’t spare the chips,
The authorities once said so,
Turning purple from the people's blood,
Those in power have reigned to their hearts' content!
Let there be no more terrorism,
Political repressions and massacres,
For the sake of life on earth and humanism,
Let us tame the evil spirit of terror!
We remember the victims of political repression
On this sad holiday, saying,
That we don’t want such grief,
Let the Earth see no more evil!
Let there be only freedom of opinion
To reign throughout the vast Earth,
And people from future generations
They can live here with kindness in their hearts!
Today is the time for us to remember
Victims of political repression,
Prayer will come from your lips
Religions of all and all faiths.
Let descendants always remember
About those who fell for their beliefs,
Let their feat inspire us
For fantastic achievements.
Light the candles today
So that they burn in the heart,
For those who are still alive
We experienced hell ourselves.
Who needs the millstone of politics
Grind fate
For those who bear the mark of a traitor
Didn't survive prison.
Let's take a moment of silence
We are victims of political repression,
Having paid tribute
Your honor has been violated.
Congratulations: 28 in verse.
Memorial to the victims of political repression “Wall of Sorrow”
The tragedy of the first half of the 20th century affected the fate of many citizens of the country who fell into the millstone of mass arrests, evictions, and executions.
On October 30, Russia celebrates the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression. The tragedy of the first half of the 20th century affected the fate of very, very many citizens of the country who fell into the millstone of mass arrests, evictions, and executions. A memorable date was the events of October 30, 1974, when political prisoners of the Mordovian and Perm camps went on a hunger strike in protest against political repression in the USSR. Since then, Soviet political prisoners have celebrated October 30 every year as Political Prisoner Day. Officially, the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression was first celebrated in 1991 in accordance with the resolution of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR.
During the years of Soviet power, millions of people were subjected to mass repression for political reasons. The years 1937-1938 are called the Great Terror, which marked the peak of repression. In 2012, it was 75 years since the beginning of those tragic events, when they began to implement order 00447 “On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements.” Thus began the operation to combat “enemies of the people.” The personnel purge affected party leaders, the economic, political and creative elite.
The trial in June 1937 of Tukhachevsky, Yakir and other military leaders became a signal for mass repressions among the military. Over 40 thousand people were injured, 45 percent of the command staff were “purged” from the ranks of the army as politically unreliable. The army approached the war practically decapitated. The tragedy ruined the fates of not only the repressed themselves; members of their families were subjected to persecution and oppression. “Daughter” or “son of an enemy of the people” became an indelible mark for the children of the repressed. In total, during the years of the Great Terror, 1.3 million people were convicted, 682 thousand of whom were executed.
However, mass repressions were carried out both before 1937 and after the era of personnel purges. In the 20s, the most severe measures were taken against the peasant population. During the years of collectivization, more than a million peasant farms were dispossessed, about five million people were expelled from their homes to settlements.
In the pre-war period, not only military leaders, party leadership and the so-called “kulaks” became victims of mass terror. Among the endless stream of those repressed were ordinary people who, out of hunger, collected ears of corn in the fields or the collective farm potatoes left after harvesting. They were also sent to camps for failure to comply with the workday quota and violation of labor discipline. To turn out to be an enemy of the people, sometimes one denunciation was enough. The clergy were also dealt with with particular cruelty, repressing more than 200 thousand people.
There was a mass eviction of entire peoples. The victims of deportation were Chechens, Ingush, Karachais, Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Kurds, Koreans, Buryats and other peoples. 3.5 million is the number of people repressed on ethnic grounds from the mid-40s to 1961. Persons of German nationality were evicted from the Volga region, Moscow, the Moscow region and other regions. The deportation affected 14 nations entirely and 48 partially.
During the years of Soviet power, millions of people were subjected to mass repressions for political reasons, and the exact number of victims has not yet been established. According to surviving documents alone, between 1921 and 1953, 4 million 60 thousand people were repressed, including 799,455 sentenced to death.
The process of rehabilitation of victims of political repression began with the report of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev “On the cult of personality and its consequences” at the 20th Congress of the CPSU on February 25, 1956. In the 50-60s, more than 500 thousand people were rehabilitated. In the second half of the 60s, the rehabilitation process actually stopped and was resumed only in the 90s, with the signing of the decree of the President of the USSR “On restoring the rights of all victims of political repression of the 20-50s.”
On October 18, 1991, the Russian Federation Law “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression” was adopted, which provides for the restoration of civil rights to victims of repression, the elimination of other consequences of arbitrariness on the part of the state, and the provision of compensation for material and moral damage.
The rehabilitation process also applies to foreign citizens who have been subjected to repression for political reasons. Appeals for rehabilitation come from more than twenty countries around the world. The Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation has rehabilitated more than 15 thousand foreign citizens.
In total, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, almost 800 thousand people have been rehabilitated and 1 million criminal cases have been reviewed. Among those rehabilitated are more than 10 thousand children who were together with their parents in places of imprisonment, exile or deportation.
In memory of the victims of repression, memorial complexes and monuments were opened in Irkutsk, Nazran /Ingushetia/, Tver region /State memorial complex “Mednoye”/, Yaroslavl, Smolensk region /State memorial complex “Katyn”/, Kazan /Victory Park complex/ , Gorno-Altaisk, Vladivostok /Memory Alley/, Artyom, Nakhodka, Ufa, Makhachkala, Arkhangelsk, Volzhsky, Norilsk /memorial complex in memory of the victims of the “Norillag”/ and other cities of Russia.
In Moscow and the immediate Moscow region, memorial signs have been installed in places of mass graves of victims of political repression: at the Vagankovskoye cemetery of the Moscow / Donskoy / crematorium. On the territory of the Butovo training ground, a Cathedral was erected in honor of the new martyrs. A memorial sign - the Solovetsky Stone - was installed on Lubyanka Square. From September 2, 1937 to November 24, 1941, 6,609 people were buried on the territory of Kommunarka. Their names, identified from execution reports in the FSB Central Archive, are placed on the Wall of Memory.
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“Memory is like an oath, forever,
Yellow flame stings and burns
That's why infinity lives,
That a long memory lives in her!”
Anatoly Safronov
October 30 is the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression.
Soviet repressions. Stalin's repressions. Lenin's repressions.
Officially, this day was established by the resolution of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR dated October 18, 1991 “On the establishment of the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression.”
Political repressions in the USSR began from the first days of the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Lenin, Trotsky, Dzerzhinsky and other similar “gentry” who declared themselves “representatives of the proletariat.”
It lasted throughout the years of the existence of the USSR. Under Stalin, a massive, brutal terror was carried out, legalized by Stalin, with torture and executions, with the arrests and sending to camps of the wives and children of “enemies of the people.” Political repressions turned into the so-called “persecution for anti-Soviet activities.”
“The peak of the most brutal repressions occurred in 1937-1938, when, according to official data, more than 1.5 million people were arrested on political charges, 1.3 million were convicted by extrajudicial authorities, and about 700 thousand were shot. The concept of “enemy of the people” entered the everyday life of Soviet people. By decision of the Politburo on July 5, 1937, the wives of “enemies of the people” were imprisoned in camps for a period of at least 5-8 years. Children of “enemies of the people” were either sent to camp colonies of the NKVD or placed in special regime orphanages.”
Many books and stories from the repressed themselves have been written about political repressions in the Soviet Union. Many writers came under repression. I will give the names of several of them:
Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) - Russian writer, playwright, publicist, poet, public and political figure, Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature (1970).
Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982) - Russian Soviet prose writer and poet. The creator of one of the literary cycles about the life of prisoners in Soviet forced labor camps in 1930-1956.
Nikolai Zabolotsky (1903-1958) - Russian Soviet poet, translator. Nikolai Gumilyov (1886 – 1921) - Russian poet of the Silver Age, founder of the school of Acmeism, translator, literary critic, officer. Shot.
Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) - Russian poet, prose writer and translator, essayist, critic, literary critic. One of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century.
Yaroslav Smelyakov - Russian Soviet poet, translator. Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1967).
Lydia Chukovskaya (1907 - 1996) - editor, writer, poet, publicist, memoirist. Daughter of Korney Chukovsky.
Daniil Kharms (1905-1942) – Russian Soviet writer and poet.
Boris Pilnyak (1894–1938) – Russian Soviet writer, author of the book “The Roots of the Japanese Sun.” Shot.
Boris Kornilov (1907-1938) - Soviet poet and public figure-Komsomol member. Shot in Leningrad.
Yuri Dombrovsky (1909-1978) - Russian prose writer, poet, literary critic of the Soviet period.
Boris Ruchyev (1913-1973) - Russian Soviet poet.
The establishment of the “Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression” was preceded by events that influenced the issuance of the Resolution of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of October 18, 1991 “On the establishment of a Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression.”
On October 30, 1974, on the initiative of dissidents Kronid Lyubarsky, Alexei Murzhenko and other prisoners of the Mordovian and Perm camps, “Political Prisoner Day” was celebrated for the first time with a joint hunger strike and putting forward a number of demands.
On the same day, Sergei Kovalev held a press conference in A.D. Sakharov’s apartment in Moscow, at which the ongoing action was announced, documents from the camps were shown, statements by Moscow dissidents were made, and the latest 32nd issue of the human rights bulletin “Chronicle of Current Events” was demonstrated "(XTS, an underground publication published in 1968-1982). However, details about the joint action of prisoners came slowly from the camps and in the 33rd issue of XTS, dated December 10, 1974, the editors admitted that not everyone knew about the events. (A few months later, the organization of this press conference became one of the points of accusation against Kovalev himself).
After this, hunger strikes by political prisoners took place annually on October 30, and since 1987, demonstrations took place in Moscow, Leningrad, Lvov, Tbilisi and other cities. On October 30, 1989, about 3 thousand people with candles in their hands formed a “human chain” around the building of the KGB of the USSR. After they went from there to Pushkin Square to hold a rally, they were dispersed by riot police.
In the late 1980s - early 1990s, when the topic of Stalinist repressions was declassified, the truth became known about the millions killed and tortured during the reign of Joseph Stalin in the USSR.
On October 30, 2009, in his address in connection with the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression, Russian President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev called not to justify Stalin’s repressions, the victims of which were millions of people]. The head of the Russian state emphasized that the memory of national tragedies is as sacred as the memory of victory.
“It is extremely important,” the president said, that young people (...) be able to empathize emotionally with one of the greatest tragedies in Russian history, the millions of people who died as a result of terror and false accusations during the purges of the 1930s.
And one more thing: “We pay a lot of attention to the fight against falsification of our history. And for some reason we often believe that we are talking only about the inadmissibility of revising the results of the Great Patriotic War. But it is no less important to prevent, under the guise of restoring historical justice, the justification of those who destroyed their people.
In connection with the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression, I advise you to read:
- http://stalin.memo.ru/spiski/
- http://e-libra.su/read/314540-kolimskie-rasskazi.html
- https://shalamov.ru/context/11/
On Prose.ru there is an author Nmkolay Uglov, a writer, the son of a repressed father, a participant in the Great Patriotic War. Nikolay Uglov experienced in his childhood
camp torment and wrote many stories and books about it. Books you can read
To do this, you need to type “Litres Nikolay Uglov” on Yandex.
Nikolai Uglov wrote stories about his childhood in the camps on his page in Prose.ru. I advise you to read two articles by Nikolai Uglov, published in connection with the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression:
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