Day of Political Prisoner

On October 30, 1974, Soviet political prisoners held in the Mordovian, Permian camps and in the Vladimir prison held a concerted action, called "Political Prisoner's Day". On the same day in Moscow, at the apartment of Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner, a press conference was held by the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR for foreign journalists, dedicated to the situation of Soviet political prisoners.

A few years later, participation in this press conference became one of the points of accusation at the trial of human rights activist Sergei Kovalev. Protest hunger strikes and strikes in places of detention, press conferences, and the publication of statements have become a traditional form of holding Political Prisoner's Day in the Soviet Union. Rallies and pickets in support of political prisoners in different cities of the country were repeatedly dispersed by the police.

In 1991, by a resolution of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, October 30 was declared the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repressions in Russia.

In 1990, on the Day of the Political Prisoner, the Solovetsky Stone was erected in the public garden on Lubyanskaya Square in Moscow, which remains the main monument to the victims of political repressions in Russia.

Every year at the Solovetsky stone "Memorial" holds the action "Return of names" - reading the lists of those executed during the years of the Great Terror.

On Friday, October 30, Vera Lavreshina and other civil activists will come to Lubyanka with a picket " Return of names. Continued ." They are going to announce the list of those convicted and persecuted for political reasons.