Wipe the memory of the nation

One of the most painful problems of Russia is the problem of historical memory. This is a country in constant PTSD. Her most severe psychological injury is the memory of the Stalinist terror, when, according to the most moderate estimates, about a million people were executed and five million were sent to camps.

Analysis and awareness of this terrible experience is an indispensable condition for the recovery of the nation, a kind of vaccination from relapse of totalitarianism.

The Memorial Society, created during the time of Gorbachev’s democratization by Andrei Sakharov, sets himself this task - a colossal scale and even more enormous significance: to keep the memory of the era of state terrorism. The task directed to the future is even more important: while we so remember all the victims and all the executioners, the repetition of the tragedy is impossible.

For the same reason, only with directly opposite goals, the current Russian regime does not want to endure the activity of the Memorial anymore.

At a rally "Memorial" in Gorky Park on March 5, 1989. Photo by Dmitry Borko

Putinism is the omnipotence of special services that subjugated all branches of power. Direct heirs and successors of the system, whose power was built on fear and shutting the mouths, intimidate the mouths again and shut up their mouths - without this they could not resist in power.

The reminder of the Stalinist cleanings and hopeless ships inevitably forces society to draw parallels with modern arrests, fabricated cases and fake trials. The scope of current repressions is still not compared with what was under Stalin, but they are rapidly gaining pace - and stumble about the Memorial society, which constantly conducts the annoying "security forces" of the promotion: it arranges the days of memory, hungs on the houses "Last address" with the names of people who were arrested here. The Memorial has a huge database with names; The work is not finished, but there is already information about 3 million repressed and 40 thousand repressed. Everyone can look for his relatives there - and often finds. This is a strong feeling that makes you look differently both at history and the present.

And now the patience of the powers of the pre -crucibles has exhausted. The Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation requires the liquidation of this human rights organization.

If the "memorial" is banned now, this will become a kind of feature, after which the Putin state will be monopoline as a memory. Soon, children at school will teach that Stalin was a great historical figure - almost the same as Vladimir Putin, and that in great Russia they never punished anyone without guilt.

If the country has a lobotomed memory, you can do anything with it.

"Memorial" now really needs support, including international.

Please do not be silent.