The Ivanovo Regional Court has begun a retrial of the case on the rehabilitation of Nazism

Sergei Volkov is charged under Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code for statements about Stalin and the blockade of Leningrad.

On June 21, 2023, the Ivanovo Regional Court began a retrial of the case of Sergei Volkov, accused under paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code (rehabilitation of Nazism on the Internet). The case is heard by a jury.

Recall that the court had already heard the case of Volkov, but on March 1, 2023, it dismissed the jury right before the announcement of their verdict. It was reported that after receiving a verdict from the jury, the judge first stated the contradictions in the question sheet, and then the possible bias of one of the jurors. Finally, he announced that the jury was discussing the delivered but not yet announced verdict, and this was heard by the court staff. Volkov's defense suggested that the judge's actions were due to the jury's acquittal.

The case against Volkov was initiated in May 2022 by the investigative department of the Russian Investigative Committee for the Ivanovo Region based on materials from the regional FSB. The reason was a fragment of an online discussion that Volkov published on June 8, 2021 in his Telegram channel “Slavic-Pagan Culture Today”. It stated that during the Great Patriotic War, German troops did not close a complete ring around Leningrad, the Soviet authorities had the opportunity to send food there, but "Stalin abandoned the city as unnecessary and almost captured." The author added that the charges related to the blockade of Leningrad were dropped from the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials (note that the sentence of the Nuremberg Tribunal does not specifically mention the blockade of Leningrad). He also stated that until 1941, "Stalin and Hitler were strong allies", National Socialism at that time "was rather strongly sung in the USSR." Finally, the post said that Stalin was personally guilty of unleashing the war “no less than Hitler,” because he “fueled this mess without expecting that it would turn against him.”

In our opinion, unusual interpretations, ignorance, misrepresentation, even deliberate distortion of historical facts should not be a reason for criminal prosecution, unless they contain propaganda of hatred, violence and discrimination. We do not see such propaganda in Volkov's post: he criticized the Soviet leadership, but did not justify or praise the actions of the Nazis. Therefore, we tend to consider it illegal to persecute an Ivanovite under Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code, although it should be noted that other posts in the Slavic-Pagan Culture Today channel had a pronounced ultra-right orientation and could have aroused the legitimate interest of law enforcement agencies.

Sources

• Tatyana Prokopenko, Maxim Shishkin. In Ivanovo, the case on the rehabilitation of Nazism is considered by a jury // IvanovoNews. 2023. June 21.
• The court in Ivanovo dismissed the jury after the verdict; the defense believes that the local architect was found not guilty in the rehabilitation of Nazism // Mediazone. 2023. March 1.
• The criminal case on the rehabilitation of Nazism will be considered by the new jury // Ivanovo Regional Court. 2023. March 2.
• Based on social media.