On July 20, 2018 the newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a video which created a sensation in the Russian blogosphere. The video was obtained by Irina Biryukova, the lawyer of convict Yevgeny Makarov, who was kept in the Correction Colony (labor camp) IK-1 of the city of Yaroslavl, located 250 kilometers (160 mi) northeast of Moscow, and provided to Novaya… Read More »
I crossed the threshold, there was a huge number of children under 6 years. In small cotton jackets, in small cotton trousers. And the numbers were on the back and on the chest. Like prisoners. These were the numbers of their mothers. They are used to seeing only women around them, but they heard that there are dads,… Read More »
“We [NKVD] never make mistakes, our work doesn’t have defects… If the [arrested] person is honest, but has been beaten, we can’t release him […] since he will discredit the organs [i.e., NKVD].” —Ye. I. Abramovich, NKVD Interrogator, the city of Odessa, 1938 “You should understand, FSB officers always achieve their goals! In any way, it will be… Read More »
On October 2, 2017, the Expert Council on History of the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) voted to deprive of Vladimir Medinsky, Russian Minister of Culture, of the Doctor of Historical Sciences degree. A very detailed official review of the VAK experts says that Medinsky did not present anything new in his work. The experts wrote: “The fact that… Read More »
Raoul Wallenberg’s Family Sues for Archival Access On July 26, 2017, relatives of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who disappeared after helping at least 20,000 Hungarian Jews escape the Holocaust in Hungary in 1944, have filed a lawsuit asking the KGB’s main successor agency to provide full and uncensored documentation about his case. Wallenberg’s niece Marie Dupuy made… Read More »
Vladimir Medinsky Remains “Doctor of Sciences” The attempt of concerned Russian historians to deprive Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky of his doctorate degree due to his doctoral thesis, which espouses the view “that historical events and figures should be assessed from the point of view of the national interests of Russia” have failed. On February 7, 2016, the… Read More »
On February 1, 2017, the International Memorial Society filed a lawsuit to the Simonovsky Regional court in Moscow against the REN TV (the Russian federal channel available also in the U.S.). The legal action was triggered by the REN’s report on the awards ceremony at the end of the 17th All-Russian Competition entitled “A Man in the History… Read More »
On January 18, 2017, the Presnensky Regional Court of Moscow released its decision regarding the case against the Russian historian Boris Sokolov and Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy. The trial took place on November 9, December 7, and 23, 2016. The lawsuit was filed by Vera Serova, the granddaughter of the first KGB Chairman Ivan Serov, and Aleksandr… Read More »