The Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century joins the call of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and Memorial Czech Republic (Department of International Memorial) to support the Russian Memorial and International Memorial Associations
The Twentieth Century Memorial Museum joins the appeal of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience and Memorial Czech Republic (International Memorial Department) for support of the Russian Memorial Human Rights Centre and International Memorial
The liquidation of Memorial is the liquidation of Russian memory and the protection of human rights
Statement by Czech organisations and citizens
Czech Republic, 12. 11. 2021
We are astonished and outraged by the request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and the Moscow Prosecutor's Office to close the Memorial Human Rights Center and its sister organization, the International Memorial, which is dedicated to educating and researching Soviet repression. We call on the Russian Supreme and Moscow City Courts, which are due to rule on the applications on 23 and 25 November, to give them a truly independent assessment.
The Memorial Association is a network of many organizations that have been working since the late 1980s to come to terms with the totalitarian Soviet past and to protect human rights in the present. It was Memorial that gradually, over the more than 30 years of its activity, published the names of more than three million innocent victims of Soviet repression (including thousands of Czechs), and obtained details from previously closed archives about the shape of Soviet state terror, the Gulag, executions and the oppression of Soviet dissidents in later years.
In recent years, Memorial has also been engaged in important educational activities, reminding the need to openly confront the repressive past of their country, organizing all-Russian educational programs, initiating the Last Address project (commemorating with signs the houses where the executed lived), commemorating the legacy of those who protested in 1968 against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, publishing hundreds of excellent publications, and most importantly, always being open to cooperation and assistance (not only) to Czech colleagues.
Thanks to the work of the Memorial Human Rights Centre, we know the names of political prisoners in Russia today, we know about violations of basic human rights in Russian prisons, in the Caucasus and other regions, about environmental problems and other important issues.
Perhaps all this is the real reason why the Russian state, through the Prosecutor General's Office, has now decided to liquidate the Memorial. This is the culmination of several years of pressure, and the precursor to this move was the attack by pro-Kremlin activists on the audience of the film 'Citizen Jones' at Memorial a month ago, when the police detained the audience instead of the attackers and the authorities then ordered an in-depth inspection of the association.
However, the state is not eliminating "foreign agents", as the official statement of the prosecutor's office claims. On the contrary, it is liquidating Russian patriots in the best sense of the word. Patriots who are concerned about coming to terms with their own past, about cleansing history of politicisation, about good relations with other countries and, above all, about the honour of Russian society as a whole. By destroying this voice of Russian conscience, the current Putin regime is heading for ever greater isolation.
Memorial Czech Republic (International Memorial Department)
Gulag.cz
Post Bellum / Memory of the Nation
Association for International Affairs (AMO)
European Values Security Centre
Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century
PRESS RELEASE
Statement on the Russian International Memorial organisation
Prague, 16 November - At a meeting of the Platform's Council of Members in Prague on 12 November, the member organisations mandated the President and the Executive Board to prepare and issue a Platform statement on the current situation in Russia, where the state authorities are taking steps to close the international historical, educational, charitable and human rights organisation International Memorial.
Statement of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience on the Russian International Memorial organisation
The Platform of European Memory and Conscience expresses its deepest concern regarding the new legal procedures initiated by Russian Federation authorities to liquidate the Memorial association. The Prosecutor General's office and Moscow Prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit requesting that International Memorial and Memorial Human Rights Centre be delegalized.
Memorial is known worldwide for its efforts to save the memory about victims of communist crimes and to protect human rights in contemporary Russia and other countries. Memorial has gathered a unique archive, published numerous books and online databases, and organised countless educational campaigns.
Their input into recovering forgotten histories of mass repression in the former Soviet Union is hard to overestimate.
The Platform of European Memory and Conscience calls on the European Parliament and European Commission to undertake action in order to protect Memorial. We call on all individuals and organisations involved with memory and remembrance to join an international campaign in defence of Memorial. Let us show solidarity with those who have done so much for all of us!
In Prague, 15 November, 2021