By Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Memorial Society of Russia, which was declared a "foreign agent" and liquidated by the authorities, is continuing their long-standing annual tradition, "Return of the Names," where they read out the names of Stalin's victims. Originally, they started just with the 30,000 in Moscow alone they could document; there are tens of millions and they continue to add to the list, even as the generation dies out and archives are now closed.
This public witness marks the weekend of "Day of Rembrance of Political Prisoners," a tradition actually begun on October 30, 1974 by Kronid Lubarsky, astronomer and other political prisoners in the Soviet-era labour camps, who made a list of demands, including commemoration of the day.
The date was the day of Kronid''s sentencing and not specifically because it is close to Western Christianity's Halloween (October 31), All Saints' Day (November 1) or All Souls' Day (as I once naively thought myself). Russian Orthodoxy does not celebrate All Souls' Day; All Saints' Day is at a different time of year. Perhaps that is understandable given that Orthodoxy stresses the continual presence of both the living and the dead in the Body of Christ, but I'm not an expert. Even so, the "Festival of the Dead" following the end of the harvest is celebrated in many world cultures.
In Russia, the grim reaper scythes through those active enough to protest the regime, stand up for others, or simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Remember when the woman arrested gave her occupation as traktorist (tractor driver) in Russian, and some official thought she said Trotskist or "Trotskyite".
The post-coup Russian government formalized the holiday, causing the concept to shift, as former prisoner of conscience Aleksandr Podrabinek explains.although for some reason he leaves out Kronid's role, which is well documented).
The live coverage is from different cities in Russia.
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