From the BBC:
“Stalin
Victims Commemoration Moves Online Due to Coronavirus”
An annual
commemoration held in honor of victims of Stalinist repressions has moved
online Thursday due to the coronavirus pandemic, its organizers said. Participants
of the “Returning the Names” ceremony traditionally gather outside the former
KGB headquarters in central Moscow every Oct. 29 to read the names, ages and
professions of those who died in Stalin’s purges. As many as 30 million are
believed to have been killed during the Soviet-era repressions. “We can’t
gather with you today at the square by the Solovetsky Stone, but each of us, wherever
we are, can remember these people,” Memorial’s co-founder Yelena Zhemkova said
at the launch of the event.
The Memorial
human rights group said on the event’s website that Russians wishing to
commemorate the date could bring flowers to the monuments for victims of
repression in their cities. Other cities where mass gatherings are not banned
could file for permission to hold in-person commemorations, said Memorial,
which has organized “Returning the Names” on the same date for the past 14
years. Cities including St. Petersburg,
Ufa and Rostov plan to commemorate the victims in-person on either Thursday or
Friday, the Kommersant business daily reported.
On This Day
Victims of Political Repressions Are Honored Authorities in Russia’s
fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg cited the coronavirus pandemic when
banning the in-person gathering, the publication said. Authorities in
the city of Kirov 800 kilometers east of Moscow reportedly banned “Returning
the Names,” saying it could disrupt a nearby drama theater which had canceled
its performances due to Covid-19. Memorial, which has been labeled a
"foreign agent" in Russia for receiving money from abroad, has been
increasingly targeted by the Russian government and pro-Kremlin vigilantes over
its work. In 2018, Amnesty International called on
the Russian authorities to put an end to what it called a coordinated assault
on the NGO.
^ At least they
are still holding some kind of remembrance although I don’t know why they do it
on October 29th and not October 30th. ^
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