During the mourning action staged near the Solovetsky Stone, Moscow, on the Memorial Day for Political Repressions Victims, October 20, 2006
Photo: Dmitry Kostyukov
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The Ghostly Threat
For the 15th year running, Russia marked yesterday the Memorial Day for Political Repressions Victims. President Vladimir Putin emphasized the necessity to never forget either political repressions or their victims. But the nation appears sick and tied of remembering.
According to the recent survey of Public Opinion Fund, 43 percent of Russians think the media coverage of this topic is quite sufficient, and 21 percent find it more than enough. And no more than 14 percent of the polled think the repressions should be mentioned more often.
In Russia, when speaking about the victims of political repressions, we usually mean the victims of Stalin terror. Of 162-million nation as of 1937, 12 million fall under the Rehabilitation Act, while roughly 800,000 were condemned to shooting for political reasons. Even now, 27 percent of the polled claimed either they or their relatives had been repressed, according to official statistics.
Though 59 percent of the polled are sure the innocent people were sent to prisons at that time, 12 percent think the verdicts were well-justified, signaled the survey of Public Opinion Fund.
Of interest is that the Russians don't usually blame the political regime of the country. Instead, they tend to accuse some definite people for repressions; 41 percent of the polled think Stalin was the main slaughterer, 30 percent accuse the KGB chiefs and 17 percent put the blame on leaders of the Communist Party.
But this interpretation excludes lots of victims. There were a few more million people, who avoided GULAG camps but faced discrimination in their own country, according to Memorial. Besides, 20,000 more had been arrested for political reasons from 1953 till collapse of the Soviet Union, not to mention the victims of softer methods of persecuting the dissidents, including through asylums.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 31, 2006
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