How the decision to liquidate the International Historical and Educational Society «Memorial» * will affect the activities of all such societies in the country, will show in the near future. But even now, some organizations engaged in preserving the memory of the victims of political repression are under the threat of real destruction. In particular, this threatens one of the largest divisions of Memorial — Perm. Its long-term leader, a historian by education, Robert Latypov, told Novaya Gazeta about the threats hanging over Perm Memorial.
— Robert, why was it your society that made the Supreme Court's decision to liquidate Memorial International in a particularly difficult situation?
“According to the constituent documents, we are the Perm regional branch of the International Historical, Educational, Charitable and Human Rights Society“ Memorial ”, we even have it in our name. At one time, at least one Russian structure was needed to register an international organization on the territory of Russia. And this is us. The Russian authorities cannot liquidate foreign organizations, since they are outside the jurisdiction of Russia. The decision of the Supreme Court applies only to those who are officially registered in Russia. And this is us and the board of Memorial International.
Robert Latypov Photo from personal archive
— So, as soon as the appeal is rejected, the Perm Memorial will also cease to exist?
— A legal incident arises here: we are called a branch of International Memorial, but we are not a structural subdivision, we are a separate legal entity, an independent organization with its own projects, accounts, which is written in our charter. We are united with Memorial International by mission and tasks.
— So what is the danger for you then?
— That law enforcement agencies understand this kind of court decision as it suits them. We may be told: do not care that you are a separate legal entity,
— Perm «Memorial», as far as I know, is one of the largest organizations of this kind in Russia. If you are destroyed, how many people will suffer, how will this generally affect the state of society?
— Everyone will suffer, because the Perm Territory is an exiled territory. We have only registered members — about two thousand people, mostly descendants of the repressed. For many years we have been creating a map of the Gulag in the Kama region, it is on our website, based on archival sources, we mark all the places associated with repressions. As of today, 1750 objects are marked on this map — and this is only in the Kama region!
A shot from the site of the Perm Memorial
But judging by the array of documents that we have, these are only two-thirds of the objects, there will be more. Almost 900 of them were special settlements where dispossessed, exiled, and deported peoples were sent. That is, the whole country passed through the Perm Territory.
it is written — to liquidate Memorial International, which means that you also need to be liquidated, because it is mentioned in your name.
— Has this also affected your family?
< p>— Yes, the dispossessed family of my grandmother was exiled here from Bashkiria — they had two cows for a family of 14, it was considered a great luxury. Half of the family died in the very first winter, my grandmother was saved by some Russian woman who took her to her place for a year. I was born in Bereznyaki, I was always amazed where there are representatives of all nationalities in our class — Lithuanians, Bashkirs, Tatars, Estonians, natives of the Caucasus. In the seventh grade, he asked the history teacher about this, and he, without batting an eye, replied that there was a shock Komsomol construction site in Bereznyaki. Only already at the history faculty of Perm University did I learn what kind of “shock construction” it was — our city was built by the hands of prisoners and exiles who were sent to these places in the 1920s and 1930s. In particular, by the hands of the Visherlag prisoners, about which Varlam Shalamov wrote.
— How did the Perm Memorial members react to the Supreme Court decision?
— At first it was surprise and resentment, and when people realized that liquidation was real, indignation began. Every day I hear on the phone and in personal conversations — why are we being repressed again? Why is the organization we created taken away?
As one of our veterans told me the other day, should we prepare plywood suitcases again?
— What is your “Memorial” really doing?
— Our organization is more than thirty years old, we appeared a little earlier than Memorial appeared in Moscow, I have been leading the society since 2010. During this time, we have helped thousands of people find information about their repressed relatives, find documents, places of death. Every day we are approached by several people who ask to find information about their relatives. Very often people ask to send us audio recordings of interviews with former repressed or their children, which we have been recording for many years and compiling an audio archive. Recently I sent such a record to the descendants of one of the inhabitants of the village of Skalny, Chusovsky district, a German by nationality. She was deported there, then she ended up in the labor army, worked in a mine. Her grandson wrote to us, we sent him a recording, a month later we received a letter — he wrote that he had listened to this recording with the whole family, learned such details from her grandmother's personal life that she never told us.
«Memorial» is not just a keeper of the history of its time, country, we are also custodians of family history, family memory, we often preserve what these people themselves do not want to tell their relatives or are afraid of.
— Do you think local authorities are aware of this situation? How did the officials react to the liquidation decision?
— Only Pavel Mikov, the Perm Ombudsman, spoke openly and sharply back in November. He bluntly stated that this was a cynical, inhuman act.
To a rally in defense of Memorial International during the days of its liquidation trial. Moscow. Photo: Anastasia Tsitsinova, specially for Novaya Gazeta