Exceptional meeting "Memorial in Russia: confiscated memory?"
Wednesday, May 04, 2022 at 7:30 PM
For 30 years, the Russian association Memorial has played an essential role in writing a history of political violence in the USSR, in defending human rights, in denouncing Stalinist crimes and in publicizing this work of memory.
The decision to dissolve this association, confirmed on appeal on February 28 of this year, 4 days after the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, is an immense attack on the historical memory, on the history of the USSR, of Stalinism. It is indeed to confiscate historical memory for their own benefit and to impose their historical narrative that the authorities have thus put an end to the activities of an association which has left its mark over the last 30 years. It is also the culmination of a long harassment process.
This round table will evoke the history of Memorial, from its creation during the perestroika, to the consequences of this dissolution, the actions carried out towards the public during the last years, the "crimes against history".
Alexandra Polivanova, was a member of the management of this association, and carries out numerous actions aimed at various audiences, to make known the history of Stalinist violence,
Nicolas Werth is president of the association Mémorial-France, director of research at the CNRS, historian of the Soviet Union, author of many books, his research focuses on the Stalinist violence.
Alain Blum is vice-president of the association Mémorial-France, director of studies at EHESS and research director at INED, historian and demographer, his research today focuses on the Stalinist deportations.
I am participating in the meeting
