In Russia, "crimes against history" are on the increase, denounces FIDH
Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 8, 2021, during a ceremony to celebrate 76 years of the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War II.
AFP - MIKHAIL METZEL
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
The International Federation of Human Rights published this Thursday, June 10, a report entitled "Crimes against history".
This 80-page document lists the systematic attacks carried out by the Russian regime against historians, academics, journalists or NGOs, or all those who dare to contradict official history.
A version presented by the authorities as being the only valid one, and which mainly concerns the Second World War.
A whole legislative arsenal is also in place to punish the stories that disturb Moscow.
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The FIDH report “
exhaustively
lists
the repressive acts
” targeting historians, activists and journalists.
In the sights of the authorities, their critical work on Russian history in its official version, carried today by the Kremlin.
"
This speech focuses on the victories of the Second World War,"
explains Ilya Nuzov, head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia office of FIDH, who designed and co-wrote the report on the "Crimes of history ”, at the microphone of
Camille Marigaux
, of the international service of RFI.
The authorities do this on purpose because they have their roots in the Soviet past. We have ex-KGB officers at the head of the country. And today the Constitution says that the Russian state is the successor to the Soviet Union. So the official speech portrays a positive aspect of this Soviet past. Consequence: Any statement that contradicts the glorification of the action of the Soviet Union during World War II or that casts a shadow over the regime, over the Soviet authorities, this statement is considered negative.
"
The Russian authorities are also stepping up their pressure against all those who criticize Stalin's crimes.
"
Any activity that aims to identify the victims and executioners of the Great Terror [August 1937 to November 1938, Editor's note], this campaign of execution of millions of Russian citizens, well this kind of initiative is hampered and limited by the 'State
', continues Ilya Nuzov.
►
To read also: Russia: in front of Stalin's grave, the homage of those nostalgic for the USSR
"
Criminalization of speech
"
"
The extent of the persecution has already reached a level that qualifies it as" crimes against history ",
" said the FIDH report. The expression designates "
a series of extreme attacks on history perpetrated by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes
", specifies the NGO. According to the report, these repressions in Russia go through a “
criminalization of speech
”, via dozens of legal proceedings, but also the censorship of historical works and the refusal to open most of the archives of the secret services.
The FIDH cites the case of the historian
Yuri Dmitriev,
from the NGO Memorial, sentenced to 13 years in prison in a case of “
sexual violence
” denounced as a set-up intended to punish him for his research on Stalinist terror.
The report also points to Moscow's inability "
to provide adequate material or symbolic reparations to victims of Soviet-era crimes
."
►
Also to listen:
The voices of the gulag (1/6)
At the same time, FIDH denounces the establishment of "
state propaganda
" via "
the indoctrination of schoolchildren
" and "
smear campaigns
" in the public media.
This propaganda creates "
a climate of intolerance and fear for independent historians
".
In particular on sensitive subjects such as the German-Soviet pact.
►
See also: Russia: 13 years in prison for Yuri Dmitriev, historian of the gulag accused of sexual abuse
Legitimizing the maintenance of Putin in power
Since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the Kremlin has championed a return of Russian power based on a positive interpretation of the Soviet Union, in particular Moscow's victory against Nazism.
For the opposition, this policy aims to legitimize the maintenance in power of Vladimir Poutine, who poses as protector of the fatherland, while minimizing the crimes of the USSR or relativizing the importance of the German-Soviet pact of 1939 which led to on the partition of Poland and left a free hand to the Nazis in Europe.
Russia has equipped itself with a penal arsenal in recent years to punish the "
falsifications
" of history, the defamation of veterans or the fact of amalgamating the USSR and the Nazis.
►
To read also: Repression in Russia: "An authoritarian explosion to break the opposition"
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