Memorial - Remembering as Resistance

Memorial is the unsilenced voice of the critical public in Russia. For 30 years the NGO has been fighting for a historical reappraisal of totalitarian rule in the former Soviet Union and for an improvement to the current human rights situation in Russia. After the network was labelled a ‘foreign agent organisation’ and officially dissolved, its members continued their courageous fight in exile. But how can they carry on and what will remembering look like in the future? To answer this question, the present initiative has brought together a team of over a dozen experts from the fields of historical research, journalism and literature. Together, contributors including Oleg Orlow, Aleida Assmann, Anne Applebaum, Karl Schlögel, Gerd Koenen, Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Herta Müller and Swetlana Alexijewitsch remember the actions and successes of the brave dissidents. The conflict over Russia’s critical memory continues – despite, or perhaps because of, the widely acknowledged fact that the first victim of war is truth.

• The other Russia: an insight into the country and its society behind the scenes

• Courageous commitment: an unprecedented struggle for historical truth

• Memorial co-founder Irina Scherbakowa tells her story

• With contributions from prominent intellectuals and experts