Thread by @VolodyaTretyak

The Sandarmokh executions in November 1937 and their perception in today's #Russia. THREAD

Sandarmokh is a forest massif from Medvezhyegorsk in the Republic of Karelia (Russia), where thousands of victims of Stalin's Great Terror were executed in 1937-38. /1

On 27 October and 2,3,4 November 1937, there were massive executions. An attempt to escape explains a break between 27.10 and 02.11. Prisoners decided to run since there was not much hope of surviving. This attempt was not successful, and they were shot. /2

During these five days, 1111 prisoners were killed. From 1111 287 prisoners have been Ukrainians or related to Ukraine, most of whom belonged to intelligentsia (academics, writers, artists, etc.) and were charged for political reasons. /3

Ukrainian writers from this period are part of the "Executed Renaissance" generation. This term describes Ukrainian artists, poets, and writers who were massively executed in the 1920-30s.
Let's go over some names: /4

Left:
Les Kurbas - movie and theater director, considered by many to be the most important Ukrainian theater director of the 20th century.

Right:
Mykola Kylish - prose writer, playwright, pedagogue. /5

Left:
Valerian Pidmohylny - writer, author of one of the best Ukrainian novels Misto (The City).

Right:
Stepan Rudnutskyi - the geographer, and professor, organized the Ukrainian cartography research Institute. /6

These are just a few names. Usually, they were accused of espionage or counter-revolutionary activity, and many of them were posthumously declared innocent even in the 1950s. /7

Thanks to the Memorial organization, these and many other names have been revealed, and their graves discovered. This is how the execution was happening according to Alexander Cherkasov from Memorial. (autotranslation) /8

What happened in 1937 it was not a coincidence. Similar things were happening regularly in the Soviet Union. Has anyone ever heard of Russian officials condemning those cases? /9

Correct, they do not do it. Instead, they push the narrative that these corps are Soviet soldiers executed by Finns during WW2. Since the 2010s, some Russian state researchers have developed a hypothesis that says that. /10

They have even done some expeditions to Sandarmokh in the last five years. However, they could not provide some pieces of evidence to confirm the hypothesis. Naturally, independent research does not support that hypothesis. /11

Kremlin did a lot in the last ten years to prevent Memorial from their research. In 2014 the organization was declared a "foreign agent." /12

In 2016 Memorial researcher Yury Dmitriev who contributed a lot to restoring the names of Sandermokh victims, was arrested and charged with making pornographic images of his foster daughter. /13

Of course, this accusation is baseless and motivated by a determination to discredit the historian and his work, as reported by many human-right activists. There were several trials afterward, and in 2021 his sentence was increased to 15 years. /14

Also, in 2021 Memorial was closed in Russia and declared a forbidden organization in April of 2022. /15

Instead of condemning such acts of the USSR, what we see in Russia is *excuse my language* massive masturbation for the Soviet past. Red flags, children in Soviet uniforms. As for now, Russia does not have a future. And unfortunately, they want to take the future from others. /16

End

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#Ukraine️ #Russia #war_in_ukraine #Putin #RussiaInvadedUkraine #RussiaIsATerroristState #PutinWarCrimes #Russia #RussiaUkraineWar #Russians #USSR /19