25 May 2017

Source: HRO.org

A CD with books by arrested historian Yury Dmitriev has been presented at an event in Petrozavodsk. The CD contains two previously unpublished texts The Fatherland Remembers Them and Red Forest.
As the Social Information Agency [ASI] reports, the presentation of Yury Dmitriev’s books had been organized by the International Memorial Society and Anatoly Razumov, head of the Return of the Names Centre at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg.

The event took place on 24 May 2017 at the local art centre’s Agriculture Club. Participants included Sergei Krivenko, member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, Irina Galkova, staff member of Memorial, Jan Rachinsky board member of International Memorial Society and Anatoly Razumov, head of the Return of the Names Centre. Ekaterina Klodt, Dmitriev’s daughter, as well as other people who support Yury Dmitriev and consider the allegations against him to be falsified also attended the event.

The books The Fatherland Remembers Them and Red Forest are memorial books about the victims of repression. The first book is deals with those people from Karelia who fell victim to Stalinist repressions. The second contains a list of those shot at the place of mass execution in the Red Forest (Krasny Bor) near Petrozavodsk.

As Anatoly Razumov pointed out, these two books by Yury Dmitriev are being made public on the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Terror and print versions will appear on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Red Terror.

On 28 May an event to mark the publication of the two books by Yury Dmitriev in CD-format will take place in St. Petersburg, with a later event also to be held in Moscow.

Colleagues, journalists and members of the public have stood up in defence of Yury Dmitriev, who is both a local historian and the head of the Karelian branch of the Memorial organization. Petitions in his support have been prepared addressed to the human rights ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Karelia and the city court of Petrozavodsk, as well as to concerned citizens.

Yury Dmitriev was arrested on 15 December 2016. The 61-year old is accused of preparation of pornographic photos and illegal possession of the main parts of a fire arm. According to his defence, the photos found on his private computer are not in any way pornographic.

There is a special group for the support of historian Yuri Dmitriev on Facebook.

See also an online anthology of materials about the prosecution of Yury Dmitriev and the campaign in his defence published by HRO.org.