the stalinist era when people were afraid to speak out, they preferred to look away and not acknowledge what was happening in the world, too afraid to ask questions because the kind of repression they would face, being either thrown in the gulag in those days or being forced to flee and become dissidents, that is the reality that russians live in today. and it is easier to look away, and to just turn on the television, than it is to ask the kinds of questions that would bring up really existential questions about russia as a country, as a people, and the nature of mr. putin s regime. and i think it is the blind meeting the blind because russians are not asking those questions because they don t want to face the reality. it is likely not everyone. but those who are asking those questions are being thrown in jail or leaving the country. yeah. we re seeing talking about leaving the country, we re seeing the largest mass wave,
known as the great terror. it s been painstakingly cataloguing the victims ofjosef stalin s mass repressions. up to 20 million soviet citizens are believed to have been sent to the gulag, to stalin s prison camps. hundreds of thousands were executed. memorial was set up to keep their memory alive. the founding of memorial in the late 1980s was a symbol, a symbol of the soviet union opening up and facing up to its past, to the crimes ofjosef stalin. the shutting down of memorial is a symbol, too, of how in russia today the past is being reshaped, rewritten, and how civil society is under attack. vladimir putin has been using history to try to foster patriotism, so he focuses on the glories of russia s past, like
treasured all the more by those who lost everything. they want to remember their house. remember the normal life. people like gregori, alexei s great grandfather who never made it back from the gulag he was sent to in the 1930s. here in the basement memorial in moscow, he explains it was thanks to the organization which specializes in investigating soviet era crime that he was able to learn the truth about his family and why that matters. history, he says, is cyclical. the situation today was in the past. and such things can came back. and this is awful so we should remember it and keep it warm in our minds, i think. but memorial is under threat. protesters may have turned out last time the case against it
of his campaign, as your reporterjust said to rewrite the past to control the present. it the past to control the present- the past to control the present. the past to control the resent. , ., ., , , present. it is one more step towards totalitarianism, - present. it is one more step towards totalitarianism, is l present. it is one more stepi towards totalitarianism, is it that dramatic? i towards totalitarianism, is it that dramatic? towards totalitarianism, is it that dramatic? i do. the term orwellian that dramatic? i do. the term orwellian is that dramatic? i do. the term orwellian is over that dramatic? i do. the term orwellian is over use - that dramatic? i do. the term orwellian is over use as - that dramatic? i do. the term orwellian is over use as a - orwellian is over use as a political metafile this is like something out of a 1984. b pattern wants to control the passer he can control the present and memorial documents the crimes, the purges, the gulag, the torturers,
mass repressions. up to 20 million soviet citizens are believed to have been sent to the gulag, to stalin s prison camps. hundreds of thousands were executed. memorial was set up to keep their memory alive. the founding of memorial in the late 1980s was a symbol, a symbol of the soviet union opening up and facing up to its past, to the crimes ofjosef stalin. the shutting down of memorial is a symbol, too, of how in russia today the past is being reshaped, rewritten, and how civil society is under attack. vladimir putin has been using history to try to foster patriotism, so he focuses on the glories of russia s past, like the victory in world war ii. through this annual reading of names of the victims