The Novosibirsk mayor’s office has refused to restore a plaque commemorating victims of repression that was created by Memorial. According to the city authorities, the wording on the stone in Narym Square “did not meet the criteria of objectivity, neutrality, and historical accuracy.”
This was stated by Yevgeniya Perova, head of the city administration’s landscaping department. She also said that the initiator of the memorial’s installation had been an “extremist organization,” Memorial, and added that restoring the plaque is not planned.
City hall says the plaque was stolen. It disappeared from the memorial stone on April 23. Activist Roman Malozemov, however, noted that the authorities themselves had previously approved the installation of the stone with the plaque.
Destruction of memorials to the repressed
At the end of April, authorities in Tomsk dismantled the Stone of Sorrow and other memorial stones installed in memory of repressed Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians, and Kalmyks. Officials explained the demolition by citing cracks in the paving and in a building next to the square, while promising to restore the memorial. At the same time, the demolished memorials to victims of repression may be moved out of the city center.
In Yakutsk, a memorial to a participant in the war in Ukraine is to be installed in place of a demolished memorial to exiled Poles; it would be the third such monument. In June 2023, commemorative plaques disappeared from the memorial, and three months later the stones themselves were removed. The Yakutsk mayor’s office promised to look into the situation, but never did so.
Context
On April 9, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the “international Memorial movement” “extremist.” After that, the Memorial Human Rights Defense Center said it was ceasing all activity in Russia. The case was considered at the initiative of the Justice Ministry, the hearing was held behind closed doors, and the case was given classified status.