iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 4h

On 29 October, people in cities around the world will read aloud the names of victims of Soviet state repression. #ReturningTheNames #October29

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Update: Yuri Dmitriev’s condition On 29 September, Yuri Dmitriev’s lawyer was finally able to visit him in the prison hospital, four days after the 70-year-old historian was urgently hospitalised with a suspected stroke.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

On 25 September, 70-year-old historian and political prisoner Yuri Dmitriev was urgently transferred to a prison medical facility with a suspected stroke.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Fragments of resistance and repression across Russia, August–September 2026

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

🎬 Berlin: Film Screening & Discussion — 27 September On 27 September, Zukunft Memorial invites you to a screening of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, followed by a discussion. 📍 filmkunst66 Bleibtreustraße 12, 10623 Berlin

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Peace talks are already underway. But a ceasefire or peace agreement does not automatically bring everyone home.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The history of the Gulag is also a history of the lands on which it was built. Across Siberia and the Arctic, camps appeared on territories that had been home to Indigenous peoples for centuries.

120

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Russia’s war against Ukraine continues far beyond the front line.

120

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Animals were part of the Gulag in ways both ordinary and unexpected Dogs guarded prisoners, horses transported goods, and prisoners raised livestock. Rats, insects and harsh natural conditions made camp life even harder.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

🇺🇦 Ukraine declared independence in 1991. But the story did not end there.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Behind the official image of a “happy” Soviet childhood were children trying to make sense of the world around them

111

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

How did a centuries-old German community on the Volga almost disappear? On 28 August 1941, the Soviet authorities ordered the mass deportation of Germans living in the Volga region.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

It lasted only five minutes, but it became one of the best-known protests in Soviet history. On 21 August 1968, Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia, bringing the Prague Spring reforms to an end.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Today, 24 August, we celebrate Ukraine’s Independence Day 🇺🇦

161

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The Moscow Times spoke with Memorial co-founders Irina Shcherbakova and Elena Zhemkova about how Memorial’s work continues in exile — and why preserving individual stories remains essential at a time when the Russian authorities are increasingly rewriting and weaponising the past.

themoscowtimes.com

‘Our Work Is About Every Human Life’: How Memorial Preserves the Memory of Repression From Exile - The Moscow Times

For decades, Memorial has worked to safeguard the memory of the victims of Soviet repression and defended people facing political persecution in modern Russia. Today, one of the country’s oldest huma...

132

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

In 1937, a connection to Poland could be enough to make you an enemy of the Soviet state On 20 August, the Soviet secret police launched what became known as the “Polish Operation” of the NKVD.

112

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Just months of the year — unless one of them happens to carry the weight of a revolution In 1961, Soviet poet Vsevolod Nekrasov wrote a children’s poem based on a simple observation: September, October, November and December all end in the same sound in Russian.

101

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

First, their work was encouraged by the Soviet state – later, it was used against them

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

If you’ve been seeing a lot of apples from Russia lately, here’s why — and here’s another one with its own history of repression

120

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Mass terror can be administered like the Soviet planned economy: through quotas, paperwork, and constant pressure to exceed the plan On 31 July 1937, the Soviet leadership approved Operational Order No. 00447.

101

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

What did activism look like before social media? Together with Greenpeace , we look back at how environmental activism became one of the first spaces for civic organizing in the late Soviet Union.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

“Moral guilt is something that cannot be assigned to every individual person. It is something each person must feel for themselves”

130

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Documentation is the first step toward accountability. Share this digest We’re back with a new digest from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) — one of Ukraine’s oldest and most respected human rights organisations, and a member of the International Memorial Association.

101

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

One file remained sealed, one sheet was cut, line by line, until it caught the light In Stories We Build, Russian jewellery artist Yanina Kremer begins with an endangered engraving technique.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

“Guns hold all the power. A journalist has only words.” Seventeen years ago, on 15 July 2009, journalist and human rights defender Natalia Estemirova was abducted outside her home in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Many people know Memorial for documenting the crimes of the Soviet past. But what does that work have to do with Russia’s war against Ukraine today?

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

“You’re not a dissident. You’re ill.” For decades, Soviet authorities used psychiatry as a tool of political repression.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

How did the Soviet Union turn HIV into a Cold War weapon — and why does it still matter today? We spoke with journalist and creator of the podcast Only Positives, Rita Loginova, about the Soviet Union’s response to HIV — and how propaganda left a lasting legacy.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Fragments of resistance and repression across Russia, June 2026

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

War is fought not only against people, but also against memory On the night of 1–2 July 2026, Russia hit Kyiv with one of the largest air assaults of the war — nearly 500 drones and more than 70 missiles.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

What did everyday life look like inside the Soviet prison camp reserved for the regime’s “most dangerous criminals”? These drawings, made by a former prisoner, offer a rare glimpse inside.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

⚠️ This post describes torture and abuse of people held in detention.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Operation Wedding: the escape attempt that changed the Soviet Jewish movement In June 1970, sixteen Soviet citizens attempted a daring escape to freedom. Their plan was to seize a small passenger plane and fly it to Sweden.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

This year’s Venice Biennale was marked by controversy over Russia’s return to the festival.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

“Russian state media portray the invasion of Ukraine as a humanitarian mission. How much longer can this continue?” Carlo Ginzburg died in Bologna on June 17. He was 87.

111

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Vorkuta is one of Russia's northernmost cities. It exists because prisoners built it.  For decades, families, survivors, and local residents commemorated those who died in the Gulag camps that once surrounded the city.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

This month, on June 4 — what would have been Alexei Navalny’s 50th birthday — people came to Moscow’s Borisovskoye Cemetery to honor his memory.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

On June 4, Memorial and dozens of organizations and projects — many affiliated with it, some with no real connection at all — were added to Rosfinmonitoring’s register of “terrorists and extremists.”

120

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

It's Pride Month — a time to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities, but also to remember those who fought for visibility and rights under far more difficult circumstances.

111

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Thinking about writing to a political prisoner, but not sure what to say?

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Yuri Dombrovsky was born on May 12, 1909. Over the course of his life, the Soviet writer and poet was arrested four times, exiled from Moscow to Almaty, and spent more than a decade in Gulag camps, including Kolyma.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

On May 9, 1975 Soviet dissident and human rights activist Larisa Bogoraz published an open letter addressed to KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov.

100

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

“We will end the struggle only when the last of the guilty stands before the judgment of all nations. The destruction of Nazism and its roots is our slogan. The creation of a new world of freedom — a world without war — is our goal.”

101

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Up to 1.5 million people were killed during the Armenian Genocide. For decades in the USSR, even speaking about it publicly was taboo.

133

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Sentences, disappearances, and life in captivity We’re back with a new digest from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) — one of Ukraine’s oldest and most respected human rights organizations, and a member of the International Memorial Association.

110

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Russia has labeled “Memorial” extremist — but what does that actually mean in practice? We break down the risks, what’s changed, and what to be aware of. P.S. Your support matters now more than ever — thank you for being with us.

141

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

On declaring Memorial an extremist organization Statement by the Board of the International Memorial Association

285

Memorial in English @enmemorial.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Not just popstar hits — statements Recently, Shirley Manson, frontwoman of Garbage, joined John Cusack, Martin Sheen, and other Hollywood actors in speaking out for activist Mikhail Kriger during his dry hunger strike in prison.

110