‘memory’ cannot be erased

A year ago the trial against the humanitarian association began Memorial, closed on February 28 and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The activists continue their work in hiding: “They are not going to silence us.” The group expects changes in Russian society, “huge changes.”

Moscow () – A year has passed since the start of the judicial process that dissolved, on February 28, the Russian humanitarian association “Memorial”, awarded this year with the Nobel Peace Prize. Its activists and collaborators continue their work in semi-clandestinity and exile, without renouncing their memory in defense of trampled rights, as can be seen from numerous recent interviews and publications.

Novaja Gazeta Evropa, the agency created after the closure of Nobel Prize winner Dmitry Muratov’s newspaper, has interviewed many Memorial contributors. Despite the distance and obstacles, they try to continue their work: documenting the events that occurred during the century of Soviet repression, and now also during the Putin era. One of Memorial’s collaborators is Lilja Matveeva, a young artist who began participating in the center’s activities just a month ago, after visiting Moscow’s Presnenskaya Transfer Prison with a group led by activists.

The visit prompted her to participate in Memorial initiatives, such as the “Restitution of Names,” an act that was censured this year in Moscow. She was entrusted with the task of illustrating the event with several drawings, including the best known of hers, with the inscription “My-Memorial, We are the Memory”, along with many portraits of the persecuted. Returning to her Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, she dedicated herself to disseminating images and documents of the repression, when the trial against the association began: in the most dramatic moment, Lilja became the main creator of her images.

Every day Lilja met with the other members of the group in front of or near the courthouse, distributing flyers, T-shirts and accessories, posters and even specially designed warm hats as they had to demonstrate on the streets in sub-zero temperatures. When she managed to enter the courtroom, the activist also portrayed the trial sessions, “a strange and terrifying spectacle”, between a threatening prosecutor and a placid elderly judge.

On December 28 came the sentence that dissolved the association. The activists tried to remain energetic and optimistic, awaiting the outcome of the appeal, until the final sentence in February, on the same days as the invasion in Ukraine. “We had organized a festival before the last session,” says Lilja, “precisely so as not to give in to despair, but the festival turned into an anti-war protest.” In May, the artist emigrated to Germany, partly to avoid end up in jail herself.Now lives in Berlin.

Natalia Koljagina is a few years older than Lilja. She decided to stay in Moscow to practice her profession as a “culturologist” -now, outside of academic circles- and is collaborating in the writing of the “Lessons of History” web page, in an attempt to prevent the dispersal of the historical heritage and member of the Memorial organization, in which she has been actively involved since 2009. For several years, she and the other members of her team offered Russian schools the contest “Man in History: Russia of the 20th Century”, which was also closed by the authorities in 2021.

Many teachers supported the contest, not only promoting literary or artistic compositions, but also inviting students to visit the places where acts of repression and imprisonment of Germans and Estonians were committed. Many reacted by saying: “we need Memorial, to share our experiences, to understand how we live.” Natalia says that the cancellation of Memorial “was like suffering the death of a close friend, but the community we created cannot be destroyed or dispersed, they will not silence us.”

The exponents of Memorial assure that in Russia not everyone supports the war and the dictatorship, and that it is precisely the memory of the repression that gives hope. Back then it was also believed that the Soviet regime had suffocated everything; the few who resisted were able to contribute the necessary resources: “I believe that there will be changes in our society, and they will be enormous changes”, concludes Natalia.