Memorial International Association
Memorial will keep researching, documenting and analyzing all manifestations of political violence, past and present, in the former USSR and other countries affected by the crimes of Soviet and post-Soviet regimes.
Memorial will at the same time fight for human rights, promote building and maintaining civil societies, and democracy-driven, law-bound governments.
From the declaration of the International Memorial Association
On May 16, 2023, fifteen organizations of the Memorial network from Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and Israel established the International Memorial Association, which is registered in Geneva. The Association unites Memorials from different cities and countries and continues the work and best projects of International Memorial, which was banned by the Russian regime just before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Memorial emerged as a civic movement in many cities and republics across what was then the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, when society’s demand for truth increased dramatically. The first chairperson of Memorial was human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov.
Current board members: Anna Gavina, Giulia De Florio, Sergey Krivenko, Štěpán Černoušek, Irina Scherbakova and Nicolas Werth (chair).
Before 2022
The purpose of the work done by Memorial is pursuing the truth, investigating and documenting crimes committed by the Soviet government against the citizens and peoples of the USSR and international crimes. Soon after Memorial was created, another mission naturally emerged: advocating human rights and documenting state crimes committed in the former USSR.
This work of never-ending exploration and reflection can never truly be completed. But it must be done, and only then can Russia become a peaceful neighbor for other countries and a place where the rights of all people and groups are equally respected.
Now
2022 and the years that have followed have made us see new connections and features of similarity between the crimes of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. What are the historical roots of Russia's war against Ukraine? What are the consequences, still relevant even if invisible, of the Soviet regime’s crimes: its oppression of peoples, deportations, discrimination of women, LGBTQ+, political dissenters, religious and language groups, and many other forms of unfreedom?
What are the traditions of resistance to unfreedom that today's civil activists can draw on to fight Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, to fight for civil liberties and for a fair trial for all state criminals?
In 2022, Memorial was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with the Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties. We take this prize as an admonition that Russian civil society is expected to act up.
Foundation date
16 May 2023
Board
Štěpán Černoušek
Giulia De Florio
Anna Gavina
Sergey Krivenko
Irina Scherbakova
Nicolas Werth (chair).
ACTIVE PROJECTS
Political prisoners in Russia: Bakhrom Khamroev
Human rights defender Bakhrom Khamroev has been in prison since February 24th, 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. He was wrongfully sentenced to 13 years and 9 months of imprisonment in a penal colony on “terrorist” charges.
Donetsk: the Memorial Plaque to Vasyl Stus
Until May 2015 there had been a memorial plaque to the Ukrainian poet and human rights activist Vasyl Stus attached to the building of the Faculty of Philology of Donetsk National University, Universitetskaya Street, 24. Stus studied at the Ukrainian department of this faculty from 1954 to 1959.
COMPLETED PROJECTS
Letters to political prisoners: why, what and how
Hundreds of people are now imprisoned or detained pending trial in Russia as a result of politically motivated cases. You can support them by writing a letter.
Unfortunately, the Russian prison system only processes letters to inmates that are written entirely in the Russian language (more on that below). If you cannot write in Russian, you will have to have your message translated for it to reach the prisoner. Contact us if you need help.
Russian activists move to save memorials to victims of Soviet repression
In many Russian cities, local authorities have intensified their efforts to destroy name plaques marking the addresses of people caught up in the Stalinist Great Terror. Thousands of such plaques exist, set up by a widespread civil society movement called “Last Address”. Despite the campaign to destroy these sites of memory, activists are spontaneously working to restore the plaques. Memorial believes it is important to highlight these “small” acts of civic resistance.
History of Crimean Tatar Resistance
2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, a crime perpetrated by Stalin’s regime. This is indeed a mournful date, particularly dark because repressions against Crimean Tatars continue to this day, arguably as a direct follow up to the Soviet period. Activists call this a “hybrid deportation.”
Freedom to political prisoners in Russia!
The International Memorial Association is anxiously watching the violation of human rights in Russia and in the former Soviet Union. We call upon international communities, human rights activists in all the countries and the UN organs, to immediately demand the release of all political prisoners in Russia, stop prosecution for expressing anti-war opinions, and take all available legal and diplomatic measures to reach this goal.
Statement on February 24, 2022
Statement by the board of International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Center on February 24, 2022
The Declaration of International Memorial Association
Memorial cannot be “dissolved”, just as a human being cannot be deprived of their innate ability to keep memories and reflect. Memorial is more than an organization or a civic movement: it consists of people across the globe that share the same values and are willing to know the truth about their countries’ tragic past. That is why Memorial has survived and keeps going. On May 16, 2023, in Geneva, 15 Memorial branches operating in 9 countries formalized this, having established the International Memorial Association.