For the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression

Grigory Yavlinsky’s website, 29.10.2026

On 30 October, Russia marks the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression. It is a day to remember the millions of people who fell victim to terror: those who were shot, those who died in the camps and prisons, and those who were sent into exile. It is a day to remember a tragedy.

In 2007, almost twenty years ago, we at Yabloko prepared and published the book “1937” (https://www.yabloko.ru/content/1937 ). It brought together documents and testimonies about the crimes of those years. At the time, we wrote about the need for official recognition of the mass killings, torture, unlawful arrests and persecution carried out by the Soviet state of that era, and expressed the hope that Russia would manage to draw the necessary conclusions from its own history.

Today we have to state that this has not happened.

The Bolshevik regime, established after the October coup of 1917 and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, relied on violence and political terror from the very beginning. The Civil War, the Red Terror, the destruction of political opponents, and the persecution of the clergy, the intelligentsia and the peasantry – all became the foundation of a political system in which a narrow group of people in power gained virtually unlimited power over the individual.

According to an official report of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs of December 1953, more than 9.2 million people were repressed between 1921 and 1953, of whom almost 863,000 were sentenced to be shot. These figures do not include all those who died as a result of famine, deportations, forced labour and the regime’s other crimes. The full human cost of the repressive system cannot be reduced to a single figure.

Behind the figures there is a real person, with their own life, their family and their unfulfilled hopes. Behind them are children left without parents, and people who died only because the state had declared them enemies.

After 1991, Russia had a historic chance to build a fundamentally new country and not to repeat the tragedies of the past. However, the Stalinist regime has never received the necessary assessment by the state and in law. No independent judicial system has developed in the country, and no mechanisms have been created to make the state genuinely accountable to its citizens. A past that has never been honestly assessed continues to shape the present.

As of early October 2026, there were 1,844 people in the country deprived of their liberty for political reasons. Their health and their very lives are in danger.

The political prisoners include eight members of Yabloko: Lev Shlosberg, Maxim Kruglov, Mikhail Afanasyev, Vasily Neustroyev, Konstantin Smirnov, Vladimir Yefimov, Vladimir Sorokin and Yelena Perepelitsa… They all have different life stories, professions and backgrounds. But what unites them is that they have not renounced their convictions. And, certainly, this is not only about Yabloko members.

What matters most now is to save human lives. Above all, we must seek the release of seriously ill prisoners, an amnesty, changes to measures of restraint, transfers to house arrest, and the provision of proper medical care. Every existing legal and humanitarian means must be used.

But help is not limited to legal action. Everyone can do something specific. Write letters to political prisoners. Come to the actions of writing letters to political prisoners that Yabloko holds every month in its offices. Support prisoners’ families, and help pay for lawyers, medicines, parcels and other necessary expenses through trusted initiatives. Talk about these people, and do not let their names disappear from public attention. We must all remember them every day.

An understanding of both history and what is happening now is essential for building a normal future for our country.

It is impossible to restore trust between the individual and the state without an independent judiciary and parliament, a free press, political competition and unconditional respect for civil rights.

Remembrance is not a formal ceremony held once a year. Remembrance must be part of public consciousness, education, culture and state policy. Archives, the names of the dead and burial sites must be preserved, historical research must be supported, and the work of independent institutions of remembrance must be restored.

We are obliged to know about and remember the millions of people who died and suffered, as well as those who are now deprived of their liberty for their convictions. This is our duty.

Without the truth about the past, without remembering the victims, and without recognising the unconditional value of human life, Russia cannot have a free and dignified future.

Let the memory of the victims of political repression be eternal.

Freedom for political prisoners!

Source: https://www.yavlinsky.ru/article/bez-ponimaniya-proshlogo-i-pamyati-o-nyom-net-svetlogo-budushhego/