Press Release, 22.01.2024

Photo: “The Last Address” sign on Dolgorukovskaya 5 (formerly Kalyaevskaya 5) / Photo from social media

Maxim Kruglov, head of the faction in the Moscow City Duma and Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, signed a letter to the Moscow Mayor on the inclusion of memorial plaques of the “The Last Address” project in the Moscow state programme for the preservation of cultural heritage. Yabloko calls on Sergei Sobyanin to prevent the disappearance of memorial plaques and take measures to restore those already lost.

“The Last Address” is a civil project to perpetuate the memory of victims of political repression during the years of Soviet power. Activists put steel plates (the size of a postcard) on the facades of houses, the addresses of which became the last lifetime addresses of victims of Soviet terror. The plaques contain information about those who lived and was taken to prison from these houses, and then killed.

Since 2022, Moscow City Duma deputies from Yabloko have been receiving reports from Moscow residents about the disappearance of memorial plaques from the facades of their houses. The faction’s appeals to law enforcement agencies did not bring results. In particular, Vladimir Ryzhkov, a Moscow City Duma deputy from Yabloko, demanded in June 2023 that the head of the Moscow police punish those who tear down “The Last Address” signs. Then the vandals removed at least eight signs installed on the houses where the repressed lived. The politician noted that there were video surveillance cameras on the facades of buildings, and the culprits could be identified quickly. However, the police did not see any offence in the incident. At the beginning of 2024, residents of the Tverskoy district reported that unidentified persons tore off all 13 plaques from the wall of the so-called “Widows’ House” (Dolgorukovskaya, 5). The databases of the Memorial Society contain information about 65 residents of this house who were repressed in the 1930s.

The Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage, to which Vladimir Ryzhkov also addressed, indicated that the placement of “The Last Address” signs was not provided for by the concept of state policy to perpetuate the memory of victims of political repression.

In an address to the Mayor of Moscow, deputy Maxim Kruglov notes that the “The Last Address” project is fully consistent with the strategic goal of the concept, and the disappearance of memorial plaques contradicts the state’s plans to preserve historical memory. Yabloko deputies note that the silence of the Moscow authorities on this issue may be regarded by society as a denial of political repression.

The Yabloko faction called on Mayor Sobyanin to include measures to preserve memorial plaques on the facades of the houses of those repressed in the Moscow state programme “Development of the Cultural and Tourist Environment and Preservation of Cultural Heritage”.