Our series is finally available to subscribers of the «Russian Illusion» channel in Canada. In February 2024! Don’t miss it!

In a society where accessibility was nearly nonexistent, life for families with disabled members in the Soviet Union was a relentless struggle. Here’s a powerful fragment from an interview with Yura Astakhov (Boston, USA) conducted by Gregory Antimony in our studio. Yura is the son of Yuri Georgievich Astakhov, one of the founders of the Soviet Union of Disabled People. His father, a first-group disabled person, sustained a spinal injury and bone tuberculosis during the bombing of Moscow in 1941 at the age of three, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

«Life was very difficult because any movement for my father was a problem. To get up from the floor to the chair, he had to jump. It was such physical labor. But this burden was just as heavy for my mom and for me. So many disabled people, who lived on the second floor, didn’t go outside for years.

«When I got older, I just carried them on my back. I remember when someone gave my father and me tickets to the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. We tried to park the car, but it was forbidden near the Kremlin. I carried my father on my back for one and a half kilometers to get to the Kremlin.»

This story highlights the incredible resilience and dedication of families who faced overwhelming challenges in a society unequipped to support their needs. It also sheds light on the determination of individuals like Yuri Georgievich Astakhov, who not only endured but became advocates for change in an unforgiving system.

 

 

#SovietUnion #DisabledRights #HumanStories #GregoryAntimony #HourOfInterview #ECGProductions #YuriAstakhov #ecgproductionscanada ##GULAGWitnesses

At the «Amazing Cat» Art Center, the premiere of the films «The Case of the Executed Pioneers» and «The Wheel of Repression» took place. These films are part of the series «GULAG. Witnesses», produced by ECGProductions based on the book by Anna Artemyeva and Elena Racheva, «58th: Unseized».  The role of Susanna Pechuro is played by Lilia Sklyar.

These two episodes recount real events that continue to shock with their cruelty even after more than 75 years. The Soviet system mass-produced fabricated cases, but the trial of «terrorists» — former pioneers — was exceptionally ruthless.

On the defendant’s bench sat 16 boys and girls, 14 of whom were Jewish.

On the night of February 13–14, 1952, the Supreme Court of the USSR delivered the verdict:

«Yevgeny Gurevich, Boris Slutsky, Vladilen Furman are sentenced to the highest measure of punishment — execution by shooting.
Irena Arginskaya, Ida Vinnikova, Felix Voin, Grigory Mazur, Vladimir Melnikov, Ekaterina Panfilova, Susanna Pechuro, Alla Reif, Maya Ulanovskaya, and Inna Elgisser — 25 years of imprisonment.
Tamara Rabinovich, Galina Smirnova, Nina Uflyand — 10 years of imprisonment, followed by exile and a loss of civil rights for five years.»

All these young people were members of the underground organization «Union for the Cause of the Revolution», whose story began in the Moscow City House of Pioneers in 1949.

#TheCaseOfTheExecutedPioneers #GULAGWitnesses #ECGProductions #SusannaPechuro #LiliaSklyar #PoliticalRepression #58thUnseized #AmazingCatArtCenter #SovietUnion

In the Borovichsky district of the Novgorod region, unknown individuals demolished memorials to Polish and other foreign prisoners of war who were held in an NKVD camp in the village of Egla in the 1940s.

The deceased prisoners were buried in 177 mass graves at the local cemetery. According to camp records, 465 people are buried there, including 306 Germans, 96 Poles, 32 Austrians, 30 Hungarians.

Near the cemetery, there was a memorial complex dedicated to the Polish prisoners of the camp, which was destroyed by unknown perpetrators. The plaques «In Memory of the Poles» and a cross have disappeared. Witnesses reported that several people arrived in a truck to take part in the demolition.

Local officials stated that a report had been filed with the police. However, according to residents, such an act could not have happened without the authorities’ approval.

The Polish Embassy in Moscow reminded that more than 600 Polish soldiers deported to the USSR in 1944–1945 were killed in the camp.

«It is hard not to notice that the destruction of the memorial complex almost coincided with the announcement by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the closure of the Polish Consulate General in St. Petersburg. In every religion, cemeteries are sacred, inviolable places. Maria Zakharova, is this the ‘painful response’ you spoke of after the closure of the Russian consulate in Poznan?» the Polish diplomatic mission stated.

According to local residents, the destruction was not limited to Egla. In Ust-Brynkino, a memorial to German prisoners of war was demolished, and in the Bobrovskie mountains, two more monuments—to Hungarian prisoners and interned Poles—were also destroyed.

#GULAGWitnesses #HistoryOfGULAG #Poland #USSR #WWII #PutinsRussia

In today’s Russia, everything related to the topic of repressions and the Gulag is gradually being banned. The work we started more than five years ago is becoming increasingly relevant. We collect these testimonies to restore justice and remind people of the unpaid debt our memory owes to the millions of victims. One such story is about Shakir Yunusovich Dautov. His granddaughter and great-granddaughter, Dina and Polina Bogomazov, share their family’s story to preserve the truth for future generations.

 

 

#ГУЛАГ,#ШакирДаутов,#ДинаБогомазова,#ПолинаБогомазова,#Репрессии, #GULAG, #ecgproductionscanada, #UnpaidDebt, #ShadowsOfTheGulag, #ГУЛАГ #СССР, #EcgProductionsCanada, #shakirdautov, #dinabogomazova, #GULAGWitnesses, #ГУЛАГСвидетели

For the third time, our company, which has been working for several years on the project «GULAG. Witnesses,» is organizing the «Return of Names» event in Toronto at the Raoul Wallenberg Monument.
Wallenberg, risking his life during the Holocaust, saved tens of thousands of people but was later arrested and disappeared in Stalin’s prisons. This year in Russia, on the eve of the event, several providers blocked access to the «Return of Names» website. Every year, on October 29 or 30, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities, including many cities worldwide, people gather to honor the memory of the victims of Soviet repression by reading their names aloud. Russia is demonstrating a revival of the core elements of the Stalinist regime, with its cult of the infallible leader, «unerring» organs of power, destruction of enemies, and the threat of anyone falling into the gears of the repressive machine from which it is almost impossible to escape. After the closure and designation of «Memorial» and other organizations as foreign agents, the state policy of commemorating the victims of repression is being revised. The mass nature of these crimes is no longer acknowledged. The «Return of Names» event is now in its third year against the backdrop of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. And this war is not just a struggle for territory or political interests. It is a war of the totalitarian past, which Russia is reviving, against the future, where Ukraine defends not only its independence but also a key system of values, centered on human freedom and dignity.
#ReturnOfNames #RaoulWallenberg #StalinistRepressions #HumanRights #UkraineWar #MemorialSociety #MemorialOrganization #ГУЛАГСвидетели #GULAGWitnesses #ECGProductions