On October 29, our company, which has been working on the project “GULAG. Witnesses” organized the “Return of the Names” campaign in Toronto at the Raoul Wallenberg Monument in a similar way as we had done it last year. We were glad to see all the participants who felt like us, that this event was of such great importance.
Raoul Wallenberg Monument is dedicated to the man, who while risking his life during the Holocaust, saved tens of thousands innocent lives, but was subsequently arrested and perished in the dungeons of Stalin’s prisons.
The “Return of the Names” is a civil commemorative campaign which has been taking place on October 29 for already 15 years. It began in Moscow at the Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanka, gradually spreading to different cities of Russia and the world. On this day, thousands of people line up and, taking turns, read aloud the names of those executed by the Soviet regime.
Throughout the years of the “Return of the Names” campaign, different people took part in it. Part of those who come to participate, the Soviet repressions are, first of all, a personal tragedy. However, many that come are also motivated by solidarity and joint civic action, which give hope and strength, for those who feel that state crimes of the past and present are connected.
The format of the event has remained the same as it was 15 years ago, while our lives themselves are changing dramatically.
Before our eyes, tragedies are unfolding in various post-Soviet countries that are directly related to the fact that the modern Russian state has inherited the mechanisms of terror and persecution used in the USSR, and society has not yet learned to recognize them in time and successfully resist them.
For the second year, “Return of the Names” takes place in the context of a full-scale war waged by Russia against Ukraine. Ukraine defends not only its independence, but also a system of values that is absolutely important for us, at the center of which are freedom and human rights.
Against the backdrop of mass killings and arrests wherever they occur, the reminder of the cost of each individual life is felt especially acutely.
