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Group Names Soviet-Era Victims
November 6, 2002
MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian human rights group released a list Wednesday of 640,000 victims of Soviet-era terror - a grim compilation meant to help people searching for missing relatives.
The group, Memorial, said the victims were executed, sent to labor camps where many perished, or deported. Most of the abuses occurred during the reign Josef Stalin.
``Even now, tens of thousands of people are trying to discover the fate of their loved ones,'' said Memorial member Arseny Roginsky. ``We hope that this will help them.''
The names and brief biographical details of the victims are listed in a CD-ROM, which also includes maps and information about the Soviet gulag, or labor camp system, and the location of monuments to victims of Soviet repression.
Alexander Yakovlev, a former adviser to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and a member of the government's commission for rehabilitation of political repression victims, said the list reminded people of the extent of the terror.
``We've very quickly forgotten that as a result of this government terror, millions and millions of people died,'' he said.
Russian officials have said they believe more than 20 million people were victims of communist purges before Stalin's death in 1953. More than 10 million are said to have died.
The list was released a day before the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia renamed the holiday the Day of Accord and Reconciliation. Each year, hundreds of people turn out for marches and rallies, waving the red Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag and expressing nostalgia for the communist past.
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