Oct 17, 2009

The Amazing, Vanishing Gulag II


Last year, we noted a new trend in sanatizing the past -- the Russian government had began to use privacy laws to block access to archives about the Great Terror (The Amazing, Vanishing Gulag).

In a new twist, authorities are now using the law to imprison historians.

After the FSB detained Russian professor Mikhail Suprun last month for investigating the plight of German prisoners in the Gulag, he was formally arrested yesterday for “violating the privacy” of Stalin’s victims. If convicted, Suprun faces four years in prison.

President Medevdev once declared war on legal nihilism. But his gratuitous abuse of the law is enough to make nihilists of us all.

1 comment:

Ern said...

You know, there are countries other than Russia who were affected by Stalin (to put it lightly). Any Russian can take a train to Riga and see the Occupation Museum. Should they be arrested for that too? Where does it end, Russia?