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Russian Ministry: Only Non-Political Gulag Records have been Destroyed
Moscow Times ^ | July 2018 | Reuters

Posted on 07/13/2018 7:31:38 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

The Gulag Museum in Moscow alleged last month that Russian officials permanently destroyed cards with the personal information and the release dates of former inmates. In response to concerns that authorities were attempting to erase the history of Soviet repression, the Interior Ministry noted that physical copies of the records were digitized for permanent storage.

The Interior Ministry now admits it does delete some records of gulag survivors, but only those who were not convicted of committing political crimes against the Soviet Union, Russia’s Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday.

In a letter sent to gulag historian Sergei Prudovsky, who originally discovered the practice of destroying records when the files for a peasant farmer went missing, the Interior Ministry specified that only the record cards of gulag survivors who were convicted of “political” crimes under the 58th article of the USSR’s criminal code are still retained.

But experts say that convictions of gulag prisoners under other articles could also have been politically motivated, and therefore their records must be kept.

“We understood that cases of deportation, dekulakization, articles on socially harmful and dangerous elements, could have been politically motivated,” Memorial gulag researcher Nikita Okhotin told Kommersant.

Conservative estimates say nearly 700,000 people were executed in Stalin’s Great Terror of 1937-38. The Memorial rights group keeps a database with records of some 3 million victims of Soviet repression.

Gulag researchers are calling for an amendment to the 1991 law on the rehabilitation of the victims of Stalinist repression, a key legal effort in reckoning with the victims of Soviet human rights abuses, that would interpret the category of political crimes more broadly.

Regardless, said Okhotin, who helped draft the 1991 rehabilitation law, records should not be destroyed. “We couldn’t even imagine that the remaining documents could disappear,” he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at themoscowtimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Russia
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; gulag; history; nikitaokhotin; russia; sergeiprudovsky; sovietunion; ussr

1 posted on 07/13/2018 7:31:38 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Define “Non-Political”?

EVERYTHING about the gulags was Political!


2 posted on 07/13/2018 7:34:19 AM PDT by G Larry (There is no great virtue in bargaining with the Devil)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

How good were the Russians/Soviets at keeping records of their massacres and imprisonment programs?

The Germans, of course, were extremely methodical.

The Japanese didn’t keep records of prisoners, they just killed people but noted the occurrences

And in places like Rwanda, there aren’t even records of who was alive before they were killed.


3 posted on 07/13/2018 7:51:16 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The 20th and 21st Century Communists were NEVER held accountable for their crimes.... Mao . . . . . Stalin . . . . . . . Planned Parenthood. . . . . . etc.

4 posted on 07/13/2018 7:54:26 AM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: PGR88

“And in places like Rwanda...”

Which is right next door to Wakanda.


5 posted on 07/13/2018 7:55:17 AM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Wiped? Like with a rag?


6 posted on 07/13/2018 8:31:30 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Spygate's clock began in 2015 - what did President Obama know and when did he know it)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Conservative estimates say nearly 700,000 people were executed in Stalin’s Great Terror of 1937-38.

That is very, very conservative! Try in the millions.

7 posted on 07/13/2018 8:49:46 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

So, is Mule-er gonna look into the millions Obuttho spent meddling in the Israeli election?


8 posted on 07/13/2018 9:40:46 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
Conservative estimates say nearly 700,000 people were executed in Stalin’s Great Terror of 1937-38. The Memorial rights group keeps a database with records of some 3 million victims of Soviet repression.
700K isn't an estimate, it's a joke. Memoriale may have a database of 3 million, but their estimate runs to 40 million (not all died in the gulag system, some were merely executed in Lubyanka, or other prisons, or just got arrested on the street, or out of thir homes in the middle of the night, and never were seen again. Thanks CondoleezzaProtege.

9 posted on 08/13/2018 4:09:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: SunkenCiv

Add those victims of the Holodomor too.


10 posted on 08/13/2018 4:16:29 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: Grimmy
Yes, in 1932 and 1933, and Dekulakization in 1929.

11 posted on 08/13/2018 6:06:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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