Posted on 06/08/2018 10:14:31 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Russian officials are reportedly destroying the records of gulag prisoners under a secret order passed in 2014, Russian media have reported.
An estimated 3-12 million victims of Soviet repression were imprisoned in the gulag network of prisons and forced labor camps in the former Soviet Union. Registration records kept by the Museum of the History of the Gulag, now threatened with destruction, include the permanent records of those killed, as well as archival files detailing those who survived the gulag and when they were released.
A 2014 inter-agency order labeled “for internal use” instructs files to be destroyed once the former prisoner reaches the age of 80, Russia’s Kommersant business daily cited a regional police official as saying Friday.
“This information is forgotten once it’s destroyed,” gulag historian Sergei Prudovsky, who revealed the practice, was quoted as saying.
The internal order was signed by 11 Russian state agencies, including the KGB’s successor agency, the FSB, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Interior Ministry, Justice Ministry, and the General Prosecutor’s Office, Kommersant reported.
Gulag Museum director Roman Romanov asked presidential Human Rights Council head Mikhail Fedotov to prevent the destruction of records that he argues could curb research into the history of Soviet political repression.
Fedotov promised to “always defend keeping archive materials that contain highly important historical information” as a way to “counter the falsification of history.”
“But when there’s no document, you can make up anything you want,” he warned.
(Excerpt) Read more at themoscowtimes.com ...
Isn’t the same exact thing going on in America when school districts stop teaching US history and civics and instead play at being “change agents” to indoctrinate children into being good little socialists?
A terrific read. Alexander Dolgun, from embassy employee, to prisoner, then falsely convicted of being a terrorist against Russia and sentenced to hard labor. Released after eight long years he is finally able to recount the experience of being transported to and between prisons, interactions and friendships with other prisoners, the day to day drudgery of trying to stay alive under horrendous conditions which involved trying to meet ridiculously high work quotas for extremely strenuous jobs while in a constant state of starvation and often, sickness.
Hi MeganC, indeed one of the reasons why socialism and leftism has such sway in the world today has to do with the downplaying of the Soviet Union’s atrocities.
They are doing this to support the American Democratic Party. You say what. Aren’t botnet the ones that want criminal action against climate change deniers. What will be next gun owners, Jay walkers etc...
Bkmrk.
Destroying history is never a good thing...
It happens in other countries besides Russia when certain files might embarrass someone. Such as when CIA director Helms destroyed thousands of MKUltra records making the Rockefeller commission all but useless.
It’s a good thing our intelligence agencies have not gone rogue since then. /s/
> “But when there’s no document, you can make up anything you want,” he warned.
Such as this story itself. A report of a report of a report... with no document.
A great read, I highly recommend it.
Archipeligo was a lot of dry reading. Won’t strike a cord even though the author continued to warn us. Anne Applebaum wrote another. Different things in different camps. Still 500+ pages long. I often wonder how many missing americans were imprisoned there? POW’s from more than 1 war?
Hi thoughtomator, glad you have such concern for memorializing the victims of most bloody and brutal social experiment of the 20th Century and find modern Russia’s, and the modern world’s treatment of the Soviet Union’s history/communist atheism’s record satisfactory. The lessons have been learned. /sarc
Alexander Dolgun’s story: An American in the Gulag was a very good read and enlightening of the Soviet Union and American government. I don’t know how I would survive in a Gulag. Those who did are truly amazing.
The Guardian’s article on this topic has appeared on Drudge. A museum discovered the secret order.
At this point what difference does it make?
Archipeligo was a lot of dry reading.
I found Applebaum’s much harder to read,
Archipeligo was much more personal and once
you got used to S’s writing his biting humor
was a refreshing break from the huge mass of
information.
Me? Under arrest? What for?
You got ten years for nothing?
For nothing you get five years!
Not from “S” but some lag humor.
Kolyma,Kolyma, Amazing planet.
Twelve months of winter,
the rest is Summer.
I read one book that claimed American servicemen declared MIA in Vietnam were shipped to work in the Russian Gulags.
Bookmark
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