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donate Memorial receives Sakharov Prize
The European Parliament has awarded its annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the Russian human rights group Memorial, which was founded two decades ago to memorialize the victims of Stalinist oppression but quickly expanded to cover a broad array of civil-society development issues.
European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek made the announcement at the assembly in Strasbourg on 22 October 2009: "Following today's morning session, the prize committee of the European Parliament has chosen Memorial as the laureate of the 2009 Sakharov Prize, represented by Oleg Orlov, Sergei Kovalyov, and Lyudmila Alekseyeva." He said that the assembly hoped "to contribute to ending the circle of fear and violence surrounding human rights defenders in the Russian Federation".
In May this year, at a workshop held during the Eurozine conference "European histories" in Vilnius, Memorial spokesperson Irina Sherbakova outlined the organization's campaign for an approach to history that is sensitive to varying national experiences and memories. Such an approach is particularly necessary at a time when the official history in Russia brooks no alternative to the neo-Soviet myth of the Great Patriotic War, said Sherbakova. The language of the dissident generation of the 1970s and 1980s is becoming increasingly alien to a younger generation schooled in Putinist verities. The current regime in Russia, Sherbakova argued, is more than just nostalgic for the Stalinist regime: rather, it is a continuation of it.
Read Memorial in Eurozine
Last winter, Eurozine published Memorial's manifesto "National images of the past" (available in English, French and German), a call for the creation of a platform upon which a dialogue between divergent national memories can be conducted. Often, the memory of one nation contradicts that of another, they write. If these disparities are recognized and understood, the historical awareness of each society is enriched. If not, they can be exploited for political ends.In a recent article (so far only in German), Memorial director Arseni Roginski describes the rising popularity of Stalin in today's Russia. As contemporary witnesses disappear, collective memory in Russia is altering. The hardships of war and the Stalinist terror are being forgotten and Stalin is being remembered as the victor over the essence of evil.
Published 2009-10-22
Original in English
© Eurozine
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