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CULTURE DEBATE. The Supreme Court of Russian Karelia has sentenced the historian Yuri Dmitriev to a prison term of thirteen years. An apparently fabricated case of “pedophilia and possession of weapons” was raised again after a lower court sentenced Dmitriyev to 3.5 years in prison.
In other words, the punishment from which the Russian historian would be freed already this November has more than tripled, yes, it has almost quadrupled. Is it even possible, legally speaking? Apparently. In Putin’s Russia, with Peter pomerantsevs words, “nothing is true and everything is possible”.
Yuri Dmitriev has spent decades mapping the crimes of Stalinism in Karelia, something that goes against the official writing of history in present-day Russia and, of course, does not fall on deaf ears. And power does not twist its thumbs when an individual citizen raises his voice: the whole sickly emergence of the “Case of Yuri Dmitriev” is described in the Russian author. Sergej Lebedevs excellent essay with the same title.
When a life is at stake, it is precisely the choice you have, there is nothing in between.
The respected Russian human rights organization Memorial, chaired by Dmitryev’s Karelian branch, believes the case is politically motivated and the new ruling is a pure act of revenge. That revenge is also studied cruel and sophisticated. If nothing changes in the verdict, it means a slow and painful death almost certain for Dmitriev, 64 and ailing.
So can you change that? I really hope so. And for there to be a change in the case of Yuri Dmitriev, protests are needed. All those who think that democracy and human rights are not empty words need to protest loudly, and continue to do so until the Kremlin authorities hear it.
I know that hopes are small, almost nonexistent. But woe to him who is silent! Because then he becomes an accomplice and collaborator in a crime. When a life is at stake, it is precisely the choice you have, there is nothing in between. Do not be silent. Please. Don’t be silent.
Dmitri Plax is a writer, producer for SR Drama, and employee of Expressen’s culture page. Is up to date with the book “Peter: time”.
