Moscow, Oct 29 (AFP) Russians gathered in central Moscowtoday to honour the victims of Stalin-era purges, as manycalled for the release of a jailed activist who researchedmass graves.
In an annual ceremony organised by the country's oldestrights organisation Memorial, hundreds of people are set totake turns during the day to read from a list of names ofpeople killed during Joseph Stalin's rule.
This year's ritual will take place near the SolovetskyStone, a monument in Lubyanka Square, across from the formerKGB headquarters.
The ceremony comes as Yury Dmitriyev, a respectedactivist and head of Memorial's Karelia branch in northwesternRussia who had researched and exhumed mass graves of victimsof Stalin's Great Terror, is still held in custody.
"Freedom to Yury Alekseevich Dmitriyev," said oneparticipant at the ceremony.
"Is history repeating itself?" asked another.
The 61-year-old activist was arrested last year andaccused of producing pornography, which he denies. Dmitriyevnow faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
His supporters say the case against him is an attempt byauthorities to muzzle the outspoken historian.
Rights groups have accused President Vladimir Putin ofseeking to whitewash the Soviet dictator's crimes amidpatriotic fervour whipped up by state propaganda.
Today's ceremony, called "The Return of Names", alsoholds a special resonance this year as Russia gears up to markthe centenary of the 1917 Revolution which brought Bolsheviksto power and unleashed repression against people of all walksof life.
Participants ranged from older Muscovites to youngmothers with prams and even children, all reading from thevictims' list.
"Pyotr Ivanovich Markov, 57, priest at a church in thevillage of Malakhovka, executed on February 21, 1938.""Dmitry Aleksandrovich Samgin, 19, a history student atthe Moscow State University, executed on December 10, 1937.""Yan Yanovich Kovalsky, 40, watchmaker, executed onNovember 18, 1930."Some attendees, clearly emotional, added their ownpersonal tributes.
"My uncle, my mother's brother, Nikolai GrigoryevichGurvich, 29, executed in 1938," said one female participant,adding that he worked at a factory in the Siberian city ofIrkutsk.
"During the years of terror, more than 40,000 people wereexecuted in Moscow alone," Memorial said.
The ceremony came ahead of Monday's Day of Remembrancefor victims of political repression established by BorisYeltsin in 1991. (AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.