In the seventh episode of "On Foot Through Gulag Land," Mr. Zoltan Szalkai took us through the cities of Krasnoyarsk and Norilsk. Among the people he interviewed are several survivors of Stalin's cruelty and the Gulag system. Their testimonies reveal just how sick-minded and demonic the USSR leadership was. But even more interesting than their memories of atrocities are comments made by regular citizens of Putin's Russia, who claim that the present regime is under the hood as bestially oriented as Stalin's regime was.
"That's impossible," I hear you saying, and believe me, at first, I rejected the possibility of such an audacious claim having anything to do with reality, however, then I remembered protesters against war, who were arrested by the police for holding a blank piece of paper. We don't know what happens with such "rebels" in Russia, nevertheless, the reason for which they're persecuted by authorities is just as ludicrous and insane as the reason we can hear about in this video. Mr. Szalkai's aunt got arrested by the KGB on her 18th birthday and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in the camp Norilsk because some of her friends wanted to emigrate (60 seconds into the video). At 10 minutes and 30 seconds, Mr. Ivan tells a story about his father, who got arrested and sent to Norilsk because his surname was Rikov, and patronym "Alekseyevich". He escaped Norilsk's death camp and walked on foot to Krasnoyarsk, located almost a thousand miles away. He was traveling for two years. In 1953, his case was reviewed. He was sent back to do his time for being the son of Aleksey Rikov.
But perhaps the most revealing piece of information can be found 11 minutes and 20 seconds into the video. Here is an excerpt:
In November 2012, a law was passed which stipulates that active civil organizations funded from abroad must be registered as "foreign agents". One such organization is "Memorial", whose members work on collecting documents about forced labor camps, and keeping alive the memory of people deported to the Gulag.
We immediately make several copies of all documents and keep them in different places, so there are copies in different cities and we also send copies abroad, to ensure that these documents survive intact, not only in the event of a natural catastrophe but also in case of political cataclysm, because you cannot rule out that they will come and simply take away everything on some trumped-up charges. Anything can happen here (in Putin's Russia).
Unfortunately, we never once thought, not even in the Soviet days that the time will come when we will truly have to worry about the results of our work. They (Putin & Co.) will hardly relinquish their power democratically. The Bolsheviks didn't do so in their time, and neither will Putin, today. They know that the minute they step down, they will be immediately convicted. They (rulers: politicians & oligarchs) are in an entirely hopeless situation. When I'm asked whether there might be repressions or reprisals in Russia, I always say, sure there can, there just hasn't been any need for them so far.
They would (will) introduce repressions of the 1937's scale if the people lose the fear of the government, making the leader feel threatened. If at a certain moment in time, they will need to proceed with executions or set up camps, they will do so. But, for the time being, there's no need. Much of what's happening today reminds me of the situation in the late '20s, and early '30s. I don't want to say that Putin is like Stalin. He is far from it, but the trajectory of events is forcing them to move in this direction, and I can say that these things won't have a happy ending.
Traces of past tragedies and brutality are laying scattered everywhere around us, reminding us of the dark side of human nature. There are hundreds of abandoned buildings, barracks, and mines in and around Norilsk, full of stories of forgotten unfortunate souls, some of whom were guilty of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong names. Women were not spared, either. KGB and NKVD officers often selected the most attractive young girls who were mistreated and used as sexual objects for decades.
Norilsk, despite its wealth in terms of minerals and precious metals, remains an impoverished city where shine refuses to shine, and truth dares not to be spoken.
