For decades, Memorial has worked to safeguard the memory of the victims of Soviet repression and defended people facing political persecution in modern Russia.
Today, one of the country’s oldest human rights and historical research organizations, which was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, operates from exile.
Following a court ruling that labeled the organization as “extremist” this year, the group was forced to cease its operations in Russia to protect its activists.
But the work of preserving the memory of those persecuted has not stopped and Memorial’s historical and archival projects continue from abroad, said Irina Shcherbakova, chair of the board of the Berlin-based Zukunft-Memorial and one of Memorial’s founders.
“Our work is about every human life. Every person has value, every person matters. Every person has his experience and his biography,” Shcherbakova told The Moscow Times.
