The Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation recognized the responsibility of the USSR for the genocide and World War II
The Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation published a "Proposal for the establishment of a nationwide state-public program" On perpetuation of the memory of victims of the totalitarian regime and on national reconciliation. "Below are given in full (without Appendices).* * *
These proposals were prepared by the Council Working Group on historical memory and transferred to the President of the Russian Federation at a meeting on February 1, 2011 in Yekaterinburg. In fact, this is only a program plan indicating the main directions of its development. Many points of the program need to be detailed, a number of proposals require fixing with regulatory documents. The working group invites all experts who are truly interested in this topic to collaborate on the development of the program.
Without the assimilation by the public consciousness of the tragic experience of Russia in the 20th century, it seems impossible for Russian society to move towards real modernization. Historical experience shows that modernization can be successful only if both the national elite and the whole society are united in a common civic sense of responsibility towards history. And this feeling, the feeling of a responsible host of the country, in turn, is inconceivable to revive, hiding - not so much from the outside world, but from ourselves - the truth that our people did to themselves in the 20th century. Hiding the truth about the past deprives us of the possibility of national self-esteem, without which we will never create the preconditions for true patriotism; and, therefore, the talk of modernization will remain well intentioned.
One of the most important ways to overcome the mutual alienation of the people and the elite is the full recognition of the Russian catastrophe of the 20th century, the victims and consequences of the totalitarian regime that ruled the territory of the USSR for most of this century. “Totalitarianism tried to encroach on Russian openness, and this threatened with either delusions of exclusivity or a complex of self-humiliation,” noted the first President of Russia, Boris N. Yeltsin, in 1996. “Democracy protects this danger. By protecting freedom and openness, it provides an opportunity for the people.” most be "". Only the recognition of the perniciousness of totalitarianism can become the foundation for the rise of society and the country.
Program objectives:
The first and main thing is the modernization of the consciousness of Russian society through the recognition of the tragedy of the people of the times of the totalitarian regime. Promoting the creation in society of a sense of responsibility for yourself, for the country. At the same time - with the main emphasis not on the accusation of those of our ancestors who created the genocide, the destruction of faith and morality, but on reverence and perpetuation of the memory of the victims of the regime. End of the civil war unleashed in 1917
The second is to provide support for the country's modernization program from the most educated and active part of the population. Even if only a part of the proposed program - the installation of monuments to victims of totalitarianism in cities and in their burial grounds, the creation of museum memorial complexes will be implemented - this alone will further enhance the moral and political authority of the current leadership of the country.
The third is the strengthening of unifying tendencies on the territory of the former USSR and, possibly, of the former "social camp" through the awareness of the common tragic past. The program should be common to these countries. But at the same time, it should be initiated by Russia, as the most affected of the countries that survived totalitarianism.
The fourth is the strengthening of the country's international prestige. The condemnation by the President of the totalitarian regime, the bowing of the knees of the Prime Minister to the Katyn cross have already played an obvious positive role. Having recognized that the whole of Russia is “big Katyn”, having begun to show signs of respect for the victims of the totalitarian regime on their own, voluntarily, without coercion, the country can only call upon the respect of all normal people and nations.
The possible costs of implementing this program can be more than offset by appealing to the best of what happened in Russian history — for example, to the brilliant era that began with Catherine II and ended in 1917. But it continued in incredibly difficult conditions in the 20th century. Russian identity should finally be based on the fact that the history of Russia did not begin in 1917, that we are not Lenin and Stalin’s country, but the country and the people of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Pasternak, Tchaikovsky, Suvorov, Zhukov, Korolev, Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, finally, Catherine II, Alexander II, Stolypin, who made a huge contribution to the development and glory of the country and its culture.
Specific areas of the program:
It is necessary to perpetuate the memory of the dead; in particular, it is necessary to carry out a massive installation of obelisks and other signs of memory, both in the burial places of victims of the totalitarian regime, and in cities and villages, where they were arrested and from where they were taken. It is necessary to launch a state-public program to assist in the search and identification of burial places for victims of repression. This program, as well as the program for installing signs of memory, should be given an international character from the very beginning: it should become common for all CIS and Baltic countries, and, possibly, for other countries that were part of the socialist camp. All were victims, and among the executioners there were also representatives of all nations. (See Appendix 1, paragraphs 1.1, 1.3).
(In the future, the program could have a broader pan-European character: the whole of Europe was a victim, the whole of Europe was guilty of the tragedies of the twentieth century - in two world wars, in two totalitarianism, in the hardest, not fully resolved split).
It is necessary to support the victims of repression living among us; a handful of them remained, but the injustice committed against them must be redeemed. (See Appendix 2).
It is necessary, finally, to declassify the archives in order to stop hiding from ourselves the terrible truth about the atrocities that were happening in our country. Hiding the well-known truth to everyone, we disgrace ourselves and associate it with the totalitarian regime. (See Appendix 3).
It seems that society is ready for the implementation of such a program. Honoring the memory of the fallen can bring to life not an ersatz, but a real mass patriotic movement. It is especially important to attract young people to this movement.
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The country and its leadership in the future are facing basic tasks, the fulfillment of which will undoubtedly have historical significance. The solution of these problems, as a rule, cannot have a single-step character. Problem statement itself will require a certain sequence of actions. Accordingly, the set of actions aimed at understanding and overcoming the tragic past can already be divided into two categories at the first stage: the priority steps that are key to solving the problem as a whole, and the measures accompanying these steps.
The priority steps to perpetuate the memory of the dead and the fulfillment of moral duty to the living include:
- The issuance of a decree or a law providing for the creation in all major cities and large settlements (at least up to the level of regional centers) of monuments to victims of repression; assistance through mass media and other channels to the creation of a mass search movement, which would reveal the names of the victims, search for burial sites, participate in the establishment of monuments; wide involvement of young people in this movement (the experience of such movements exists among our neighbors, but it also has a base in Russia); the creation of public and state charitable foundations financing the perpetuation of the memory of the victims.
- Creation of at least two national memorial-museum complexes near both capitals and a monumental monument to the victims in the center of Moscow. (See Appendix 1, item 1.2).
- Elaboration and adoption of a unified state program for the creation of Books of memory of victims of the totalitarian regime and the creation on their basis of the Unified database "Victims of the totalitarian regime in the USSR". (See Appendix 1, paragraphs 1.3, 1.4).
- Improving the mechanisms of social support for victims of repression living in Russia. (See Appendix 2).
These measures should prepare a political and legal assessment of past crimes - in the form of a formal declaration on behalf of both the executive and the legislature, and also, probably, in the form of an authoritative legal decision, qualifying criminal acts in accordance with the law. The absence of such an assessment is a major obstacle to the “detotalitarianization” of the Russian public consciousness. (See Appendix 4, Appendix 8).
It may already be worth renaming the weirdly sounding Day of National Unity into the "Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Civil War and National Reconciliation." Those. the end of a civil war that lasted for almost a century. Such a renaming is all the more logical as the events of 1612 of the year symbolized the end of the “troubles,” that is, they were in fact the end of the civil war.
In order to maintain and consolidate the results achieved by the above-mentioned priority measures, it is also necessary, perhaps, at the second stage:
- complete the process of legal rehabilitation of citizens convicted for political reasons in different periods of Soviet history (see Annex 5);
- to adopt the Law on toponymy, which prohibits perpetuating in the names of settlements, streets, squares, etc. the memory of those responsible for mass repressions and other grave crimes against the rights and freedoms of citizens (see Appendix 6);
- to create modern courses of national history for high schools, free from old and new mythologies, combining systematic and historicism of presentation with a distinct moral, legal, civil and political assessment of events (see Appendix 7);
- to encourage and support research on national history; to this end, facilitate the access of researchers to archival materials. To promote reliable information about the past in the public consciousness, to digitize and publish the most important historical documents of the twentieth century from state and departmental archives (see Appendix 7);
- to stimulate and develop museum work everywhere, aimed at highlighting the tragic pages of Soviet history.
It is necessary to create an effective mechanism for the implementation of the proposed program, if, of course, it is adopted (see Appendix 9).
The full implementation of this program is desirable and necessary in cooperation with other states that have emerged in the post-Soviet space. At the same time, it is important that the Russian Federation be the initiator of joint programs - not only as a successor state of the Soviet Union, but also as the country most affected by the repressions of the Soviet period (see Appendix 10).
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