Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

"So that the possible might arise, the impossible must always be attempted." This statement by the German author and poet, Hermann Hesse, could be the motto of the human rights movement in Russia.

This concept also applies to MEMORIAL, which was founded as one of the first non-government human rights organizations in the former Soviet Union in 1988. Decades of campaigning for human rights and of elucidation of history make MEMORIAL a symbol of civil society and a synonym for a new sense of civic responsibility. However, Russia is by no means developing in the direction desired by MEMORIAL: legal mechanisms that were co-developed by MEMORIAL during the 1990's are not being upheld. Moreover, despite President Medvedev calling for reforms, criticizing the backwardness of the country, and planning to modernize Russia in every respect, the social and judicial progress, for which MEMORIAL is campaigning, does not yet exist. There are countless cases concerning the lack of human rights and modernization standards, which have been taken on and pursued by MEMORIAL.

These cases include the imprisonment and sentencing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. MEMORIAL stated in 2003 that "formal legal pretexts are being used to exert massive political pressure" and called for the "development of an intra-social dialogue between independent citizens, non-governmental organizations, unions, trade associations and political parties."

What has become of this demand? Was the criticism heard? MEMORIAL can only establish that the case of Khodorkovsky is turning into a judicial farce: "Six months and no referral to the subject matter," was Khodorkovsky's opinion of the second trial against him. It appears that the primary focus is to silence a political opponent sacrificing the rule of law.

The case of Natalya Estemirova, who was abducted and shot in Grozny on July 15, 2009, also confirms doubts about the rule of law in Russia. Although President Medvedev described the case as a provocation and promised that it would be "solved swiftly and comprehensively", nothing to date has yet occurred down these lines. Estemirova's murderers are still at large.

MEMORIAL is currently organizing protests against the Stalin poster campaign planned by the Moscow city administration to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the "Great Victory". MEMORIAL regards this campaign as a further step towards the rehabilitation of Stalinism, which stands in blatant contrast to "what those who fell in this war did for the Fatherland". If these Stalin posters are indeed displayed in the streets of Moscow, MEMORIAL will do everything it can, to hang up posters in the same locations with information about Stalin's crimes and his actual place in the history of the Great Patriotic War.

All these examples raise the question of how things really stand for Russia's capacity for reform. Can the population be mobilized to break with a society fixated with the power of the state and to campaign for more democracy and the rule of law? Making a contribution to these matters is only one of MEMORIAL's main fields of work. The organization is also equally involved in the education about the totalitarian past and the restoration of historical truth, as it is in providing practical help to the victims of Stalinist tyranny. This is precisely where MEMORIAL Germany picks up its line of work. Founded in 1993 in Berlin, as an organization in support of the St Petersburg-based MEMORIAL association, its initial task was to provide help and support to the survivors of the Soviet Gulags. We still provide this help today.

Apart from these activities, the range of tasks dealt with by the German association, which became part of the international MEMORIAL society in 2000, has expanded. MEMORIAL Germany has become a platform that supports its Russian partners by conducting PR, participating in projects and organizing fundraising campaigns. Our joint aims, especially right now given the latest endeavors to rehabilitate Stalinism, are to overcome totalitarian schools of thought and to strengthen the rights of the individual in politics and society, as active social consciousness makes civil society actions possible in the first place. Without a lively and independent civil society, without change from below, the current Russian system, the "imitation" of a democracy, will be unable to change.

- Ulrike Mattfeldt
Member of the board of MEMORIAL Germany (www.memorial.de)