4 September 2013 

Source: HRO.org (info)

• St. Petersburg & Leningrad region Victims of repression Human rights defenders 
• Human rights education Right of assembly Harassment of activists

Scandal in St. Petersburg: the annual rally in memory of victims of the Red Terror, organized by the Memorial Society at the Solovetsky Stone, will not take place this year. According to Tatiana Kosinova, a member of the board of Memorial, the administration of Petrograd district, for the first time in many years, prevented the event, traditionally held on September 5, from taking place.

Kosinova told the website ZAKS.ru that ‘the Chairman of St. Petersburg Memorial Society, Sergei Khakhaev, ‘received an answer to our notification from the administration of Petrograd district. It says that for some reason we should obtain approval for our rally from the city’s Museum of History of the city and that we should not violate the security of the citizens. We thought the reason for that might be the summit, but there was no mention of it. We have never had to reach an agreement with the city’s Museum of History regarding the organization of a rally on Trinity Square, so why should we do it now?’

As Tatiana Kosinova reported, Memorial takes its responsibility with regard to established traditions very seriously, and that is why the rally will not be moved to a different location.

‘We have decided that we cannot lead people, most of whom are old and not in a good health to a rally that does not have the necessary official permission,’ said Kosinova. ‘That is why the big rally at the Solovetsky Stone that we have held every year on September 5 at 11 o’clock in the morning, will not take place this time.’

‘The authorities suggested as an alternative holding the rally in Petrovsky Park, 50 metres from Red Cadet Bridge. We are not going to break with tradition; that is why we will not hold the meeting in a different place.’

Instead, we shall hold a press conference in the second half of September, because during for the whole of September, and even during all the last months of 1918, mass repressions of the Red Terror took place, including in Petrograd.