Legacy of Dark Days: Protesters penalized for honoring victims of Stalinist repression Video
Chain of Memory protest in Minsk. October 29, 2017
The video created by the Human Rights Center "Viasna" highlights the stories of two activists from Minsk, 80-year-old Anton Vusovich and 66-year-old Vera Vakulovich. They were among a few dozen people who gathered on October 29, 2017 outside the KGB building in Minsk to participate in a memorial picket called Chain of Memory. The protest is held annually to honor the memory of nearly 100 authors and scientists who were executed in the building on the night of October 29, 1937.
Valiantsin Stefanovich of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" says the root of the problem is that the name of Stalin is still sacred in Belarus.
“Yet too often our streets bear the names of the executioners, not their victims. No point has been yet set in the period of the 1930s-50s, and the Stalinist regime has not been condemned to this day,” Stefanovich said. “However, it is unacceptable to punish people for expressing their views and implementing it through freedom of peaceful assembly.”
