Russian human rights activist: He's not even safe in prison

Yuri Dmitriev's health is serious. According to the Russian group “For Human Rights” (ZPTSCH), the imprisoned historian was transferred from penal colony No. 18 in Potma in the Republic of Mordovia to a medical reformatory. The diagnosis is: suspected stroke.

There are considerable doubts as to whether this facility has the necessary diagnostic and therapeutic options, the Russian-language web portal Nastojaschee vremja quotes an unnamed source. It is questionable whether Dmitriev's lawyer will be allowed to see his client.

The now 70-year-old was born in 1956 in Petrozavodsk, capital of the Republic of Karelia. First he grew up in an orphanage, then he was adopted. The adoptive father, a military officer, served in the GDR. Dmitriyev spent his childhood in Dresden.

As a historian, he has been researching terror and political persecution in Karelia during the Stalin era since the end of the 1980s and, in this context, also joined the human rights organization Memorial. In 1997 he took over the management of Memorial's regional branch in Karelia. Memorial was first dissolved and then banned in Russia in a multi-stage process.

It is thanks not least to Dmitriev's commitment that a memorial was opened in Sandarmoch in 1997. At the height of Stalin's purges, almost 10,000 people were executed here between October 1937 and December 1938.

In 2016, Dmitriyev was visited by security forces at home and was arrested. It involved nine nude photos of his adopted daughter, showing the girl at the ages of three, four and six. Dmitriyev said he took the photos to document the malnourished child's development.

In April 2018, the Petrozavodsk City Court acquitted him of charges of producing child pornography. The Supreme Court of Karelia later overturned this verdict. In 2021, Dmitriyev was sentenced to 15 years in a penal colony under harsh conditions - for carrying out sexual acts on minors, producing child pornography and possessing weapons.

During his imprisonment, Dmitriyev was often transferred to a punishment cell, among other things because of “poor execution of the morning exercise exercises”. His health deteriorated significantly. But despite repeated attempts, he was unable to obtain a comprehensive medical examination.

Dmitriev's eldest daughter, Ekaterina Klodt, tries to continue her father's work as much as possible. In the summer of 2023, she read a message from her father at the annual memorial service for those killed in Sandarmoch.

It says: "Our task is not only to show the authorities that we remember and to return to the relatives the names of the slandered and shot people. Our task is broader. We are the keepers of memory - and without memory there is no people." There is no place for people like Dmitriev in 2021 in Russia under Vladimir Putin, where history is being rewritten. Not even in prison.