
Today our podcast is dedicated to Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (1946-2017) who passed away on this day, 18 December, three years ago. We were lucky enough to do a long interview with him in April 2013. This podcast contains excerpts from that conversation. As he talked, Arseny Borisovich would smoke and from time to time opened the windows of his office. The noise of the city came in through the windows and remained fixed in the recording along with his unforgettable voice. Vechnaya pamyat’.
This podcast is in the Russian language. You can listen to it here:
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The music, from Stravinsky’s Elegy for Solo Viola, is performed for us by Karolina Herrera.

Sergei Nikitin writes on Facebook: Arseny Borisovich Roginsky passed away on this day three years ago. He left us memories of himself, of the books he wrote, of Memorial that he he created with his friends. A typical Russian intellectual who had been imprisoned in the GULAG for anti-Soviet activities, a man of great intelligence and a good heart. He used to say: “Don’t count on quick changes. There will be no democracy here until minds change. And so, as Larisa Bogoraz said: teach and enlighten, enlighten and teach. Educate teachers, educate human rights activists. Without much hope of success. The usual programme for the late nineteenth century”. We publish extracts from an interview of 2013 by Rights In Russia.

Simon Cosgrove adds: If you want to listen to this podcast on the podcasts.com website and it doesn’t seem to play, please download by clicking on the three dots to the right. A summary of some of the week’s events in Russia relevant to human rights can be found on our website here.