Week-ending 15 January 2021
“The Russian State still has a chance to repay the debt owing to the ‘children of the Gulag,’ enabling them at last to return home. Society expects this. The requirement is set out in a decision of the Constitutional Court. It is just and right. If this is not done now, it will be too late.”
– Open Letter on the ‘children of the Gulag’, Kommersant, 13 January 2021
On 13 January 2021, Kommersant published an open letter to President Putin, Prime Minister Mishustin and Speaker of the State Duma Volodin. The letter urged the authorities to take action to ensure the 1,500 ‘Children of the Gulag’ still living in exile can return home. The letter pointed out that nothing had happened despite a decision of the Constitutional Court on the issue.
Sources:
The Moscow Times, 15 January 2021: Public figures and ordinary Russians have appealed to President Vladimir Putin to expedite housing promised to 1,500 elderly people whose parents were deported to the gulags under Stalin’s repressions. “They still can’t come back,” 107 prominent artists, academics and executives said in an open letter published in the Kommersant newspaper. Nearly 83,000 people signed a Change.org petition in support of the pensioners, demanding priority housing and an end to queues that could last up to 30 years. “By the time their turn comes, they will be more than 100 years old,” the petition reads, referring to the so-called “Children of the Gulag.” “In 10-15 years there will be no one to return.”
‘Открытое письмо о «детях ГУЛАГа»,’ Kommersant, 13 January 2021
