In the city of Petrozavodsk, Russian Gulag historian Yuri Dmitriev is on trial for a third time – and proceedings are coming to an end.
Over the past five years, Dmitriev has faced a series of charges, ranging from sexual abuse to illegal firearms possession. Now the Russian prosecution alleges that photos Dmitriev took of his young foster daughter constitute child pornography, though Dmitriev denies this, saying they were taken to document her improving health after the orphanage left her frail and sickly. Many believe the alleged crimes have been fabricated to prevent Dmitriev from continuing his historical research.
In 1997, Dmitriev located a mass gravesite, Sandarmokh, in his home region of Karelia, in northwestern Russia, where Stalinist executions were carried out during the 1930s. Since then, he has worked to compile lists of people who died in the massacres, which are now commemorated with a memorial complex. The Memorial Human Rights Association considers Dmitriev, who has spent much of the past five years in prison or pre-trial detention, a political prisoner.
