Book reviews

In the former Soviet Union there were no large informal and non-communist organizations created like those in Poland, Hungary or Czechoslovakia. As a result, no substantial civil society developed. Dissident movements were divided and scattered throughout the country; they rarely, if ever, presented a comprehensive and considered platform. It was only with the policy of glasnost in the final years of communist rule that the birth of a series of independent political movements was triggered. Of these new groupings the Memorial movement developed as the most typical heir to the anti-Stalinist dissident movement of the 1960s. In origin and name dedicated to a monument for the victims of Stalin, the movement succeeded in October 1990 in unveiling a memorial just a stone's throw away from one of isles of the Gulag archipelago, just opposite the Lubyanka, which housed the prison of Moscow's Secret Police. Starting in August 1987, the initiative group collected more than 10,000 signatures for a petition to the Supreme Soviet. This illustrates the political attitude of the participants: to operate within the system, to respect its laws and to defend themselves by appealing to the Constitution. However, the regime continuously resisted Memorial's activities and tried to intimidate its activists. The movement applied for official recognition and registration (eventually granted in the autumn of 1991), but before that, in January 1989, an All-Union Founding Conference was held at which a Charter was accepted. Adler has included a copy of the Charter as an appendix to her book. The offspring of victims were active in the movement, but so too were young historians like Dmitry Yurasov. Important intellectuals and artists, all proponents of political reform, joined Memorial's advisory board: Sakharov, Yevtushenko, Afanasyev, Medvedev, Shatrov and so on. Memorial's activities spread throughout the country, and branches were set up in major towns. The activities of Memorial expanded with the number of sympathizers. A large archive with files on victims was provisionally instituted, an independent Scientific Information and Research Center was registered. A great-number of letters were received, mass grave sites were traced, research expeditions to camps were organized. Historical investigations into repressors and repressed were carried out. Meetings and conferences were organized. Help was offered to victims of repression or their relatives, a necessity that had been completely neglected in the past. Of course, the goal of coming to terms with the past has considerable implications for Memorial's actions, and the movement tried to act as a political party. Voters were encouraged to support Democratic Russia. Not all activists regarded Memorial as a political organization, however, and lack of registration made participation in the 1990 elections impossible. Memorial's main function had become the Bewaeltigung der Vergangenheit, coming to terms with the past, which had also been Solzhenitsyn's artistic aim