Repression and Reduction

On April 29, 2016, the jury of a youth literature competition organized by the human rights group Memorial arrived at Moscow’s Dom Kino along with a group of participating schoolchildren. In front of the building, they were attacked by nationalist hooligans hurling eggs and paint. Among those present was the acclaimed novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya, herself a victim of the violent Stalin-era history which Memorial aims to confront. Several of the hooligans had dressed themselves in World War II-era Soviet Army uniforms; speaking to the television cameras, they claimed the children they attacked were “Jews in need of an exorcism.”