In early September 2002, the fashionable New York restaurant Cipriani threw a party for widows who had given birth to children by their husbands killed on September 11, after their deaths. Among the 60 mothers with babies in their arms was one man: his wife gave birth a few days before the attack that killed her. There was barely any chance to have lunch properly: the little ones, who a year earlier had not yet been born, were screaming, being fussy, demanding attention. Today these children are already 25 years old. Just think. In this quarter of a century, an incredible amount has happened. But September 11 is not forgotten. I remember that day in every tiny detail.

#America #security #historicalmemory #personalexperience #society #freedom #USA #theterroristattacksofSeptember112001

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How did it happen that in a country where anti-fascist rhetoric permeates everything, a semi-fascist party wins the 2026 elections? Why does this rhetoric no longer work?

#AlternativeforGermany #AfD #warinGaza #elections #Germany #Israel #historicalmemory #rightandleft #ultraright

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For many years after the Second World War, the French stubbornly pretended that their country had been a territory of Resistance during the occupation, and directors with a critical view of this myth were virtually ostracized. The French public has only now grown ready for a candid discussion of this topic: three films are arriving in national release at once — about De Gaulle, his supporters, opponents, and «apolitical» conformists. The latter, unfortunately, are usually in the majority.

#WorldWarII #historicalmemory #movie #Vichyregime #resistance #France #CharlesdeGaulle

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Director Liza Stishova made a documentary for the Ost-West TV channel called «Germans in Russia,» featuring people who are currently moving from Germany to Russia in search of a better life. To understand their motivation, she delves into the history of German colonists from the time of Catherine the Great, talks to ethnic Germans who survived Stalin’s deportations, and investigates the biography of her own grandfather, who helped organize those deportations. We spoke with Liza about what her film’s protagonists are willing to ignore for their own comfort, and why they choose to live in Russia—a country that has just experienced a major wave of protest emigration.

#Germany #deportationofpeoplestotheUSSR #documentary #europe #interview #historicalmemory #LizaStishova #GermansinRussia #Putin #repressions #selfcensorship #Stalin #reliableprices #Emigration

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The 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident is a reason to talk about many things. About the fatal flaws in the design of Soviet high-power reactors and the mistakes made by Anatoly Dyatlov’s ill-fated shift at Reactor No. 4. About the heroism of firefighters like Vladimir Pravik, who battled the flames at the plant, and the courage of hundreds of others involved in the cleanup. About the debates among Soviet bureaucrats and scientists regarding what really happened in Pripyat. Finally, about the construction of the one-of-a-kind sarcophagus over the explosion-ravaged Chernobyl reactor. But most importantly, it’s worth recalling how the Kremlin first denied the disaster on April 26, 1986, then concealed its true scale—and ultimately lost the battle against reality in less than three weeks.

#nuclearenergy #Belarus #state #Twoleggedbelt #historicalmemory #catastrophe #MikhailGorbachev #society #Restructuring #PolitburooftheCentralCommitteeoftheCPSU #theUSSR #Ukraine #censorship #Chernobyl #nuclearexplosion

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Last week, few people remembered Vladimir Ulyanov’s (Lenin’s) birthday. Among those who did mark the date was the Turgenev Library in Paris: on April 22, the complete 55-volume collected works of the leader of the Russian Revolution were ceremoniously carried out from its shelves. In the past 30 years, not a single reader of the Turgenev Library had requested Lenin’s works—so the staff of the oldest Russian émigré library decided to bid a cheerful farewell to the Soviet past, making room for new books. Parisian supporters of Lenin tried to intervene in the process.

#Twoleggedbelt #europe #historicalmemory #lenin #society #Paris #aftertheUSSR #protests #reportage #Russia #TheTurgenevLibraryinParis #Emigration

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In the place of the closed GULAG Museum in Moscow, a «Museum of the Genocide of the Soviet People» is being created. If we didn't know what a kingdom of crooked mirrors Russia is today, this could even be welcomed — after all, there really was genocide in the USSR. However, it was not at all the kind that the Russian authorities mean today.

#WorldWarII #genocide #Hitler #Twoleggedbelt #industrialization #historicalmemory #historicalmyths #collectivization #leftandright #propaganda #repressionsintheUSSR #Russia #Stalin #statistics #Trotsky #theeconomyisalmost #essay

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After traveling through Russia in 1839, the French aristocrat Astolphe de Custine wrote a book that still shapes Western politicians’ views of the country. But beyond criticism of Russian customs, it also contains an unexpected political theory.

#19thcentury #AstolphedeCustine #bestseller #Decembrists #dissidents #europe #WestandEast #foreignersinRussia #historicalmemory #conservatism #finance #PyotrChaadaev #politicaltheory #Poland #rightandleft #revolution #reforms #RussianEmpire #France #civilization

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In addition to the anniversary of Alexander II's main reform, it was recently 145 years since his assassination. Yet in the Russian information space, there was hardly any mention of either the abolition of serfdom or the fate of the Tsar-Liberator: his policies do not align well with the beliefs of the current authorities.

#1861 #power #state #civilsociety #historicalmemory #Russianhistory #theendoftheworld #criticofcapitalism #liberalreforms #monarchy #abolitionofserfdom #TsarLiberator #essay

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Today marks two years since the death of Alexei Navalny. On the eve of the anniversary, five countries (the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands) issued an official statement that several independent laboratories had confirmed his poisoning with an extremely toxic substance—in essence, a chemical weapon. Only the Russian authorities had both the means and the motive to use it in the polar colony. On the anniversary of Navalny’s murder, the editorial team of «Most.Media» publishes a polemical essay by our reader I.B. from Russia. The anonymity requested by the author is necessary: the Russian authorities continue political repression against Navalny’s supporters even after his death.

#democracy #dictatorship #discussion #historicalmemory #Bulk #opposition #aftertheUSSR #BeautifulRussiaoftheFuture #Putin #householdtype #repressions #Russia #Sakharov #freedom #thick #themurderofAlexeiNavalny #FBK #Christianity #essay

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Exactly 60 years ago, the USSR began the trial of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, which marked the beginning of the Soviet dissident movement. One of the prosecution witnesses at this trial was the Orientalist Sergei Khmelnitsky — the father of historian of Soviet secret services and «Most» columnist Dmitry Khmelnitsky. Dmitry himself was 12 years old at the time. A couple of years later, Dmitry learned that his father had been a secret NKVD informant, whose denunciation in the late 1940s led to the arrest and imprisonment of two of his friends. After being released during the Khrushchev Thaw, they publicly exposed Sergei Khmelnitsky, and all his close friends turned away from him. Among them was Andrei Sinyavsky. However, few people know that the famous writer himself was recruited by the NKVD at the same time as Khmelnitsky and continued to cooperate with the KGB. Dmitry tells how it all happened in his forthcoming book «Khmelnitsky, Sinyavsky, and the KGB.»

#dissidents #denunciations #interview #historicalmemory #kgb #personalexperience #thaw #SinyavskyandDaniel #repressionsintheUSSR #parentsandchildren #specialservices #France #Emigration

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In the winter of 1996, nearly twice as many hostages were taken in Kizlyar as in Budyonnovsk just six months earlier; in terms of sheer numbers, the terrorist attack in Dagestan remains the largest in Russian (and apparently world) history to this day. This crisis taught Russian ministers and generals that force is preferable to words, and any loss of life is better than losing face.

#1990s #BorisYeltsin #warinChechnya #Dagestan #hostagetaking #historicalmemory #Caucasus #regimentalcommanders #Russia #separatism #hillup #terrorism #FSB

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One of the most high-profile political assassinations in modern Russian history took place on January 19, 2009. On that day, Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer from the Moscow Human Rights Center, and Anastasia Baburova, a freelance correspondent for Novaya Gazeta, were shot dead by an activist from the far-right group BORN (Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists). They were killed because they supported the anti-fascist movement. And a recent accomplice in this crime was recently released from prison.

#2000s #antifascists #EvgeniyaKhasis #lifeinRussia #historicalmemory #leftandright #Moscow #Shuyne #NikitaTikhonov #society #reportage #ultraright

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Near Lesnaya metro station in St. Petersburg, at 61 Lesnoy Prospekt, stands a building with columns. This is the «house of specialists,» built in the 1930s in the style of Stalinist neoclassicism. Creative and scientific intelligentsia lived here, including artist Nathan Altman, radio engineer Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, and writer Alexander Kuprin. It was from here that many were taken during the «Great Terror.» Now, plaques of the «Last Address» project are installed on the house for former residents who became victims of political repression in the USSR. The last two names appeared on the facade on Sunday, December 14 — on the day of remembrance for academician Andrei Sakharov. A «Most» correspondent attended the ceremony for installing the memorial signs.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #historicalmemory #cultureofmemory #society #Petersburg #Thelastedge #Putin #reportage #repressions #Stalin

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On December 5th in California, Frank Gehry passed away—a fearless experimenter and visionary who changed perceptions of his profession and invented new tools for it. He broke the rules, followed his own desires and imagination, and transformed the world around him. And now, with sorrow, we speak of him in the past tense.

#architecture #Germany #Twoleggedbelt #deconstructivism #Jews #historicalmemory #freedom #art #USA #ridingweight #painter #Emigration

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This fall, the 16-episode series «Chronicles of the Russian Revolution» by Andrei Konchalovsky was released on the Start online cinema platform. The creators of the series openly claim: all freedoms in Russia are only harmful. Which, however, is the norm for Russian historical series.

#AndreiKonchalovsky #state #dictatorship #historicalmemory #medina #society #aftertheUSSR #revolution #Russia #freedom #series #Stalin #TV #FSB

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On National Unity Day, a correspondent from «Most» visited Vologda for the unveiling of a monument to the most famous dictator of Russian medieval times. A monument to Stalin has long been there

#lifeinRussia #IvantheTerrible #historicalmemory #society #Regions #reportage #Stalin

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On the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Repression, we analyze the most dangerous stereotypes about Stalin’s crimes

#20thcentury #historicalmemory #History #Myths #aftertheUSSR #repressions #Russia #Stalin #Stalinism

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The brief period of the rise of Ukrainian literature and art in the 1920s-30s is called the «Executed Renaissance.» The intellectual and creative atmosphere of those years was so enticing that emigrants fleeing the Civil War began moving to Ukraine. But the golden age ended as abruptly as it began. «Most.Media» recalls the tragic biographies of the participants in this movement.

#20thcentury #Holodomor #CivilWar #dictatorship #historicalmemory #History #literature #poetry #repressions #Sandarmokh #freedom #theUSSR #Stalinism #Ukraine #Kharkov #Emigration #language

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In the early 1990s, Dmitry Gubin worked at the magazine «Ogonyok,» which was then headed by Korotich — and he has memories to share about the legendary editor who passed away this week.

#VitalyKorotich #journalism #historicalmemory #personalexperience #media #MikhailGorbachev #Restructuring #aftertheUSSR #Russia #USA #Ukraine #Emigration

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