contact
Mednoe Memorial Complex
Kalinin region, Mednoe
Tver, Tver Oblast, 170521
Russia
Tel: +7-822-388-384
Russian Sites of Conscience Network
» send e-mail
» Visit website
Dialogues for Democracy
The Challenge
Despite the many positive changes in Russia since the end of the Communist regime in 1991, the political violence, press restrictions, crackdown on civil society organizations, and persistent problems with the legal and governance systems today highlight the still considerable need to protect the civil rights of Russian citizens. In a nation where rising public protests against government policies are met with swift and harsh measures, the memory of totalitarianism is rapidly disappearing and democratic freedoms are under threat. Mednoe Memorial Complex strives to reverse this trend by offering programs that keep the memory of the recent past alive and promote broad civic dialogue on the future of Russian democracy.
The Dialogue for Democracy Questions
- What is the ’state’?
- Why do democratic societies need a state?
- How do you understand the words: ‘terror’ and ’state terror’?
- What is ideological intolerance?
- What states do you know that you would define as (un)democratic, and why?
- What is the basis for totalitarian states?
- What is a cult of personality?
- What role does each individual place in a totalitarian society?
- How can we prevent totalitarianism from taking hold again?
The Program
Through the ‘History of My Family’, Mednoe Memorial Complex trains local youth to record their family’s experience with state repression by conducting oral histories and researching official sources such as the NKVD archives. The findings made by the students in the process provide new information for the Museum and the public, and serve as starting points for dialogues the Museum facilitates with the students on the role of the state and its citizens in contemporary Russia.
Students begin with a workshop to discuss their understanding of and association with relevant terms and concepts, such as ‘the state,’ ’state terror’, ‘ideological intolerance and tolerance’, and then review and discuss the role of institutions and systems of state repression. Following a tour of the Complex exhibits and grounds, students complete surveys about their family histories during the totalitarian regime, and identify if any family members were victims. Students then conduct further research on their family case studies. Finally, students prepare short biographies of the victims and write an essay about their personal family experience during the years of political repression.
Students then explore the issue of state and society in Russia today, questioning the concept of totalitarianism, the reasons for political repression and state terror in the former USSR. At the end, they connect this history to the personal research on their families by sharing passages from their personal essays and official documented evidence.
Impact
By investigating the state policy of repression during the Stalinist era and connecting their family histories with Russia’s social and national history, students distinguish key institutions required for democracy and students’ roles in promoting democracy as they define it.