Children of Gulag sue Russian Parliament to get home

Relatives of those who fell victims to Stalin repressions in the USSR filed their first class action lawsuit in Russia against the State Duma (the Parliament). The purpose of the lawsuit is to get the lower house to enforce the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, according to which the "children of the GULAG" should have a privileged right to own apartments in the cities where their parents had lived before their arrest. For the time being, the authorities queue them for housing on general terms, and retirees will thus have to wait for at least 30 years the move.

There are about 1,500 so-called children of the GULAG in today's Russia. It goes about those individuals who were born in exile or in a camp during the Stalinist repressions. All of those people were rehabilitated long ago, but some of them still find it difficult to get to their historical homeland.

People have to live in dilapidated wooden houses or one-room apartments in villages and towns, although their families used to live in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities. It just happens that they find themselves in a lifelong exile, from which they can not escape due to imperfect legislation.

The plaintiffs on the case are 23 people from 64 to 89 years of age, whose parents had been repressed. They refer to the fact that in 2019 the Constitutional Court confirmed the right of citizens to receive social housing in the cities, from which their families had been evicted. However, the decision was not implemented. As a result, as many as 1,500 people found themselves in a similar situation throughout Russia.

The children of the GULAG complain of the inaction of the authorities and demand the ruling of the Constitutional Court should be implemented in the near future. The children of those who fell victims to Stalin repressions currently try to get housing in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Krasnodar Territory, the Crimea, Oryol and Rostov regions, as well as in the Stavropol Territory.