Protest in Central Moscow Remembers Deportation of Soviet Germans

Descendents of repressed Soviet Germans have today held their traditional protest in the centre of Moscow. 61 years ago to the day, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued an order On the relocation of Germans living in the Volga Region. The document marked the beginning of political repression of Russia's Germans. Every year on August 28, victims of the repressions, who lived through a lengthy nightmare, and their relatives, loved ones and friends gather at the 'Stone of Mourning' on Lubyanka Square in Moscow, which was brought from the Solovki prison camp, in order to remember the victims of political persecution.

Participants in the protest expressed their regret that the Duma has still not passed a law on the rehabilitation of Russian Germans. Duma deputy Tamara Pletneva-Shtrak explained that the main problem for Russian Germans remains their rehabilitation. She declared that today 'for Russia, German Germans are her friends, but Russian Germans remain her enemy'. However, June 22, 1941 was just as tragic a date for Russian Germans as for all the other peoples of the Soviet Union. It is worth pointing out, said Pletneva-Shtrak, that in only the first two months of the war, 11 recipients of the honour "Hero of the Soviet Union" were of German origin.