This study examines the tradition of the Imam Ali Assembly (Hz. Ali Sofrası) as a religious and folkloric practice, focusing specifically on Baku and its surrounding towns. The significance of the research lies in the fact that this tradition has never been systematically examined in academic scholarship. The Imam Ali Assembly represents one of the most vivid manifestations of popular devotion to Imam Ali and the Ahl al-Bayt. Even nearly seventy years of Soviet repression could not erase this practice. The aim of the study is to uncover the historical origins, ceremonial structure, symbolic meanings, social functions, and contemporary transformations of these gatherings. Field observations, participant observation, interviews, and text-video analyses were conducted; direct conversations with key informants were held, and the researchers actively participated in the assemblies. The Imam Ali Assemblies are usually organized as male religious gatherings; under the guidance of a spiritual leader, Qur’anic verses, hadiths, qasidas, and rawzas are recited in the presence of dervishes and meddahs. The meat of the sacrificial animal is prepared as pilaf and distributed among participants. This practice embodies both aspects of nezir (vow) and ihsan (charitable offering), symbolizing the fulfillment of individual intentions alongside communal sharing. The repertoire of Ali meddahs is shaped by the qasidas of poets such as Nesimi, Hatayi, Fuzuli, Gumri, and Raci, which glorify devotion to the Ahl al-Bayt. The findings demonstrate that the Imam Ali Assembly constitutes a living and dynamic element of Ahl al-Bayt-centered popular religiosity, specific to the Baku-Absheron region.

The article examines the Lithuanian cross-crafting tradition during the period of National Revival (1988–1991). The primary objective is to reveal how cross-crafting served as an expression of the prevailing societal sentiments, values, and topical issues of the time. The main focus is on an analysis of the intentions and occasions for erecting crosses during the period of National Revival. The article determines the dominant intentions for building crosses: commemoration of the victims of Soviet repression, specifically fallen partisans and deportees; the rebuilding of crosses that had been destroyed by the Soviet regime; to thank God for regained freedom and to seek divine protection for the nation and the state, which had had independence restored. The study concludes that the cross-crafting tradition during the National Revival reflected the most significant issues of that period, i.e. reclaiming historical memory and the aspiration for freedom and independence.

The proposed article explores the representation of the tragedy of mass executions in Lutsk Prison in June 1941, carried out by the NKVD on the eve of the entry of German troops into Lutsk, in oral historical narratives. The study analyzes the plot-motive structure of folklore narratives on historical themes recorded in the Manevychi district of the Volyn oblast between 2018 and 2024. It is emphasized that the plots of autobiographical memorates reflect not only the crime of the totalitarian regime itself, but also its impact on the memory of World War II events in Volyn Polissia. The study proves that the narratives about Lutsk Prison are closely related to stories about the national liberation movement in Volyn Polissia, as among the victims were Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) activists, intellectuals, and leaders of local cultural organizations. The key stages of the texts about the mass executions of Ukrainians during World War II that were transformed into folklore are traced. The article highlights the role of folklore narratives in preserving the memory of the executions and their connection to Ukrainian national identity. Memoirs and oral stories emphasize the cruelty of the massacre, its symbolic significance, and the subsequent struggle of the survivors for Ukraine’s independence. Special attention is given to motifs of miraculous rescue, the cooperation of some Ukrainians with the German administration after the NKVD crimes, and attempts to interpret the tragedy through the lens of folk memory of mass executions. A number of plots demonstrate that Soviet repression became a catalyst for the growth of the national movement. The article underlines the importance of folklore testimonies in restoring historical justice and studying the repressive practices of the Soviet totalitarian regime.

Dark tourism sites serve as powerful spaces where history, memory, and emotion intersect, shaping both individual experiences and collective narratives. The aim of this paper is to investigate how dark tourism narratives are constructed around post-Soviet memory and gendered suffering. A mixed-methods approach was employed, including content analysis of media sources (2013–2023), semiotic analysis of brochures and promotional materials, and survey data with Likert and open-ended questions (n = 250) collected via QR codes in 2023. ALZHIR (Akmolinski Lager Zhen Izmennikov Rodiny) is predominantly portrayed as a symbol of Soviet repression and gendered trauma. Media visibility remains limited due to geographic isolation, while museum narratives emphasize resilience and national unity. ALZHIR functions both as a commemorative and political space, blending authentic storytelling with state narratives. This study contributes to the international dark tourism literature by highlighting the transformative role of emotion, the politicization of memory in post-Soviet states, and the underexplored dimension of gendered suffering.

On 29 June 1992, the Military Archives’ Commission was set up to investigate Soviet repression on Polish territory. The Russian archives were primarily concerned with researching and copying documents relating to the presence of Polish prisoners of war and internees in the Soviet Union in 1939–1949, and to the crimes committed against other groups of society. The collection became the basis for scientific research and pedagogical work. The documents collected have already been used in numerous publications and historical research papers. They are also used by Polish university lecturers and staff of historical research institutions.

The author suggests it would be worthwhile to examine the social status and mobility of deportees and political prisoners, and most important, what impact Soviet repression had on the elite and mobility of social groups in general; whether because of deportations lost social status was recovered at least in the second or third generation and further, how family habits, behavior and group consciousness, influence social mobility.

In the initial phase of the research, political prisoners were studied to assess the effects of political repression, as they can be considered the most traumatised group of all victims of Soviet repression. This group was also chosen because, compared to other groups of victims of political repression, there are very few former political prisoner survivors. The questionnaire used for this study was designed specifically for this purpose and consists of the following parts: demographic data, questions about traumatic events in their lives, standardised methodologies assessing the severity of traumatic effects, a subjective assessment of their current state of health, questions on surviving techniques that them to overcome the hardships of the repression, and the current social support.

This article examines a little-known experiment in film pedagogy by Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, before the beginning of the German-Soviet war (1941–1945, called ‘Great Patriotic War’ in the Soviet Union), in addition to shooting his own films, Dovzhenko attempted to organise and conduct comprehensive training of film production personnel directly on site, at the Kyiv Film Factory (Kyiv Film Studio of Feature Films, now Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio of Feature Films). In the Soviet Union of the 1930s, the Party administrative apparatus strictly controlled not only the filming and distribution of films, but also the training of future personnel for film production: film directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, film actors, etc. Dovzhenko’s experiment in film pedagogy made a distinct contribution to nurturing Ukrainian actors for sound-era cinema, fluent in Ukrainian and immersed in Ukrainian culture, despite the wider context of Soviet repression, especially in Ukraine. The article uses sources from a number of archives in Ukraine and Russia, memoirs and rare period publications to reconstruct this episode in Dovzhenko’s career and grant an insight into his pedagogical practice and approach to film acting.

The scientific debates of linguists on the issue of translating the Kazakh script into Latin created a wonderful opportunity to correctly assess the errors and shortcomings of our national theory of writing. Thanks to this, Kazakh scientists got an opportunity to look back and see where they made a mistake in the theory of Kazakh writing. As a result, we saw that the theory of Kazakh writing, developed by Akhmet Baitursynuly, was repressed together with its author. That is, today's Kazakh writing is deliberately deviated from the real theory of national writing, formed by Akhmet. Today's terror of literacy has absorbed the dangers of those days of Soviet repression, it is intertwined with those dangerous days, according to Ahmet, it is "like the legs of a Chinese girl", tied with a rope to fit into the theory of Russian literacy. The article deals with a number of such unresolved problems of Kazakh writing from a historical point of view.

This paper focuses on one of the two distinct, yet interrelated bodies of Hungarian poetry born out of totalitarian repression: the poetry composed by Hungarian prisoners of war in Soviet labor camps during World War II, which is commonly referred to as Hungarian Gulag poetry, which reflects on the harrowing experiences of soldiers and civilians captured and deported to Soviet labor camps. Composed under conditions of extreme exile and forced labor, these poems explore themes of survival, displacement, and the profound dislocation of personal and national identity. Amid the brutality of Soviet repression, the poets’ clandestine verses stand as acts of cultural and intellectual resistance. Through this body of work, Hungarian

Мета — систематизація та оприлюднення інформації про масові фальсифікації органами НК, ДПУ справ проти української інтелігенції, передусім студентів та учнів середніх навчальних закладів, які вважали себе громадянами УНР і потенційно ніколи не стали б прихильниками або навіть «попутниками» комунізму. Методологія базується на принципах історизму, системності, верифікації, науковості. Використано хронологічний, біографічний, проблемно-пошуковий, ретроспективний методи. Наукова новизна. Вперше в історіографії проаналізовано та узагальнено інформацію про репресії проти української інтелігенції й матеріали архівно-слідчих справ, які зберігаються у вітчизняних архівах, за період 1920—1923 рр. Зроблено висновки про масові фальсифікації цих справ, унаслідок чого тисячі людей були заарештовані, сотні страчені. У процесі дослідження доведено, що заарештовані НК і ДПУ в переважній більшості не були учасниками підпілля або вояками Армії УНР, не чинили збройного спротиву та своїми діями жодним чином не порушували радянське законодавство. Вся їх «провина» полягала в тому, що вони були прихильниками УНР. Окрему увагу присвячено демографічному питанню й особистим даним репресованих, оскільки серед засуджених до страти найбільшу кількість становили юнаки у віці 18—23 років. Траплялися також і 17-літні страчені, в тому числі дівчата. Серед заарештованих та засуджених чималу кількість становили вагітні жінки.

This article is dedicated to Izgali Bainashev, one of the founders of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at Marat Ospanov West Kazakhstan Medical University. Bainashev, a distinguished figure in the field of chemistry, was among those repressed during the Soviet era. Despite his brief tenure as the head of the department at Aktobe State Medical Institute, he succeeded in establishing a well-organized department with a highly qualified team, ensuring a robust educational process. The memory of such influential figures is honored with deep respect. Keywords: Soviet repression, Aktobe State Medical Institute, history of medicine, chemistry department

ABSTRACT This article examines a little-known experiment in film pedagogy by Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, before the beginning of the German-Soviet war (1941–1945, called ‘Great Patriotic War’ in the Soviet Union), in addition to shooting his own films, Dovzhenko attempted to organise and conduct comprehensive training of film production personnel directly on site, at the Kyiv Film Factory (Kyiv Film Studio of Feature Films, now Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio of Feature Films). In the Soviet Union of the 1930s, the Party administrative apparatus strictly controlled not only the filming and distribution of films, but also the training of future personnel for film production: film directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, film actors, etc. Dovzhenko’s experiment in film pedagogy made a distinct contribution to nurturing Ukrainian actors for sound-era cinema, fluent in Ukrainian and immersed in Ukrainian culture, despite the wider context of Soviet repression, especially in Ukraine. The article uses sources from a number of archives in Ukraine and Russia, memoirs and rare period publications to reconstruct this episode in Dovzhenko’s career and grant an insight into his pedagogical practice and approach to film acting.

Drawing on the threefold categorisation of memory as antagonistic, cosmopolitan and agonistic, proposed by Anna Cento Bull and Hans Hansen, the article examines contemporary memory activism in the Republic of Moldova and how it contributes to creating historical narratives. Through an analysis of two memory initiatives, namely ‘The Last Address’ and ‘Stolpersteine’, designed to memorialise victims of Soviet repression and atrocities committed by the Romanian and Nazi German forces, respectively, the article uncovers the many challenges facing memory activists in Moldova where there is limited openness about these periods in recent history. Instead, different versions of the past and suppression of painful truths are subservient to contemporary political agendas.

For the first time in historiography, the authors devoted an article to the tragic fate of Bernhard Lisovskyi (1898–1937), a German by origin, who, like many other representatives of national minorities, was absorbed by the flywheel of Soviet repression in the 1930s. The complete absence of scientific works devoted to the life and circumstances of the death of Bernhard Lisovskyi was revealed; only few mentions of him were found, which are contained in publications, primarily memoirs dedicated to the life and work of his famous brother, the artist Robert Lisovskyi. The research is based mainly on the analysis of the sources that have not yet been introduced into scientific circulation – the materials of two archival-investigative cases of Bernhard Lisovskyi, which are stored in the archives of the Dnipro city. The reconstruction of the biography of Bernhard Lisovskyi was carried out, the circle of his closest people and their fate in life were outlined. The documents of the archival- investigative cases of Bernhard Lisovskyi were analyzed, the reasons and detailed course of repressive actions against him were clarified. It was determined that the persecution of Lisovskyi took place in two stages: 1) in 1935, when due to the lack of convincing evidence of his guilt, first in espionage, and later in anti- Soviet agitation, the case was closed and Bernhard was released; 2) in 1937 – the final decision on his liquidation based on artificially created accusations regarding Lisovskyi’s participation in the anti- Soviet Polish military organization and planning terrorist activities. The course of the investigation of his case by the special services was considered, in particular, the investigation protocols with the testimony of Lisovskyi, witnesses, and eyewitness accounts were studied. The main reason for his arrest was determined to be his ethnic origin, which in most cases became the decisive factor for the relentless use of repressive measures against him. It has been proven that the investigators were constantly searching for new evidence of Bernhard’s anti- Soviet activities (communication with foreign relatives, campaigning, past connections with Germans, etc.), which would give the least reason to connect Bernhard Lisovskyi with espionage, counter- revolutionary network activities. The details of the second arrest of Bernhard Lisovskyi and the efforts of the NKVD authorities to include him together with other Kamianske residents in a fabricated case against the fictitious Polish underground, subversive- intelligence, terrorist organization – PMO are covered. The circumstances of the political rehabilitation of Bernhard Lisovskyi and the prospects of further scientific research into the case of PMO in Dnipropetrovsk oblast are separately disclosed.

Reflection of Soviet repression in Azerbaijani literature during the period of independence

In the study, using the comparative historical method, the post-Soviet historiography of the history of the Bukhtarma Old Believers is studied. The author studies Russian post-Soviet historiography and Qazaq post-Soviet Russian-language historiography. The most important scientific problems and approaches to the study of the history of the Old Believers are highlighted and compared. The article contributes to the discussion of why it is necessary to jointly study the achievements of both Russian and Qazaq post-Soviet historiography. The author reveals the expansion of the modern ethnographic framework in the study of the Bukhtarma Old Believers. The problem of the identification of the Bukhtarma Old Believers in modern historical literature is revealed. The author notes that in the last decade, new studies have appeared in which the Bukhtarma Old Believers are identified with the Old Believers of Altai. Modern Russian and Qazaq historians systematically turn to Soviet historiography. Soviet historical studies written in the 1920s and 1930s act as a historical source. The author analyzes the historiography of the most important problems in the history of the Bukhtarma Old Believers. The most significant problems are Soviet repression, preservation of identity, and preservation of traditionalism. The historiography presents case studies on selected issues related to common scientific problems. The author concludes that the historiography of modern Bukhtarma Old Believers can successfully develop as a single “post-Soviet Russian-language historiography.” National historiography is inferior in depth to scientific analysis.

The article examines the Soviet responses to the Lausanne Process, which took place from May to November 1923. The process involved the trial of Russian émigrés Moritz Conradi and Arkadii Polunin, who were accused of murdering Vatslav Vatslavovich Vorovskii, the Soviet representative in Italy and head of the delegation to the Lausanne Conference, on May 10, 1923. The acquittal of Conradi and Polunin by a Swiss jury on November 16, 1923, under the verdict of "not guilty," as they were seen as avenging victims of Soviet repression, had a significant impact on the Russian emigration. While the historiography increasingly recognizes the role of various Russian émigrés in turning the trial into a denunciation of Bolshevism, little is known about the Soviet government's response to Vorovskii's killing and the efforts of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (NKID) to participate in the legal proceedings. By analyzing unpublished letters written by Soviet government officials found in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation and considering the international context of 1923, this study aligns with the historiographic trend that emphasizes collective leadership and institutional autonomy in Soviet foreign policy decisions following Lenin's increasing isolation in late 1922. The research demonstrates that when the Swiss government prevented the Soviet counterpart from participating as a legal party in the process, Moscow resorted to non-traditional foreign projections, which encompassed actions beyond formal diplomacy, and even involved non-communist actors to present the USSR in a positive and "objective" light at Lausanne. However, the bureaucratic complexities of the Soviet state hindered success in court. Thus, the handling of the Lausanne Process by the prosecution serves as an illustrative example of how post-Civil War Soviet institutions operated in relation to one another, characterized by intricate dynamics and an entrenched bureaucracy, far from the alleged "totalitarian" tendencies.

There is an extraordinary monument to the victims of Soviet-era repressions in a landmark location above Yerevan that hardly anyone in Armenia knows about. On June 14, a handful of activists gathered at this Cascade Memorial to pay their respects in a moving event. Fitting as that event was, it also had limited reach. Less than thirty people attended, illustrating how marginalized the history of Soviet repression remains in public engagement.An Ethics of Political Commemoration can help to reconceptualize this approach to commemoration. With the focus on the Cascade Memorial and the memorial day of June 14, Armenians, led and supported by memorial activist, could make this outstanding location come more alive, also by linking visits to the experience of being part of a larger chain of evoking the names of victims. Researchers, too, could contribute more insight and document their findings through Wikipedia. This effort could highlight the challenges of the authoritarian legacy in Armenia, and perhaps also contribute to a more civil tone as the country moves towards more democracy amidst geopolitical uncertainty.

An infamous Soviet edifice, the Lubyanka’s yellow bulk still stands in central Moscow. The building is controlled by the federal security service (FSB), the contemporary security services, and the FSB provides no tangible acknowledgment of the building’s past. Yet, it is not erased; instead, the surrounding landscape has become a meaningful space for memorializing the victims of Soviet repression. Although the government’s official policy is to ignore or muffle the Lubyanka’s dark heritage, other actors have stepped in to interpret this painful legacy in various ways. This article examines different processes of heritagization and memory work within this “heritagescape.” It sheds light on the Lubyanka area’s polysemic meanings and sociopolitical roles in contemporary Russia, as well as the contested processes of heritagization and memorialization at sites of violence. It also introduces the idea of “accountability” as a concept that can be communicated at a heritage site, especially at times of increased state violence.