At the Solovetsky Stone (a memorial in Moscow to victims of political repression), they will hand you a slip of paper with two names on it, which you will read aloud. Name, age, occupation, date of execution.
This is the “Returning the Names” campaign, held in memory of the victims of political repression. Here is its official website: http://www.october29.ru/
The campaign has been held in this format for many years, but even half of the list of those executed—just in Moscow alone—has not yet been read.
Come too, and give back their names to two people who were shot somewhere in a basement, without the slightest guilt.
Just standing there and listening is also very important: it quickly dispels the myth in your own mind that only officials and bosses were repressed. The overwhelming majority of occupations are not “white-collar” at all. Carpenter, railway track inspector, laborer, that sort of thing.
Yevgeny Roizman wrote about all this very well. He is probably the only high-ranking public official (the mayor of a major city) who today is not posting the disgusting “oh, happy birthday, Komsomol” (the Soviet Communist youth organization), but is saying what actually needs to be said:
During the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet term for the Eastern Front of World War II), 21,000 residents of Sverdlovsk died in combat. In 1937–38, their own government executed 20,000 residents of Sverdlovsk.
In Moscow, the campaign is taking place on Lubyanka Square until 10:00 p.m. Just dress warmly if you go—you’ll have to stand in line. I stood there for about 30 minutes today, and it will be longer in the evening.