Arseny Roginsky facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arseny Borisovich Roginsky
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| Арсений Борисович Рогинский | |
Arseny Roginsky at the Memorial society
29 April 2012 |
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| Born | 30 March 1946 |
| Died | 18 December 2017 (aged 71) Tel Aviv, Israel
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| Nationality | Russian |
| Citizenship |  Soviet Union (1946–1991) →  Russia (1991–2017) |
| Alma mater | University of Tartu, Estonia |
| Spouse(s) | Natalya Frumkina |
| Awards |     |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History |
| Institutions |
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Arseny Borisovich Roginsky (Russian: Арсе́ний Бори́сович Роги́нский; born March 30, 1946 – died December 18, 2017) was an important Russian historian and a Soviet dissident. A dissident is someone who disagrees with their government and speaks out, even when it's dangerous. Roginsky helped start an important group called Memorial. This group works to remember people who suffered under the Soviet government and to protect human rights. He led Memorial from 1998 until he passed away.
Contents
Arseny Roginsky's Life Story
Arseny Roginsky was born in 1946 in a town called Velsk in Russia. His family was Jewish, and his father had been sent to Velsk from Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) by the government at that time.
In 1968, he finished his studies at the University of Tartu in Estonia. He studied history and language there.
From 1968 to 1981, Roginsky lived in Leningrad. He worked as a bibliographer at the Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library. He also taught Russian language and literature in evening schools. During this time, he studied the history of Russia in the 1900s. He was especially interested in how people faced political repression under the Soviet government.
A Historian Who Spoke Out
From 1975 to 1981, Roginsky edited a series of historical documents and studies called Pamyat (which means "Memory"). These were part of a secret publishing network called samizdat, where people shared forbidden writings. After 1978, these writings were also shared outside the Soviet Union.
Because of his work, the authorities started to watch him. In 1977, his apartment was searched, and he was warned to stop his "politically harmful" activities. After another search in 1979, he was fired from his teaching job because the KGB (the Soviet secret police) asked for it.
In April 1981, Roginsky was told to leave the Soviet Union, but he refused. On August 12, 1981, he was arrested. He was accused of sharing materials abroad for "anti-Soviet publications" like Pamyat. In court, he gave a powerful speech about "The situation of a historian in the Soviet Union." He was found guilty and sentenced to four years in a labor camp.
After His Release
Roginsky served his full sentence and was released in 1985. In 1992, his conviction was officially cleared, meaning he was fully rehabilitated.
In 1988–1989, Roginsky helped create Memorial. This group became a big movement across Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Its full name is the "Historical and Educational, Human Rights and Humanitarian Society."
In 1998, Roginsky became the chairman of Memorial's board. He played a huge role in helping the organization grow. Even while leading Memorial, he continued his work as a historian. He helped put together a book called Memories of Peasant Tolstoyans, the 1910–1930s.
His skills as a historian were very important for Memorial's research. He helped create the Books of Remembrance. These books, published between 1995 and 2005, listed the names of people who were victims of political repression in and around Moscow. This included places like Donskoi Monastery, the Butovo firing range, and Kommunarka. He also wrote about how people from other countries, like Poles, Germans, and Austrians, were targeted during Stalin's time.
Understanding the Soviet Past
Arseny Roginsky's work helped people understand the true scale of political terror in the Soviet Union. He gathered many reports from all over the country about arrests by the Soviet security services (like the Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, and KGB).
He found that between 1918 and 1987, about 7.1 million people were arrested by these services. These arrests were not just for "political" crimes, but also for other offenses. The names of those arrested, shot, or imprisoned became the basis for many regional Books of Remembrance. Eventually, this led to Memorial's online database called "The Victims of Political Terror in the USSR," which Roginsky directed. With more names added, including deported families, the total number of identified people went over three million.
His Last Years
In 2014, the authorities tried to shut down Memorial. Roginsky said that if Memorial closed, its many branches would have to re-register and rebuild their connections. Over the next two years, five of Memorial's branches were labeled "foreign agents" by the government. On October 4, 2016, the main International Memorial group, led by Roginsky, also received this label. A year later, on December 18, 2017, Roginsky passed away in Tel Aviv, Israel, at the age of 71.
See Also
In Spanish: Arseni Roginski para niños
- Chronicle of Current Events
- Dissident
- Donskoy Monastery - the Soviet period and beyond
- Memorial (society)
Awards
- 2002: Class II Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, Estonia, for investigating crimes against humanity
- 2005: Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for his efforts in uncovering truth about repressions against Polish people
- 2010: Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for his exceptional efforts in research in and the uncovering of the truth about the Katyn massacre
- 2010: Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his lengthy struggle for the truth, unprejudiced information and memory, courageous commitment to freedom and human rights as well as his strong commitment to concerns of civil society
Videos
- The Right to Memory (Право на Память), 2018, in Russian; English, German, Polish and Ukrainian subtitles available, 96 min., Arseny Roginsky's account of his life.
