["Thirty years down the line, we’re back in 1984," says civil
liberties advocate Oleg Orlov, addressing a Russian court at the
conclusion of his trial]
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OLEG ORLOV ADDRESSES A RUSSIAN COURT  
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Oleg Orlov
October 11, 2023
Meduza
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_ "Thirty years down the line, we’re back in 1984," says civil
liberties advocate Oleg Orlov, addressing a Russian court at the
conclusion of his trial _

Oleg Orlov on October 11, 2023, photo: Meduza

 

[The trial of the lifelong civil liberties activist Oleg Orlov
concluded today in Moscow. Orlov, chairman of the board of the
now-dissolved civil liberties center Memorial, had been charged with
discrediting the Russian military after publishing an essay in which
he argued that the full-scale invasion of Ukraine had set Russia on a
course towards fascism. At the final hearing on the case, prosecutor
Svetlana Kuldisheva argued [[link removed]] that Orlov
must undergo a psychiatric evaluation, claiming that his “acute
sense of justice” is combined with an “utter absence of a
self-preservation instinct.” When the court dismissed her argument,
Kuldisheva pled [[link removed]] for Orlov to be
convicted and fined 250,000 rubles (or about $2,500). The court
ultimately ruled that Orlov was guilty of “discrediting” the
Russian armed forces, imposing a fine of 150,000 rubles. Before the
court made its decision, Oleg Orlov also had to speak. Here is the
full text of his court speech. -- Meduza]

First off, I’d like to mention how many people who think the same
way I do have been brutally punished with long prison sentences for
their mere words, for peaceful protest, and for speaking the truth.

Let’s think about Alexey Gorinov
[[link removed]] and Vladimir
Kara-Murza
[[link removed]],
who are being slowly killed in punishment cells. Let’s think
about Sasha Skochilenko
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whose health is being deliberately undermined in pretrial detention.
Let’s think about the seriously ill Igor Baryshnikov
[[link removed]],
barred by the court from attending his mother’s funeral even with an
escort, and now deprived of the medical help he needs. Let’s think
about Dmitry Ivanov
[[link removed]], Ilya
Yashin
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and all those who were sentenced to long prison terms for protesting
against war.

Against this background, the punishment requested by the prosecution
for me looks exceptionally lenient. It might seem that paying such a
small price for being able to state my position, which I consider to
be true, shouldn’t be a big deal. But it is a big deal. If
convicted, I intend to appeal, because any conviction in a case like
this, be it harsh or lenient, is a violation of Russia’s
Constitution, the norms of international law, and my rights.

I do not repent.

I do not repent picketing in protest of the war, or writing the essay
for which I’m being tried. All of my prior life left me no other
choice. I can’t help but recall the favorite motto of my teacher,
the great human rights advocate Sergey Kovalev — a motto he took
from Classical philosophy: “Do what you must, come what may.”

I don’t regret having remained in Russia. This is my country, and I
have long thought that my voice would sound louder here. Now, thanks
to the joint efforts of the political police, the detectives, the
prosecution, and the court, my modest little essay has been so widely
disseminated that I couldn’t have dreamed of such luck.

Call it fascism 
Jonathan Littell on the trial of Oleg Orlov and why imprisoned
dissidents are the freest people in today’s Russia
4 months ago

Nor do I regret the long years I spent working at Memorial
[[link removed]],
for the sake of my country’s future. It might seem now that our work
has crumbled, that everything that I myself, my friends, and my
colleagues did has been destroyed, and that our efforts have been a
waste. But this isn’t so.

I’m certain that it won’t be all that long before Russia emerges
from the darkness it’s currently plunged into. And this certainty
is, in large part, due to the work of Memorial and the community of
our friends and colleagues from Russian civil society, which no one
will ever be able to destroy.

Why did I go picketing, and why did I write that little essay?

In our day, the notion of a “patriot” has been compromised. In the
eyes of a great many people, Russian patriotism is synonymous with
imperialism. But to me and to many of my friends, it isn’t so. From
my perspective, patriotism isn’t about pride for your country, but,
first and foremost, about feeling a burning shame for the crimes
committed in its name. We felt ashamed during the First and the
Second Chechen Wars; and how ashamed we feel now, when the citizens of
my country commit crimes in Ukraine, in Russia’s name.

In 1946, the German philosopher Karl Jaspers wrote a treatise
called _The Question of German Guilt_. In that book, he formulated
four kinds of culpability arising from the Second World War: criminal,
political, moral, and metaphysical guilt. It seems to me that the
thoughts formulated in that book are very consonant with our present
situation — us being Russian citizens living in the 2020s.

I’m not going to talk about criminal guilt now. Those who committed
crimes will either be punished for them or not. But the future of
today’s Russia (just like Germany’s future in 1946) depends
largely on our readiness to consider our own, as opposed to someone
else’s, guilt. I’m going to quote Jaspers:

The phrase “you’re culpable” can mean that you’re responsible
for the crimes of a regime you tolerated — this implies political
guilt. You might be culpable of supporting and participating in this
regime — this is your moral guilt. Your guilt might be that you did
nothing when crimes were being committed beside you — which suggests
metaphysical guilt.

I think that people who love their country cannot but think about
what’s happening with it. Feeling their unbreakable connection, they
cannot but think about their own responsibility for what is happening.
And they cannot but try to share their thoughts with others. Sometimes
they pay a price for it. I tried to share my thoughts as well.

‘Better to take risks than to self-destruct bit by bit’ 
Lifelong dissident and human rights advocate Oleg Orlov is on trial in
Moscow. He wrote an article calling Putin’s a fascist regime.
3 months ago

Let me quote another source, this time an official statement
[[link removed]] from March 22 this year:

Russia and China call upon all countries to promote universal values
like peace, development, equality, justice, democracy, and freedom,
and to conduct dialog instead of engaging in confrontation.

This is being said in the name of a state that sent its troops to its
neighbor country, Ukraine, whose territorial integrity it recognized
officially not long before. This statement is being made in the name
of a country at war, recognized by the absolute majority of U.N.
member countries as a war of aggression.

This also being said in the name of a state where civil liberties have
been crushed, and where the hastily adopted new laws that stand in
direct contradiction to the Constitution are being widely applied to
criminalize any critical remark. This includes the law under which I
now stand trial.

And so, “war is peace,” “freedom is slavery,” and “the
Russian troops in Ukraine are there to protect international peace and
security.” Your honors, isn’t it patently clear that all of us,
both me and yourselves, are living in George Orwell’s world, in his
novel _1984_?

What a remarkable time warp! In real history, the year 1984 proved to
be the year when change started in the USSR. Perestroika, followed by
the democratic revolution of 1991 — it seemed, then, that changes
would be irreversible. But thirty-something years down the line,
we’re suddenly back in 1984.

For the time being, the Russian Criminal Code doesn’t have an
article on “thought crimes,” and citizens are not yet being
punished for having doubts about state policies — so long as they
keep their doubts to a whisper inside their own apartments. We don’t
get punished for incorrect facial expressions. For now.

But if someone expresses such doubts outside of their apartment, they
can very well be reported and punished. Wearing clothing in the wrong
colors is already punishable too. And expressing value judgments that
are different from the official point of view is certainly punishable.
So is expressing the slightest doubt in the truthfulness of the
official reports from Russia’s Defense Ministry. In these
conditions, it’s inevitable that a new law on thought crimes will
come into being as well.

THE DISSOLUTION OF MEMORIAL
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Meduza talks to Memorial’s Yan Rachinsky immediately after
Russia’s Supreme Court shuttered this prominent rights organization
2 years ago

Books are not yet being burned in Russia’s public squares. But books
by undesirable authors are already being branded with the offensive
label “foreign agent” and shoved
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the far back of the bookstore displays. Libraries loan
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books to readers practically in secret. Actors are already
being fired
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theaters if they permit themselves to say something contrary to the
party line. The great actress Liya Akhidzhakova was thrown out
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her profession for her civic position. This takes place amidst the
silence of the majority of people who were once considered Russia’s
“theatrical community.” A totalitarian state cannot have any
community. Everyone must be afraid and keep quiet.

Nevertheless, I’m immeasurably grateful to the community of
wonderful people who were not afraid to come to this hearing and keep
showing up for other political trials. This is very important to me.
Thank you all very much!

What takes place today would have been hard to imagine in Russia even
a short time ago. For example, the arrest of the director Zhenya
Berkovich and the playwright Svetlana Petriychuk. What for? For a play
that _considered_ the causes that push young women to join terrorist
organizations.

The regime established now in Russia doesn’t need people to reflect
at all. What they need is something else: public expression that’s
no more complex than a cow’s moo, exclusively in support of what the
power has proclaimed to be the right thing at the moment. Not only
does the state control the social, political, and economic life of the
country, it’s claiming complete control over culture as well, also
making incursions into private life. It is becoming all-inclusive.
This tendency emerged much earlier than February 24, 2022, but the war
has only accelerated it.

How did my country, having walked away from totalitarian communism,
descend into a new totalitarianism? What shall we call this type of
totalitarianism? And who is to blame for what happened?

The article I’m now standing trial for was devoted to answering
these questions.

I realize that there are people who will say that the law is what it
is, and that’s that. The law has been passed, so it has to be
enforced. I recall that Germany also passed the so-called Nuremberg
Race Laws in 1935, but after victory in 1945, people who enforced them
went on trial.

I don’t have complete certainty that the contemporary Russian
enforcers of these unlawful, anti-constitutional laws will carry the
same burden of responsibility. But their punishment is inevitable.
Their children and grandchildren will be ashamed to talk about where
their parents and grandparents served and what they did. The same is
going to happen to those who are now committing crimes in Ukraine in
the name of following orders. To me, this is a terrible punishment,
and it is inevitable. And my punishment is inevitable too, since in
today’s conditions no acquittal is possible in a trial like mine. We
shall soon find out what that punishment will be.

In the 1990s, I took part in developing the new Russian legislation
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rehabilitation of the victims of political repressions. When Russia is
free, that law will certainly be amended, with an eye to
rehabilitating all of today’s political prisoners, all those who
were convicted for political reasons, including those found guilty for
their antiwar position.

WHY RUSSIA NEEDED MEMORIAL
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A brief history of Memorial, Russia’s oldest and most prominent
human rights group
2 years ago

 How you can support Meduza [[link removed]]

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* Russia
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* 1984
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* George Orwell
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