The 70th anniversary of the largest confessional deportation in the history of the USSR. Online conference in Moscow

In April 1951, MGB officers captured all 9,793 Jehovah's Witnesses identified in the country and took them "to eternal settlement" in Siberia. Commemorative events will be held in a number of countries to mark the anniversary of the events. On April 1, 2021, at 13:00 (Moscow time), a video broadcast from the Moscow press center "Rosbalt" will begin.

Topic of the press conference: "The 70th anniversary of Operation North. Lessons of Repression". Declassified archival materials, including notes to Stalin from the Minister of State Security, shed light on the logic and mechanisms of repression. How was such a large-scale special operation prepared? How was Operation North different from Stalin's other deportations? Has it solved the tasks? How did believers survive it? What role did anti-religious propaganda play in the life of the country? How has religious policy changed in the country up to our time? What is the reason for the attention of modern Russian law enforcement agencies to Jehovah's Witnesses? Is the scale of modern action comparable to the events of the 1950s? What are the consequences for the state of repression in both the short and historical perspectives?

Participants of the press conference: Dr. Philos. religious scholar Artur Artemiev; member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, Director of the SOVA Center Alexander Verkhovsky; D. Philos. religious scholar Sergey Ivanenko; human rights activist and publicist Valentin Gefter; co-chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group Valery Borshchev and representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses Yaroslav Sivulsky.

Place and time of the press conference: press center "Rosbalt" (Moscow, Tablecloth lane). It starts on April 1, 2021 at 13:00. Due to covid restrictions, the number of seats in the Rosbalt press center has been reduced, journalists can obtain accreditation there in advance. The conference will be broadcast online in Russian language; Simultaneous translation into English is organized.

Other events and innovations will be announced later.