The crew of Jarlath Cunnane’s expedition yacht Northabout which sailed expeditions to the Northwest and Northeast Passages is to protest outside the Russian Embassy in Dublin on Wednesday at 2 pm for one hour to highlight the plight of a jailed Russian researcher, historian and human rights activist, Yuri Dmitriev, who met them in the city of Petrozavodsk, on the shores of Lake Onega. He has been jailed by the Russian Government because his research work is ensuring that the history of Soviet terror is known and remembered, according to Dr Michael Brogan, a leading Galway Hooker owner and sailor and who was on the Northabout crew.
The Northabout crew, under the banner “Grandfathers for Human Rights and friends of Russian Political prisoner Yuri Dmitriev,” will hold the silent vigil, he told Afloat, “because he has paid a high price for highlighting Stalin’s reign of terror, which Mr Putin wants to whitewash from Russian history.”
“In 2012, Irish Sailing Vessel, Northabout sailed to Russia from Westport to navigate the White Sea/ Baltic Canal.Constructed largely on Stalin’s instigation, the Canal is 227 kilometres long and includes nineteen locks and fifteen dams; all built in twenty months (November 1931 - July 1933). An endless supply of slave labour was available and the number of workers who died will never be known.
“Yuri Dmitriev, Gulag researcher, historian and human rights activist spent thirty years ensuring that the history of Soviet terror is known and remembered. He has dedicated most of his life to documenting the burial sites (with dates, names and each victim’s story), which included the mass graves at Sandarmokh, Krasny Bor and the Solovetsky Islands. He has also published books of remembrance with details of thousands of victims. (From the records of one field hospital alone, he documented the deaths of 10,000 prisoners working on the eighth lock in the winter of 1932.)
“The Crew of Northabout met up with Yuri Dmitriev in the city of Petrozavodsk, on the shores of Lake Onega. He took us to Sandarmokh forest and other burial sites around the area, where we met relatives of some of the victims. Dmitriev is trying to ensure that Russia remembers its past, and the importance of truth to prevent new atrocities.
He has paid a high price for highlighting Stalin’s reign of terror, which Mr. Putin wants to whitewash from Russian history. Yuri was arrested on trumped-up charges in 2016 and was sentenced firstly to three and a half years which - on appeal - was increased to thirteen years. This last sentence was appealed by the prosecutor and on Monday, December 27th, his sentence was further increased to fifteen years. Twenty-four hours after Dmitriev's verdict, Russia's Supreme Court shut down Memorial; the country's most prominent human rights group, which chronicled Stalin-era purges. This same Court has refused to review Dmitriev's case which, at close to 66 years of age amounts almost to a death sentence.
“The present administration is once again setting out to erase the memory of the victims as if they never existed, the future looks grim for anyone who might speak up for the truth of Russia's dark history.”
The crew of Northabout was: Jarlath Cunnane, Michael Brogan, Paddy Barry, Gary Finnegan, Colm Brogan, Kevin Cronin.
