{"id":13674,"date":"2026-01-05T16:10:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/?p=13674"},"modified":"2026-07-21T15:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:32:20","slug":"i-10-the-culture-of-denial-within-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/i-10-the-culture-of-denial-within-families\/","title":{"rendered":"I – 11 – Life in a Space of Denial among Repressed Families –\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life in a Space of Denial among Repressed Families –\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, this problem of denial can also arise in the opposite scenario\u2014namely, when ancestors were not perpetrators but victims of a repressive regime, and the state stands in continuity with that repressive past. We can observe this today in the Russian Federation. In this negative continuity, it is not only the government that is involved, but often society as a whole, due to the state\u2019s revisionism of history. There is no public discourse on these crimes, and the families of victims of state repression are ashamed that their ancestors were imprisoned, shot in basements, or forced to perform hard labor in the Gulags.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Everyone knows the truth. It cannot be suppressed, but it remains unspoken. It remains a petrified reality hanging in the air.\u00a0And this is what the \u201cSolovetsky Stone\u201d memorial in Moscow stands for; the following commemorative inscription is engraved on it:<\/p>\n

\u201e\u042d\u0442\u043e\u0442 \u043a\u0430\u043c\u0435\u043d\u044c \u0441 \u0442\u0435\u0440\u0440\u0438\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0438 \u0421\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0432\u0435\u0446\u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e \u043b\u0430\u0433\u0435\u0440\u044f \u043e\u0441\u043e\u0431\u043e\u0433\u043e \u043d\u0430\u0437\u043d\u0430\u0447\u0435\u043d\u0438\u044f \u0434\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0432\u043b\u0435\u043d \u043e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e\u043c <\u041c\u0435\u043c\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0430\u043b> \u0438 \u0443\u0441\u0442\u0430\u043d\u043e\u0432\u043b\u0435\u043d \u0432 \u043f\u0430\u043c\u044f\u0442\u044c \u043e \u043c\u0438\u043b\u043b\u0438\u043e\u043d\u0430\u0445 \u0436\u0435\u0440\u0442\u0432 \u0442\u043e\u0442\u0430\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0430\u0440\u043d\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0440\u0435\u0436\u0438\u043c\u0430
\n30 \u043e\u043a\u0442\u044f\u0431\u0440\u044f 1990 \u0433\u043e\u0434\u0430 \u0432 \u0414\u0435\u043d\u044c \u043f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0437\u0430\u043a\u043b\u044e\u0447\u0451\u043d\u043d\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0432 \u0421\u0421\u0421\u0420\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cThis stone from the territory of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp was brought here by the <Memorial> Society and erected in memory of the millions of victims of the totalitarian regime”<\/p>\n

October 30, 1990, on Political Prisoners\u2019 Day in the USSR\u201d<\/p>\n

In the photo on the right: People performing forced labor in the Gulag in Kolyma, Siberia\u2014It is estimated that over 20 million people were sentenced to forced labor in the Soviet Union between 1929 and 1956.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life in a Space of Denial among Repressed Families –\u00a0 However, this problem of denial can also arise in the opposite scenario\u2014namely, when ancestors were not perpetrators but victims of a repressive regime, and the state stands in continuity with that repressive past. We can observe this today in the Russian Federation. In this negative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-preserving-family-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13674"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17284,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13674\/revisions\/17284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}