Paul Goble
Staunton, June 17 – The impact on Russian life of the returning veterans of Putin’s war in Ukraine has attracted a great deal of attention, but one aspect of this influence is only now emerging as especially important: the way in which these veterans are helping the Kremlin dictator to whitewash the crimes of Stalin.
It is now being widely reported that a memorial in Vorkuta to victims of Stalin’s GULAG was demolished by local officials “at the request of veterans of the special military operation” who objected to the fact that among the 33 prisoners named there were several who had participated in resistance to the restoration of Soviet power in Ukraine.
On this, see nemoskva.net/2026/06/17/v-vorkute-po-prosbe-veterana-svo-demontirovali-pamyatnik-pogibshim-v-gulage/, ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/v-vorkute-po-trebovaniu-ucastnikov-svo-demontirovali-pamatnik-zertvam-gulaga/452671 and svoboda.org/a/v-vorkute-demontirovali-pamyatnyy-znak-zaklyuchyonnym-gulaga/33782984.html.
This situation might be dismissed as a special case in that it involved the issue of memorializing in the Russian Federation Ukrainians who had resisted Stalin, but the fact that the objection was a collective one by veterans of Putin’s war and was responded to positively by local officials strongly suggests that it is the opening salvo in a much larger operation.
To the extent that is so, the most serious impact of returning veterans may not be their contribution to a rise in crime or to the formation of paramilitary support groups for the Russian Community by as adjuncts in Putin’s efforts to whitewash the crimes of Stalin and thus make it even easier for him to restore a totalitarian system.
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