30 October: Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions

October 30 is commemorated as the Day of Remembrance Of Victims Of Political Repressions.

In 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation declared the date the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression.

The date for the day was chosen to honor gulag inmates in the Russian regions of Mordovia and Perm who started a mass hunger strike on that day in 1974, protesting political persecutions in the Soviet Union.

October 30 serves as a day of remembrance of the victims of politically motivated repressions during the Soviet period.

The day before (29 October), the Memorial Society annually holds a day-long ceremony "Restoring the Names" to read aloud names of those who were shot in Moscow as part of Stalin’s Great Terror. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic the event had to move online, its organisers said.