Why is Russia romanticising the memory of Stalinism, enquires Memorial's founder Arseny Roginsky, when its defining feature was the use of terror?

What exactly was confiscated when the Prosecutor's Office in St Petersburg raided the premises of the human rights organisation Memorial on 4 December 2008?

The human rights organisation Memorial has representatives all over Russia and neighbouring countries. How do ordinary people become human rights advocates? And how do they work with the European Court of Human Rights? Dokka was head official of his village in Chechnya when he became involved, during Russia's first war against Chechnya. This is his remarkable, typical, story.   

Yesterday, 4 November, armed police raided the Petersburg offices of Russia's leading human rights organisation Memorial.  Why did they do it? And what does it portend?

A post-war buffer-zone remains tense, a Russian rights activist reports

A journey through the fire, waste and longing of a region in search of life