Case Against Russian Historian Elicits Public Outcry
A criminal case against a historian who researched repressed German settlers in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia is now being transferred to the investigative committee of the general prosecutor’s office, according to a statement by authorities.
The case against Professor Mikhail Suprun and Police Colonel Aleksandr Dudarev had elicited a strong public outcry, prompting the investigation. According to the general prosecutor’s office (SKP), Suprun received a grant in 2007 from the German Red Cross and a German historical research society to work with forty thousand archival documents located in Arkhangelsk. He then built an electronic database of five thousand settlers of German and Polish heritage, repatriated from German territory to the Arkhangelsk oblast at the end of World War II.
“The information collected by Suprun contained biographical information, the composition of family ties, facts and grounds for moving…and information about service in the German army,” the statement says. It claims that Colonel Dudarev provided Suprun with “unhindered access” to the archives, with “the possibility of copying materials without the agreement of people about whom information was gathered, and their relatives.” Additionally, investigators believe that Suprun was “planning to transfer the information abroad.”...
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The case against Professor Mikhail Suprun and Police Colonel Aleksandr Dudarev had elicited a strong public outcry, prompting the investigation. According to the general prosecutor’s office (SKP), Suprun received a grant in 2007 from the German Red Cross and a German historical research society to work with forty thousand archival documents located in Arkhangelsk. He then built an electronic database of five thousand settlers of German and Polish heritage, repatriated from German territory to the Arkhangelsk oblast at the end of World War II.
“The information collected by Suprun contained biographical information, the composition of family ties, facts and grounds for moving…and information about service in the German army,” the statement says. It claims that Colonel Dudarev provided Suprun with “unhindered access” to the archives, with “the possibility of copying materials without the agreement of people about whom information was gathered, and their relatives.” Additionally, investigators believe that Suprun was “planning to transfer the information abroad.”...