Returning The Names 2025 poster

Returning The Names 2025

Protest Memory: A Chronicle of the Banned “Returning the Names 2025”

7.0(1)202530m1

Since 2020 organizers of “Returning the Names” have been repeatedly denied authorization. In Moscow, the main public readings are effectively banned, formally due to lingering COVID-era restrictions. In 2022 Russia’s Supreme Court liquidated the International Memorial, and pressure on the memory movement intensified. With mass gatherings impossible, activists seek legal ways to keep the ritual alive. “Returning the Names” is an annual commemoration in which participants read aloud the names of people executed during the Great Terror. Since 2007, thousands have joined across Russia and abroad on the eve of the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression. Traditionally Muscovites gathered at the Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanka Square, opposite the security services’ headquarters. Now the readings scatter across the city, during historical walks or in forests at mass graves. With no publicity, amid fear and the risk of prosecution, dozens take part, and their number keeps growing.

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Status
Released
Budget
—
Box office
—
Language
Russian

Behind the camera

Director

Egor Isaev

Produced in

Russia, Lithuania

Videos

Release dates

  • RussiaRU

    • Premiere24 Nov 2025

Frequently asked questions

Returning The Names 2025 was released on 24 November 2025.

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