‘They’re waiting for everyone to die’: Meduza meets the ‘children of the Gulag’ fighting for their right to public housing in Russia

In 2019, Russia's Constitutional Court ordered the State Duma to make amendments to the 1991 law "On the rehabilitation of victims of political repressions." On paper, this legislation grants victims of Stalin's Great Terror, as well as their children born in exile or in the Gulag system, the right to free housing in the places their families once lived. However, starting in 2004, regional authorities began placing the descendents of victims of Soviet-era political repressions on general waitlists with thousands of other people in need of public housing. This has made it practically impossible for these "children of the Gulag" to return home. Meanwhile, draft laws aimed at putting in place special procedures for granting them immediate housing compensation have failed to make it through parliament. On November 1, the Russian Supreme Court rejected a class-action lawsuit filed over the State Duma's apparent inaction. Prior to the claim's dismissal, Meduza spoke to some of the plaintiffs. Here are their stories. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/11/02/they-re-waiting-for-everyone-to-die