10/06/2026
How do we remember those whose voices were meant to disappear?
On 28 May 2026, around 60 guests gathered at the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute for the panel discussion Justice in Memory: The NKVD Operation and North Azovian Greeks of Ukraine.
Organized jointly by the NGO North Azovian Greeks: Urums and Roumeans and the Pilecki Institute, the event was dedicated to a largely overlooked episode within the broader wave of Stalinist terror — the NKVD Greek Operation of 1937–1938.
Together with distinguished Ukrainian historians Dr. Larysa Yakubova, Dr. Anna Hedo, and Dr. Valerii Tomazov, participants explored the history of the North Azovian Greeks — an autochthonous people of Ukraine and descendants of Crimean Christians whose home for nearly 250 years has been on the northern shores of the Sea of Azov.
The discussion traced a broader historical journey: from the hopes of national and cultural revival during the 1920s and early 1930s, through collectivization and the Holodomor, to the mass repressions that targeted various ethnic minorities across the Soviet Union. Thousands of North Azovian Greeks became victims of the NKVD Greek Operation, while the community lost a significant part of its intellectual, cultural, and civic elite.
Today, nearly ninety years after the NKVD Greek Operation, all 76 settlements of compact North Azovian Greek residence in the south of Donetsk Oblast remain under Russian occupation. Since 2014, and especially since the full-scale invasion of 2022, tens of thousands of North Azovian Greeks have been displaced from their homes. Alongside homes and livelihoods, many families lost access to photographs, archives, and places of memory.
The panel was accompanied by the pop-up exhibition Justice in Memory: A Fragile Space of Remembrance, which brings together family photographs of North Azovian Greeks whose lives unfolded during the 1930s, alongside portraits of prominent members of the community who became victims of the NKVD Greek Operation. The portraits were created by Ukrainian artist Anatolii Belov at the invitation of language activist and NGO co-founder Oleksandr Rybalko.
Some of the photographs appear only as silhouettes or outlines. They symbolize images that have been lost because of war or remain inaccessible in territories occupied by the Russian Federation. In this way, the memory of twentieth-century repression acquires a new dimension today — through displacement, destruction, and loss caused by Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
The exhibition space itself is intentionally fragile and unstable. The uneven floor and the warning sign at the entrance — “Enter at your own risk” — are not meant to distance the visitor, but rather to remind us that memory requires attentiveness, sensitivity, and responsibility.
Reflecting on the significance of remembrance, Olga Tsuprykova, Head of the NGO North Azovian Greeks: Urums and Roumeans, noted:
“Authoritarian regimes, of the past and present, are deeply afraid of at least two things: knowledge and memory. That is why they persecute intellectuals, erase archives, destroy cultural heritage, occupy territories, and attempt to silence entire communities.
The struggle against these regimes is therefore also a struggle for remembrance.
Today, by gathering here, by participating in the discussion, by looking at old family photographs, we symbolically restore a space for those who were denied the right to speak for themselves.
And perhaps this is where justice begins.
Justice in memory.”
We extend our sincere gratitude to all speakers, partners, guests, volunteers, and families who contributed to this event and helped restore space for voices that history attempted to silence.
📍 The exhibition Justice in Memory: A Fragile Space of Remembrance remains open at the Pilecki Institute Berlin until 12 June 2026.
🎥 A recording of the discussion will be published on the Pilecki Institute's YouTube channel in the coming weeks.
Photo credits: Pilecki Institute and North Azovian Greeks NGO.
Event organizers: Pilecki Institute and North Azovian Greeks NGO (Ukraine)
ГО "Надазовські греки" / NGO 'North Azovian Greeks'
Ukrainisches Institut in Deutschland
Vitsche Berlin
Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV)
