The Atlanta event was organized by Yulia Krotova, founder of the Atlanta Facebook group "Russian Atlanta for the Freedom of Russia," co-founder of the charitable foundation "Unity Beyond Limits," and First Deputy Chair of the Board of the American Russian-Speaking Human Rights Association (ARPA). The event centered on a public reading of the names of people executed and repressed by the Soviet state.
This year, Atlanta focused on the names of Ukrainians, emphasizing the direct connection between historical memory and the present day and expressing civic solidarity with the people of Ukraine, who continue to resist Russian aggression. Through the reading of names, participants affirmed the unwavering value of human life, dignity, and the freedom of principles for which Ukrainians are currently fighting.
Special thanks go to the rector, Father Bohdan, and the parishioners for their participation, support, and the opportunity to hold the reading of names in the Church. A recording of the worldwide broadcast was released on YouTube on October 29.
ARPA's geography also covered other US cities: New York, where the reading took place near the last address of Viktor Chernov, a Democratic politician born in 1917; Boston; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C. In New York, the Pushkin Society of America, the E. Lodyzhenskaya Center and Archive of Russian and Ukrainian Culture, the Russian Refugee Aid Fund, and a representative of the European festival "Freedom Zone" joined the reading.
In Boston, Liberty Forward, an organization of Russian scholarship holders in the US, acted as a co-organizer. Participants included young refugees from Ukraine and Russia; Lyubov Stasiv (former member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, representative of the Levko Lukyanenko family), Tatyana Yankelevich (daughter of Elena Bonner, co-chair of the board of directors of ARPA), Vladimir Albrecht (former political prisoner, one of the leaders of the Moscow branch of Amnesty International in the 1980s), and other remarkable people of our time.
"Return of Names" has been held since 2007 and in 2025, it was held for the nineteenth time, uniting dozens of cities around the world. Every year on October 29, Memorial combines local readings into a single broadcast, where names, professions, ages, and years of death are recited. This is a form of civil resistance, a way to make the truth about the past visible and thereby strengthen the moral compass of the present.
We call on all who value memory, freedom, and support for Ukraine to join future readings and joint initiatives to assist, in word, deed, and/or participation. This is how memory becomes action, and action becomes solidarity.
Yulia Krotova, Atlanta
