September, 2017 Collab Salon: Re-uniting Generations – Anna Silnitskaya & Maria Tiunova (Moscow, Russia)

The Great Terror repressions in Russia in the thirties of the previous century took lives of many people, destroyed families, created the atmosphere of shame, fear and helplessness in the society. Two generations later, we are still tracing the signs of the Great Terror in our lives – fear of authorities, fear of standing out, screaming silence around attempts to discuss those events. As insiders and narrative practitioners, we decided to make the first step towards preferred family stories, towards speaking out, towards reuniting with our ancestors. We hosted a meeting for those whose families were, like ours, affected by Stalin repressions. We relied on the narrative means of working with trauma, outsider witness practices and created a collective document in the end. This meeting became a meaningful event in the participants lives, and we would like to continue and share this work.