Family battles ex-KGB for truth on disgraced relative
For decades the family of Russian village elder Vasily Ostryakov were told nothing about the man other than he was a traitor convicted of collaborating with the Nazis.
Dimitry Ostryakov has spent years trying to get Russia's intelligence services to release information about his great-grandfather, who died in a Stalin-era gulag
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Now, following an unlikely legal victory against the feared Federal Security Service, (FSB) Ostryakov's descendants are a step closer to learning the truth about their ancestor.
"The figure of my great-grandfather has always remained in the shadows for our family, nobody knew much about him," said 33-year-old Dmitry Ostryakov.
Dmitry began his quest for the truth by asking his father, who had scarcely any information.
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Then, in 2015, the family went on a mission that many Russians consider to be a lost cause: to access his file from the FSB, inheritor of the archives of the KGB that prosecuted him.
Vasily Ostryakov was the appointed elder of a small village in southern Russia that was occupied by the Nazis in World War II.
Condemned by the Soviets to six years in a labour camp for collaboration, he died in the gulag in far east Russia soon after.
In 1998, his case was reviewed, like those of many other victims of Joseph Stalin's massive purges who were convicted between 1930 and 1950.
But for reasons that remain unclear, the verdict against Vasily was not overturned and he has never been rehabilitated.
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'What could he have done?'
The family want to know the precise reasons for their ancestor's conviction, but their requests to see his file have been refused.
"Those were difficult times," Dmitry, a doctor, told AFP of his relative living under Nazi occupation in southwestern Belgorod region.
"The other villagers elected him as their elder. What could he have done? In any case, I want to learn the truth."
Dmitry promised himself he would prise the information out of the security services, taking over a task his father had begun.
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"I want to really learn everything there is about my relative. Sooner or later I want to succeed."
After a protracted legal dispute, the Ostryakov family unexpectedly won a small battle in May, when the FSB tried to sue them to recover its legal expenses.
A court in Saint Petersburg rejected the FSB's appeal and sided with the family.
Rare victory
Winning a case against the KGB's successor agency is practically a miracle in Russia, even if the sum in question of 26,000 rubles ($450, 400 euros) is relatively small.
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"With this lawsuit against Mr. Ostryakov, the FSB wanted to discourage other people who would like to learn about their relatives," said Darya Sukhikh, a lawyer with Team 29, a human rights collective that fights for freedom of information and is helping the Ostryakovs.
"This decision pleased us but it doesn't change anything -- we still cannot receive the file on my great-grandfather," said Dmitry.
Two higher courts have confirmed the legitimacy of the decision by the FSB to refuse access to the file.
Russian law in theory allows relatives of those killed in political repression to see archived information on their ancestors, but this does not apply to individuals who weren't rehabilitated, as is the case with Vasily.
The family has not lost hope however.
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The case is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court, the highest legal authority in Russia, and Dmitry is ready to take it to the European Court of Human Rights.
Many Stalin-era archives, concerning deportations and killings, were thrown open in 1992, after the breakup of the Soviet Union and a new policy of openness under president Boris Yeltsin.
But 25 years later, the policy has effectively gone full circle, with many of these files once again classified as secret and those seeking answers rejected in the name of state security.
According to a March 2014 decision, most files will stay off bounds to ordinary citizens until at least 2044.
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