Today, September 9, 2023, Dmitry Petrov would have turned 34 years old. On the website of his memory leshy.info you can read and listen to Dima’s biography, his interviews and lectures, his articles and articles about him. There are links to books he translated or edited, to projects in which he participated. The memorial website consists of sections in Russian, English and Ukrainian.
Dmitri Petrov was anarchist, candidate of historical sciences, anthropologist. Worked at the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In Moscow, fought against the city planning policy of the authorities (eviction of dormitories and cutting down forest parks). Helped an independent book publishing house.
Co-author of Hevale, a media project on direct democracy and cooperative economics in the Middle East. Edited “Flowers of the Desert: 10 Years of the Revolution in Rojava” and “Life without a State: The Revolution in Kurdistan”. Translated the study “Kurdistan. Real Democracy under War and Siege”. Coordinated the translation and publication of the memoirs of Kurdish revolutionary Sakineh Jansiz. Visited the region twice as a researcher and member of Kurdish self-defense units.
Due to political persecution and a looming prison sentence, he left Russia in 2019 and moved to Ukraine, where he has been before, including as a participant in the Maidan revolution in 2013-2014.
In February 2022, with the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, he joined the self-defense of Kiev. He died in April 2023 on a section of the frontline near Bakhmut as a result of Russian shelling.
After his death, it became known that Petrov stood at the dawn of rebel anarchism, was one of the founders of the Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists (anti-war sabotage) and the Resistance Committee (leftists at the front).
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Anti-Authoritarian International, an international anarchist gathering was held in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland for five days. Several events were dedicated to Dmitry Petrov: a film was shown, a memorial evening was organized and another tree was planted on Mont Soleil mountain in memory of the international wrestlers from Rozhava.
Remembrance actions were held in Berlin, Bern, Warsaw, St. Imier, Tbilisi and Batum. In September 2023, on Petrov’s birthday, the documentary Moscow Mutiny about Russian anarchists of the 2010s is scheduled to be shown in several countries. More: petrovfilm@proton.me and instagram.com/petrov.film.
Active Distribution Publishing published the English-language memorial “Dmitrii Petrov. A Life in Combat. A biography of a Russian anarchist fighter with a selection of his writings” with Dmitrii’s most important texts.
For his next birthday, friends are preparing memories of him together with Dmitry’s publications (ethnographic, journalistic and activist). You can send your memories of Petrov to in_memory_of_ecolog@riseup.net and t.me/in_memory_of_ecolog.