A new peak of anti-communist repression is unfolding in today's Russia.
On 25 November 2025, during the closing hearings at the Central
Military Court of the Yekaterinburg District, the prosecution demanded
20 to 24 years in a high-security penal colony for the members of a
Marxist study circle in the city of Ufa, accusing them of “terrorism”
and “conspiracy to overthrow the government.”
The five defendants, detained since February 2022, reject all charges and have reported torture during their interrogation. Their legal ordeal has now lasted nearly two years, with the first court session held in December 2023.
The five defendants, detained since February 2022, reject all charges and have reported torture during their interrogation. Their legal ordeal has now lasted nearly two years, with the first court session held in December 2023.
The
Marxist group had been active since 2016. One of its later members,
Sergei Shapozhnikov — a former fighter in the armed formations of the
so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” who subsequently received Russian
citizenship — informed the FSB that the circle was supposedly “waiting
for an unstable situation to seize power and kill police officers and
politicians.” No material evidence was ever provided to support these
claims.
Instead, the court instructed a panel of “experts” to evaluate whether the group’s lectures and reading material could be considered “terrorist activity.” Their conclusion reveals the true nature of the prosecution: they declared Lenin’s foundational work “State and Revolution” to be a “terrorist manual.”
The report goes so far as to argue that discussing socialist revolution, Soviets and workers’ power constitutes proof of extremism, asserting that the very “lexicographical meaning of the word ‘revolution’” demonstrates a violent intention to overthrow the state. On the basis of this pseudo-scientific interpretation, the prosecution now demands multi-decade prison sentences.
This judicial persecution is unfolding in the same Russia whose leadership claims to be conducting an “anti-fascist war,” and which every 9 May attempts to appropriate the legacy of the Anti-Fascist Victory of the USSR over Nazism — a victory achieved by the socialist system that today is being criminalised.
What is at stake here goes far beyond five militants in Ufa. It is the criminalisation of Marxist theory itself — and the attempt to turn Lenin’s “State and Revolution” from a historical and political work into an “act of terrorism.” The repression of revolutionary ideas is always a sign of a system in crisis. And no prison sentence has ever succeeded in stopping them.
Instead, the court instructed a panel of “experts” to evaluate whether the group’s lectures and reading material could be considered “terrorist activity.” Their conclusion reveals the true nature of the prosecution: they declared Lenin’s foundational work “State and Revolution” to be a “terrorist manual.”
The report goes so far as to argue that discussing socialist revolution, Soviets and workers’ power constitutes proof of extremism, asserting that the very “lexicographical meaning of the word ‘revolution’” demonstrates a violent intention to overthrow the state. On the basis of this pseudo-scientific interpretation, the prosecution now demands multi-decade prison sentences.
This judicial persecution is unfolding in the same Russia whose leadership claims to be conducting an “anti-fascist war,” and which every 9 May attempts to appropriate the legacy of the Anti-Fascist Victory of the USSR over Nazism — a victory achieved by the socialist system that today is being criminalised.
What is at stake here goes far beyond five militants in Ufa. It is the criminalisation of Marxist theory itself — and the attempt to turn Lenin’s “State and Revolution” from a historical and political work into an “act of terrorism.” The repression of revolutionary ideas is always a sign of a system in crisis. And no prison sentence has ever succeeded in stopping them.
This repression was carried out not only for studying Lenin’s works. The journalists wrote that “during a search of their apartment, two grenades and homemade Molotov cocktails, traumatic weapons were found”. I do not know if this is true, but the accusation is not only about studying Marxist literature.
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