Dear Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon,

The United Nations is an organization that was made to ensure that all people are able to
live their lives without the worry of being discriminated or oppressed against by stronger
individuals. The protection of human rights is a core philosophy of the United Nations and it
must preserved. I am writing this letter to you to inform you of violations of human rights that
are taking place in Russia at the current moment and must put to an end.
Russia has a long history of denying people their rights going all the way back to the time
of the Czars. During the earlier half of czar rule there was the system of serfdom. Serfdom was a
system of peasants, or serfs, working on the land of boyars the Russian nobles. Serfs were the
property of the boyars much like the African Americans slaves of the United States. It Emerged
in Russia in the sixteenth century and legally lasted until 1861 when the Czar of the time
abolished it with emancipation manifesto freeing twenty million serfs. Although they were free
many of the serfs gained their freedom and nothing else. This resulted in many serfs being forced
to rent land from their former land owners and had thing be almost the same as they were before.
Later during the time when Russia was becoming industrialized the people who were oppressed
were the workers in the new factories. They were paid low wages had gruel working conditions
and child labor was rampant. Union were outlawed by the government stopping people from
being able to fight against it. During one attempted protest workers marched to the czars winter
palace with a petition for better working conditions but they didnt see the czar and a tragedy
happened. The Czar of the time, Nicholas II, was not even at the palace but his generals were.
They fired into the crowd killing hundreds of people. This event became known has bloody
Sunday. This and the ongoing World war lead to the destruction of the autocracy in Russia. Riots
broke out and the Czar was forced to step down. A provisionary government was set up however
that did not last long has it could not accomplish what the people what and that too was
overthrown by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Leading to Russia becoming communist and turning
into the Soviet Union.
Lenin Promised peace land and bread for all the workers of Russia and in the beginning
he did just that. He introduced the new economic policy to get the economy going and got Russia
out of World War I. But has he did this the communist party grew in power. The communist
party held all power in the country. Russia became a dictatorship of the communist party unlike
the dictatorship of workers it was supposed to be. Lenin did not lead the Soviet Union for long
however. He died of a stroke and Jospin Stalin took his place. Stalin was a harsh and brutal
leader who did many things to take away the personal rights of people. Stalin built a secret police
force that monitored people and had military grade weapons to enforce communism. Anyone
who spoke out against communism were taken way and arrested. They were considered traitors
and many of them were executed. Also while Stalin was in power He targeted religious group
and aimed for them to be replaced with the virtues of communism. Religious leaders were either
killed or sent to labor camps. Mass censorship was in acted in all forms of media across the
Soviet Union. Newspaper and radios glorified the accomplishments of the Soviet Union and
communism. Writers composer and other artists were forced to only make works the showed
the achievements of communism. Although Stalin made the Soviet Union a strong nation by

industrializing it and making it a world power its success came at the cost of the freedoms and
lives of the citizens.
This is similar to the human rights issues of current day Russia. The Russian majority of
today support Vladimir Putin, the current president, because they state that their lives are the
greatest they have ever been before. Their economy is stable, they have heat food and homes and
they are safe from terror attacks. They are willing to look past what happens minority groups that
get persecuted because Putin is seen as hero to many. He fixed the economy that was in shambles
and vowed to stop the Chechen conflict by hunting them even while they are taking a crap.
Even though Putin did help lots of Russians there are some Russian minority groups that are
targeted and persecuted. One such example are members of the LGBT community. In June 2013,
parliament unanimously adopted a law banning promotion among children of propaganda of
nontraditional sexual relationships, which has been understood to mean lesbian, gay, bisexual or
transgendered (LGBT). This was not the first of such law enacted. Similar laws outlawing
propaganda of homosexuality among children were passed in 11 Russian regions. During
2006. As these law were passed there was an increase in homophobic hate crimes there as even
been reports of vigilantly group lure men away degrade and beat them and post videos on social
network sites. Another instance of mistreatment is the handling of the Northern Caucasus
insurgency. The European Court of Human Rights has passed over 200 judgments holding
Russia responsible for grave human rights violations in Chechnya. Violations include torture,
abductions, and attacks against suspected insurgents and their families.
As you can see Russia has had serious problems regarding human and the United Nations
should intervene to fix them. Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and should
be a nation following all human rights stated in the declaration of human rights however it does
not follow this basic principle. It is not like the U.N. should be shocked to that Russia violates
the rights of some of its people not just because of its history but because it is no secret of what
is happening in Russia. An instance is the LGBT protests that happened at the Russian hosted
Olympics. The Olympics are a well know and watch program and would not have be missed. I
beg of you to stop sitting idle and to turn your attention to Russia.