In 2026, the international community will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, which condemned the principal Nazi war criminals and legally codified the defeat of fascism. This truly epochal event is rightly enshrined in history as the Trial of the Nations.

It is universally acknowledged that the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Second World War have no statute of limitations. In this context, extensive work is underway within the Russian Federation to investigate newly uncovered facts concerning the criminal acts of the German Nazi invaders and their accomplices. Evidence of the mass killings of Soviet civilians and prisoners of war, torture, slave labour and other manifestations of the inhuman Nazi ideology attests to a genocide - deliberate, systematic and unprecedented in its scale.

By the end of 2025, the legal fact of the genocide of Soviet citizens had been established by the courts in all constituent entities of the Russian Federation where, during the Great Patriotic War, crimes against civilian population were committed by the German Nazi invaders and their accomplices.

Given the nature of the war crimes and crimes against humanity established by the verdict of the Nuremberg Trials and other judicial decisions, the corresponding legal classifications have also been enshrined in Russian legislation.

On January 1, 2026, Federal Law No. 74-FZ of April 21, 2025, On Perpetuating the Memory of Genocide Victims of the Soviet People during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, and Federal Law No. 523–FZ of December 29, 2025, On Amending Article 1.1 of the Federal Law – On Days of Military Glory and Commemorative Dates in Russia, entered into force in Russia.

In accordance with these laws, April 19 has been proclaimed as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People Perpetrated by the Nazis and Their Collaborationists during the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.

©️Photo: Pavel Bednyakov, RIA Novosti. Memorial to USSR civilians who fell victim of Nazi genocide during Great Patriotic War.