Translated material
Big terror in Sandarmokh
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What's happened?
August 5 - the day of memory of victims of great terror. Throughout the world on this day, the names of people executed in the Karelian tract Sandarmokh are read out. In the cards, we recall the story of this place and its discovery, and also tell how to help preserve the memory of the repressed.
What is Sandarmokh?
On August 5, 1937, a large terror began - the period of the most massive In the period 1937-1938, more than 1.7 million people were arrested, 700 thousand of which were killed. Stalinist repressions. Sandarmokh is a forest tract in Karelia and one of the largest burials of victims of large terror. More than 6,000 people are buried there: a resident of Karelia, a special purpose of the Solovetsky camp, as well as the builders of Belomorkanal.
Is this the only such place in Karelia?
Sandarmokh is the largest of the places of burial places in Karelia, but, unfortunately, not the only one. Maxim Lyalin, organizer of the volunteer project to return the personal memory of Sandarmokh. The return of the names ”says that, according to the historian Yuri Dmitriev, in Karelia there are about fifty burial places of the victims of the Stalinist repressions, where from 10 to 10,000 people are buried:“ How many places were found? Four. The rest are simply not looking for. And similar cemeteries are around any major city, any district center, any former camp. The Stalinist terror, in fact, covered the whole country with such cemeteries. ”
How did Sandarmokh find?
Sandarmokh was found thanks to archival research, which was conducted by the collaboration of the St. Petersburg and Karelian "memorials" since the mid-1980s. And in July 1997, a joint expedition, which included Irina Fliga, Veniamin Iofa and Yuri Dmitriev, discovered firing pits in the Sandarmokh tract. 236 graves were found, in which the remains of 6241 people are resting - a representative of fifty nationalities and eleven religious faiths.
What happened to Sandarmokh after that?
In October 1997, at the initiative of the activistry “Memorial”, a memorial complex was opened at the burial site, the first five monuments were erected and commemorate days dedicated to the victims of mass repressions. The relatives of the victims of great terror, a delegation from Russia, Poland, Germany and Ukraine participated in them.
Later, the memorial complex was growing and new monuments appeared - as collective Among them are a monument to Muslims, Kozatsky Cross, a monument to Jews, an Estonian monument and many others. , and personal Small crosses, signs, monuments dedicated to individual victims of large terror. . Every year, on August 5, people from all over the world came in Sandarmokh to honor the memory of the dead.
Memorial cemetery, 1997
The site of the project "Map of Memory: Sanddormokh"
How the state intervened in memory of Sandarmokh
In 2016, Professor of Petrozavodsk University Sergey Verigin suggested that Soviet prisoners of war, shot by Finns during the occupation of Karelia, could be buried in Sandarmokh. His theory was based on information that in Medvezhyegorsk The administrative center of the Medvezhyegorsky district, in which Sandarmokh is located. In 1942-1944, there were two prisoners of war camps located in the former Belbaltlagi buildings. Scientists raised a discussion, during which the version was discussed that the studies of the "memorial" dedicated to the tract were falsified. This was preceded by a protracted struggle of the state with the "memorial" In 2014, the Memorial human rights center was included in the list of NKO-foreign agents. .
In 2018, the participation of the Russian Military Historical Society came to the tract with an expedition, the purpose of which was to confirm the theory of Petrozavodsk scientists. There was no confirmation, but the remains of 21 people were dug up from the extinguishing pits, who were reburied in the Medvezhygorsky city cemetery in 2021. At the same time, the exact coordinates of the burial kept secret and became known only in August 2022. And the commemorative sign appeared only this year. In 2019, RVIO, in the expedition results, recognized that excavations in the Sandarmokh tract in August-September 2018 were illegal.
Dmitriev’s case
In May 2022, the head of the Karelian Memorial, historian Yuri Dmitriev, sentenced to 15 years, was sent to a maximum regime colony to the Mordovian village of Potma.
The Memorial considers Yuri Dmitriev a political prisoner and associates his business with the fact that in 1997 he discovered firing pits in the tract of Sandarmokh, and in subsequent years compiled lists of memory of the repressed resident of Karelia. In addition, in 2015, Dmitriev openly opposed Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.
Yuri Dmitriev
The website of the human rights center "Memorial"
What is happening with Sandarmokh now?
After the start of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, the delegations of foreign states, the independent activist and journalist_kam became more difficult to visit the tract, and the Memorial was liquidated as a legal entity.
Nevertheless, on the territory of the memorial complex they continue to maintain the memory of the repressed. For example, the volunteer project “Sandarmokh is still working. The return of the names ”, which over the past four years has established 250 commemorative signs with the names of the victims and recreated 50 biographies of executed in the Karelian tract.
The Ioof Foundation continues to work. He arranges mourning ceremonies at the memorial cemetery, and in 2022, together with the Memorial and with the participation of Gulag.cz, he created the Sandarmokh online exhibition. In it, the virtual Karelian forest turns into an alternative memory space where art monuments created from scratch or transferred online from the real complex, and each visitor can choose its own route.
How to help save the memory of repressed in Sandarmokh?
You can help the volunteer project "Sandarmokh. The return of the names ". It exists on donations: the manufacture of commemorative signs occurs using means that send either relatives of repressed or sympathetic. The project has a page on Facebook and YouTube channel .
You can also participate in the online action of the Memorial to read the names of the dead. This can be done on August 5, going on a live broadcast air. Details on the link .
Editor
Editor
Anton DuanelIllustrator
Illustrator
Vitya ErshovPublication
August 5, 2023