Press Release, 30.01.2024

Photo: The inscription on the stele runs “To the victims of repression of 1937-1939 and to the victims of the Finnish occupation during the Great Patriotic War” / Photo by Emilia Slabunova

At the end of December 2023, it was reported that the authorities plan to install a stele in memory not only of those killed in 1937-1939 during Joseph Stalin’s Great Terror, but also to the “victims of the Finnish occupation during the Great Patriotic War” (Ed.: World War 2 on the territory on the USSR has been called the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, Russia and some post-Soviet states) in the Karelian Sandarmokh – the burial place of victims of Soviet repression and a cultural heritage site of regional significance. The discovery of the remains of victims killed by Finns on the territory of Sandarmokh has been questioned in the scientific community. Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia from Yabloko, Emilia Slabunova, appealed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office with a demand to verify the compliance of the design and inscription of the stele with the established status of the object. The Public Prosecutor’s Office found no violations. A stele with an inscription distorting history has already been installed in Sandarmokh. Slabunova appealed to the Investigative Committee.

It should be noted that over 6,000 Soviet political prisoners executed from 1937 to 1938 were buried in Sandarmokh. In 2000, by the decree of the Government of Karelia, Sandarmokh was given the status of a cultural heritage site – the “burial site for victims of political repression”. In 2018-2019, the Russian Military Historical Society conducted its own search expeditions, that allegedly resulted in discovering the remains of the Red Army soldiers shot by the Finns. At the same time, the documentation permitting for the excavations at the burial site was not published. Neither the legality of the excavations, nor the version about the burial of victims of the Finnish occupation in Sandarmokh have been confirmed.

At the same time, the response of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Karelia to Emilia Slabunova’s appeal confirms that the project for improvement of the burial place, ordered by the administration of the Medvezhyegorsk district, actually included the installation of a stele with an inscription about the Finnish occupation. However, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, such wording does not entail a legislative change in the status of a cultural heritage site, since it is not an “official information inscription”. In addition, according to the Deputy Public Prosecutor of Karelia, N.Osipov, it was the results of excavations carried out by the Russian Military Historical Society (which are questioned in scientific circles) that served as the decision to make such an inscription.

Yabloko deputy Emilia Slabunova, commenting on the response from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, notes: an inscription made in the place, which is under the protection of the state, and made in accordance with design documentation cannot be unofficial.

In addition, it is unclear what results of the expeditions carried out by the Russian Military Historical Society served as the basis for the decision to make such an inscription. The official responses of the Karelian Investigative Committee, the head of Karelia and the head of the administration of the Medvezhyegorsk region to Slabunova’s requests about the results of the examination and the fate of the retrieved remains run that “it was not possible to identify the bodies of the deceased,” the remains were reburied in Medvezhyegorsk, the status of the buried has not been established.

“Obvious disinformation is offered in the place of morning, it affects the dignity of both victims of repression and victims of occupation. The places of their memory must correspond to historical circumstances,” Slabunova says.

Emilia Slabunova has prepared a response to the letter from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in which she writes that the existence of an “unofficial inscription” is impossible, as it appears by decision of the authorities at the expense of budgetary funds at the site subject to state protection, and where there are state-established rules for installing information inscriptions on such objects.

In addition, the Slabunova appealed to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Karelia. She asks to check the legality of actions/inactions of the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Republic of Karelia in terms of compliance with the legislation on the protection of cultural heritage.

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EMILIA SLABUNOVA

is member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, Chair of Yabloko in 2015-2019.

Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia.

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Honoured Teacher of Russia