Press Release, October 22, 2013

The Voronezh branch of YABLOKO and the administration of the Somovsky settlement organised a clean-up in the memorial zone of the mass grave of the victims of political terror of 1938-1939 in the Dubovka settlement.

YABLOKO activists, representatives of the Memorial movement, Solidarnost, the Democratic Choice party and civil activists participated in the action.

Vyacheslav Bitutsky, head of the Voronezh branch of Memorial, said that the Comission on the Restoration of the Rights of Rehabilitated Victims of Political Reprisals in the Voronezh Region decided to send a letter to the federal authorities asking to enlist the Dubrovka memorial into the list of places of federal significance and also to ask the Governor to support the public initiative. The regional branch of YABLOKO also supported this initiative.

According to Chair of the Voronezh branch of YABLOKO Tatyana Shkred, the reprisals is one main issues in YABLOKO. “We will continue to deal with this issue. The scale of the disaster of 1938-1939 strikes us, in some way it concerns everyone. My great grandfather who was a reindeer breeder was shot in 1938, but he was posthumously rehabilitated in 1961. My great grandmother spent several years in prison supposedly for the connection with the Finns. After that our family was forced to leave our native places”, said Tatyana.

According to Bitutsky, Voronezh is one of the few cities where the memory of the victims of political terror is perpetuated. “A unique memorial was unveiled here. The names of forty eight people – farmers, locksmiths, cab drivers, housewives were marked on the granite slab. All of them were shot in 1938. The names were restored due to the list of seized property which was found in the clothes of the shot preacher”.

The members of the Voronzh branch of YABLOKO took the patronage under the first two mass graves last year. At that time they were completely abandoned. Nearly every year the remains of the people shot during the Stalin’s repression times are found in Dubrovka. This year 150 victims shot by NKVD in the 1930-s were found within several days. According to the items of clothes they were farmers, workmen and soldiers, both men and women.

The remains of an under-age person were found for the first time this year. The remains will be reinterred in the Alley of Sorrow after the exhumation and expertise .

The existence of the graves in Dubrovka became known due to the local hunter Ivan Tekutyev who was an eyewitness of the burial in 1938. He told about this in the 1980-s. After several articles in the media the excavations started. The first grave was discovered in 1989. During 1990-1993 the explorers found 25 graves and retrieved the remains of 924 people. The search was stopped due to financial problems and  recommenced in 2006. At that time 225 were found. A memorial zone called the Alley of Sorrow was created for the reinterment.

In 2009 the reinterment was stopped again because of financial problems and started in 2011.  The remains of 170 more people were found. On the whole the remains of 2500 people were discovered. According to Memorial, about 8000-10000 people were buried in Dubrovka during the times of Stalin’s reprisals. Another reinterment will take place in Dubrovka on October 30, the Day of memory of the victims of political reprisals. All the comers can participate in the memorial event.