Ufa’s Sergievskoe graveyard, founded in the mid-18th century, was closed for burials in the 1970s. During the 1930s executions and burials took place there, before and during the Great Terror, as did the burial of those who died in the city’s prisons.
The burials took place in various parts of the graveyard and most were subject to reburial. It is known that about one thousand bodies were buried in a gulley in the centre of the graveyard. In 2007 a monument to inhabitants of Ufa who had fallen victim to political repression was erected there, using funds raised for the purpose by group of Ufa businessmen, I. Bikbulatov and others.
(NOTE In a 2012 survey 60% of respondents in Bashkortostan declared themselves Muslim.)
*
On 30 October 2022, an annual Prayer of Remembrance was marked by the monument, reported the Idel.realiya website. Organised by the Orthodox Preobrazhenskoe brotherhood, the event has been held either in the Sergievskoe or former Novo-Ivanovskoe graveyard since 2014 with the reading of names from the republic’s Book of Remembrance.
A Book in Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression in the Bashkortostan Republic (7 vols, 1997-2011) contains over 50,000 biographical entries.
Among them are those shot (6,014), mainly but not exclusively during the Great Terror; 25,846 sent to the camps – in 1930-1933 (11,891) and again in 1937-1938 (8,220); and 7,649 who were exiled as “dekulakized” peasant families in 1930 and 1931. These totals were calculated from Memorial’s online database.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
30 October
|
Prayer in Remembrance of Victims
|
Preobrazhenskoe brotherhood (Russian Orthodox)
|
public, descendants
|
annual (at Sergievskoe or Novo-Ivanovnskoe graveyards) since 2014
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
not defined
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
S. Valieva, “Secrets of old graveyards preserve the memory of many victims of repression”, Leninets (Ufa), 12 August 1989
Reply No. 01-02-8451/7, dated 24 March 2014, from Ufa City Administration to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
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“A prayer in remembrance of the victims of political repression”, Idel.realiya, 30 October 2022. [retrieved 17 January 2025]
