Prisoners of three divisions of Belbaltlag were buried at a site 7 kms from Belomorsk (formerly Soroka): the 8th division, builders of the White Sea Canal, 1931-1933; the 3rd Sosnovets division, 1933-1936; and the 6th division, 1936-1941. In 1993 three members of staff from the 17th lock of the White Sea Canal – V. Shalin, I. Lysenkov and V. Gnetnev – erected a wooden memorial cross at the burial ground.
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The Belomorsk district was mentioned in execution reports during the Great Terror as one of fourteen sites in Karelia where people were shot. That killing field and burial ground with its 62 victims has not been discovered.
The Commemorative Lists of Karelia, 1937-1938, compiled by Ivan Chukhin & Yury Dmitriev, were published in 2002 (1,087 pp). The online version contains biographical entries for 14,038 individuals.
The online Memorial database (2025) lists 13,408 victims in Karelia. (See Petrozavodsk.) 11,317 were shot. 1,998 were sent to a variety of camps where 424 died (Kargopolag, Sevvostlag, Unzhlag, Pechorlag and Taishetlag).
From a variety of sources the database names 41 who died in Belbaltlag; the “Open List” names 1,615 who did time there.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
nk
|
Commemorative masses
|
nk
|
nk
|
From time to time
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
not established
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
M. Sizov, “Crosses on the locks”, Vera: khristianskaya gazeta Severa Rossii, Sept 1999 [retrieved on 30 Dec 2022]
K.V. Gnetnev, The White Sea Canal: Time and Fate, Petrozavodsk, 2008
Unified State Register of Sites of Cultural Heritage (monuments of historical and cultural significance) of the nations of the Russian Federation
*
S. Krivenko, “Yury Dmitriev’s list”, Lessons of History website, 2 August 2019 [retrieved on 30 Dec 2024]
