In 1940-1942 prisoners who died in infirmary No. 5 of Sevpechlag were buried in common graves in the cemetery. From 1942 to 1946 a children’s cemetery for mothers and infants under two years old existed there as part of camp outpost No. 25. They were buried in individual graves marked by stakes carrying a number. Forced settlers and, sometimes, free workers were also buried there. The cemetery then covered 9,750 square metres. The total number of buried prisoners is unknown; the cemetery was closed in 1946 but burials continued until 1949.
In 1954 a water tower was built on the site. Crosses on graves survived into the 1960s and later but the territory did not have the status of a cemetery and was not protected. Residents of Pechora began to use the land for allotments. In the 1970s a sub-district of the town came into being there: a residential block and a square were built on the site. In 2007 an Orthodox cross was erected in the square in memory of those who suffered during the years of repression. In 2009 a chapel dedicated to Russia’s New Martyrs and Confessors was consecrated there.
Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
---|---|---|---|---|
25 January
|
Feast of Russia’s New Martyrs and Confessors
|
nk
|
priests and parishioners, relatives of those buried in the graveyard
|
Annual event
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
nk
|
members of the public, town administration
|
Annual event
|
State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
---|---|---|
have not survived
|
not determined. Cemetery originally covered 9750 sq m
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
T.G. Afanasyeva, “The history of one burial”, Pechorskoe vremya, 29 October 2008
*
“Pechora. Infirmary No 5 prisoners cemetery”, The Virtual Museum of the Gulag [retrieved, 26 May 2022]
Reply from Pechora municipal district administration (No 01-14-6229 of 7 July 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)