From 1932 to 1945 – before, during and after the Great Terror – the bodies of executed inhabitants of the Far Eastern Krai (after October 1938, the Khabarovsk Krai) were buried on the outskirts of Nikolayevsk-na-Amure near the old city cemetery. The exact number of those shot is not known; the evidence of researchers suggests that between 900 and 1,500 bodies lie there.
The burials were discovered in the 1960s and again at the end of the 1980s during work on the land. In October 1990 a commemorative stone was placed there in memory of the executed; in October 2004 a memorial cross was added. On 30 October 2007, two eight-sided pillars were added, bearing the names of 989 inhabitants of the city, shot between 1932 and 1945.
The commemorative monument was created thanks to the efforts of Khabarovsk Memorial Society and V.I. Tsygankov, the chosen representative of Khabarovsk Memorial, and funded by donations from individuals and organisations, with organisational and financial support from the Khabarovsk Krai Administration and the Nikolayevsk-on-Amur town administration.
Between 1998 and 2002 five sizeable volumes were published, containing 26,000 entries for those who were shot or sent to the camps in the Khabarovsk Krai during the Soviet period. The Memorial online database names 8,298 who were shot in the Khabarovsk Krai, 7,305 of them during the Great Terror.
This Book of Remembrance is named, quoting Akhmatova, “I Would Like to Recall Them All by name”: A Martyrology in Five Volumes. Since these volumes specify the place of execution and burial, a few of the thousands shot and buried on this site may be named.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
Nikolayevsk municipal district administration
|
Relatives of the victims, members of Memorial Society, representatives of town and district administrations
|
Annual Event
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
not defined
|
unmarked
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
M. Kuzmina, Traces of Trampled Graves, Memorial: Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 2007 (88 pp)
V. Naiman, “Resurrected from the Living”, Molodoi dalnevostochnik (Khabarovsk), June 1988
I. Polnikova, “The Secrets of the Svidersky mound”, Molodoi dalnevostochnik (Khabarovsk), 14-21 November, 2007
Reply from the Nikolayevsk municipal district administration (№ 1-52/1587 of 28 April 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
Reply from the Khabarovsk Krai Administration (№ 9.3.36-10333 of 12 May 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
