Mount Sekirna [C]* Burials of the executed & prison dead

Card

№29-63

Date of burial

1920s-1938

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Address

Arkhangelsk Region, Primorsky district, Great Solovetsky Island

Access outside a populated area

Private or specialised transport

On foot

Comments

11 kms from Solovetsky settlement; accessible by maritime transport during summer months

Visiting Hours or Restrictions

Unrestricted

Type of burial

Secret interment of executed

Camp (prison) burial ground

Current use

Cultural and/or educational purposes

Excursions

Ceremonial events

Presence of memorials, etc.

Yes

Protected status

National (Russian Federation)

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Background

Mount Sekirna (Sekirka) is located in the centre of the Great Solovetsky Island. When the camp and prison were in existence (1920-1939) there were cells at the summit of Mount Sekirna for the isolation and punishment of prisoners in the former church of the Archangel Michael and the Resurrection. Prisoners sentenced to death were shot there. They were buried in common graves without any distinguishing markers. The total number who died in the punitive cells or were shot there has not been established; only individual names are known.

In 1992 a commemorative cross was erected at the foot of Mount Sekirna. In 2006 and 2007 excavation work and partial exhumation was carried out on the southwest slope; more than ten burial mounds were examined. The remains were reburied, and crosses were placed on the common graves. The work was directed by Yury Dmitriev, president of the Academy for Socio-Legal Defence (Petrozavodsk), with the support of the Solovki Museum and the Solovetsky Monastery.

(A UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the Solovki ensemble.)

Ceremonies

Date	Nature of ceremonies	Organiser or responsible person	Participants	Frequency
6-7 June	A Candle of Remembrance ceremony; part of International Days in Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression on Solovki	The Solovetsky State historical, architectural and natural museum and reserve	Museum staff and participants in the Days of Remembrance (delegations from various countries)	Annual event, 1989-1997
7-8 August	A Candle of Remembrance ceremony; part of International Days in Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression at Sandarmokh and on Solovki	The Solovetsky State historical, architectural and natural museum and reserve; RIC Memorial	Museum staff and participants in the Days of Remembrance (delegations from various countries)	Annual event since 1998
nk	Commemorative Services	The Solovetsky stauropegial monastery	nk	Several times a year

Nature of area requiring preservation

State of burials	Area	Boundaries	Other sites in same area
Not preserved. Characteristic subsidence over burials	not determined	not delineated	Part of the Cultural & Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands

Administrative responsibility and ownership, informal responsibility for the site

A nationally-protected monument within the Cultural & Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands. On land under the control of the Solovki historical, architectural and natural ensemble. [The Unified Register, October 2023, lists the stair and bath-house on Mount Sekirna as monuments of federal significance but since December 2022 at least makes no reference to the burials and wooden cross at the foot of the hill, 321220004550796.]

Sources and bibliography

[ original texts and hyperlinks ]

Archive RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)

Archive of the Solovki historical, architectural and natural ensemble