In 1937 and 1938, during the Great Terror, mass executions and burials of prisoners from Vologda Prison took place on the outskirts of Chashnikovo village. Local historians believe that no less than a thousand bodies are buried here (the exact number is unknown).
In 1990 the prosecutor’s office and the Vologda Region KGB exhumed the remains of those executed and subjected them to forensic expertise. In 1997 a commemorative cross was raised on the site. In 2007 a wooden chapel dedicated to St. Anastasia of Sirmium was built next to the cross. The building was funded by a nun from the Orthodox nunnery in Bussy-en-Othe (Burgundy) and the chapel comes under the Archepiscopal metochion in Vologda. On the outer wall of the chapel is a memorial plaque dedicated to Anastasia, a nun shot in Vologda in January 1938; inside the chapel there is information about priests from the region who were shot during the Great Terror.
A database including biographical entries on 26,866 victims was posted on, and then removed from, the regional administration website. A list of 11,399 dekulakized or deported individuals was also posted and subsequently removed. No Book of Remembrance has been published for the Vologda Region.
The online Memorial database (2025) names 24,320 victims in the Vologda Region (BR 2,820).
Drawing on a number of sources, it lists 84 who were condemned to death. Charges against 735 other individuals were dropped; 109 of them died in custody. 1,841 were sent to the camps; 158 individuals were deported from the Region. Police records add many more local families and individuals (total 7,028) who were sent to special settlements elsewhere (5,844 termed “kulaks”) or born there (649).
The database “Polish deportees in the Vologda Region” adds another 14,402 victims to the total.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
Archepiscopal metochion in Vologda
|
Inhabitants of Vologoda, and of Chashnikovo & Kuvshinovo villages; pilgrims
|
Annual Commemorative Services
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
Have not survived
|
not established
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
V. Peshkov, “The death penalty”, Premier regional newspaper, 1 August 2017 № 30 (1029)
*
Reply by the Vologda Region FSB (№ 10/4-798 of 5 May 2014) to an enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
Reply by the Vologodsky urban district administration (№ 217/01-27 of 25 July 2014) to an enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
