Opoklag was organised on the outskirts of Pavlovskoe village in response to NKVD directive No 0440 of 11 October 1940, in order to build the Opok hydroelectric scheme on the Sukhona river. The camp existed from November 1940 until work was disrupted by the German invasion in late June 1941. Prisoners who died were buried on the edge of the village graveyard in common graves. The sections containing prisoners’ burials adjoin those of local inhabitants: the area has not been used for later burials.
The online Memorial database (2025) names 24,320 victims in the Vologda Region (BR 2,820). See Chashnikovo.
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.
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
Depressions in the ground
|
not established
|
not delineated
|
[ Original texts & hyperlinks ]
A.P. Dunayeva, M.B. Zhelezova, “Opokstroi”, Veliki Ustyug: a local history almanac, Issue 1, Vologda, 1995.
O.V. Bychikhina, E.A. Nekipelova, Historical memory as a moral and spiritual problem of our time: A small island of the Gulag in the Opok district, St Petersburg, 2011
