On the night of 25 September 1918, eleven hostages being held by the Ryazan Region Cheka were executed on wasteland adjoining the Dankov town cemetery. They were shot in “response” to an act of terrorism. Dankov resident T.V. Bezmenovaya, a relative of the executed teacher L. Bezmenovaya, knew where the shootings took place and for many years looked after the nameless grave.
In 2011 descendants of the hostages put a railing around the site and established wooden crosses and a memorial.
The inscription reads: “Here lie the bodies of citizens of Dankov who were shot without investigation or trial on the night of 25 September 1918”.
Below follow the eleven names: “Alexei Golov, merchant; Pyotr Okorokov, police superintendent; Ivan Demidov, merchant; Lubov Bezmenova, teacher; Mikhail Khanevich, office worker; Stepan Bardin, merchant; Vitaly Trunin, prison director; Nikita Grishchenko, office worker; Stepan Sobolev, technician; Ivan Veselozorov, verger; Alexander Kharlamov, Right SR”.
Remember by Name: A Book in Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression in the Lipetsk Region from November 1917 (two vols. 1997) contains 17,900 biographical entries on those shot or sent to the camps. The promised second volume about dekulakisation has not yet appeared.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
Dankov district administration
|
District officials, relatives of the victims, and pupils from Dankov School No 6
|
Annual Event since 2011
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
preserved
|
about 100 sq m.
|
railings surround the area
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
“A memorial to the hostages executed in Dankov in 1918”, Archival collection of the Ryazan Memorial society
Reply by the department for domestic policy of the Lipetsk Region (№ 603 of 26 May 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
