A burial site of Maldyak prisoners, shot during the Great Terror, was discovered in July 1999, two kms from Maldyak settlement and gold mine, in the area of the 42nd mine testing ground. Heavy flooding led to subsidence and the opening of a pit containing 35 human bodies with bullet holes in their skulls. The district prosecutor’s office refused to open a criminal investigation. The head of the district administration, A.N. Talanov, ordered that the bodies be reinterred in the local cemetery. A monument bearing the inscription “To the prisoners of Kolyma” was erected on the mass grave.
Funeral ceremonies attended by former inmates of Kolyma, their descendants, schoolchildren and representatives of the public and the local administration are held at the monument.
There is information that the remains of executed persons, found at the same 42nd testing ground, were reburied here earlier, in 1995.
The boats will come for us: A list of rehabilitated individuals, executed in the Magadan Region (vol. 1, 1999) includes biographical entries for 7,546 who were shot. The Memorial online database (2021) names all those in the Book of Remembrance and lists 6,607 who were shot during the Great Terror.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
nk
|
former prisoners, their descendants, local administration, members of the public, schoolchildren
|
Annual Event
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
Reburial site is well preserved
|
not determined
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
I.B. Lebedenko, “Monuments and commemorative sites of the Susuman district”, School No. 1, Susuman, 29 February 2012 [retrieved, 28 May 2022]
Materials of the “Memory of Kolyma” public museum (Yagodnoe settlement, Magadan Region)
“Maldyak settlement cemetery. Mass grave of the executed”, Virtual Museum of the Gulag [retrieved, 28 May 2022]
