Local inhabitants testify that in the 1920s priests were shot and buried on the outskirts of Volchanka village. Their remains were discovered in summer 2007 by Father Andrei (Gusev), the incumbent of the church in Volchanka. As well as the bodies of 18 people who had met a violent death there were also three small personal crosses in the pits.
The Novosibirsk Region department of Internal Affairs did not confirm the existence of these sites of mass execution and burial in the Dovolensky district. The remains were reburied on 16 September 2007 in the village Park of Victory; thanks to the efforts of Father Andrei and local residents a tall wooden cross was erected at the place where the bodies were found and the area was fenced off.
The Memorial online database (2021) includes 21,735 victims in the Novosibirsk Region: 5,000 of whom were sent to the camps, 7,496 were shot (6,853 during the Great Terror), and 6,000 deported, with their families.
It lists 44 who were shot in the early 1920s, none of them priests; 60 priests are listed as shot, most (48) during the Great Terror, the rest during the early 1930s.
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
remains reburied in 2007
|
not determined
|
fence erected around burial site
|
[ Original texts & hyperlinks ]
V. Melnikov, “A deadly firing range”, Vecherny Novosibirsk, 25 October 2007 [retrieved, 28 May 2022]
G. Pyrkh, “The radiance of sacrificial love”, Novosibirsky eparkhialny vestnik, 2007, October, Nos 11-12 (72-73) [retrieved, 28 May 2022]
A. Gusev, “Repressive measures in Dovolnoe, 1919-1932”, Conference on Russia’s new 20th-century Martyrs and Confessors, Iskitim, 2011 [retrieved, 28 May 2022]
“Volchanka village outskirts. Burial of executed”, Virtual Museum of the Gulag [retrieved, 28 May 2022; no longer accessible]
