Duvanny Ravine was used as a place of execution and burial between 1918 and the 1930s. Today it lies within the city limits. No name lists of those executed there have been found for the entire period of its use. Researchers say that in 1918 hostages from among the inhabitants of the town and the district were shot there. On a single day in 1919, 23 July, 200 people were executed. On 25 December 1929 60 Orthodox priests were shot. In 1937-1938 the execution and burial of the victims of the Great Terror took place there.
In 1997 a commemorative wooden cross was erected there. The inscription reads: “May we never forget our fathers, brothers and sisters, innocents slain in the years of tumult and militant atheism for the truth, for their faith and for the Fatherland”.
A Book of Remembrance for those shot in the Penza Region or sent to the camps was not published. The Penza Memorial Society prepared biographical notes on 7,930 individuals convicted by judicial (courts) and extra-judicial (troika) bodies.
Drawing on four sources, the Memorial database (2025) names 23,914 victims in the Penza Region (M 7,900).
It confirms that 105 were shot (all but one in 1937-8) but lists almost three hundred more who were condemned to death. These include none of those shot in 1919 and 1929.
Cases against 1,837 other individuals were closed; 131 died while in custody. Some 4,000 were sent to the camps. Drawing on police records and other sources the database lists a large number of families and individuals (total 17,939) deported from the Region during collectivisation, 4,554 in 1931 alone: 6,160 were “dekulakised”, 5,231 were classified as “class enemies”.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
25 January
|
Feast of Russia's New Martyrs and Confessors
|
Orthodox Church
|
clergy and parishioners
|
annual event
|
|
Commemorative Services
|
From time to time
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
not preserved
|
not determined
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
S.V. Zelyov, The Surskaya Golgotha. The Penza Diocese in the years of persecution (1917-1941), Penza, 2007
*
Reply from the Penza Region Administration (№ 2-23-1582, 15 April 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
