In the grounds of Saratov’s Voskresenskoe cemetery there is a common grave shared by the victims of the Red Terror: Bishop German (Kosolapov) who was shot together with a group of priests and parishioners in 1919; and the graves of other clergy who suffered political repression: Antonia (Zaborskaya), abbess of the Krestovozdvizhenskoe Nunnery, Bishop Veniamin (Milov) and others.
In the 1920s-1940s those shot or who died in the city’s prisons were buried in unmarked common graves. In 1941-1945 Soviet soldiers who died in Saratov’s military hospitals were interred here. Academician Nikolai Vavilov, who died in the prison hospital on 26 January 1943 also lies here. The precise location of his grave is unknown. A symbolic grave has been created for him in plot 26. In 1970 a bust of Vavilov (sculptor K.S. Suminov) was installed by the entrance to the cemetery.
The Saratov Memorial Society erected a commemorative cross in 1989. These words are written on the plaque: “In this part of the cemetery are buried the victims of political repression in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s”. In one of the central avenues a granite memorial was put up on 11 June 2000 with the inscription: “To the victims of mass political repression, the slain innocents of the Saratov region”.
No Book of Remembrance has been published but Saratov Memorial has transferred to computer biographical entries prepared by the regional FSB on 23,000 who were shot or sent to the camps.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
26 January
|
Laying flowers at monuments on day of Nikolai Vavilov's death
|
Vavilov Museum
|
City officials, staff and students of the Vavilov agricultural university, NGOs
|
Annual event
|
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
Saratov city administration
|
City and regional officials, NGOs, relatives of the victims, clergy
|
Annual event
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
not determined
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
“The Voskresenskoe cemetery in Saratov”, Virtual Museum of the Gulag [retrieved, 28 May 2022]
Reply by the Saratov City Administration (№ 01-02-35/116 of 26 May 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
Reply by the Saratov Region committee for public relations and ethnic policy (№ 04-01/1151 of 11 June 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
