The burial ground in Volchansk arose in the early 1940s for the Bogoslovlag prisoners and German forced labourers working in the local coal mine. It was destroyed in the early 1960s and is today a wasteland on which a few old graves have survived.
It is impossible to determine the boundaries of the camp burials; the total numbers of prisoners and forced labourers buried here is unknown – name lists are unavailable. In 2000, thanks to the efforts of the Bogoslovsky Urals local history foundation, a four-metre commemorative metal cross was erected on the site of the former burial ground.
The electronic Book of Remembrance (Gedenkbuch) of Russian Germans contains biographical entries on more than 100,000 Soviet Germans variously sentenced under Article 58, deported as forced settlers, or mobilised in camps of forced labourers.
The Memorial online database (2025) names 38,697 victims in the Sverdlovsk Region. See Yekaterinburg memorial.
Over 2,000 transient Germans (born and resident elsewhere) figured among these victims: more than 600 were shot, during the Great Terror and the war; most of the rest were sent to the camps.
Drawing on other sources, but especially the Krasnodar Krai police records, the database lists families and individuals (total 13,162) deported to the Sverdlovsk Region. 6,276 were “dekulakised” or born in special settlements. More than half of 589, later deported by reason of their “nationality”, were Germans: families and individuals (total 233) were sent there directly in 1941 or 1942, or transferred via Novosibirsk Region or Kazakhstan.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
nk
|
Commemorative Services
|
nk
|
nk
|
From time to time
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
0.1 hectares
|
not delineated
|
[ Original texts & hyperlinks ]
Archive of the Volchansk local history museum
Materials of an expedition to the Sverdlovsk Region (2008) – Memorial RIC Archive (St Petersburg)
