Information provided in 1995 by the Smolensk Region FSK (predecessor of the FSB) indicates that 468 people were shot in Velizh between 1928 and the conclusion of the Great Terror late in 1938: the details came from execution reports preserved in the archives. The shootings took place some distance from the town at the Semyonovsky summer dacha in the Semichovsky Grove.
On 1 May 2006, near the Velizh-Selezni Road next to the edge of the Semichovsky Grove, parishioners from the church of the three Holy Hierarchs erected a commemorative cross. Later unidentified persons added a memorial to their dead relative next to the cross. Each spring the congregation of the church processes with crosses, holy banners and icons to the memorial.
A Book in Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression: the Smolensk Martyrology (7 vols. 2001-2008) contained biographical entries on 26,300 who were shot or sent to the Gulag.
The Memorial online database (2025) names 35,279 victims in the Smolensk Region (BR 31,903). See Smolensk cemetery.
7,772 were shot, most during the Great Terror (7,013). The database lists 175 shot throughout the Smolensk Region between 1929 and 1936: 41 Velizh residents were among the 3,062 shot in 1937; 51 more are listed as shot in 1938.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2nd Sunday after (Orthodox) Easter
|
Procession with crosses and banners to the memorial cross on the feast of the three Marys
|
Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs
|
Congregation of the church
|
Annual event
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
not determined
|
not delineated
|
[ Original texts & hyperlinks ]
Velizh Museum, official website [retrieved, 29 May 2022]
“Conclusions of Smolensk Region FSK on verifying mass burials of the victims of political repression …, 31 January 1995”, Herald of the Katyn memorial, (No 7) 2007
G.A. Andreyenkova, “Monuments and memorials to the victims of political repression, erected in the Smolensk Region”, Herald of the Katyn memorial, No 9, 2009
*
Reply by the Velizh district administration (№ 1111 of 16 May 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
