In the 1940s several dozen families of deported Lithuanians, Moldavians and Soviet Germans lived in Belostok village. The forced settlers were buried in the forest, 50 metres from the village graveyard. Those who died were buried in individual graves and crosses were placed over them. The exact numbers of men, women and children who lie there is not known. Local residents call this the “Russian” graveyard as distinct from the village Polish graveyard.
In 1950 the graveyard was accidentally destroyed by a drunk tractor driver and the crosses were subsequently used as fuel. At present the graveyard is covered with young trees and bushes.
The Memorial online database (2025) includes 217,732 victims in the Tomsk Region. It lists 10,810 who were shot there (almost all during the Great Terror); 7,000 who were sent to the camps; about 500 deported with their families.
In addition, the database includes 197,129 from police records who were either deported from other Regions to special settlements in the Region (146,154), or who were subsequently born there (38,300). This total includes 23,011 Soviet Germans in the 1940s and 1950s. Police record the deaths of 18,464 deportees. Over 12,000 had been sent to the Tomsk Region as “dekulakised peasants” in the early 1930s.
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
0.25 hectares
|
not delineated
|
[ Original texts & hyperlinks ]
Materials of the museum of the Belostok Polish village in Siberia
