During the Great Terror people sentenced to death were executed in the basement of the Ulyanovsk Region NKVD headquarters and in the courtyard of its inner prison. Certain cells had been equipped for the purpose. There are reports that some of those shot were buried in pits in the inner courtyard while their belongings were buried separately. In 1942 when trenches were being dug in the courtyard two bodies were found with bullet holes in their skulls. Subsequently the specially equipped basements were given brick walls and digging anywhere there was categorically forbidden.
In the 1960s the building was renovated to serve as the regional Party committee’s hotel. It changed hands several times after that. Since 1992 the offices of the Simbirsk Diocese have been based here. The grounds have not been studied. In 2005 a memorial to the Victims of Political Repression in the Ulyanovsk Region was erected within the fence of house No. 73.
A Book in Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression: Ulyanovsk Region (2 vols. 1996 & 2001) contains 13,600 biographical entries for those shot or sent to the Gulag. vol. 2 includes 2,500 entries on Soviet German forced settlers in the region.
The Memorial online database (2025) lists 28,537 victims in the Ulyanovsk Region (BR 16,028).
The majority (18,742) were born locally. 1,817 were shot, most sentenced during the Great Terror (1,338). In 798 other cases charges were dropped. Almost 8,000 were held in the camps. Over 12,000 (mostly local) were “dekulakised” and deported from the Region in the early 1930s and 3,000 were sent to the Ulyanovsk Region, during and after the war, because of their “nationality”.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
nk
|
nk
|
Annual event
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries | Other sites in same area |
|---|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
not determined
|
not delineated
|
Merchant Sachkov's townhouse
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
“The 11 May 1993 ruling of I.M. Shleikin, special investigator of the Ulyanovsk Region prosecutor’s office, concerning the criminal case of unlawful mass repression for political reasons in the years of Stalinism”, Book of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression in the Ulyanovsk Region, Ulyanovsk, 1996
I.M. Shleikin, “Unnamed graves in the courtyard”, Novaya gazeta, 16 November 2011 (No. 128)
“A memorial to the victims of political repression has been unveiled in Ulyanovsk”, Regnum information agency, 1 November 2005
“Burial site of those shot in the Ulyanovsk Region NKVD prison”, Virtual Museum of the Gulag [partially retrieved, 3 June 2022; no longer accessible]
*
Reply by the deputy governor of the Ulyanovsk Region (20 May 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
