Pershinskaya village. Churga ss graveyard | Russia's Necropolis of Terror and the Gulag

Pershinskaya village. Churga ss graveyard

Card

№29-13

Date of burial
1940s
Show Map
Address
Arkhangelsk Region, Velsky district, Pershinskaya village
Access outside a populated area
Private or specialised transport
On foot
Comments
5 kms northeast of Pershinskaya village, along the Bolshaya Churga river.
Visiting Hours or Restrictions
Unrestricted
Type of burial
Deportees’ graveyard
Current use
Unused
Presence of memorials, etc.
No
Protected status
Not protected
Фотография 2012 года. Предоставлена А.Мухориным
Фотография 2012 года. Предоставлена А.Мухориным
Background

Special settlement No 9 (Churga) existed throughout  the 1940s and came under the Velsk commandant. 87 Polish families were deported here in February 1940 from territory taken over by the USSR. The cemetery was one kilometre north of the settlement, along the Great Churga river. The total numbers buried there have not been established; the names of 35 Polish deportees who died in Churga between March 1940 and September 1941 are known. Among the inhabitants of neighbouring villages this cemetery is referred to as the “Polish” graveyard.

In the 2000s trees were felled in the area and the burials suffered as a result. Today the cemetery is overgrown with young saplings. In August 2012 the area was studied by a group of explorers: A. Mukhorin from Velsk; G. Veryovkin, director of the district museum; and Moscow researcher S. Zwierzinski. They found grave mounds, subsidence in the ground over burials. A dilapidated grave railing and a cross with an indecipherable inscription had survived.

Nature of area requiring preservation
State of burialsAreaBoundaries
Characteristic subsidence of topsoil
Not defined
Not delineated
Administrative responsibility and ownership, informal responsibility for the site
On land under the control of the Velsky municipal district
Sources and bibliography

[ Original texts & hyperlinks ]

Polish deportees in the Arkhangelsk Region: A database compiled by the Information Centre of the region’s Internal Affairs department (Memorial REC, Moscow, 1997)

“The Churga special settlement”, In the North forum, 6 February 2012

*

“Churga special settlement cemetery”, Virtual Museum of the Gulag [retrieved, 27 May 2022]

29-13