During the Great Terror those condemned to be shot in the Kuzbass region were transported to Kemerovo. Between October 1937 and May 1938 the execution camp was located in the unfinished Yagunovskaya mine, today a district of the city of Kemerovo. Surrounded by a high fence, there were temporary wooden barracks and prisoners were brought here on foot from the Kemerovo-Sortirovochnaya rail station, and from the NKVD prison in Kemerovo. Eyewitnesses report that the prisoners were escorted here in large columns, stretching from the camp to Komissarovo village two kms away. The executed were buried in trenches and their clothes were burnt. The total number shot there is not known.
Until 1947 the site was off-limits. Then the mine was completed, and the fence and barracks were used as construction materials until numerous messages by those about to be shot were found inscribed on the planks. An NKVD group was summoned and the remaining planks were burned. No residential buildings were permitted on the wasteland here after 1947.
In 1997, a memorial stone was set up on the wasteland by the Memory (Pamyat) history club of School No 50, with the inscription: “Here lie buried the victims of repression in 1937-1938. The memory of the innocent who suffered will remain forever in the heart of the people”. In July 1998 a chapel was erected on the site, incorporating the memorial stone and in 2007 it acquired the status of a monument of regional significance. Pupils of school No 50 are responsible for maintaining the site and they have compiled a list of seventy of those executed there.
The layout of the camp in 1937 shows: [1-3] barracks; [4] pit; [5] road; [6] square; and [7] shop.
*
According to the Unified Register (October 2023) the site now has a Regional/Republican level of protection.
A Book in Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression in the Kemerovo Region (2 vols. 1995-1996) includes 6,270 biographical entries for those shot or sent to the Gulag.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
Kemerovo City administration
|
City officials, clergy, media and NGOs, relatives of the victims, city inhabitants, schoolchildren
|
Annual event
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
not preserved
|
not determined
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
Archive of the “Remembrance” Popular Museum at School No 50 (Kemerovo, Yagunovsky district)
*
Reply by the Kemerovo City Administration (№ 01-24/591 of 23 April 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
