VYAZMA* Burials of the Executed | Russia's Necropolis of Terror and the Gulag

VYAZMA* Burials of the Executed

Card

№67-06

Date of burial
1930s
Show Map
Address
Smolensk Region, Vyazemsky district, Vyazma
Access in a populated area
Public transport
On foot
Comments
Between Nos 4 and 8 Parkovaya St, on the edge of the pit.
Visiting Hours or Restrictions
Unrestricted
Type of burial
Secret interment of executed
Current use
Burial ground and/or commemorative site
Commercial use
Presence of memorials, etc.
Yes
Protected status
Not protected
Фотография 2005 года. Предоставлена Вяземским историко-краеведческим музеем
Фотография 2005 года. Предоставлена Вяземским историко-краеведческим музеем
Background

Information provided in 1995 by the Smolensk Region FSK (predecessor of the FSB) indicates that 846 people were shot in Vyazma between 1928 and the end of 1937: the details came from execution reports preserved in the archives. The killings took place in the prison at 9 Mount Dmitrov Street and the bodies were buried in the prison cemetery. Next to the prison is a ravine in which, according to inhabitants of Vyazma, executions and burials also took place. After the war residential accommodation was built over the cemetery. Human remains found when sand was taken from the ravine for building purpose were reburied in the city cemetery, according to the local media.

In February 1993, thanks to the efforts of the Belarus Ministry of Culture and the Vyazemsky district administration, a memorial to Belorussian writer M.I. Goretsky and all victims of political repression was placed at the presumed site of the burials. Engraved on the large stone are the words: “Here among the burials of hundreds of famous and unknown people, victims of political repression, are thought to lie the remains of Maxim Goretsky, the famous Belorussian writer, scholar and teacher.” Later the clergy of Vyazma put up a wooden commemorative cross-golubets next to the Goretsky memorial.

Books of Remembrance

A Book in Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression: the Smolensk Martyrology (7 vols. 2001-2008) contains biographical entries on 26,300 who were shot or sent to the Gulag.

Nature of area requiring preservation
State of burialsAreaBoundaries
have not survived
not established
not delineated
Administrative responsibility and ownership, informal responsibility for the site
On land under the control of the Vyazma City Administration
Sources and bibliography

[ Original texts & hyperlinks ]

V. Lifshits, “Shot in Vyazma”, Vyazemsky vestnik, 29 December 1992

V. Parfyonov, “A victory over forgetfulness: A memorial to the victims of Stalinist repression has opened”, Vyazemsky vestnik, 13 February 1993 (No 16)

“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

L. Semyonova, “His life is a striking example of devotion to his native land”, My town is Vyazma website, 6 February 2014

“In Vyazma they have remembered a Belorussian writer who became a victim of repression”, Smolenskaya narodnaya gazeta, 11 February 2014 [retrieved, 29 May 2022]

“Burial site of the victims of political repression in Vyazma”, Virtual Museum of the Gulag [retrieved, 29 May 2022]

Reply by the head of the Vyazemsky district administration (12 May 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)

67-06