According to the reports of the Ulyanovsk district OGPU they began to shoot and bury people in the Strizhovoi Ravine from the early 1930s. Testimony of Saratov inhabitants confirms that there were burials in this area.
In 1993 excavations were conducted in the ravine, as part of a criminal investigation into unlawful mass repression for political reasons under Stalin. However, burials were not found. Local residents say that human remains are periodically uncovered and come to the surface of the earth. Today drainage canals have been laid in Strizhovoi ravine to ensure that water is diverted from the surrounding streets.
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.
State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
---|---|---|
characteristic subsidence over burials
|
not determined
|
not delineated
|
[ Original texts & 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
“Report to the Ulyanovsk Region prosecutor about arbitrary and lawless acts during the years of political repression that were uncovered during the investigation of criminal case No. 22”, Book of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression in the Ulyanovsk Region, Ulyanovsk, 1996
“Record of the implementation on 28 April of the ruling of the OGPU Troika (dated 15 April 1930) concerning A.F. Gneushev”, Book of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression in the Ulyanovsk Region, Ulyanovsk, 1996
O. Khlebnikov, “The confession of a rank-and-file executioner”, Novaya gazeta, 28 November 2011 (No. 133)
I.M. Shleikin, “Unnamed graves in the courtyard”, Novaya gazeta, 16 November 2011 (No. 128)
A. Pavlov, “Corpses were buried at the rubbish dump”, Ulyanovsk, City of News, 15 July 2013 [retrieved, 29 May 2022]
“Burials of executed in the Strizhovoi ravine, Ulyanovsk”, Virtual Museum of the Gulag [partially retrieved, 3 June 2022]