On October 30, 2017, the opening of the nationwide memorial "Wall of Sorrow" dedicated to the victims of political repressions of the Soviet era took place in Moscow, IA Regnum reports.
The opening ceremony was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. They uttered solemn words and laid flowers at the monument.
The opening of the "Wall of Sorrow" took place after a meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society, which discussed issues related to ensuring environmental and electoral rights of citizens. Vladimir Putin, speaking at this meeting, stressed that the year of the centenary of the revolution should draw a line under the split in society.
“The very memory, clarity and unambiguity of the position regarding these gloomy events serves as a powerful warning against their repetition. The terrible past of repressions cannot be erased from the memory of the people and cannot be justified by anything,” Vladimir Putin said.
According to the president, the consequences of political repression "are still being felt", but this is not a reason to settle scores. The monument, located on Sakharov Avenue and representing a thirty-meter bronze bas-relief, was described by Vladimir Putin as "grand and poignant."
After the President's speech, a mourning composition was performed by a chorus. Then the cordon around the monument was removed, and everyone was able to enter the territory. People laid flowers, prayed and lit candles. Opponents of the appearance of the "Wall of Sorrow" also gathered at the ceremony, some staged solo pickets.
Memorial "Wall of Sorrow"
The "Wall of Sorrow" memorial was erected in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin dated September 30, 2015 No. 487 "On the erection of a memorial to victims of political repression."
In 2015, the State Museum of the History of the Gulag held a competition for memorial projects. The jury included 25 public figures and human rights activists: L.M. Alekseeva, N.D. Solzhenitsyn, V.P. Lukin, D.A. Granin and others. A total of 336 projects were presented. The project of the sculptor G.V. Frangulyan "Wall of Sorrow".
To raise funds for the creation and installation of the memorial, the Foundation "Perpetuating the Memory of Victims of Political Repressions" was established. The Foundation has collected more than 43 million rubles in donations. The Moscow Government also took part in financing the project.
The composition of the square on which the memorial is installed includes "weeping stones" brought from 82 regions of Russia. The stones bear the inscription "Know... Do not forget... Condemn... Forgive!" authorship N.D. Solzhenitsyna.
The "Wall of Sorrow" is a two-sided high-relief wall with several arches, made up of the outlines of numerous figures symbolizing those who died as a result of repressions. The wall is 30 meters long and 6 meters high. Two embossed tablets with the word “Remember” written in 22 languages (in 15 languages of the former Soviet republics, in German and 6 official languages of the UN) are installed along the edges of the monument.
The monument was erected at the intersection of Akademika Sakharov Avenue and the Garden Ring.
The "Wall of Sorrow" memorial is open to everyone.
Memory of the victims of political repressions
The process of rehabilitation of victims of mass political repressions in the USSR in the late 1920s - until the early 1950s. began after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.
In 1961, at the XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the First Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev, first voiced the idea of erecting a monument to the victims of political repression.
At the same time, archives and museums began to collect memoirs and biographical data about the executed and injured citizens. In 1964, after Leonid Brezhnev came to the leadership in the USSR and the Khrushchev “thaw” ended, the process of rehabilitation and perpetuating the memory of the victims of repression was suspended.
In September 1987, a commission of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU was created for additional study of materials related to political repressions. In 1987-1990. a number of legislative acts were issued, including the resolutions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the construction of a monument to the victims of repression" (dated July 4, 1988) and "On perpetuating the memory of the victims of repression in the period of the 30-40s and early 50s" (June 28, 1989 of the year).
Monument "Solovki Stone"
In the late 1980s - early 1990s. activists of the "Memorial" society proposed to erect a monument to the victims of political repressions in Moscow. In agreement with the Moscow City Council, a place for it was chosen in the square of the Polytechnic Museum on Dzerzhinsky Square (now Lubyanskaya Square) opposite the building of the former NKVD (KGB).
The monument was a granite boulder brought from the territory of the former Solovetsky special purpose camp (Arkhangelsk region). The stone was chosen by the journalist Mikhail Butorin (at that time the chairman of the board of the Arkhangelsk regional organization "Conscience") and the Arkhangelsk architect Gennady Lyashenko.
The grand opening of the monument, called the "Solovki stone", took place on October 30, 1990. Artist-architect S. Smirnov, designer V. Korsi took part in the creation of the sculptural composition.
In February 2008, it became known about plans to transfer the Solovetsky stone for construction work. In May 2008, after protests by human rights activists, it was decided to leave the stone in place and give it the status of a landmark.
Other notable monuments to victims of political terror
Today in Russia hundreds of monuments, obelisks, steles, foundation stones, commemorative signs, crosses and memorial plaques connected with the history of repressions and the memory of their victims have been erected on the sites of mass executions, on the territory of former camps and in the settlements of special settlers.
Large monumental forms were also installed - chapels, belfries, walls of memory, sculptural compositions, memorials, memorial complexes.
Here are some of the most famous monuments and memorial complexes to the victims of political terror:
Monument to the "Victims of Political Repressions" in St. Petersburg. Located opposite the prison "Crosses" on the Robespierre Embankment). Opened April 28, 1995. The author of the project is sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin. Statues in the form of two bronze sphinxes were cast in the USA and donated by the author to the city.
Sculpture "Moloch of totalitarianism". Opened on May 15, 1996 at the entrance to the Levashov Memorial Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Authors: Nina Galitskaya and Vitaly Gambarov.
Memorial "Mask of Sorrow" in Magadan. Opened June 12, 1996. Authors: Ernst Neizvestny and Kamil Kazaev.
Memorial and Museum Complex in Memory of the Deported Peoples in the village of Nasyr-Kort (Ingushetia). Opened February 23, 1997. Project author: Murad Polonkoev.
Bas-relief "Execution with a guardian angel" in the Sandarmokh tract in Karelia. It was opened on August 22, 1998 (since 2006 under reconstruction) on the territory of the memorial cemetery. Authors: Grigory Saltup and Nikolai Ovchinnikov.
Memorial complex "Katyn" in the Smolensk region. Opened July 28, 2000. Combines the Polish military cemetery and the burial places of Soviet citizens - victims of political repression. The authors of the project of the Polish part: sculptors Zdzisław Pidak, Andrzej Solyga, Wiesław and Jacek Synakiewicz. The Russian part was designed in the creative workshop number 4 of the Union of Architects of Russia under the direction of Mikhail Khazanov.
Memorial complex "Mednoye" in the Tver region. Opened September 2, 2000. Polish prisoners of war who were shot in 1940 and Soviet citizens (victims of the repressions of 1937-1938) are buried here. The project of the Russian part of the Memorial was made by Workshop No. 4 of the Union of Architects of the Russian Federation under the direction of Mikhail Khazanov, the chief architect is Nikita Shangin. The authors of the concept of the Polish cemetery: a creative team led by sculptors Zdzisław Pidek and Andrzej Solyga.
"Monument to the Victims of Political Repressions" in Ufa (Bashkortostan). Installed December 23, 2000. Authors: Yuri Soldatov and Leonid Dubinsky.
Worship cross on the territory of the former Butovo training ground(one of the places of mass executions; near the village of Drozhzhino, Leninsky district, Moscow region). Placed on August 7, 2007 on a foundation of stones from the Solovetsky Islands and elements of previously destroyed Orthodox churches.
On December 10, 2014, the Last Address campaign started in Moscow. The purpose of this project is to install personal signs of a single design on the facades of houses, the addresses of which became the last lifetime addresses of the victims of these repressions. St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, Barnaul, Irkutsk and other cities of the Russian Federation are already participating in the program.
“Millions of people were declared enemies of the people, were shot or maimed, went through the torments of prisons or camps and exile,” Vladimir said at the ceremony, “the terrible past cannot be erased from the national memory” - and at the same time it cannot be justified “by any higher the so-called goods of the people.
Together with Patriarch Kirill and the Mayor of Moscow, the President laid flowers at the Wall of Sorrow.
Throughout the Monday evening, live instrumental music will be played on the square near the memorial. After the opening ceremony, the "Wall of Sorrow" was open to everyone.
The "Wall of Sorrow" was not closed with barriers even before the opening. It would be difficult to do this: it is a sculptural group of impressive dimensions: a double-sided high relief 30 meters long and 6 meters high, located in a semicircle.
It took more than 80 tons of bronze.
The composition is based on faceless figures soaring upwards - as the sculptor Georgy explained to Gazeta.Ru, they should symbolize the fragility of human life in the face of a totalitarian system. According to the artist, the form of the monument should convey to people the feeling of "roar of terror" and "gritting of evil." The monument, which actually consists of figures stuck together, has gaps made in the form of human silhouettes through which viewers can pass - this will allow them to feel that anyone can become a victim, Frangulyan explains. Along the edges of the monument there will be stone pillars - "tablets" with the word "remember" in different languages.
The square in front of the "Wall of Sorrow" is lined with stones brought from places of detention for victims of political repression.
“The image of the monument arose in me in five minutes,” Frangulyan told Gazeta.Ru, “everything on the“ Wall of Sorrow ”is not at all accidental: it is a complexly built compositional series. Every stroke is made by my hands. To date, this is my most important work.
The total cost of the project amounted to 460 million rubles. The Fund "Perpetuating the Memory of the Victims of Political Repressions" was engaged in raising funds for it. At the same time, 300 million rubles were allocated. A large part was made up of private donations. Frangulyan's project won the competition, for which 340 concepts were submitted in total. The jury included the chairman of the board of the society, the chairman, the coordinator of the Moscow Helsinki Group and the leader. All of them are declared as participants of the ceremony.
The opening date was chosen long ago and in advance - October 30 is the day of political repressions; The HRC meeting on that day was dedicated to the problem of perpetuating the memory of the victims in Russia. The day before, the action "Return of Names", dedicated to the day of remembrance of the victims of political repressions, took place near another monument, which until now served as a memorial - the Solovetsky stone.
About two thousand people lined up to briefly call the names, place of residence and date of execution of the victims of repression, including their relatives, into the microphone.
"Solovki Stone" took its place on Lubyanka Square in the late 80s, when the topic of repression again - for the first time after the "thaw" began to be actively discussed. A large boulder brought from the islands where the SLON was located in the former monastery - the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp, which was de facto a political prison. The stone was placed on Lubyanka Square as a sign that one day a full-fledged memorial will be built in Moscow. However, the issue of its construction was returned only 25 years later, when in August 2015 the concept of state policy to perpetuate the memory of victims of political repression was approved.
"Wall of Sorrow"- a monument to the victims of political repressions, opened in the square at the intersection of Akademika Sakharov Avenue since October 30, 2017.
The memorial is impressive. Its central part was a semicircular bronze wall (35 meters long, 6 meters high) - a double-sided bas-relief depicting about 600 impersonal human figures, directed upwards and forever frozen in motion. The heads of people are lowered down, and the intertwining bodies merge into a single monolith; between their voluminous figures, several arches in the form of human silhouettes were left in the wall, through which you can pass. On both sides of the wall there are bronze slabs on which the word "Remember" is carved in 22 languages, and around it are several spotlights mounted on massive granite pillars: at night their rays are directed into the sky. Behind the semicircular monument is framed by a retaining wall made of granite slabs, as if they were rearing rocks. The monolith of the wall symbolizes the tragedy of human destinies and persons erased from life, as if they had never existed. Such a composition of the monument is intended to draw attention to the fragility of human life, vulnerable to the machine of repression, and suggests realizing the tragic consequences of authoritarianism, so as not to repeat the tragedy of the past in the future.
The area around the memorial is lined with stones from the most famous Gulag camps, places of mass executions and burials, regions and settlements whose residents were subjected to forced deportation. Among them are stones from Irkutsk, Vorkuta, Ukhta, Bashkiria, Khabarovsk Territory, Pskov, Vologda and Smolensk regions, Levashovskaya Pustosh (St. Petersburg), Zolotoy Gora (Chelyabinsk region), Butovo test site (Moscow region) - in total from 58 Russian regions.
The monument fits well into the surroundings, which also became part of the memorial: the administrative building of the Soviet years, gray and bulky, located behind it, became a living symbol of power and sluggishness against its background.
The history of the creation of the monument
For the first time, the idea to erect a monument to the victims of repression in Moscow arose back in 1961 and was put forward personally by Nikita Khrushchev as part of a program to combat Stalin's personality cult, however, this was not implemented. In the Soviet years, the monument was never erected; only in 1990, with the participation of activists of the "Memorial" society, appeared on Lubyanka Square, to which the city limited itself. Meanwhile, the interested public believed that this was not enough.
In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin was presented with a draft program to perpetuate the memory of victims of repression, which included, among other things, the erection of a monument; in the same year, a decision was made to install it and a place was chosen - a square at the intersection of Academician Sakharov Avenue with Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street.
In May 2015, a competition for monument designs was launched. During the competition, out of 336 projects presented to the public, the winner was chosen - the project of the monument "Wall of Sorrow" by sculptor Georgy Frangulyan, which was approved for work. The total cost of the construction of the memorial amounted to 460 million rubles, of which 300 million were allocated from the city budget, and the remaining 160 were supposed to be collected by public donations; however, only 45 million were eventually collected from donations, and the city also took on the missing amount. Curiously, some donated bronze instead of money. Casting of bronze figures was carried out in a workshop in Khimki near Moscow, the monument was delivered to the place of installation in parts.
The opening of the memorial took place on October 30, 2017, the ceremony was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, members of the HRC and its chairman Mikhail Fedotov, sculptor Georgy Frangulyan and other persons.
In general, the townspeople accepted the installation of the monument rather neutrally - someone approved that a memorial to the victims of political repression appeared in Moscow, and someone did not like the idea of a huge wall of corpses on the Garden Ring, but it did not cause any resonance. Whether the memorial will receive popular recognition or remain just a bronze colossus, past which you can fly with a breeze along Sadovoye - a matter of time.
Monument to the victims of political repression "Wall of Sorrow" is located at the intersection of Akademika Sakharov Avenue with Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street (in front of the Sogaz building). It can be reached on foot from metro stations. "Red Gate" and "Clean Ponds" Sokolnicheskaya line, "Turgenevskaya" Kaluga-Riga and "Sretensky Boulevard" Lublinsko-Dmitrovskaya.
And then he took part in the opening ceremony of the memorial to the victims of political repression "Wall of Sorrow". If the opening of the "Wall" took place before the council, its participants would have had time to turn to Putin with a much larger number of proposals, but this time they had to limit themselves in time. About what fears human rights activists still managed to convey to the president - in the material.
On this day, a lot of people gathered on Academician Sakharov Avenue. Among those who stood in the wind and rain were prisoners of the Gulag - already very old, and politicians, and human rights activists, and clergymen. A thirty-meter composition of bronze and granite seemed to hang over them in the gathering twilight. Chairs were placed in front of the monument for the guests, and a low stage covered with black cloth was built for the speakers. When the backlight was turned on, the cockle of the patriarch shone like a white spot. Vladimir Putin, who arrived at the "Wall of Sorrow" a little late, examined the monument illuminated by searchlights and was pleased: he called the "wall" grandiose and poignant.
The monument, which was assembled in Khimki near Moscow, was delivered to the site back in August, but it was hidden by a dark canvas. The author of the project - a sculptor, selected from among three hundred applicants, spoke of his work as a mission and admitted: "There was nothing more significant in my life." The sculptor created a crushing wall with rare gaps, through which everyone can pass and feel "the sword of Damocles hanging over the crown of the head."
And although the idea of erecting such a monument in the capital appeared a very long time ago, it was defended by the head of the presidential council for human rights only in 2014. Putin supported the idea, because "it is impossible to forget or justify the repressions." “Fictitious and absolutely absurd accusations could be brought against everyone, millions of people were declared enemies of the people, were shot or maimed, went through the torments of prisons, camps and exiles,” he said at the opening of the “Wall of Sorrow”.
Photo: Natalia Seliverstova / RIA Novosti
In his speech, he nevertheless urged not to push society to the line of confrontation and settling scores. “Now it is important for all of us to rely on the values of trust and stability,” Putin said. In conclusion, the president quoted the words of Natalia Solzhenitsyna, who was present at the opening: "Know, remember, condemn, and only then forgive." “Because we need to unite,” Solzhenitsyna added later.
Putin was late for the opening of the monument for an objective reason: before that, he held a meeting of the Human Rights Council in the Kremlin. And he began with a minute of silence in memory of the founder of the Fair Aid Foundation, Elizaveta Glinka, and film critics - both of them were members of the HRC. And then, as positive points, he noted that the number of NPOs recognized as foreign agents had halved - from 165 to 89, and the annual amount of funds allocated to support non-profit organizations had increased seven times. For five years, more than 22 billion rubles have been allocated for their development within the framework of presidential grant support, Putin specified and invited human rights activists to the discussion.
Agreeing with these figures, the head of the Council asked to allow the Presidential Grants Fund to receive and distribute donations from foreign corporations. According to him, this is especially important for human rights organizations, since Russian charitable foundations are afraid to support them, and "taking money from foreign foundations means signing up as foreign agents."
The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group proposed to recreate the presidential pardon council and announced her readiness to join it. She stressed that dishonest people may turn out to be in the regional pardon commissions: “It hurts to have a place for bread.” And as if casually mentioned that for many years she knows and can vouch for the former governor of the Kirov region, who is under investigation: "He did not take bribes - not such a person." Alekseeva finished her thought with an appeal: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, be a gracious president in the eyes of people! Our people have mercy at a great price!”
Putin agreed to think about restoring the Council on Pardons, but he challenged Belykh's assessment and drew attention to the dubious episodes of his actions. “You must admit that the explanation is still strange, according to which the governor of a Russian subject takes money from an entrepreneur and not in Kirov, but in Moscow, not in his office, but in a restaurant, and not in rubles, but in dollars. Well, this is somehow very strange,” Putin said, at the same time noting that the court would determine Belykh’s guilt.
law enforcement agencies against demonstrators.
To another speaker, journalist Stanislav Kucher, who noticed that the country has a “feeling of a cold civil war, obscurantism,” from which people go abroad, Putin objected: Russia is a free country, and it’s normal that a person “worked somewhere, somewhere then he left, then he returned. In addition, according to his feelings, the number of Russians leaving has declined sharply, many are returning today.
In his opinion, there are no hysterics associated with protests in Russia, but there are natural outbursts of protest moods to which the authorities should respond. “Look at the United States - there are hysterics and hysterics there,” Putin suggested. - And what happens in Europe? God knows what!”
