As Its Past Is Exhumed, Russia Turns Away By STEVEN LEE MYERS Published: October 20, 2002 They would drive them here and turn down this track, Aleksandra A. Reznikova said as she hiked into the woods deep within this military preserve northeast of St. Petersburg. Then they would bring them here, to the trenches, she said, making her way through the birch trees and pines. Maybe soldiers dug them. Maybe they had to dig their own graves. Here in these woods, accompanied by the frequent rumble of artillery barrages, Ms. Reznikova and a team of researchers from the human rights organization Memorial have unearthed what they say is grim evidence of one of the Soviet Unions most egregious crimes, Stalins Great Terror of 1937 and 1938. Since August, the team has discovered 50 trenches containing the skeletons of what may be thousands of the 39,488 people the postSoviet government reckons were executed by Stalins secret police while he was consolidating absolute power. The graves discovered here are neither the first nor the largest found in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Two of the largest known mass graves lie on the southern fringes of Moscow. Another was discovered in the basement of Russias Supreme Court during renovations this year. What is revealing about the discovery here has been the reaction to it. Russias security service, the F.S.B., issued a dismissive statement saying its archives held no information about burials here. The bases commandant, Col. Valery G. Pestsov, bluntly warned Memorial that the group did not have permission to work on the range. Two weeks ago, bulldozers plowed over a back road Memorials researchers had been using to get to the graves, forcing them to walk five miles to avoid the bases checkpoints. What Memorial has unearthed here, it seems, is evidence not just of Stalins crimes, but also of Russias reluctance to come to terms with its Soviet past to this day. Its our countrys deep wound, said Inna P. Bulat, a resident of St. Petersburg whose father, aunt and uncle were all executed as enemies of the state during the Great Terror. You can forget about a wound if you dont touch, but when you touch it, it bleeds again. In 1992, Russias Constitutional Court implicated the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the purges. But the country has never held trials for crimes committed for the Soviet cause, not even when Khrushchev denounced Stalins tyranny in the 1950s. The Parliament enacted laws in the 1990s to acknowledge the victims of the Great Terror and other purges, but many of the governments archives remain closed, their files still classified as state secrets. Irina A. Flige, a geologist who is the director of Memorials office in St. Petersburg, said the failure to have a full accounting of the crimes committed under Stalin reverberated through Russian society today from the war in Chechnya to President Vladimir V. Putins decision to revive the Sovietera national anthem, with new lyrics. It is the reason, she said, that Moscows mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov, was able to propose returning the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet Unions first secret police, to its place of prominence on Lubyanka Square in front of the headquarters of the F.S.B., itself the successor to the K.G.B. and Stalins secret police, the N.K.V.D. The problem is that during the entire Soviet period, accompanied by the Communist terrors, a great number of people were shot simply annihilated, Ms. Flige said. And we live with the heritage of that period. In the 1980s and 1990s, it seemed that our society was on the verge of historic changes. But it is necessary to stress that the Communist regime was never properly held accountable, as happened in Germany after Nazism. Ms. Reznikova said Memorials effort was not to collect evidence for a criminal case. And it is unlikely that any of those involved in the killing here are still alive today. The goal, she said, was to honor those who were unjustly killed and to provide a historical record of the atrocities committed under Stalins rule. The F.S.B. in St. Petersburg has officially acknowledged the existence of a mass grave near the village of Levashyovo. According to records it has released, as many as 24,000 people may be buried there, victims of political persecutions from the beginning of the Russian Revolution until the cemetery was closed in 1962. But the agency says there is no evidence of any other mass graves. According to Memorial, however, more than 60,000 were executed in the region during that time, including those during the Great Terror, meaning the burial sites of the others remain a mystery. Memorial estimates that, in all of the Soviet Union, a million people were executed for political crimes and that millions more exiled or imprisoned. World8/11/13 As Its Past Is Exhumed, Russia Turns Away - New York Times nytimes/2002/10/20/world/as-its-past-is-exhumed-russia-turns-away.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm 2/2 Home Times topics Member Center Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map Index by Keyword Memorial has long suspected that the artillery range, in use since Peter the Greats rule, was used for executions. The organizations former director in St. Petersburg, Venyamin V. Iofe, began studying the range five years ago, using old maps and aerial photographs to locate the most likely places for burials. He died in April before the mass graves were unearthed. Last year, the organization discovered mass graves at another site on the southern edge of the artillery range, near the village of Rzhevka. But the skeletons there turned out to be victims of the first Soviet purges from 1918 to 1921. Memorial has since erected a monument at that site even though it has not yet been officially recognized as a grave. A break in the search came when Memorial found a witness, David D. Pelgonen, who lived in a village of ethnic Finns not far from the artillery range. Stalin exiled the villages residents during World War II, often to Siberia, and the villages themselves were absorbed as the the firing range expanded northward toward Lake Ladoga. Mr. Pelgonen was 12, he said, when he and some friends came across newly dug ditches while gathering mushrooms and berries in the woods. In one hastily filled trench, they saw a human hand and foot exposed. I told my father what we saw, he said. And my father told me never to speak of it again. From his village, Kourumyaki, it was possible to see the headlights of trucks heading to the site, said Mr. Pelgonen, who has since returned to live in the area. Villagers heard shots. Not only me, he said. Everybody kept their mouths shut. It was enough just to speak against Stalin to be accused yourself. Using Mr. Pelgonens memory as a guide, Memorials researchers began digging last year in an area not far from where the village once stood. This summer they moved farther down the road, using thin steel rods to probe the soil. Even after 65 years, the soil remains softer in the places where the graves were dug. On Aug. 31, the researchers discovered the first bones, after slowly excavating what turned out to be a wide pit. So far, the researchers have unearthed four graves in all, removing 16 skulls for analysis. Based on evidence so far, they expect to find many more. Each of the skulls, Mr. Flige said, showed the victims were shot in the back of the head. Based on forensic analysis, she said, the victims were men and women who ranged in age from 15 to 60. After the discovery, Memorial appealed in writing to the F.S.B. to release any documents that could shed light on what happened here, including such outwardly mundane documents as records of drivers assignments or correspondence between Stalins secret police and and commanders of the artillery range. The F.S.B. has yet to respond except to dismiss the idea that there were any mass graves outside of Levashyovo. Ms. Reznikova doubts that. She said she thought the F.S.B. refused to release documents not because they would implicate any one alive today, but rather because they would reveal that officials had known about the site, and perhaps others, all along. There are people who know, who could tell us this is where the bodies are buried, she said. And then there wouldnt be a need to bother these bones. Despite the militarys warning, Memorials researchers continue to search the site. So far, officials have not tried to interfere directly with their work, the researchers say, though a dummy artillery shell landed in the area last month, glancing off a birch tree not far from one of the graves. Based on the terrain of the area, bordered by a road and two bogs, they believe the mass grave may cover almost half a square mile, though other sites may be nearby. Eventually, Memorial plans to return all the bones and have the site declared a cemetery, which will almost certainly be complicated by the fact that it is on an active military base. It could take years, Ms. Flige said, to determine exactly how many people died here, and it may never be possible to identify the remains. Ms. Reznikova said that her greatgrandfather, Pyotr I. Mendersky, disappeared in the 1930s. Like so many relatives of victims, she does not know where his grave might be. He could be here, she said. The first snow has already fallen, bringing the groups work at the site to an end for the year. Soon the ground will freeze, and snow will gradually cover the graves for yet another winter
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 16:04:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015