"Scorched by the fire of war": Memorials to victims of the Holocaust. Putin unveiled a monument to victims of political repression
October 30, at Memorial Day for the Victims political repression, President of Russia Vladimir Putin took part in the opening of the memorial " Wall of Sorrow" The memorial is a bas-relief depicting human figures that symbolize the repressed. On the monument is written the word “ Remember» on 22 languages. The area around the memorial is paved with stones brought from former camps and prisons. Gulag.
At the opening of the “Wall of Sorrow,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said that political repression is a crime that cannot be justified by any of the highest benefits of the people.
Today in the capital we are opening the “Wall of Sorrow” - a grandiose, piercing monument both in meaning and in its embodiment. “He appeals to our conscience, feelings, to understanding the period of repression, the compassion of their victims,” Putin said during the opening of the memorial.
The head of state noted that during the time of Stalin's terror, millions of people were declared enemies of the people, shot or maimed. The President emphasized that this terrible past cannot be erased from the national memory. However, as Putin said, remembering the victims of repression does not mean pushing society towards confrontation:
Now it is important to rely on the values of trust and stability,” said the Russian leader.
Vladimir Putin addressed words of gratitude to the authors of the memorial, as well as to everyone who invested in its creation, and to the Moscow government, which accounted for the bulk of the costs. Together with the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill and mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin the President walked around the memorial and laid flowers at it.
Also present at the opening ceremony of the “Wall of Sorrow” was a senator, Doctor of Historical Sciences, former Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Vladimir Lukin. He emphasized the importance of the appearance of the memorial and said that he dreams that future presidents, guarantors of the Constitution Russian Federation, and the future ombudsmen of our country took the oath to the people right here, at this wall, in front of these tragic faces. However, he believes that this dream is most likely utopian.
Earlier, the media published an appeal from a group of Soviet dissidents and former political prisoners who called not to participate in the opening of the “Wall of Sorrow” and other commemorative events organized by the Kremlin. They stated that the current government in Russia only verbally regrets the victims of the Soviet regime, but in reality continues political repression and suppresses civil liberties in the country:
The victims of political repression cannot be divided into those to whom monuments can already be erected and those who can be ignored for now,” the dissidents emphasized.
The “Wall of Sorrow” memorial, dedicated to the memory of victims of political repression, is located at the intersection Sakharov Avenue And Garden Ring. The initiator of the installation of the object was Memory Fund. The creator of the “Wall of Sorrow” is a sculptor Georgy Frangulyan.
On the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression, in Moscow, at the intersection of Academician Sakharov Avenue and the Garden Ring, the “Wall of Sorrow” was erected - the first nationwide monument to the victims of political repression. Decades of shameful silence" camp theme“and the fear of talking “about it” even in the family is behind us. The “wall of grief” changes the balance of power with reinforced concrete.
In two different parts of Russia - on Kolyma and Solovki - rocks with the same words carved into them with crowbars rest into the sea: “Ships will come for us! 1953.” And then in 2017 the last ship came for them.
Let’s assume that the “Wall of Sorrow” is the last ship that came for those who could not return in 1953, who died,” says Mikhail Fedotov, Chairman of the Russian Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights. - Now the ship of our memory came for them.
The “Wall of Sorrow” consists of symbolic corridors-arches, after passing through which everyone divides history for themselves into “before” - when everyone could become a victim of the “Great Terror”, and “after” - when the “Wall of Sorrow” opened in Moscow gives inside a person to grow in understanding that the trauma of repression must be remembered and carried as part of one’s roots.
Not to divide into victims and executioners, not to take revenge, and not even to “forgive and forget everything,” but to make history, such as it is, part of the genetic memory of the nation.
Schoolchildren from the Rostov region earned 75 thousand rubles for the monument with their labor
It’s hard, slow and painful, but this is what’s happening: according to the Memory Foundation, the monument to the state cost 300 million rubles, and the amount of voluntary donations from the people reached 45,282,138.76 rubles. And although by erecting the “Wall” society recognizes the policy of terror and repression as a crime, the people, through their participation in raising funds for the monument, do not simply comprehend the tragedy. People donate more than just savings to the Memory Fund.
Those who don’t have them, for example, pieces of bronze, like Ivan Sergeev, a pensioner from the Saratov region. Or the smallest contribution to the “Wall” - 50 rubles - was made by a pensioner from Yoshkar-Ola, who wished to remain anonymous. She signed the details: “The daughter of a repressed person. Forgive me as much as I can.”
But the most significant private contribution to the “Wall of Sorrow” was the money earned by the children of the village of Kirovskaya, Kagalnitsky district, Rostov region - 75 thousand rubles.
The Rostov story shocked me,” says Roman Romanov, director of the Gulag History Museum. - For me, she is an example of the fact that young people do not want “at any cost” or “to quickly forget terror.” They want to know their history and put together it through their hard work. For me, the 75 thousand rubles earned by the children is an answer to those who want to create a tourist cluster on the basis of the Gulag camps with the “flavor” of the zone and camps. With barracks where you can live in an “economy” option, with bunks where you can sleep; with tin dishes and "camp" food. Children from Rostov silently convince by their actions: “the aroma of the Gulag zone” or the now fashionable quests on this topic are the road to historical oblivion. And what Rostov schoolchildren and hundreds of thousands of donors did for the “Wall of Sorrow” is the path to real living history.
Romanov admits that he trusts these people. They will definitely be able to find in the memory safes and put in place terrible figures: according to the Memory Foundation, 20 million people went through the Gulag system, over a million were shot (the figure is not final - “RG”), more than 6 million became victims of deportations and exiles.
Direct speech
Honest history forms a united nation
Natalia Solzhenitsyna, President of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Foundation:
The fates of those who went through the Gulag should not remain family stories. They must and will now become part of national history. We cannot afford not to know our recent history - it is like going forward blindfolded, and therefore inevitably stumbling. This is what is happening to us, since during the era of the Great Terror the foundations of a divided society were laid. It will remain split until we begin to restore an honest history. Honest history shapes one nation. And without unity and spiritual healing, simple economic revival is impossible.
A nationwide monument to the victims of repression is a step towards reconciliation. Because reconciliation is impossible on the basis of oblivion.
“Oblivion is the death of the soul,” said the sages. The idea of memory is embedded in “The Wall of Sorrow.” And to feel or not to feel guilt depends on the development of consciousness, conscience, and understanding. And this is a personal feeling, not a collective one.
Our country is completely different today! With all the shortcomings of our existence, going back seventy years ago is no longer possible. And, probably, descendants should not keep the wolf scars of separation that that time left. We need an honest chronicle of victories and defeats.
Such a history of Russia in the 20th century can be respected.
Point of view
From varnished history to genuine history
Vladimir Lukin, member of the Federation Council:
I am convinced that the most important thing today is to connect the broken historical mosaic into something whole. To do this, we need to overcome both the Stalinist interpretation of history and the apologetics of anti-Sovietism. The “Wall of Sorrow” on this path reduces the tone of the fierceness of discussions and brings us closer to understanding the greatness of the event. Zhou Enlai, a prominent Chinese figure, when asked whether he believed French Revolution 1789 great, answered: “It’s too early to judge. Let another hundred years will pass"And so we are only at the beginning of society’s journey through varnished history to the present.
No matter how much we perpetuate the victims of political repression, everything in 1789 inevitably comes down to the question: “How many people died?” I always answer: “We will never know.” It's not just the secrecy of some of the archives. And it’s not that when the Shvernik-Shatunovskaya commission reported to the 20th Congress of the CPSU that from 1934 to 1941 alone 19 million 800 thousand people were repressed, and of them 7 million 100 thousand were shot, the congress was horrified and closed these figures. And not even that historians after Peter and Paul Fortress In St. Petersburg, execution pits were discovered where nameless victims lie on February 25, 1917, suggesting that this date can be considered the beginning of mass repressions of the 20th century in Russia. But the point is the Great and Tragic whole, which we must assemble from the broken historical mosaic.
Promotion "RG"
Internet project "RG" "Know, do not forget, condemn. And - forgive" gathered an audience of reconciliation
The action to create the “Wall of Sorrow,” Vladimir Kaptryan said in an interview with RG, “is only the first step towards restoring historical justice and the desecrated connection of times. And also the restoration of a terrible understanding: everyone at that time could turn out to be a hero, an “enemy of the people,” and an executioner. In war it’s like in war. Not everyone at the front was a hero either. Therefore, it seems to me to be honest towards the victims of the Gulag and towards ourselves, first on the day of the installation of the “Wall of Sorrow” in Moscow, and then on this day every year to go out into the street for a memorial rally. How " Immortal Regiment". Let it be a "Memory Regiment". I would join it. ()
One of the most positive and passionate stories is the story of the “anti-Soviet” Yuri Naydenov-Ivanov. He told how three comrades - 19-year-old student Yuri Naydenov-Ivanov, 20-year-old Evgeniy Petrov and Valentin Bulgakov in 1951 were found with the magazine "America". Naydenov also corresponded with friends from Odessa. All three were accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and of “wanting to cross the Black Sea by boat.” Everyone was given ten years in the camps. Petrov ended up in the mines of the North, Bulgakov - in Siblag, Naydenov - in the mines of Kazakhstan's Karaganda. He spoke about the secrets of survival in the camps. And how he accidentally got a “life number” that saved him. ()
Another story - about how victims of repression won cases even against the NKVD and moved into their apartments when returning from the camps (" "), formed a golden fund of video interviews of stories "My Gulag".
Now they are Regiment historical memory. It was these stories that gave rise to a large author’s documentary project and series feature films and plays that will be filmed over the next five to seven years. All this will be done under the creative direction of film director Pavel Lungin and artistic director Theater of Nations by Evgeniy Mironov.
Direct speech
Each of us has a fragment of the "Wall"
The arches that cut through the entire length of the monument are made in such a way that everyone has to bend down to pass. Bending down, the man’s eyes stare at the tablet: “Remember!” Like an unheard prayer, the word is written in twenty-two languages - in fifteen languages of nations former USSR, in five UN languages and in German - one of the languages of the European Union.
"Remember!" you have to carry thirty-five meters - the entire length of the monument. Everyone will be able to walk through it and feel like they are in the victim’s place. Thus, “The Wall” reproduces the feeling of the sword of Damocles. Only in this way, with the understanding that each of us has a fragment of the “Wall”, can we move on. But it is not clear when we can straighten our backs. It is unclear how long it will take for that fragment to come out. For it to come out, one must personally understand the phenomenon of the Gulag and make it part of the genetic memory of the nation.
I would like each piece of "The Wall of Sorrow" to convey the state of tragedy. Yes, her figures are faceless. The “death scythe” made them this way. The victims of the terror of the 30-50s were and remain too numerous and often anonymous. Their twisted destinies and erased faces are a symbol of tragedy.
Following director Gleb Panfilov, who was adapting Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” director Pavel Lungin began searching for material about the era of the camps. Today he tells RG why each of us will have to go through the purgatory of memory.
Pavel Semenovich, have you decided what the film will be about?
Pavel Lungin: When I think about how to make films, I look for humanistic supports. I am from that generation that still believes in people and is not ready to go into a total postmodern tragedy. Yes, you can make a movie about the 1953 Gorlag uprising in Norilsk and the 1954 Kengir uprising of political prisoners. In Norilsk alone, according to archives, up to 16,000 people went on strike. But this is the end of the camp system, and their essence crystallized inside a person earlier. He couldn't help but resist her from within. How? This is what I want to make a film about. But I have not yet found the history of the confrontation. The more I read, the more often thoughts appear: “Who am I? Where do I have so much audacity to touch on a topic filled with blood and torment?” Sometimes I just freeze in horror. I want to forget the Gulag forever and not know about it. This is an instinctive fear of the scale of the tragedy. I’m also afraid - will I be strong enough to show the depth of the phenomenon? It is a crime to ennoble the Gulag, but it is also a crime to deprive people of hope.
And in my film there will definitely be a funny Gulag. AND female gaze to the camp
You don’t have a script, but there is Solzhenitsyn, there is Shalamov, there is “The Abode” by Zakhar Prilepin...
Pavel Lungin:...Zakhar Prilepin wrote a very powerful novel about Solovki. His talent as a writer is beyond ideology, which gives the novel such characters that wow... I would love to film it. But, in my opinion, there are no copyrights anymore. Although for Prilepin, like Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov, the Gulag is hopeless. And in my film there will definitely be a funny Gulag. And a woman's view of the camp. I haven’t populated the picture with stories yet, but I remember well my conversations with Andrei Sinyavsky. In France he talked all the time about the camp. Once, while visiting him, I couldn’t stand it: “You remember the camp as if it was something better.” Sinyavsky didn’t even think about arguing with me. His camp friendships remained; people with whom he was imprisoned came to visit him in Paris. They sincerely believed that in their case “a mistake had occurred.” “Yes,” he answered, “in a sense it was perfect life. No money, no women, no career, no nothing. You seem to be cleared of everything and can communicate with people as with purified entities." This is a shock on the verge of spiritual hunger and spiritual purity. I am looking for it for the film. It is like some people remember war as some kind of cleansing experience. It’s like you’ve been dipped in sulfuric acid, but you’re alive.
Academician Likhachev also admitted at one time that the Bolsheviks were right in the value system they created when they did not accept him Soviet power, sent to the Gulag for re-education. Doesn't this position provoke revenge among the executioners? Here it is already documentary filmed about Rodion Vaskov - the creator and godfather Solovki and Magadan gold mines. In the film, his son Gritsian, with tears in his eyes, asks why his father, at the end of his life, was sent to the Gulag for five years following a denunciation? After all, “he created around himself not terror, but production, gave people work, food, meaning... He was able to avoid becoming a warden.” What would you answer him?
Pavel Lungin: The twentieth century is rich in such phenomena. The century has given powerful attempts to create a new man. The USSR, then Germany, China had its own experience, the last spasm was in Cambodia. In the USA, after 1929, labor camps were also created, but they did not forge a new person there. And remaking it is a dispute with God about man. Dostoevsky brilliantly conveyed this confrontation in The Grand Inquisitor. With him, Christ is not just imprisoned. The Inquisitor tempts Christ with the fact that freedom is the most big test and the punishment for a person is that a person wants nothing more than to have his freedom taken away. Then he doesn't have to make a choice. And freedom is not needed. It was precisely this that the camp took away.
But attempts to remake a person always ended in failure. After all, first you need to make minced meat out of it. In this sense, of course, camps are a school of education. Whom? The son of the Gulag creator answers well. He sincerely believes that among the executioners his father was the best and kindest, cutting off heads with one blow, and not with two. This is one of the fruits of “upbringing”, when the criteria of good and evil are lost. Instead of a “new man,” we have received such a level of his decomposition when we must admit: the idea of total re-education is harmful. Man is “God’s creature,” a creature that cannot be sculpted by a third-party sculptor or any other kind of plastic surgery. Interference with human nature is the greatest danger that awaits us. And the unspoken and unawareness of the Gulag experience gives rise to the incomprehensible phenomenon of guardsmen, who then dress up as victims.
Wasn't the policy of repression often just a pretext for recruiting into the labor army?
The wall of grief is an agreement that repression is evil. This is the beginning of spiritual cleansing
Is the “Wall of Sorrow” monument, which stood in Moscow on October 30, 2017, a step of the people towards the saint?
Pavel Lungin: Grief for me is a consensus. The wall is society's agreement that evil has been committed, and the understanding that we caused it to ourselves. This is just the beginning of spiritual cleansing. And the fact that the monument is being donated ordinary people, is a sign of our recovery. Even if it’s 15 kopecks, the whole country should chip in for the Wall. The desire to pass through the Wall is the germ of awareness, repentance and redemption. We no longer pretend that there is no problem.
But we pretend, often sincerely believing, that someone else needs repentance and atonement, but not me. In this sense, the story of Muscovite Vera Andreeva is indicative. In the series of films “My Gulag” of the Gulag History Museum, she said that in 1937 her beloved uncle Vanya wrote a denunciation against his father and her grandfather Dmitry Zhuchkov for the fact that “the nobleman does not recognize the revolution.” But my father even won the case against the NKVD. The son, expelled from the family, died in 1942 defending Sevastopol from the Nazis. “He deserves to die,” his father said about him. “My grandfather was already lying in the ground,” recalls Vera Sergeevna, “and my relatives, a member of the CPSU, repeated his words: “How could you go over to their side?” But I don’t know. I remember my grandfather and understand: I did not forgive that government, like my grandfather didn’t forgive his son. I don’t know how to forgive this.” How to forgive this?
Pavel Lungin: If I could explain it in words, I shouldn't have made the film "The Island." I only know that the work of repentance is ascetic. It is not given to everyone. But I believe that feelings of shame and remorse make a person a person. A person begins with a feeling of shame, with pain for the misfortunes of others, with compassion. But I am in the same condition as society. I look around and don’t see that society or I are driven by an awareness of past history, pain, misfortune. Sometimes it seems to me that if “The Island” came out now, it wouldn’t be heard. It feels like we've stepped over something. The brain has this peculiarity: if a person from two to five years old does not speak, then he will be like Mowgli. They will find him, wash him off, and he will even speak, but there will be no freedom of speech. The brain was formed outside of language. So it is with the trauma of the Gulag. Maybe a time has passed when the wound was alive and easier to treat? But with the tragedy of the Gulag we are still embarking on the path of awareness. We need time, patience and freedom. New generations will come to replace those who were killed and who left. It seems to me that this evolution is underway, but for now we are sort of centaurs... The free part of us sees life around us, reads a lot, thinks... But the other part of us is slowly, hard, but changing. Including thanks to projects such as “Wall of Sorrow”, but it is changing...
“Millions of people were declared enemies of the people, were shot or maimed, went through the torment of prisons or camps and exile,” Vladimir Putin 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 the highest so-called benefits of the people."
Together with Patriarch Kirill and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the president laid flowers at the “Wall of Sorrow.”
Throughout Monday evening, the square near the memorial will feature instrumental music in live performance, broadcasts information portal Moscow government, and thematic stories will also be shown. 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 size: a double-sided high relief 30 meters long and 6 meters high, located in a semicircle.
Photo report: The “Wall of Sorrow” was erected in the center of Moscow
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It took more than 80 tons of bronze.
The basis of the composition is made up of faceless figures soaring upward - as sculptor Georgy Frangulyan explained to Gazeta.Ru, they should symbolize fragility human life in the face of a totalitarian system. According to the artist, the shape of the monument should convey to people the feeling of the “roar of terror” and the “gnashing of evil.” In the monument, which actually consists of figures molded together, there are 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, explains Frangulyan. Along the edges of the monument there will be stone pillars - “tablets” with the word “remember” in different languages.
The area in front of the “Wall of Sorrow” is lined with stones brought from the places where victims of political repression were imprisoned.
“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 complex compositional series. Every stroke is made by my hands. To date, this is my most important work.”
The total cost of the project was 460 million rubles. The Fund “Perpetuating the Memory of Victims of Political Repression” was involved in collecting funds for it. At the same time, the Moscow government allocated 300 million rubles. A significant portion came from private donations. Frangulyan's project won the competition, to which a total of 340 concepts were submitted. The jury included Chairman of the Board of the Memorial Society Arseny Roginsky, Chairman of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova, Coordinator of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva and Head of the Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov. All of them are announced as participants in the ceremony.
The opening date was chosen long ago and in advance - October 30 marks the day of political repression; The HRC meeting on that day was devoted to the problem of perpetuating the memory of victims in Russia. A day earlier, the “Return of Names” event, timed to coincide with the day of remembrance of victims of political repression, took place at another monument that still served as a memorial - the Solovetsky Stone.
About two thousand people lined up to briefly say into the microphone the names, place of residence and date of execution of the victims of repression, including their relatives.
The “Solovetsky Stone” took its place on Lubyanka Square in the late 80s, when the topic of repression began to be actively discussed again for the first time after the “thaw”. A large boulder brought from the islands where the ELEPHANT was located in the former monastery - Solovetsky camp special purpose, a de facto former political prison. The stone was placed on Lubyanka Square as a sign that one day a full-fledged memorial would be built in Moscow. However, the issue of its construction was returned only 25 years later, when the concept was approved in August 2015 public policy to perpetuate the memory of victims of political repression.
On October 30, 2017, a monument dedicated to the victims of repression will open in Moscow. Author project - Georgiy Frangulyan. The monument was installed on Sakharov Avenue. "Wall of Sorrow" is the name of the monument.
Background
In 1961, at the next party congress, Nikita Khrushchev raised the issue of debunking Stalin’s personality cult. It was then that the idea of creating a monument to the victims of repression was first considered. But the matter did not progress beyond conversations. Moreover, Khrushchev proposed paying tribute to the memory of “loyal Leninists” - party members executed during the years of Stalinism. When the era of the so-called Thaw ended, the idea of creating a monument was completely forgotten. We remembered her in the late eighties.
and other monuments
During the perestroika years, the topic of victims of repression became quite discussed. Now is the most opportune time to install a monument. The monument unveiled at Lubyanka is called the Solovetsky Stone. It is made of granite brought from the territory former camp. Grand opening took place on October 30, 1990. Where mass executions took place in the 30s, sculptural compositions, memory walls, and chapels were subsequently installed. One of them, “Mask of Sorrow,” is located in Magadan. A memorial plaque with the inscription "Last Address" is installed in many cities of Russia.
Preparing to create the "Wall of Sorrow"
Since the early nineties, many monuments have been opened in the country. Why is there a need to create another one? The fact is that in many countries that were part of the USSR, there have been monuments dedicated to the victims for several decades. Stalin's repression. In Moscow there is only a foundation stone. In size and composition, this monument does not convey the tragedy and grief that thousands of Soviet families had to endure.
The issue of installing the “Wall of Sorrow” was raised more than once by Vladimir Fedotov - chairman Council for Community Development and Human Rights. In October 2014, the President of Russia was presented with a draft of the monument. At the end of December, an agreement was reached regarding the location of the monument.
Contest
When it comes to creating such a monument, the author of the future project is chosen over the course of several months. The competition started in February 2015. Only one of its participants was to become the author of the monument. It was assumed that some projects could be used in other cities of Russia.
In total, the competition jury considered more than three hundred options. To select a suitable project, an exhibition was organized, which lasted about a month. The winner was Georgy Frangulyan. The monument to the victims of repression could have had a different name. "Wall of Sorrow" is the name of the monument created by Frangulyan. Sergei Muratov took second place in the competition with his project “Prism”. Third - Elena Bocharova ("Torn Fates").
The memorial will be installed at the intersection of Sadovo-Spasskaya Street and Sakharov Avenue. "Wall of Sorrow", according to the jury, is the most appropriate spirit of the gloomy Stalin era In addition, it has a very succinct, telling name. The construction of the monument is carried out not only at the expense of the state, but also at the expense of public donations.
Description of the monument "Wall of Sorrow" in Moscow
Quite impressive in size. Until the opening, it will be stored in the park next to Sakharov Avenue. The height of the monument is 6 meters. Length 35 meters. 80 tons of bronze were used to create the Wall of Sorrow. The monument is a double-sided bas-relief depicting human figures. The images are both flat and three-dimensional.
In the photo "Wall of Sorrow" presented above, you can see human figures. There are about six hundred of them here. On the heavy wall, the composition of which is based on playing with volumes, there are quite large gaps, made in the shape of a human silhouette. You can go through them. This is a kind of artistic design that allows people to feel like they are victims of an all-powerful and merciless system.
The Wall of Sorrow in Moscow is not just a monument. This is a warning that will allow descendants to realize the sad consequences of authoritarianism and the fragility of human life. Perhaps similar sculptural composition will protect representatives of the future generation from repeating the mistakes of the past. On the "Wall of Sorrow" only one word is engraved. But this word is present here in 22 languages. Along the edges of the wall, “Remember” is engraved multiple times.
The "Wall of Sorrow" is located in the park, which is framed by granite stones. In front of the relief there are several spotlights mounted on granite pillars. The road to the monument is paved with stones. This is an unusual building material. The road to the “Wall of Sorrow” is paved with stones brought from camps, places of mass executions, as well as settlements whose residents were subjected to forced deportation: Irkutsk, Ukhta, Vorkuta, Khabarovsk Territory, Bashkiria and other regions of Russia.
Next to the monument is the Sogaz building. According to the sculptor, this building symbolizes power and clumsiness. In a way, she is part of the monument. It creates a fitting, gloomy backdrop for a wall that represents tens of thousands of human victims.
Historical background
Even today there is no exact information about how many people died during the years of repression. Mass arrests began in the late 20s and ended only after Stalin's death. The worst period was 1937-1938. Then about 30 thousand people were sentenced to death.
Victims of repression include not only those who were convicted under political article and sentenced to death. The wives, husbands, and relatives of those arrested were sent to the camps. Children under 15 years of age were to be placed in cities far from Moscow, Leningrad, Minsk, Kyiv, and Tiflis.
During the opening of the memorial, Putin said that the repressions could neither be forgotten nor justified by “any higher so-called benefits of the people.”
“Everyone could be brought against far-fetched and absolutely absurd charges, millions of people were declared enemies of the people, were shot or maimed, went through the torment of prisons or camps and exile,” the TASS agency quotes the president.
The President together with Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin assigned flowers for the monument. After the performances that began the ceremony, a minute of silence was announced, then the choir performed a funeral composition, reports Ekho Moskvy.
The “Wall of Sorrow” memorial was prepared by sculptor Georgy Frangulyan; the idea of installing it has been worked out since 2014. In September 2015, Putin ordered the construction of a memorial at the intersection of the Garden Ring and Academician Sakharov Avenue.
"NI" interviewed well-known political scientists with one question: is there a contradiction between the opening of a monument to the victims of political repression and the long-term glorification of Stalin in today's Russia?
Mark Urnov, Chairman Russian Fund analytical programs "Expertise":
The contradiction begins with state symbols: look, the anthem is Soviet, the flag and double headed eagle– imperial. When a society is in a transitional state, contradictions are inevitable. Thank God, the anti-Stalinist position began to make its way. It is impossible to change your worldview immediately. There is a deep-seated authoritarian complex among the people; many see Stalin as a symbol of order and a “strong hand.” And among the elites there are both pro-Stalinist and anti-Stalinist sentiments. Elite disagreements are reflected in both the media and public opinion. I observe some sentiments with sadness and others with confidence. A state with contradictory elites acts contradictorily.
Sergey Markov, political scientist:
Everything is fine. I don't see any contradictions. These are different things. Stalin is popular among the population. People want and demand a strong state. Now I’m watching the story: a family, a child is sick. They took out a debt for an apartment. The debt was returned, the apartment was taken away by scammers. The state is inactive. Robbery from business - the state is inactive. Low salaries among public sector employees have ruined medicine, education and science. This caused Stalin's popularity, but this does not mean a call for repression. The society rejects repression and does not allow social classes to participate in governance. We have freedom of speech, competitive elections. This suggests that society is open and dynamically developing. But the country is in a state of overload - the USSR collapsed, the infrastructure was destroyed in the nineties, external aggression from the West, and there is a terrorist regime in Ukraine. Overloads lead to a split: for Stalin - against Stalin. Therefore, they require clear decisions. Without overloads, the fault would be less rigid.
Abbas Gallyamov, political scientist:
The authorities are trying to show that they are overcoming the splits of the past and reconciling previously irreconcilable opponents. The vast majority of citizens are in demand for such a strategy. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the monument is dedicated to the memory of “victims of political repression.” The title does not mention Stalin. As if the repressions were on their own, and Stalin was on his own. By avoiding mentioning the name of the leader of the people in the context of repression, the authorities are trying to satisfy everyone as much as possible at the same time: to respect the victims and not to offend fans of Stalin’s “creativity.”
Yuliy Nisnevich, Professor of the Department of Political Science at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Political Sciences:
We have a propaganda cliche: Stalin is “ strong hand", "effective manager". But, sharp propaganda is one thing, the government, which admits: “there were excesses, but it was a useful thing,” is another. Remember, Catholics had indulgences, in Orthodox churches on the walls there are plaques with the names of donors (mostly local bandits) - also, a kind of indulgence. The monument to the victims of repression is an attempt for the authorities to wash themselves off. There must be an investigation, a public process. And so, the monument was erected, as if the “excesses” were acknowledged. The entire system must be condemned!
As for the dissidents' statement, the message is clear to me. He is, I would say, idealistic and human rights. But I can't agree with them. The installation of the monument is very important, repression is not off the agenda, there is material (in in a good way this word) confirmation, recognition of what happened. This is very important! It is wrong to refuse to erect a monument. Its appearance at the intersection of Sakharov Avenue and the Garden Ring is a huge breakthrough in relation to those events. Yesterday there was an action at the Solovetsky stone “Return of names”. It was held for the eleventh time. Based on the logic of the dissidents’ statements, there is no need to do this either. It turns out that if the authorities do something, it is obviously not good. This is already too much. Any idea is very important - both the “Last Address” and “Return of Names” signs, and the monument to the victims of repression. Thank God this happened. Of course they play to get indulgence. Classic version: instead of investigating the problem, holding a public trial, seriously condemning Stalin’s regime, now we can say, “What are you pestering?” A monument to victims of repression was erected in the center of Moscow.
