In memory of the victims of political repressions

The remains of more than 1.5 thousand deceased people were found this summer at a powder magazine in Tiraspol, were reburied at the Memorial to the Victims of Political Repressions. About 1.5 thousand people were shot in 1937-1938 on charges of treason, smuggling and other crimes.

Volunteers from the Heirs of Victory search movement near the powder magazine in Tiraspol opened 17 execution pits this summer. The remains of 1575 people were found in total. Most importantly, they managed to restore most of the names of the dead, the volunteers say.

All documents are found in a terrible state. In order to decipher the only surname, specialists work with each of them from several hours to several days. It was possible thanks to this to find out the names of almost all the repressed, discovered this summer.

The volunteers have raised the remains of 3775 people from the ground during the search work near the walls of the powder magazine in Tiraspol since 2017. Those repressed people who were found this summer, were buried in a mass grave near the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church today.

After deciphering the found documents, the volunteers continue their search – they are looking for relatives of those who were shot. Many of them were found. So the family of one of the repressed Mikhail Ivanovich Mazur came to Tiraspol from the village of Podoymitsa, Kamenka district. They did not know anything about the fate of their relative for more than 80 years. They kept looking for.

According to official documents, Galina Dmitrievna's grandfather was convicted twice, shot for smuggling. However, the official version in the case of those whose remains have been found near the ramparts of the Tiraspol fortress for the past few years is often not true. Relatives know for sure that grandfather was not convicted, but was arrested on a false denunciation – he was from the "kulaks". He kept several cows and pigs to feed his large family.

Kondrat Dorash, the grandfather of Lyudmila Stepanovna and Lydia Alexandrovna was also dispossessed. The family searched for information about their relative for a long time. The first data was found in the Odessa archive. So they learned that Kondrat Dorash was shot on the 28th of February, 1937 in Tiraspol. But the place where he was buried was not indicated in the case file. The call from the volunteers came as a surprise to the sisters.

Memorial prayers for the dead were read by representatives of traditional religious denominations for our region – a rabbi, a Baptist pastor, Catholic and Orthodox priests. Fresh flowers lay near the mass grave and the memorial sign installed at the Memorial of the Victims of Political Repressions.