Action in memory of victims of political repression held in North Ossetia

The event took place at the monument "Stone of Tears" in Vladikavkaz, where more than 100 persons gathered: city residents, NGO activists, state officials and high school pupils.

"I came here by the call of my heart," pensioner Ruslan Khutinaev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "My father was repressed, and he died in prison. My elder brother Taimuraz Khutinaev, a scientist-agronomist, was also repressed because of our father, and he died. The eldest of my brothers named Tsarai, born in 1921, died near Leningrad during the blockade."

Aza Gogichaeva, another participant of the action, noted that she is coming to the monument to lay flowers every year on October 30. "My father Andrei Gogichaev was a party organizer at the railroad. Someone wrote a denouncement on him, and he was immediately arrested; I was only one year old then; and we left alone with our mother and brother. My father returned in early 1950s, and after a while he became factory director," she said.

Every year on October 30 Russia and other former socialist countries mark the Memory Day of Victims of Political Repression. In North Ossetia, over 25,000 persons became victims of repressions, of them over 14,000 - for political reasons.