Russians mark Memory Day of Victims of Political Repressions

Today, citizens of Russia mark the Memory Day of the victims of political repressions of 1937, instituted by the Decree of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet of 18.10.1991 No. 1763/1-I "On Instituting the Memory Day of Victims of Political Repressions".

Mourning actions and special events are being held all over Russia and in some countries of the former socialist camp.

In Moscow, the Human Rights Centre "Memorial", Movement "For Human Rights", Moscow Helsinki Group and Andrei Sakharov Public Centre will hold a mourning meeting. Relatives of those who had been innocently convicted during Stalin's Terror will rally today in the Butovo Range near Moscow, which was in the 1930s the execution place of thousands of persons, Radio Liberty reports.

The 70th anniversary of the start of the "Big Terror" is also recollected in the South of Russia. Thus, in Stavropol Territory today a mourning meeting in memory of those repressed will be held.

In the Memory Day of Victims of Political Repressions meetings and worships in memory of innocent victims will be held in Volgograd Region.

Adygea has no public organizations to deal with the matters of the victims of Stalin's repressions. However, their rights are fully respected, state the employees of the respective agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Prosecutor's Office of the Republic.

Chechnya did not hold any wide-scale actions in connection with the 70th anniversary of the start of the "Big Terror", although practically all the leaders of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic of the Soviet Union had been repressed, as well as religious figures, well-known scientists and workers of culture and other people respected in Chechnya.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, the 70th anniversary of the "Big Terror" was marked by human rights activists publishing Information-Analytical Bulletin "Political Repressions in Kabardino-Balkaria in 1918-1930s" collecting materials about repressions in the Republic.

These days repressed people are recollected also in South Caucasus. Doctor of History Sergey Shamba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia, said in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Abkhazia had probably suffered more than other republics in the time of Stalin-Beriya repressions. The repressions had touched everybody - all the intellectuals and the political elite were liquidated.

In Armenia, the memory day of the victims of political repressions is not on October 30, like in Russia, but on June 14, since on that day in 1949 a total of 5,300 families were deported from Armenia to Altai Territory.

The exact number of totalitarian regime's victims cannot be established. According to Alexander Yakovlev, Chairman of the Rehabilitation Commission under the President, there millions of innocently repressed, and a significant number of them were accounted nowhere. The First Channel broadcasted that from 12 to 30 million persons became victims of Stalin's terror.