In Vorkuta, a memorial to victims of political repression was dismantled after a complaint from participants in the "SMO"

In Vorkuta, a memorial to victims of political repression was dismantled after a complaint from participants in the "SMO"

The Vorkuta authorities removed a memorial installed in memory of the victims of political repression. A plaque bearing 33 names had been installed at the memorial cemetery in the settlement of Yur-Shor, one of the burial sites for prisoners from the Vorkuta camps. In the 1940s and 1950s, Gulag prisoners and local workers were buried there. Many graves were marked only with numbered plaques.

In June, participants in the war in Ukraine demanded that the memorial marker be dismantled, saying: "there is no reason for it to be in our city." After that, the mayor's office cited data from the city museum stating that members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were among those buried in the cemetery. At the same time, those documents had been declassified and published back in 2004.

The Vorkuta Civic Chamber supported the demand for demolition, and the memorial was dismantled.

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The dismantled memorial to Gulag victims / Photo: St. Nicholas Monastery