The powder cellar of the bastion of St. Vladimir was crowded today. The ceremony was held at the memorial complex, created at the site of the death and reburial of the victims of political repressions of 1937-1938, to bury the remains of citizens who were shot more than eight decades ago – those who, without trial or investigation on false charges and denunciations, were attributed to enemies of the people, traitors, traitors to the motherland. Thanks to the excavations carried out in this area over the course of eight field seasons, many names of the victims of the Great Terror were rescued from oblivion. The remains of 4.5 thousand people were exhumed. Nearly four thousand have been identified. The colossal research work made it possible to name not only the names of the victims, but those who signed the execution orders and carried out the sentences. They spoke during the mourning rally about the significance and complexity of the mission undertaken by the participants in the search work – archaeologists, historians, law enforcement officers and various city services, activists of the military-patriotic club "The Heirs of Victories". Words of support and condolences are addressed to the relatives of the victims. The memory was honored with a minute of silence of those who died untimely and tragically. More than six hundred of those sentenced to death finally found their resting place not in a firing pit, but in a mass grave.
Addressing the participants of the event, the PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky called the place where Pridnestrovians and foreign guests who arrived at the funeral ceremony gathered today, tragic. The President spoke about the desire to preserve history in its true form, without embellishment and rewriting, to establish the name of everyone whose life was brutally cut short, about the crimes, the traces of which were kept for decades by the earth under the walls of the Tiraspol fortress. Vadim Krasnoselsky expressed confidence that the chain of history would be broken if at least one of its episodes was forgotten, which would lead to tragic consequences, an example of which is the repressions of the 30s of the last century.
“Dear Pridnestrovians, you are doing a great job, first of all for yourself, of course. You are doing a very rewarding job for your children, for grandchildren, for posterity, so that people know and remember what history is. History is sometimes tragic, not always bright, with different periods through which our relatives passed. I recall a similar event that took place several years ago, at the end of which Vadim Nikolayevich said, “We are here to remember, not to condemn”. So we will remember,” said Russian Ambassador Oleg Vasnetsov, who arrived in Tiraspol with his wife to take part in the memorial and mourning ceremony, during the rally.
Researchers consider the search and exhumation work on the territory of the Tiraspol fortress completed: the current reburial is final, said the Head of the youth-patriotic movement "Heirs of Victories", parliamentarian Igor Buga.
It has become traditional to hold funeral services for representatives of various religious denominations on the day of reburial of the repressed remains. Litiya was served by the pastor of the New Life Church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists Petr Kuzminsky, the rector of the Catholic parish of the Holy Trinity Petr Kushman, the priest of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church Father Andrei, the Head of the Moldovan Church Metropolitan Vladimir and the clergy of the Tiraspol-Dubossary diocese.
Fresh flowers were laid at the monument to the victims of political repressions.
The mourning event’s participants visited at the end the Museum of Victims of Political Repressions. The exposition is located within the walls of the powder cellar of the Tiraspol fortress. It was here that those sentenced to death awaited their last hour. According to archival data, hundreds of repressed people were simultaneously in the cramped room of the cellar. Climbing up, they saw the sky for the last time in their lives, said Igor Chetverikov, senior researcher at the Archeology research laboratory of Pridnestrovian State University named after Shevchenko. All stages of excavation, exhumation, reburial, and work with documents were conducted with his participation. Each exhibit of the museum, telling about the human tragedy, passed through the hands of a scientist. Igor Chetverikov drew attention to the photographs of the dead, noting that so far there are dozens of them, but the work will continue. It is necessary to restore not only the names, but the faces of those who fell from the bullets of the executioners. Visitors to the museum were told that each killer cartridge case was taken into account. They were collected in special boxes, which were lowered into the execution pits – on top of the bodies. 12 such boxes were recovered. There are personal belongings of the dead on the museum stands. Pectoral crosses of various religions have been preserved.
A wooden temple was erected on the territory of the memorial complex in the name of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. Memorial candles are lit here in memory of each victim of political repression.
