Memorial garden of memory. The "garden of memory" memorial at the Butovo training ground is preparing to open

On September 27, 2017, on the day of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', the Chairman of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' for the perpetuation of the memory of new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church consecrated the memorial “Garden of Memory” at the Butovo site and Lithium with the commemoration of the ever-memorable Bishop Arseny (Zhadanovsky) and everyone at the Butovo training ground in this time of hard times who were tortured and killed. His Eminence was co-served by the dean of the stauropegial parishes and Patriarchal metochions of the Moscow region () Archpriest Victor Sandar and the rector Archpriest Kirill Kaleda.

The participants of the ceremony were member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation V.P. Lukin, member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation S.A. Karaganov, widow of the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn N.D. Solzhenitsyn, Minister of Culture of the Moscow Region O.V. Kosareva, head of the Leninsky district O.V. Khromov, Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Moscow Region Yu.V. Gridnev, delegations from the embassies of the European Union countries, relatives of the victims, parishioners of the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo.

Before the start of the service, the Metropolitan and all those gathered were greeted by the rector of the Church of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo, Archpriest Kirill Kaleda.

Then Metropolitan Yuvenaly addressed the crowd:

“All-honorable fathers, dear brothers and sisters, we have gathered today on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord. This is a day of strict fasting, when we remember the suffering and death on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now I imagine a picture of the crucifixion. In the middle is Christ and on both sides are crucified thieves. They behaved differently in their dying hour. One died unrepentant, and the other turned to Christ with the words: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom!” and heard Christ’s answer: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise (Luke 23:42-43). These, my dears, are the two paths of the human race since then - some die as unrepentant sinners, and others, although they sin, follow Christ in the hope of His mercy.

Our Russia has experienced many tragic and heroic events throughout history. With the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch, this year we remember everyone who suffered during the repressions that began immediately after the 1917 revolution. And how do we do this? We build churches in honor of the new martyrs, we create societies of memory and, most importantly, we offer fervent prayers for the departed. In memory of the new martyrs, especially this year, in our Moscow diocese, we strive to restore destroyed shrines that remind us of past persecutions.

What is our memory of the dead? Some of them are numbered among the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, others stand before the Righteous Judge, who will determine their heavenly eternal consideration. And the task of the Church is not to forget anyone. In our prayer, we rely on the feat of the new martyrs and confessors, and we have the boldness to pray for all the people who suffered, who were unjustly, lawlessly, criminally deprived of their lives. I called the created monument, which we will consecrate today, an alley of sorrow, an alley of prayer and memory. And therefore, before we begin its consecration, I invite all of us to pray for those killed buried at the Butovo training ground. Let us offer up our unworthy prayers that the Lord, in His mercy, may give rest to all those who have died, and grant us righteous life in Christ.

This monument was built with the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch and through the sacrificial labors of the people whom His Holiness noted with his awards, so before our prayer I would like to present these signs of the Primate’s attention to the donors.”

General Director of the Video-International group of companies S.A. Vasiliev was awarded the Order of the Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow, III degree, the general director of the construction company "Helga" - the medal of the Russian Orthodox Church "Patriarchal Gratitude".

N.D. addressed Metropolitan Yuvenaly and those gathered. Solzhenitsyn and member of the Federation Council V.P. Lukin, who spoke about the creation of a public institution - the Foundation for Support and Memory of Victims of Political Repression. One of the foundation’s projects will be participation on October 30 in the opening in the center of Moscow of a monument to all victims of political terror.

The Garden of Memory memorial was built on the territory of the Butovo training ground with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'. Work on the creation of the memorial was initiated by the community of the Church of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

The concept was developed by Archpriest Kirill Kaleda and the director of the Butovo Memorial Scientific and Educational Center I.V. Garkav. The project was prepared by the architect A.N. Zhernakov.

Funding for the work was provided by S.A. Vasilyev, the grandson of V.A., who was killed at the training ground. Petrov, and donations from citizens, primarily relatives of the victims. Construction was carried out by Helga LLC.

The memorial is dedicated to the victims of the repressions of 1937-1938 who were shot and buried at the Butovo training ground. Symbolically, it represents a funeral ditch, on the walls of which, on granite boards, are carved the names of 20,762 people killed at the training ground in the period from August 8, 1937 to October 19, 1938. Data on those killed are taken from acts on the execution of capital sentences punishments discovered in the KGB Central Archive in the early 1990s. On the boards, names are grouped by date of execution, and inside the list they are in alphabetical order by last name. For each murdered person his last name, first name and date of birth are indicated, and for the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church their rank is also indicated. The total length of the boards is 300 meters, with a height of 2 meters.

The memorial is located in the eastern part of the burial grounds, in an area free of burial ditches, where an apple orchard was planted by KGB officers in the 1970s. The memorial got its name from its location in the garden.

The memorial has become the largest monument in Russia to the memory of those who suffered during the hard years, where the specific names of those killed are indicated.

The "Garden of Memory" memorial was opened at the Butovo training ground - the names of all the people executed in this place during the years of Stalin's repressions are inscribed on the monument, Archpriest Kirill Kaleda, rector of the Church of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo, told RIA Novosti.

The monument consists of two granite slabs on which are carved the names of 20,762 people who died at the Butovo training ground. The total length of the monument is 300 meters, height - two meters.

“In general, all the work has been completed. We now understand that some things still need to be corrected,” Kaleda noted.

Participants in the opening ceremony included, among others, the oldest bishop of the Russian Church, Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna, member of the Federation Council Vladimir Lukin, member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation Sergei Karaganov, widow of the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn Natalya Solzhenitsyna, as well as representatives of embassies of various countries EU.

The Butovo firing range is the largest site of mass executions and burials of victims of political repression in the Moscow region in the mid-twentieth century. Between August 1937 and October 1938 alone, more than 20 thousand people were shot and buried here. About a thousand of them suffered martyrdom for confessing the Orthodox faith, more than 300 were canonized.

The “Garden of Memory” was opened at the Butovo training ground - the largest monument in Russia at the burial site of victims of mass repressions. At the end of the 30s, more than 20 thousand people were shot there. To help relatives find the right name on the stove, a computer database has been created. In memory of those killed today, people brought flowers and lit candles.

Valentina Alekseevna came long before the official opening ceremony. I couldn't wait any longer.

“I was looking for him for 76 years, I didn’t know, I was looking for my father. Dont know. And I just found it. Daddy, what’s he for, dear?!” - the daughter of the repressed Valentin Tibichev is perplexed.

And there are 20 thousand 762 similar stories here. That is how many people were shot at the Butovo training ground during the repressions only in 1937-38. Their names are engraved in even rows on granite slabs in chronological order. By date of execution. Today the bell tolls for them.

“Simonin Vasily, he collected signatures against closing the temple. For this he was shot. And plus I didn’t want to join the collective farm. He lived in the Moscow region. He was 40 years old, had four children,” says the granddaughter of the repressed Olga Burova.

“My great-uncle Vasily Vasilievich Orlov. Lived in Maloyaroslavets, was a lawyer. I would like to say to the people of Russia: do not forget this great blood, this is also our bitter page, and we cannot so easily turn away from it,” says the granddaughter of the repressed Alexandra Bekorevich.

When in 1937 the NKVD issued a decree “On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements,” executions were ramped up and Moscow cemeteries could no longer cope with the scale of burials. Then the Butovo training ground became a huge mass grave. 13 ditches with a total length of 900 meters. In just one day, February 28, 1938, 562 people were shot in the back of the head here. The memorial, opened on September 27, 2017, is made in the form of an execution ditch.

“We go down to approximately the level where nearby, 100-150 meters away, in other ditches lie the remains of those killed. We need this in order to develop further. Because these people who suffered then are our roots. Our spiritual roots,” says Archpriest Kirill Kaleda, rector of the Church of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in Butovo.

The memorial was called the “Garden of Memory.” There really have been a lot of apple trees here since the 70s. The next generation of those trees is now part of the memorial complex.

“Our poet Alexander Tvardovsky said this best in his poem “By Right of Memory.” He said: “Whoever hides the past jealously is unlikely to be in harmony with the future,” recalled Natalya Solzhenitsyna, president of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Russian Public Foundation.

The “Garden of Memory” has become the largest memorial in Russia at the burial sites of victims of mass repression.

“If you paint rosy pictures of our history, where only victories are seen, this will lead to the fact that the younger generation will be unarmed in the face of that terrifying fanaticism, mixed with complete ruthlessness in relation to the human person, human dignity, which led to this terrible tragedy.” , - emphasized Vladimir Lukin, member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

300 meters of slabs two meters high. Each surname on granite contains not only the history of a particular family, but also the history of the entire country.

The “Garden of Memory” memorial project won the competition for the best monument to the victims of the Sinai plane crash.

On Tuesday, the jury of an open creative competition for the best design of a monument to those killed in a plane crash in the Arab Republic of Egypt on October 31, 2015, chose the winner: the project of the “Garden of Memory” memorial, developed by a team of students from the State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (SASU). The foundation stone of the memorial will be installed on Rumbolova Mountain in Vsevolozhsk on the next anniversary of the tragedy.

According to the head of the Committee on Architecture and Urban Planning, Evgeny Domrachev, the jury members took into account the results of an online vote, in which about 700 people took part, as well as entries in the guest book, where over 200 people expressed their opinions. The jury also took seriously the opinions of the relatives of the victims, who asked the competition participants not to use geographical names or aircraft parts in their projects.

“In our opinion, it is the “Garden of Memory” that best fits with the memorial zone that has developed in Vsevolozhsk. It will not be discordant with the monuments erected here in memory of the victims of the Chernobyl disaster in honor of the soldiers who died in the Chechen and Afghan wars,” said Evgeny Domrachev.

The project is a corridor of stone slabs on which the names of all those killed in the plane crash are carved, metal structures in the form of pipes on which the wind will play, and elements of landscape design and landscaping.

Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad Region Government Mikhail Moskvin said that the team of authors will receive a prize from the reserve fund of the Leningrad Region Government. Financing of construction will be carried out jointly by the regional budget and the budget of the city of Vsevolozhsk, The completion date for the work is October 31, 2017.

The competition was announced at the end of June, and the acceptance of works was completed on August 5. A total of 28 projects by sculptors and architects from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Ulyanovsk, Voronezh, and Samara were received. The works are presented by both experienced authors and young students of the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering and the Moscow Architectural Institute.

As a result of the crash over the Sinai Peninsula on October 31, 2015, an A321 Kogalymavia aircraft flying from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to St. Petersburg, killed all 224 people on board. Among them were 48 residents of the Leningrad region.

Press service of the governor and government of the Leningrad region

https://youtu.be/GNkL_0lz-OE

The “Garden of Memory” will bloom on Rumbolova Mountain in Vsevolozhsk. The Committee on Architecture of the Leningrad Region chose the best design for a monument to the victims of the plane crash over the Sinai Peninsula. There were several winners, as the team work of the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering won.

Mikhail Moskvin, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Leningrad Region for Construction
We were based not only on online voting, on the opinion of the competition jury, but at the same time on the opinion of relatives whose loved ones died in this disaster. The relatives did not want to see in the form of a monument anything resembling an airplane or any geographical features where the disaster occurred, because this was the cause.

Irina Zakharova, Chairman of the Board of the Flight 9268 Foundation
I really wanted it to have a revival theme. We really hope and believe that the souls of our loved ones are alive, they are somewhere in another dimension. I wanted the monument to reflect something bright, life-affirming and beautiful.

28 authors from St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region and Moscow submitted their works to the competition. Until the results were summed up, their names were kept strictly secret. Sketches and models of the memorial could be viewed at an exhibition in the foyer of the regional government building. The laying of the stone in the presence of relatives of the victims will take place at the end of the month. The memorial will open next year. The preliminary cost of the project is estimated at 7 million rubles.

Historian Anastasia Dunaeva lays flowers at the memorial slab in the “Garden of Memory”, on which the name of the Moscow governor of the times of Nicholas II, Vladimir Dzhunkovsky, is carved

Cool autumn day. Occasionally the sun peeks out from behind the clouds, illuminating the huge area with bright rays.

But the people gathered at the Butovo training ground do not react to this. Each has their own, but at the same time common pain: tens of thousands of executed Soviet citizens are buried here - someone’s husbands, fathers, grandfathers. Doctors, priests, ordinary people. All of them, in a fierce, difficult time for the country, found their last refuge here. What is their fault? Sergei Mikhailovich Shik no longer walks - his health in his advanced years is becoming weaker every year.

His grandson Alexander brought him to the memorial in a wheelchair. Sergei Mikhailovich is the son of priest Mikhail Shik, who was shot on September 27, 1938.

Exactly 79 years have passed since that tragic day. The priest was accused of belonging to a counter-revolutionary organization of illegal churchmen. Only two days passed from the moment the sentence was pronounced by Stalin’s “troika” to its execution.

And today, when the date of the death of Mikhail Shik and the opening of the monument merged into one day, the son and grandson of the murdered man could not help but come here - a memorial complex was opened at the site of the death of tens of thousands of people to preserve the memory of the victims of repression.

It is difficult to convey in words the pain and grief with which Sergei Mikhailovich has lived for decades. He constantly asks himself questions: for what, why? But he doesn’t find an answer to them. Tears flow from him - he lived to see the moment when tribute was paid to the victims of cruel repression - this is the little that descendants can do for thousands of people. It’s not the dead who need it, the living need it.

The “Garden of Memory” itself is like a dug ditch, the depth of which is four meters - this is exactly what mass graves were like, where the bodies of those executed were dumped.

The walls are granite slabs with engraved names of the repressed. None of the 20,762 people who rest in this land are forgotten.

Dozens of relatives walk leisurely along the memorial, carefully peering at the names carved into the granite. One must not miss one thing - the closest, dearest, beloved - father, grandfather, the one who, due to injustice, is no longer around.

Why? Who knows this? And it is there - the treasured one.

Fingers gently trace the letters engraved in the stone. This is memory, the only thing left of a person.

Sergei Mikhailovich Shik, whose father was shot at the Butovo training ground, rings the funeral bell

The apple orchard, which appeared here back in the 70s of the last century, was laid out by state security officials. Living memory of innocent victims is the little that KGB officers, but of a different generation, could do back then.

People lay flowers, light candles, lamps, read prayers to themselves, and no one is able to hold back their tears. The pain that has lived in the soul for years is breaking out, and finally a memorial has appeared that will never let anyone forget about the tragedy of a multi-million people.

Souls will find peace.

Before the opening of the memorial, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of All Rus' Kirill, the memorial complex was consecrated by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna.

Natalya Solzhenitsyna speaks at the opening of the memorial

PHOTO: Alexander Kozhokhin, “Evening Moscow”

He also served a funeral service for all the victims buried here, executed at the firing range from August 8, 1937 to October 19, 1938.

Many tragic events have occurred in our country over the past hundred years. This year we commemorate all those who suffered in the repressions immediately after the revolution of 1917,” noted Metropolitan Yuvenaly. - We are trying to restore destroyed shrines that remind us of past persecutions, of the new martyrs who died in the 30s of the last century.

All those who ended up in exile camps, those who were shot, did not disappear into oblivion in time. And the memory is not completely killed, and the soul is not petrified.