The Garden of Memory memorial was opened at the Butovo training ground. The "Garden of Memory" memorial at the Butovo training ground is preparing to open. The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.

The myth of the “Butovo training ground” has become a gathering point for anti-Russian forces, just as the Great Victory Day is a gathering point for patriotic forces. Both the liberal and the white one trump them. Every person who shakes hands must remember the endless number of “innocent victims of the Bolshevik experiment killed by the tyrant” buried at the Butovo training ground.

A museum and funds are being created, an entire Butovo cultural tradition is being created, etc.

And the king is naked. In fact, there is nothing to rely on.

Let's look for the facts.

On the editorial board we note the de-Sovietizer M. A. Fedotov, Doctor of Law, Professor, Chairman of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights at that time. (now I don’t know what position he is in. What is clear)

“It is very important that the database will be constantly updated with new information. Over time, its Internet version on the website www.sinodik.ru should become a kind of electronic encyclopedia of the historical monument Butovo Test Site.»

We find an article by I. V. Garkavy and L. A. Golovkova, members of the editorial board: “Butovo training ground in the past and present”

Without any reference to any of the most trivial sources, the reader is introduced to the topic:

“In the mid-1930s. On the eve of mass executions, the Economic Directorate of the NKVD became preoccupied with finding places for burials. Three such objects were identified near Moscow: in the area of ​​the village of Butovo, ...

Local residents were informed that training exercises would be carried out near their villages. After the notorious order of N.I. Ezhov No. 00447 of July 30, 1937, mass executions began here. In total, from August 8, 1937 to October 19, 1938, 20,761 people were killed at the training ground. The first execution under these orders was carried out here on August 8, 1937. On this day, 91 people were killed.”

And off we go: how the executions were carried out, how the executed were brought, when, on what, accompanied by whom, etc. It’s interesting, but there are no sources. From the word GENERALLY.

Garkavy writes as if he himself was a participant in the executions. We won't believe it. It doesn't change with age.

“Already in 1994, a group of believers built a Worship Cross based on a sketch by D. M. Shakhovsky, and at the same time the first liturgy was celebrated in a camp tent church on the territory of the training ground. Through the works of Fr. Kirill and members of the church community began work to improve the territory of mass graves...”

Please note: public activity is already underway, everything is already as if everything has been known for a long time, no one is afraid - what if there is a mistake? But only

“in August 1997 In August 1997, with the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch, archaeological excavations were carried out in a small area of ​​the site. A section of the burial ditch with an area of ​​12.5 m2 was uncovered. The remains of 59 people were discovered on the open surface of the burial. In total, 13 ditches have now been identified, with a total length of almost 900 meters.

Not a word about whether anything was discovered or not, but

“On August 9, 2001, by decree of the Government of the Moscow Region, the Butovo Test Site was declared a historical and cultural monument of local significance. Together with the protective zones, the total area of ​​the historical monument was about 3 square meters. kilometers. In 2005-2006, the territory was improved and embankments were made over the burial ditches.”

Oops, and already the embankments. They covered everything. It's like they're covering their tracks. What about the investigation, gentlemen and comrades? What about the examinations? Not a word.

But " In 2002, on the initiative of the parishioners of the temple and relatives of the victims, with the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch, the Butovo Memorial Scientific and Educational Center was created in order to coordinate the efforts of state, religious and public organizations to create a memorial complex.

Its main statutory goal (attention!) is “in restoring historical justice through the maximum possible preservation for future generations of spiritual, scientific and aesthetic values ​​created by people who died during the years of mass repression.”

So far, nothing has been heard about the mentioned created values.

Already " Through the joint efforts of the Center and the Parish, the Museum of Memory of the Victims is being created, for which the parish restored the building of the former commandant’s office of the Butovo special zone of the NKVD.”

« It is based on the NKVD execution lists, covering the names of 20,761 people, published in the Butovo Test Site Memory Books. Gradually, scattered documents and evidence are united around this list, the analysis of which can only be carried out when creating a database.”

- that is, there was no analysis and no work. Well, what kind of execution lists? Let me see! Where did they come from like a piano from the bushes?

But, perhaps, let’s go to the “documents and evidence” section, and there we will see the fruits of the work of the guardians of historical memory?

No, it's empty. Pristinely empty. p8.inetstar.ru/docs/ or ht...

In the “Research” section - “From the notes of the holy martyr Sergius Sidorov, executed at the Butovo training ground on September 27, 1937.”

His story about the funeral of Patriarch Tikhon is given. All.

The story of a relative of the repressed. She remembers her relatives. The story ends like this:

“In 1962, Boleslav Stanislavovich received three certificates: “Rehabilitated for lack of corpus delicti.” The years of death were indicated: 1942, 1943. They allegedly died in the camps during the war from some kind of disease.”

And a vague attempt to somehow connect this with Butovo. “No one knew about Butovo then.”

Can THIS be relied upon as evidence? - No.

Another work: Smirnova T. A. Portrait of Count Yuri Olsufiev.

Reading the portrait. Where is Butovo? Here is Butovo: in the last line.

““Saying goodbye to life, I would like to say goodbye to it here” . July 10/23, 1933, Staraya Ladoga12.

He was shot on the cold night of March 14, 1938 at the Butovo training ground near Moscow.” Is there any logic? There is no logic. To hell with logic! A matter of national importance.

It was a warm-up. Now we bring to your attention another study, the author is unknown.

The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.

They talk a lot about this place now.

The term “Russian Golgotha” has already been put into circulation; anyone can google and find a million links on this issue, from dry documentaries to yellowishness of various levels.

I had never heard anything about the test site before, but I was always interested in this historical period, so, having heard it out of the corner of my ear, I decided to surf the net in more detail and take a look.

Well, I worked through enough material to see that they were all copied: it is repeated everywhere that

“According to official data alone, between August 1937 and October 1938, 20,765 people were shot here.”

(although according to other data, by the way, lying on the website dedicated to Butov - “in Moscow and the Moscow region, 27,508 people were sentenced to capital punishment during the period from 1935 to 1953”), everywhere it is said that for the burial of such a number of people a bulldozer (in some places - an excavator, and in one place even a certain hybrid "bulldozer-excavator" is described, even its name is given - "Komsomolets" (which is already an obvious invention - there were no such models, and excavators certainly were not given proper names, ) special ditches were dug, it is reported everywhere that “200, 300, 500 people were shot a day. The ditches were filled gradually. The next batch was covered with a thin layer of earth, and the next day everything was repeated,” and the filled ditches themselves are clearly visible in aerial photographs.

The same facts, the same figures, in general, the source is clearly the same, most likely, this is the book “Butovo Test Site. 1937-1938”. M., Institute of Experimental Sociology, 1997.

Although some people (in general, without doubting either the numbers or the facts), still notice inconsistencies and try to calculate (pure mathematics):

“The executions in Butovo were carried out by one of the so-called firing squads. According to the acting commandant, it consisted of 3-4 people, and on days of especially mass executions the number of perpetrators increased. The special detachment, according to the driver of the NKVD motor depot, consisted of 12 people.

Let’s assume that the maximum number of performers was involved—12 people. This means that each of them managed to kill 46-47 people. The condemned were not “mowed down” in bursts, no: they were each shot individually in the back of the head. How long could this procedure take - taking two people out of the barracks, shooting directly, returning to the barracks for more people doomed to death? Let's take a minimum time of 10 minutes. So, the executioner spent 470 minutes on the execution of 46-47 condemned people - that’s almost 8 hours of continuous murders!”

This can be explained simply - they drank liters of vodka, which is why they shot so accurately for eight hours in a row. It’s hard to believe, of course, to suppress a driver all day long, and at the same time to deftly handle both small arms and a sober prisoner all this time, yes. Not to mention alcohol intoxication and delirium tremens - apparently, only Yezhov’s NKVD officers could function uninterruptedly in this mode for a whole year.

In general, many people doubt the numbers, but then correct themselves: " There were four executioners in Butovo. But, let’s say, on February 28, 1938, 562 people were shot at the training ground. It’s hard to imagine that everyone would kill more than 140 people like that, “in the back of the head,” because anyone who wants to believe will believe: “That means there was either help or machine guns.”

And, of course, appetites are growing: " The 20,000-strong list is considered incomplete, they say that hundreds of thousands were shot here, says Igor Garkavy, director of the Butovo Memorial Scientific and Educational Center,” and some publications already boldly say that hundreds of thousands of those executed are lying on Butovo.

(from myself: if you go to the website of Butovo’s “Project” sinodik.ru/?q=static&id=2

Then we will see in the calendar “On this day at the Butovo training ground” for today, April 27, that, according to the Project, 68 people were shot on this day. In total, there are 5 dates in April when executions were carried out: April 5, 7, 11, 14 and 27. In March – 8 dates. In May - 7. And months in two years - 24.)

Well, Garkavy can be understood, now Butovo is his job, he quite skillfully squeezes money from the budget for this business:

“To begin with, we had to stop the construction here, in Drozhzhino, of a microdistrict of several multi-storey buildings... a decision was made to preserve this place as a historical monument... a project for the improvement and landscaping of the Butovo training ground monument is ready... it will be necessary to resolve the issue of financing of improvement works. This issue was raised before the joint board of the Government of Moscow and the Moscow region. If we talk about what we could actually do now if we had the funds, then we could seriously begin to improve the territory... Money is required for repairs , but in fact the restoration of the preserved outbuilding of the estate. We intended to organize a museum in this building. Funds are also needed for our archival work, ongoing work, because we need consumables, equipment, and at least some kind of salaries for people... What The deeper we work on this project, the more problems arise so far, mostly purely domestic ones.It is necessary to resolve the issue of communications: first of all, electricity. We need to get gas going, everything needs to be changed."

In general, although “About Butovo as a place of mass executions and burials,” not a word was said either during the “Beria rehabilitation” or during the “Khrushchev thaw”, and there was also “not a single document, not a single order” anywhere , at least indirectly confirming the existence of the Butovo special facility,” but some kind of information leak still occurred, and information is disseminated from it using the method of a damaged phone.

Question - sorry for the rhyme - where did it come from? And for what? Wasn’t that enough in the thirties anyway? Why and to whom did it become necessary to make things worse?

“In the Central Archive of the FSB there is Fund No. 7, containing acts of execution of sentences, which no one looked into until 1991. It was there that the Mozokhin Group found documents indicating that in 1921-1928, burials of victims of repression were carried out in the very center of Moscow on the territory of the Yauz hospital, from 1926 to 1936 - at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, and from 1935 to 1953 - partly burials and partly cremation of those executed were carried out in the Moscow crematorium at the Donskoye cemetery. These documents contained clear instructions to the commandants of the cemeteries (which, among many other public services, were then part of the NKVD system). The picture was as follows: for each fact of burial or cremation there was a memorandum in which they asked to accept so many corpses (about 10-20 per day) with a list of names." .

Is it clear now. Accounting and control. However, the volumes are not the same. Little bloodlust. And then “In 1991, through the efforts of a public group led by M. Mindlin, execution lists of those sentenced to death with notes on the execution of sentences were discovered.”

“At the end of 1991, previously unknown, unregistered 18 volumes of files with orders and acts on the execution of sentences for the execution of 20,675 people were discovered in the archives of the Moscow Department of the Ministry of Security in the period from August 8, 1937 to October 19, 1938.”

In the other place:

“And only at the end of 1991, previously unknown and not registered anywhere materials were discovered in the archives of the Moscow KGB department. More precisely, 18 volumes of files with orders and acts on the execution of sentences for the execution of 20,675 people from August 1937 to October 1938... One "veterans" of the NKVD, whose name the powerful agency did not want to reveal, verified their signatures and confirmed the presence of "special facilities" in Butovo and Kommunarka.".

“The declassification of the Butovo training ground could not be done without a journalist: he turned out to be A.A. Milchakov, the son of the repressed First Secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee A.I. Milchakov,” who “groped” the training ground, “based on simple logic” - like, they were shot in the millions, but You couldn’t kill everyone on Donskoi territory; those who were shot had to be buried somewhere.

And here is Yagoda’s dacha in Butovo, as well as the NKVD rest house, as well as the NKVD shooting range - here it is, everything comes together.

Well, Milchakov made a TV report (when is unclear, but I believe, also in 1991, anyone who remembers the wave of that time will understand everything - a spoon is dear to dinner).

As I understand it, no one except a group of researchers saw the documents (18 volumes), although the lists of those executed were posted online, though not scans, but in Word format.

That's all the documents. And most of all the references (whoever takes the time to google it on his own will see for himself) are to the words of unnamed “local residents” and to what the group was told by a certain “Employee of the FSB Public Relations Center, former deputy head of the Rehabilitation Group, FSB Colonel M.E. . Kirillin" (the speeches of this colonel generally wander from publication to publication? I wonder if this is a real person at all, and if so, where is he now - perhaps in America or Britain, like his colleagues Suvorov-Rezun and Kalugin).

Journalists, as usual, paint:

"Hundreds of people... silently wander along the narrow paths between thirteen filled ditches, noticeably standing out against the background of the earth. Twenty thousand dumb skulls under this earth, twenty thousand restless souls among these rare trees..."...

On the other hand, it is known that “In 1997, partial archaeological research was carried out: one of the burial ditches was opened. On an area of ​​only 12 square meters, burials in five layers were discovered; experts counted the remains of 149 people here. A lot of work was done to discover ditches were carried out in the summer of 2002. Experts identified and mapped 13 burial ditches. But the research is not completed, answers to many questions have not yet been found."

Certificate from a military archaeologist:

I don’t see any traces of the raised remains in Butovo’s photograph. As Frolov writes, the soft tissues of the deceased have been preserved. And it’s true, it happens. But, at the same time, upon contact with air, these tissues instantly, within seconds, begin to decompose, forming a black, foul-smelling slurry. But as I see, the floor is not only not black, but generally dry. I don’t notice any traces of rotting on the walls either, only at the top, but this is natural leaf humus. The wall and floor should be black if there were soft fabrics. In our Shikhovsky excavation there are no soft tissues, and there is no blackness either.

It would seem that these questions need to be answered! It’s not all about referring to rumors, to the words of nameless “former NKVD drivers”, to 18 volumes of “previously unaccounted for archives”, which no one except the “public group led by M. Mindlin”, as I understand it, has ever seen, and which have already been published six-volume archive.

After all, if, as they write, up to five thousand people were actually shot a day, then it is necessary to carry out exhumation, reburial, in general, to provide the world with evidence, and for the murdered, a dignified rest.

After all, “Thirteen ditches filled to the brim, like mud, with dead people.”

Although no one is going to do this, as I understand it, they will immediately build a museum and memorial complex, without really understanding what happened there.

Maybe because:

— Were the remains of specific people found?

- No. To do this, apparently, some very complex research must be carried out. Judging by the excavation that was done in 1997, there are no complete remains of, say, a human skeleton. Everything is mixed up there... They filled the ditches with whatever they wanted, with garbage."

Garbage. Between 20 and 100,000 victims were buried in debris until only 149 were found. It is explained as follows: “it is now simply impossible to identify individual remains: the executed are lying so densely that archaeologists who recently carried out excavations discovered the remains of 149 people on twelve square meters.”

We found 149 at 12 meters, then, as I understand it, we multiplied this figure by the approximate area of ​​the ditches, so the problem matched the answer that was suggested by Mindlin’s group. For some reason, I remember the case of the discovery of another mass grave site, about which it was immediately announced - here it is, another evidence of the crimes of the NKVD (and there they found the remains of children, women, etc.) - in general, they were just about to erect another monument victims, as it turned out that this is a thirteenth-century plague burial.

In Butovo, the Butovo Memorial Center has already been created, work is underway to “create a memorial complex on the site of the former NKVD-FSB special zone “Butovo”, and they also write that “A database is being created “Victims of mass terror, executed at the Butovo training ground of the NKVD in 1937 -1938 With the support of the Russian Humanitarian Research Foundation (grant No. 06-01-12140v), unique software is being created. Work is underway to digitize documents and photographic materials. The publication of this Database on the Internet is being prepared,” but for some reason it seems to me that the word “grant” is the key word here and you shouldn’t really count on the appearance on the Internet of digitized documents confirming mass executions in Butovo on such a scale.

Especially when, already knowing about the “unexpectedly found” 18 volumes, undocumented stories of unknown eyewitnesses and Colonel M.E. Kirillin, you read that the FSB allocated this testing ground to the Patriarchate almost voluntarily, and at first they did not want to, but then “Unexpectedly quickly these issues were resolved,” and then “with the funds of the Moscow government, the road from the Warsaw highway was practically rebuilt in Drozhzhino. A bus was launched here, a regular service was established. This flight was organized precisely so that people would come to the burial site,” then it becomes clear that the matter was sanctioned from the very top, the most striking evidence of which is not even the FSB, but the fact that Luzhkov backed down from building a residential microdistrict there.

Now “Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II laid the foundation for a new stone church in Butovo,” and he bowed to the victims of the “Russian Golgotha.”

It seems that this whole terrible story with the training ground is just another anti-Soviet myth.

It's almost official: " Butovo site is one of the largest sites of mass executions and burials of victims of political repression in Europe."

And of course, " Our short memory and lack of repentance for the sins of communism, as was the case in post-fascist Germany, inevitably leads Russia to the new year of 1937.".

In general, to the point, what I'm all about is this: does anyone have information on the test site - besides that yellowness, rumors and the number 20,765, in general, what is everywhere on the Internet and is distributed as a carbon copy from one and the same or a dubious source?

Has anyone already subjected the information to scientific analysis? I tried to critically comprehend it and, perhaps, check it (my text, of course, does not pretend to be anything like that - I have neither the time nor the skills, I was just interested in the topic). If you have any information, please share.

I have no doubt at all that severe lawlessness was going on in the thirties, I do not in the slightest want to downplay the size of this tragedy, but I would like to know whether this whole story with the training ground was not a falsification.

I would like to clarify.

Purely for myself. For now.

Based on common sense, it seems to me more and more that the story with the landfill is a falsification of the purest water. Everything is too neatly put together in the official version and too many unanswered questions remain on the merits.

I don’t believe that four (or even 12) people could unleash such a massacre using revolvers alone. I don’t believe that prisoners were taken to Butovo to be executed; this is still the outskirts, but in 1937, when Moscow was five times smaller, and the roads were five times worse, no one would drive paddy wagons such a distance every night (one road takes about three hours in both directions, plus gasoline, plus depreciation).

I don’t believe that these so often mentioned ditches were dug specifically for executions - Butovo was officially a shooting range, and at every equipped shooting range there must be fortification and trench networks for training soldiers in conditions close to combat. The stories that some new types of weapons are being tested at shooting ranges are all jaundice; although such tests do happen, in 99 percent of cases the shooting range is used for shooting practice and testing soldiers. Hence the trench lines, which, I think, with the onset of the war and the approach of German troops to the capital, were strengthened and re-equipped for combat operations as defense lines. After the war, they were apparently partly filled in over time, and partly they were used as garbage receptacles (hence the garbage in the ditches). We must not forget that in the area of ​​the landfill there was previously an estate, and then - NKVD warehouses and an NKVD rest house, so some part of the filled-in ditches may simply be traces of the laying of communications - gas, water, sewerage. In general, until remains with traces of bullets are presented, as well as some sane documents on the executions at Butovo, the story can be questioned.

On the mass grave in Katyn, for example, there are entire libraries, photo libraries and even video libraries, but on Butovo - as I understand it, there are no documents, except for the mentioned collection “Butovo Test Site. 1937-1938”.

By the way, regarding mass graves, has any of the journalists even tried to think that a hecatomb of such a scale (and, as they say, covered with a “thin layer of earth”) is a guaranteed epidemic in the area?

How many crows should hang over the landfill, how many dogs and wild animals should come to tear up graves, what hordes of rats should settle at the feast, what smell should linger for kilometers around, and how quickly a plague carried by groundwater will grow in the global grave - and all this is next to capital?

And how much bleach should be poured into the ditches to avoid this - what kind of “thin layer of earth” is there, according to the sanitary standards of actions I read somewhere for the prevention of epidemics when carrying out mass graves (mass graves) during the war, per kilogram of corpse weight At least 100 grams of bleach should be poured, and near populated areas - half a kilo. Let's calculate the volume of chlorine delivery to Butovo?

And so far there are no official results of the exhumation - with traces of bullet holes, carbon dating of the remains (to make sure that the burial is not from the thirteenth, say, century, and also not a gangster cache of the nineties for the corpses of hostages), as well as shell casings, etc. - to check the weapons from which the shots were fired, because by and large, the Germans were there too, and there were fighting there, so who the 149 people discovered were and who killed them still needs to be established) - in general, for now everything is based on such a shaky foundation, this whole story inspires little confidence.

In fact, only the given names are documented (as well as, as they say, biographies and summaries of the sentences of those executed), and, I think, they are all real - but where and from what documents they were taken is not very clear yet - after all, In Moscow and the Moscow region, 27,508 people were sentenced to capital punishment during the period from 1935 to 1953, and about 800,000 throughout the country, so there are enough names for more than one training ground.

In the meantime, it seems to me that the most likely theory is this: after the August 1991 coup, in the wake of anti-Sovietism and the destruction of all institutions of the USSR and its ideology, these “unexpectedly found 18 volumes” were given to the “memorialists,” who are always used in the dark, as well as confirmation events that were made by unnamed individuals, as well as professional disinformers. This was inspired by the Yeltsin mafia in order to support the ideological justification of their thorough anti-Sovietism, which, in turn, was the first step towards personal enrichment. However, at that stage, Yeltsin managed without Butov.

By 1993, the idea was generally clear. And the second wave of Butovo’s history falls precisely on the time following the shooting of the Palace of Soviets and the appearance of the term “red-brown.” Mark Deitch then wrote articles beginning with the words “as you know, fascism and communism are one and the same thing” (now he puts it more modestly),

Well, the Butovo epic received another renaissance in 1995, when Yeltsin was elected for a second term (who remembers “vote with your heart”), and when the USSR was painted in such colors that it was even creepy. Why then there wasn’t a global release of information that hecatombs of such magnitude were found in the near Moscow region, I don’t know - most likely, they simply didn’t have time to prepare the material so that it would be perceived more holistically. After all, even now, after ten years of work, as we see, even a cursory glance makes us ask a lot of questions. Or maybe other, more effective methods were found, or the idea was simply abandoned for other reasons.

However, the fact that this project is not being promoted as well as it could be, but is not being closed (and we understand that Luzhkov would gladly build a residential microdistrict there, regardless of how many people are buried there) suggests that they are holding it back , as a trump card for the future. Just in case. Moreover, time goes by, people become stupid, it becomes easier to manipulate them, and in another five to ten years no one will even ask the slightest question whether there was a boy.

This week it became known that a “Garden of Memory” will appear on Rumbolova Mountain in Vsevolozhsk - a memorial dedicated to the victims of the plane crash of flight 9268, which did not fly from Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg on October 31, 2015. It was this project by students of the St. Petersburg University of Architecture and Civil Engineering that won the competition for the best monument to the dead, which was held by the government of the Leningrad region.

The "Garden of Remembrance" will be a corridor of sharp granite slabs on which are carved the names of the 224 victims of the Sinai plane crash. In the center of the monument there will be metal pipes resembling an organ on which the wind will blow. The composition will be complemented by elements of landscape design and landscaping.

“The trajectory of the fatal fall, the laconicism and aspiration of the forms of the aircraft, the energy of the impact - physical and mental, the pain of the tragedy, forever frozen in human hearts and the memory of loved ones whose lives were taken by a fatal combination of circumstances, combined into a complex idea, partially expressed in the idea monument. The impression is complemented by the arbitrary, but at the same time tense and constant sound of the “hum” of metal pipes from the wind,” says the description of the project by a group of students of St. Petersburg State University of Civil Engineering led by Ivan Pryazhevnikov.

As Evgeniy Domrachev, head of the regional committee for architecture and urban planning, noted, this project fits better than others into the existing memorial zone in Vsevolozhsk and will not be dissonant with the monuments dedicated to the “Road of Life”, as well as monuments to Chernobyl victims and internationalist soldiers, which are installed on Rumbolova grief. In addition, the competition jury listened to the wishes of the relatives of the victims, who did not want the image of an airplane and geographical names associated with the tragedy to be used in the memorial. In most of the other projects submitted to the competition, both were present in one way or another.

The "Garden of Remembrance" will be a corridor of sharp granite slabs on which are carved the names of the 224 victims of the Sinai plane crash.

The preliminary cost of the Garden of Memory memorial is estimated at seven million rubles, including landscaping, lighting, manufacturing of metal structures and small architectural forms. 100 thousand will be allocated from the reserve fund of the Leningrad region government, the remaining funds will come from the regional budget and the budget of the city of Vsevolozhsk.

The foundation stone for the memorial will be installed on the anniversary of the tragedy; work on the construction of the “Memory Garden” is planned to be completed by October 31, 2017.

Another memorial in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack on board the Kogalymavia A321 aircraft will be erected in St. Petersburg. According to Alexander Voitenko, executive director of the Flight 9268 charitable foundation, created by relatives of the victims, a memorial complex, consisting of a monument to the victims of the plane crash and a temple in which people can pray for the dead and the living, will appear on the territory next to the Baltic Pearl, but a little later than in Vsevolozhsk, since allocating land for it and discussing details with Chinese investors take time.

The relatives of the victims decided that the temple should be consecrated in honor of the patron saint of all Slavic peoples, the holy great martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki, since ancient times revered in Russia, since on board the blown up plane there were both residents of Russia and residents of fraternal Belarus and Ukraine.

The preliminary cost of the “Garden of Memory” memorial is estimated at seven million rubles, including landscaping, lighting, manufacturing of metal structures and small architectural forms

Boards with the names of the victims of the tragedy will be installed in the temple. At each service there will be a commemoration of all of them. The future rector of this temple is already known - he will be Father Sergiy Kubyshkin, who lost a friend in a plane crash in Sinai.

It has not yet been decided what the memorial next to the temple will be like. But according to the results of the preliminary competition for the concept of the monument, organized by the Flight 9268 Foundation, the first place was given to the project of Agata Kudamanova, which is a matte white sphere, in the center of which there is a panel with the names of the 224 victims of the plane crash. The top of this sphere is covered with round holes through which the sun's rays will penetrate during the day. At night, the sphere will light up with “starry” lighting.

In second place according to the number of votes of relatives of the victims, as well as in the opinion of the professional jury, which included architects and sculptors of St. Petersburg, was the project of Konstantin Podvyazkin, which is a 12-meter stele, similar to the trail of an airplane, around which paper doves fly. And third place was given to the project of Antonina Kinysheva. It consists of four glass cubes illuminated by an eternal flame. An airplane flies through them, and its wake goes into the wing.

The Flight 9268 Foundation sent all three projects to participate in the competition of the Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture of St. Petersburg, and awarded their authors with cash prizes.

Another wish of the relatives of the victims sounds like this: the memorial should perpetuate the memory of their loved ones, and not the war and terrorist attacks

According to Alexander Rzhanenkov, head of the social committee of the government of St. Petersburg, by October 31, that is, the anniversary of the tragedy on the Sinai Peninsula, the question of what this memorial will be like will have to be resolved - will it be dedicated to all victims of plane crashes or only to those who flew those ill-fated flight. According to Rzhanenkov, the relatives of the victims have not yet reached a consensus, but everyone’s opinion must be taken into account. In addition, the city government, in addition to the site next to the Baltic Pearl residential complex, is considering another option for placing the memorial - at the Piskarevskoye cemetery.

However, Father Sergius says that the vast majority of relatives of the victims were in favor of the memorial perpetuating the memory of those who crashed on the Sinai Peninsula. And most of the relatives want the memorial complex to be near the South Primorsky Park, at the intersection of the Matisov and Duderhof canals. There is no temple within walking distance in that area, although 35 thousand people live in the “Baltic Pearl” alone, the priest explained. And the place is very picturesque.

Another wish of the relatives of the victims sounds like this: the memorial should perpetuate the memory of their loved ones, and not the war and terrorist attacks. In other words, it should not evoke associations with these terrible phenomena. We will find out very soon what will be chosen in the end.

In the meantime, the Charitable Foundation for the Memory of the Victims of the Flight 9268 Air Crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 is raising funds for the construction of a memorial complex. You can donate money

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.

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 Archives 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.

Designed like an execution ditch, two meters deep and 300 meters long, its full length is accompanied by marble slabs with the names of those who were executed here from August 1937 to October 1938. A total of 20,762 people.

The names on the memorial are arranged according to the dates of the executions. The shortest list consists of 11 names, the longest - 562, the number of people who were shot here on February 28, 1938: at the end of a short month, the security officers needed to work overtime to fulfill the monthly execution plan. If we assume that they worked around the clock that day, then it turns out that they had to kill 24 people every hour. Five people every two minutes.

Descending into the ditch, visitors symbolically find themselves underground, on a par with those buried nearby. At the opening, the chief architect of the memorial, Alexander Zhernakov, complained: he had not thought before that so much stone would be needed for the monument. But the names of a huge number of victims required a colossal amount of granite to perpetuate them.

In the 1970s, thirteen large burial sites at the Butovo site were disguised by KGB officers as apple orchards. Now it has become part of the memorial. At the very end, a large bell was installed: anyone can strike it, and the opening of the monument was accompanied by a continuous echoing ringing.

Stories about the opening of the memorial were shown on all central television channels - it seems that for the first time in a long time the word “repression” was heard so often on them. Almost none of the officials came to the opening of the monument.

95-year-old Sergei Mikhailovich Shik came to the opening of the monument on September 27, although in recent years he came to the Butovo training ground a month later - on October 27. On this day in 1937, his father, priest Mikhail Shik, who was later recognized as a new martyr, was shot here.

The fate of Father Mikhail was unknown for a long time. Trying to get at least some written evidence about her husband’s fate, his wife Natalya Dmitrievna Shakhovskaya-Shik came to Kuznetsky, referred to deafness and asked her to write her husband’s verdict. In response, they handed her a note written in a child’s handwriting with a mistake: “without the right to correspondence.” Never again was this sentence, which actually meant execution, written on paper; Father Mikhail’s family did not understand what it meant and waited.

“We believed that father would return, we even calculated how old we would be then,” recalls Sergei Mikhailovich. He learned that his father had been shot when a family friend, Academician Vernadsky, sent a request to the OGPU. They explained to him over the phone that Mikhail Shik had been executed, but the date of the execution was given incorrectly. The real family found out only after the rehabilitation of Mikhail’s father in 1956, and the burial place in the 90s, when the Butovo execution lists were discovered through the efforts of Memorial.

Since then, Sergei Mikhailovich traveled to Butovo every year. “By the 90s, everything there was overgrown with weeds, the ditches had failed,” he recalls. - When they built a wooden church at the training ground, my nephew, an archaeologist, had to carry out excavations so that the church would not end up in the execution ditch. He opened the edge of the ditch and said that, judging by the density of the bodies that he saw, not 20 thousand people were buried there, but several times more.”

Mikhail's father's wife, Natalya Dmitrievna, died of tuberculosis in 1942, without receiving news about him. Before her death, she left a letter for her husband, who was shot five years ago: “My dear, priceless friend! My last spring has already passed. And you? Your fate is still mysterious, mysterious. There is still hope that you will return. But we won’t see each other again, and how I wanted to wait for you. But there is no need to regret it. Having met, it would have been even more difficult to part, but it’s time for me...”