SANDARMOKH / KILLING FIELD
Sandarmokh is a forest massif 12 km from Medvezhyegorsk in the Republic of Karelia (Russia) where an unknown number, estimated in the thousands, of victims of Stalin's Great Terror were executed. More than 58 nationalities were shot and buried there by the NKVD in 236 communal pits over a 14-month period in 1937-38.1000 victims were from the Solovki special prison in the White Sea. Others were rounded up during the Great Terror in Karelia, in accordance with quotas for prisoners, "enemies of the regime", and a variety of "national operations". According to available documentation at least 6000 were shot and buried at Sandarmokh.
Today Sandarmokh is a memorial to the crimes of Stalin and his regime. Three hundred personal plaques and memorials have been erected around the site since 1997 to commemorate the many victims of this killing field, both individually and as representatives of particular nations and cultures, and an international Day of Remembrance has been held there every 5 August since 1998. Thanks to the Memorial Society, to Veniamin Ioffe and Yury Dmitriev, over 5000 of the dead of Sandarmokh can again be named and remembered individually, at the place where they lie buried.