Volgograd opens monument "To Victims of Political Repressions"

Opening ceremony of the monument "To Victims of Political Repressions" took place in Volgograd, 12 years after its initiation. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was present at the ceremony.

The event was held near the site of the monument - in the crossing of Chuikov and Naumov Streets, near the Museum-Panorama "Stalingrad Battle". It was attended by the initiators of the monument - the members of the Volgograd Regional Association of Victims of Political Repressions, representatives of regional authorities, youth organizations, and Volgograd Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The sculptor shows the bottom part of the first stone"Here you can see people's faces: a fisherman, a repressed NKVD (the then name of Interior Ministry) officer, and women with children and without them. They silently move upwards, to the sky. Their napes are downcast. They move, move and move… into non-existence. Some of former repressed persons told me: 'We went into the earth, not to the sky.' I answered that it can't be a proper symbol. Innocent souls should move to the sky, to the God! And many of them agreed with me."

The author of the monumental composition "Moving to the Sky" is Victor Fetisov, People's Artist of Russia. He told about his creation. The monument consists of three granite blocks. One of them depicts prisoners moving upwards. The second one shows some of them - much fewer in number - coming back. The third monolith has inscription engraved: "To Victims of Political Repressions".

Pointing to individual silhouettes, the sculptor says that he depicted particular persons: the NKVD officer is his friend's father who had been repressed and exiled to the Far East; the fisherman is the image of a real person who had said something reprehensible about Stalin.

Yuri Sizov, deputy head of the administration of the Volgograd Region, told the audience that 3 million roubles were allotted from the regional budget on construction of the monument.

One of the initiators of the monument told that the struggle for the monument had lasted for more than 12 years. "In the territory of the former USSR, there are over 480 monuments to victims of political repressions. In the Volgograd Region, however, where, by experts' estimates, about half a million persons were repressed, the memory of innocent victims was not immortalized. Now, the justice has been restored," said the interlocutor.

The monument was blessed and consecrated by Metropolitan of Volgograd and Kamyshin Herman. The participants of the rally paid tribute to the memory of the victims and laid flowers to the monument.

The correspondent has learnt from the press service of the administration of the Volgograd Region that currently about 10,000 victims of political repressions live in the Region.

: "Russians mark Memory Day of Victims of Political Repressions."