PRE-WAR BELORUSSIA SHOOTINGS INVESTIGATED

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• Collection: General CIA Records
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• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 23, 2013
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: September 13, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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? - -
'-I
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT: (optional)
Articles on the Kuropaty Massacre
FROM:
EXTENSION
NO. S
Acting Director, Foreign Broadcast
FBIS-0260-88 I
Information Service
DATE Si
22 November 1988
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
DATE
OFFICER'S
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom
RECEIVED
FORWARDED
INITIALS
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
Jan:
Attached are the articles on
1. Executive Assistant
to the DDCI
7E12 Headquarters
2.
the Kuropaty massacre we could
find. All articles noted here
were translated or transcribed by
3.
FBIS. In general, we would say
that the Soviets have treated the
story fairly openly, carrying
4.
pieces in several of their major
papers as well as in the popular
English language Moscow News.
5.
As best we know, the story "broke"
in the USSR with the publication
of an item in the Belorussian
6.
literary magazine Literatura i
Mastatstva, a source FBIS has no
access to. Fortunately, however,
7.
the item was reprinted in a Polish
literary magazine, a translation
of which is included here. Hope
8.
this helps. Questions about this
package or about the story in
general can be raised with
, our senior Soviet S
9.
analyst, on :
(secure). S
-,_....A
i ll
S
IL
12.
13.
14.
15.
FORM 61 0 USE PREVIOUS
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? ?
FBIS-SOV-88-177
13 September 1988 64
The biggAt number of s committed Moscow are
crimes against prope , iko Solo v said. The num-
ber of car thefts drobbeiies incr. d. But the number of
grievous cn and thefts of st pr erty dropped.
Pre-War Belorussia Shootings Investigated
PM1209105988 Moscow IZVESTIYA in Russian
12 Sep 88 Morning Edition p 4
[Report by M. Shimanskiy: "Tragedy in Kuropaty: Who
Was Shot Here?"]
[Text] As we have already reported (IZVESTIYA No
241) the Belorussian Council of Ministers has created a
government commission to investigate the circum-
stances of the deaths of the people whose remains have
been discovered in the Kuropaty Forest near Minsk. The
investigation group of the republic's prosecutor's office
has made available to the commission the results of the
interrogation of witnesses.
V. Sobolev, chief of the investigation section, and Ya.
Brolishs, investigator for especially important cases, told
your IZVESTIYA correspondent that 80 inhabitants of
the villages of Tsna, Zabolotye, Drozdovo, and others
were questioned.
N. Karzhvich, born 1919: "In 1937 they began to erect a
fence in this forest. The fence was about 3 meters high.
The approach road was from the direction of Minsk. The
People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs kept constant
guard over the territory. They usually brought people
here in the evening, after 1700-1800 hours. They shot
them immediately. I did not go there often, my parents
would not let me. When I did approach I looked through
a hole in the fence. People were put in a line above some
holes. On one occasion my father and I drove by this
place in a cart. A hole about 5 meters long was full of
bodies. They were covered only with branches."
0. Borovskaya, born 1927: "Of the events which took
place in that forest I can say the following: Shouts and
groans could be heard from the forest. People shouted:
'Why us?' And shots were also heard. At first the
shooting was during the day and at night. This all
happened in 1937-1938 and then continued right up to
the war itself. Later it was usually every couple of days or
so. Women's voices were also heard.
"In the summer of 1938 we children were once out
picking berries. We crept in through a trench under the
fence. The trucks began to arrive. There was nowhere to
go so I hid under a fir tree. A covered truck followed a
passenger car. There were bars on the body of the truck.
Bareheaded men dressed in gray civilian suits got out of
the passenger car. The men led people out of the truck.
Their hands were tied behind their backs. They began to
shoot them. The people cried: 'Oh, God, why us?"
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
D. Tovstik, born 1911: "It was a year or two before the
war, that is, in 1939 or 1940. One summer's day we were
reaping corn near this forest. A truck with an open
chassis approached us along the road. Men in civilian
clothing were sitting in it. The truck went inside the
fence. We decided to take a look and approached the
fence, removed the boards, and saw the men digging a
hole. Then they left. Soon after that a truck with a black
cabin passed through the fence into the forest. And shots
and shouting were heard immediately. Then the truck
left. We went to look. When we had crawled under the
fence we saw the hole had been covered with fresh sand,
which was moving."
N. Potershuk, born 1929: "Everyone in our village at the
time knew about the shootings because shots were heard
from the forest almost every day. None of the local inhab-
itants knew who was being shot?they were frightened to
talk about it, even among themselves. I remember how once
a friend and I nonetheless decided to take a look at what was
happening there on the other side of the fence. This was in
approximately 1939. We approached the fence toward
evening. I saw and well remember how some 40 meters from
where we were sitting about 8 men were digging a hole.
When they had dug the hole they were put in a truck and
driven away. We ran to the gravel road and waited. Soon
trucks appeared, one covered, the others ordinary trucks
with high sides. These trucks contained only men, they were
driven from the trucks by men in military uniform and
pushed toward the hole. Then shots were heard."
"We are continuing the questioning of witnesses," Ya.
Brolishs said. "We are also to carry out and to obtain
conclusions from the forensic, criminal, and other expert
reports which have already been commissioned. When
we have all the conclusions, we will analyze them care-
fully and compare them with the witnesses' evidence.
Only after that will it be possible to draw objective and
reliable conclusions about the events in Kuropaty.
V. Kondratyev, first deputy prosecutor of the Belorus-
sian SSR, is directly supervising the investigation.
"I want to appeal through IZVESTIYA," he said, "to all
those who know anything about the events in Kuropaty
to tell this to the Belorussian Prosecutor's Office."
Group Far ed To Reorganize Pedagogical Academy
LD0909163 ? Moscow TAS in English 0921 GMT
9 Sep 88
[Text] Moscow Se em
dent Eleonora S otskaya
9 TASS-- ASS correspon-
'tes:
A solid bo of scientists, wor culture, education,
represe Ives of public or izatio have been com-
missio ed with shaping t future o e Academy of
Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR. The academy, which
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MOSCOW NEWS weekly No. 41, 1988
1
Zenon POZN YAK
KUROPATY
A NATIONAL TRAGEDY THAT EVERYONE
SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ?
Early in 1937 Karol Kononovich, a forest ranger, discovered some disorder In the forest: somebody had dug
pits in the earth, had filled them In and planted pine trees on them. But the pine trees had withered.
A peasant's bag hung forgotten on a nearby tree. Inside were bread and sausage. The ranger ran off to the
rural Soviet to phone 'where one should phone". This is so-and-so speaking, he reported. From the receiver
came a metallic voice: "Look less keenly if you wish to remain alive.' Kononovich understood It all very well.
And a little later a high (taller than three metres) fence of boards, topped with barbed wire, appeared in the
forest. From behind It one could hear shots - round the clock and at all seasons - and shouts, waPs, pleas.
dog's howling and the purring of automobile motors.
That was how this fearsome place (some 10-15 hectares in area) originated not so far from Minsk. Its
traditional name was Brod, or Kuropaty. It was a place where people were shot on a mass scale. It was
a 'murder-place" which operated every day - from 1937 to June 1941.
Such 'murder-places' were near
other large cities In Byelorussia, too.
By questioning witnesses, five major
places of mass extermination of
people at the time of Stalin's repres-
sions were found (to date) in Minsk
and Its environs alone.
HIDING THE SIGNS
The villages Tsna-Yodkova. Droz-
dovo, Zelyony Lug and Zelyonovka
and.imaisted homesteads were located
around Kuropaty at a distance of
1.5-2.5 km. My colleague Yevgeny
Shmygalyov and I had a chance to
hear in the 1970s the stories told by
the long-timers in the place about the
details of the murders. The peasants'
daily life went on to the crackle of
shots. Sometimes they even tried -
when harvesting wheat or planting
potatoes - to count the killed: a shot
per person. 'Our hands dropped and
we couldn't work,' sighed the
storytellers. "The entire village lived
In terror. For five years, due to the
shooting, we couldn't sleep ar night,'
said Roman Batsyan (born in 1913), an
old resident of Tana.
Yevgeny Shmygalyov and I conduc-
ted a methodical poll In 1987.1988 of
dozens of witnesses (some 170 have
been found) and did archaeological
diggings of the burials in Kuropaty. As
a result of the work, we wrote an
article that was published on June 3 by
the Republican newspaper Literature
I Mastatstva. I'll briefly cite the main
facts and conclusions of our research.
The people were shot after dinner,
towards the evening and all through-
out the night. The doomed, people
were brought In vans, were shot by
groups with Nagant revolvers and
thrown Into deep pits. The murderers
wore NKVD uniforms. After a group
of people were shot, the dead bodies
were slightly covered with sand, and
the next group was brought - until the
pit was full.
As a result of our research and
archaeological digging, we found out
that in the 400, already after the war,
all the graves in Kuropaty were
subjected to exhumation. Some of the
Mtnesses said that soldiers 'pottered
about' there. Who was it that needed
o dig up the dead bodies secretly and
twittly? Where were the remains
aken7 Who was trying to 'cover the
racc.;"7 We posed these questions in
he article. It turned out that lots of
races were left. Our digging showed
hat the exhumation had been carried
aft carelessly. We found the remains
d those executed.at the bottom of the
its which were quite deep - some
; metres. We found dozens of skulls
hot through, leather and rubber
?owner made in the USSR (the
rademarks on the galoshes show
1937 and 1938), shells from a Soviet
revolver, buttons, purses with Soviet
coins of the 30s, eyeglasses, china
and enamel mugs, a toothbrush made
by a factory in Vitebsk, etc.
INVESTIGATION
HAS STARTED
The publication of the 'article .was
preceded by the resistance of what
we now call the 'braking forces'.
However, the newspaper stood up
well to the pressure. The article did
appear in literature I Mastatstva,
though in a somewhat *bridged
version.
A government commission 'to
? corroborate the facts described In the
article' was set up two weeks after the
publication. And the History Institute
of the Pyelorussian Academy of
Sciences received the following letter
from the Byelorussian Procurator's
Office: 'The BSSR Procurator's Office
is investigating a criminal case
involving the discovery of forest
graves on the territory of the
Borovlyansky Rural Soviet. the Minsk
District. Ills necessary to exhume the
remains In order to determine the
circumstances surrounding the
interments. Guided by Article 44 of
the BSSR Code of Criminal Procedure.
we request assistance. Please
delegate an Institute staff member -
an archaeology expert - to take part
in the selective exhumation.'
That was how the digging (it was
sone on July 6.15) was undertaken by
an investigation group of the BSSR
Procurator's Office, led by
Ya. Brolishs, investigator of specially
important cases attached to the BSSR
Procurator, on the one hand. and, on
the other, archaeologists from the
staff of the History Institute of the
BSSR Academy of Sciences - my
colleagues N. Krivaltsevich (research
associate). 0. ton (postgraduate
student) and myself.
We made 7 digs to a maximum
depth of 2.75 m and totaling 44 sq m in
area.
The research was done in the
presence of witnesses, protocols,
diary entries and general
measurements were kept, photos and
video tape recordings were made:
several news teams made films of the
work, TV and newspaper people and
several members of the government
commission were present. After the
field work was over the research data
was analyzed and generalized,
drawings were made (plans, profiles,
crosscuts of the excavations, etc.),
conclusions were drawn, and a re.
?
people with one shot. 'As they fired,'
Karpovich says, "two people at once
fell into the pit. They were saving
bullets.' It was a sort of a bravado,
a sport, a demonstration of
professionalism. Some 200 empty
shall' from a Soviet Nagant revolver
and one from a TT pistol were found.
Dozens of bullets w..ire discovered,
some of them inside the skulls. The
diameters of the shells, bullets and the
bullet holes in the skulls coincide.
The majority of skulls have large (up
to 5-8 cm in diameter) lacerated holes
in the foreheads, temples or tops. This
shows that the Nagant muzzle was
stuck close to the back of the head:
after the shot the powder gases under
pressure followed the bullet Into the
skull and out through the hole It made.
Some residents from the neighbou-
ring villages said that very often on
Saturdays people from the forest,
dressed In NKVD uniforms, would
come at about 11 p.m. (apparently
after their work shift) to the village
dances.
What shocked me most of all during
the digging - not as a researcher but
search report was prepared which
was discussed and approved by the
general meeting of the Archaeology
Department. A copy of the report has
been handed over to the BM
Procurator's Office. .
PROOFS
Bullet holes were discovered in
nearly all the skulls that were found
1312 in all), as a rule In the back of the
head, quite often two and even three
holes. There were also side holes and
holes from behind - "under the
skull'. Some of the victims may have
put up resistance and in such cases
the shooting was done unsystemati-
cally (but then, this could also be an
expression of the different 'styles' of
the haters).
Mikolai Karpovich lb. 1919), a re-
sident of Tsna, one of the witnesses.
who at that time was 18 years old,
managed to see something absolutely
exceptional - the doomed people
being shot with rifles. They were also
shot in groups, but not in the back of
the head. They stood up in a row
before the pit, each one was gagged
and blindfolded. Then a murderer
came up 'from the flank" and fired
point-blank at the head of the
edge-person. bringing down two
_?-
population. The point is that the
Informer was Immediately paid for
each 'enemy' revealed - a certain
sum in cash from the special NKVD
fund (some 15 roubles per man in
today's currency). The Judah' from
Sellvonovlus always drank after selling
one more co.villager and even
composed a song about their 'deeds'
which they sang during the bouts.
The majority of those buried In
Kuropaty were not of high social
status. The No. 1 grave was filled In,
most probably, in winter: a lot of
winter clothing was found it.
Further east and south.easnvards
are the interments 01 1839 and later.
Mainly people from Western
Byelorussia lie there. Most of all
things of 'intellectual' use were found'
In grave No.5 - many accessories,
eyeglasses, a monocle, pince-nez,
medicines, etc. The footwear there
was of high quality, factory-made or
custommade especially for the
wearer, women's high-heeled boots.
gloves, etc.
From the things found In the graves
end from the fact that some of them
(like clothes and footwear) were found
neatly folded, from the presence of
food, purses, etc., we may conclude
the the people were preparing for
some trip, that they had left their
homes not long before their death,
and had not been kept In jail before
they were shot. This makes one think
that they were 'liquidated' - to use
the term then used -without a trial.
After making , the necessary
measurements, calculations and after
summing up all the data, we can
approximate the initial (before the
exhumation of the 40s) number of
-
people buried in the Investigated
graves. If we take the average number
of corpses - 200 per grave - and
simply multiply It by the number of
graves found to date (510) - we'll get
102,000 people. However, the real
number of victims must be bigger. In
addition, In March-May 1988 some
100 (if not more) graves were filled up
and then leveled over by bUlldozers
when a gas main was being laid and
the forest around It cut down. Many
graves disappeared when the ring
road was being laid In the early
50s-late 805, 'and maybe In the 405,
too, when afforestation work was
done In the area. The graves to the
south of the ring road, where the
as a human being - was the great
number of women burled. Women's
skulls and belongings were found in
all the graves.
HOW MANY WERE BURIED
THERE?
We managed to reveal the ge-
ography and the chronology of the
burials In Kuropaty. The shootings
started in the territory's eastern part.
The graves there are dated 1937-1938.
The dig-ups revealed things and
objects exclusively of Soviet make.
and a lot of self-made or artisan
footwear. Very few toilet articles. it all
shows that It was mainly local
residents that were buried here. This
is confirmed by the letters I got from
Mikol Rymarev (b. 1927) from
Bobruisk, in which he makes an
attempt to recollect the names of the
hundreds of his co-villagers who died
in those four years. At the beginning
of the 19300 his Selivonovka village
had 120 houses, over 800 villagers. At
the outset of the 405, before the war,
there were less than 30 houses left.
Several people - the collective farm
chairman, the rural Soviet chairman,
a team leader and a couple of their
henchmen - terrorized the entire
'murder-places' was, have still
been taken into account.
? ? ?
not
When you hear the witnesier
accounts of this gory horror story,
when you see with your own eyes the
evidence and the remains, when
you're in a pit in the ground together
with dead bodies, when you recogni-
ze tableware that you remember from
your childhood and other utensils,
scattered among the bones. the
familiar rubber women's shoes (which
I remember my mother wore in her
youth), when you pull out from under
skulls with bullet holes the light as
flax, long strands of women's hair,
like the hair you used to see in the
morning on a woman when you tee
all this, and experience the smell of
decay in the blossoming forest full of
singing of birds (I don't mention here
how psychologically difficult the dig-
ging was), when you see all this - you
are at a real loss for words. You can't
find any. You're numb.
In conclusion, I want to share two
? thoughts concerning the afore-
mentioned shootings. The first
Is that noon, will now be able to hide
the truth about Kuropaty. The second
Is that every honest individual must
fight Stalinism - that evil, lying, cruel,
anti-human phenomenon.
3
Editor-in-Chief
Yegor YAKOVLEY
Editor of English edition
Vladimir PICHUGIN
ASF. OCO/ -
""6.4.4sio"
Aeroflot brings 'Moscow News" to
many pieces around the world.
Address, 'MOSCOW NEWS". le/Z Gorky St., MOSCOW. USSR. 180,EGRAMSr MOSCOW
NEWS, MOSCOW 5. TELEPHON Es EDROR-IN-CHIEF 52e-eo.0o.
If any of the material published in this paper is reproduced. please mention Moscow News.
Signed for printing on October 4, 1988. Order 11837.
There is no supplement this week.
ii
INDEX 50077
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traus
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MOSCOW NEWS weekly No. 34, 1988
EVENTS, INFORMATION
PRESS AGENCY
NERS TO
ESTIONS
years
on each one of
ctive of the size
:ions?
e anti-Sovietism
:stern democra-
? Shouldn't we
e consequences
I World slogan:
hoslovakia than
Inds "?
to be learned
it really happe-
?o lessons to be
falsification of
nted past turns
nition Into a tool
as been added
e Soviet Baltic
iny Westerners
ies occupied by
is comparati-
;II the principal
had diplomatic
1940. But not
n disputed the
of power and of
3clal system in
!agars (Latvia),
glance through
s will prove it."
imber of worthy
To..
rial to
is opened
:orship of
Mikhail
iecided to
rrnance to
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recommendations at the conference.
And not only by representatives of
historical science from the Baltic
Republics ? R. garmaitis, Correspon- ?
ding Member of the Academy of
Sciences, Lithuanian SSR, and 0-Kuuli ? .
(Estonia), D. Sc. (History). There were
also new and well-argued approaches
to the Soviet-Finnish War (November
1939-March 1940), even though, as.
M. Semiryaga (Institute of the Interna-
tional Labour Movement, Moscow)
noted, historians to this day do not
.agree on whether this conflict was
part of World War II.
Attention focused on the so-called
secret protocols to the 1939 So-
viet-German treaties. Falin noted: "I'd
like to remind the audience that we're
talking about copies from copies. No
one has as yet seen the originals of
these protocols. Thus the following
questions arise: why were these ?
materials put into circulation ? and
under suspicious circumstances ?
only after World War II? Why didn't
the USA and Great Britain, who knew
from their own intelligence sources
about the Soviet-German talks in
1939, make these materials public
when their relations with the USSR ?
before the creation of the anti-Hitler
coalition ? were quite tense? Why
didn't Hitler use these papers, if he
had them, to discredit the USSR
during the war? Why didn't Rib-
bentrop say a single word about these .
documents at the Nuremberg Trial
when it would have been to his
benefit?' (L. Bezymensky, commenta-
tor of the New Times weekly, added:
"At the Nuremberg Trial, when
a certain American handed copies of
the secret protocols to defendant
Hess, the court refused to accept
them and demanded the originals. It
never got them.") These are legiti-
mate questions waiting to be answe-
red.
Answer to such "riddles of history"
should be sought through joint efforts.
If only because ? as we can see from
the experience of the last 50 years ?
no one can deal with problems of
peace alone.
EVENTS MIRRORED IN THE PRESS
TRAGEDY OF
KURAPATY
FOREST
Alexander SHAVLYUK
Mass murders in Byelorussia
(1937-41) under investigation
The Byelorussian weekly "Literatura i Mastatstva"
recently published an article entitled "Kurapaty ? Road to
Death" that stirred up the whole Republic.
Zenon Poznyak and Yevgeny
Shmygalev claim that from 1937 to
1941 people were driven out daily
to Kurapaty forest on the northern
outskirts of Minsk and shot. Their
article is based on eyewitness
accounts, according to which
a part of the pine forest covering
10-15 hectares was surrounded
with a three-metre solid plank
fence topped with barbed wire.
There were also guards and dogs.
People from neighbouring villages
tried to skirt that horrible place
from where one could hear shots
and people screaming, crying and
pleading day and night. A few
brave boys managed to pry open
a couple of the planks and wriggle
through the enclosure. One of
them was Nikolai Karpovich, now
70 and retired. He says people
were killed in groups: "They were
gagged, lined up In a row and shot
point-blank in the side of the head
with rifles. The object was to kill
two people with one bullet. One
shot and two people fell into the pit
In front of them... When the pit
was full of bodies; sand was
poured over It and levelled:.: The
guards and the executioners wore
NKVD uniforms."
Eyewitnesses maintain that the
shootings continued until the be-
ginning of the war. During the
war, locals dismantled the fence
for wood and the old forest was
razed. After the war, new trees
grew up there. The new forest
became a favourite place for
picnics and outings. Most people
had no idea....
Just days after the article about
Kurapaty forest appeared, the
Council of Ministers of Byelorussia
set up a government commission
to investigate. The Republican
Procurator's Office initiated pro-
ceedings. A week later a meeting
in memory of the victims of
Stalinist repressions was held in
Kurapaty forest by public re-
quest ? 3,000 people attended.
The meeting lasted four hours ?
longer than any other ever held
.there. Exhumation of remains from
the mass graves in Kurapaty has
already begun. Mikhail Savitsky,
a member of the government
commission and People's Artist of
the USSR, says that the process Is
being supervised by archaeo-
logists, investigators and experts.
Everything is recorded In notes
and on a film. Documentary film
makers, TV and press reporters
are also on the scene. The article
claimed that bodies had been
exhumed In Kurapaty before ? the
commission's findings confirm
this. Who did it, when and why
must also be cleared up by the
commission,' said Savitsky.
There are over 500 graves in
Kurapaty. Some of the common
graves were destroyed when a gas
main was laid and a road built
there.
The investigators are questio-
ning witnesses interviewed in the
newspaper article and looking for
new witnesses. They will also have
to do some detective work in the
archives of the MVD and KGB.
Minsk
Anatoly STUK
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? IIP
(h1)Belorussian Mass Executions, Graves, Stalinist Crimes Detailed
(s1)26000057 Warsaw PRAWO I ZYCIE in Polish No 31, 30 Jul 88 pp 16, 11

(Sb) (Article reprinted from Minsk LITERATURA I MASTATSTVA, 3 Jun 88 in
Belorussian: "The Corpses Rotted, the Earth Subsided;" first paragraph is
editorial introduction.]
(txt)[Text] "The rehabilitation of those who had been in the past victims of
unjust political accusations and lawlessness is our party duty and social duty"
("Theses of the Central Committee for the 19th All-Union Party Conference").
This preface is provided by the Belorussian periodical LITERATURA I MASTATSTVA
of 3 June 1988 for the article by Zyanon Paznyak and Yaugiyen Shmygalou dealing
with Stalinist persecutions in Belorussia in the 1930's. We are reprinting it
with some minor abridgments. The title is provided by the Editors.
According to some of our investigators, in Belorussia alone during the
thirties hundreds of thousands of people were subjected to repressions. A large
number were sent to the country's east and north (the Solovets Islands, Vorkuta,
Kolyma),-while the remainder were liquidated on the spot, not far from their
domiciles. That cost much less and did not overload the already crowded railroad
lines. But where precisely were these hundreds of thousands liquidated? In what
earth do their bones rest?
Do not think, dear reader, that this is some special land cursed by both God
and people. In reality, these are the same locales which we daily tread under
our feet or where we relax in pleasant natural surroundings. For many years
there have been forces operating in this country--and they still operate, except
that they employ different methods--whose special concern is to conceal these
ancient matters, to hide their bloody spoor from the people.
We have quite a few majestic monuments erected to victims of German fascism
and reflecting the heroism of the Belorussian people, but so far there are not
any reminding the rising generation about the victims of Stalinism. This is a
mistake which should not be tolerated. We should remember them, those people who
were not heroes but innocent victims of a tyrant, those toil-worn workers,
starving kolkhozniks, those first people's intellectuals, women and men, who,
shot in the nape, fell into graves which they had dug themselves, without
cursing, without protesting, and merely uttering the miserable and tragic words,
"What for?"
They shall never hear the answer to their question; it is we who should give
that answer. This aim is furthered in the article by two authors who fulfilled
their duty to the nation and to history.
Vasil Bykau, Lenin Prize Winner
What we desire to relate to our readers is known to many people, but
obviously those who knew about it all had submitted, like ourselves, to the
force of circumstances and waited. For us this waiting was made intolerable by
the awareness that life goes on rapidly, people die, and the memory of the
terrible crimes committed in the thirties is evanescing.
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A man who has committed a crime and lives with it is a criminal, one capable
of continuing to do evil. Such a man is subject to punishment. He who has
demonstrated repentance and, owing to agony of conscience, shame and pain,
returned to the primal state, is restored to humanity. The purging of conscience
is indispensable to a society which has permitted and engendered genocide--that
greatest crime against mankind. Repentance will not be, as is known, shown by
those killers who are no longer alive nor by the "silent pensioners." It is the
subsequent generations that have to purge themselves, generations that have not
even witnessed this tragedy; they should purge themselves of the guilt of their
forebearers.
Z. PAZNYAK:?med> In my youth I felt heartbreak on listening to the
tales of men who returned from Stalinist prisons and camps, from virtual
nonexistence. At the time I had written nothing and taken no notes. I was
horrified to realize my mistake in the stagnant atmosphere of the seventies when
I saw how everything was slowly reverting, how the nation's memory of those
times was turning into folklore and myths and even disappearing, and yet the
memory of those frightful tales related to me persist-ed.
People were herded from one spot to another. They were transported on trains
in [minus]20-Centigrade-degree frost. The train halts. The order falls,
"Everyone get undressed for the baths," the escorts command. In bone-chilling
frost naked people are hosed with water. The escorts jest, "Pleasant sensations.
Now go to sleep." And they bolt the doors. In the morning only a few remain
alive. The ice-stiffened corpses were loaded onto horse-drawn carts so that
their heads would hang from the carts, and one of the executioners lopped them
with an axe. Apparently such was the command, for certainty's sake. Years pass,
but the killer of corpses persists in memory.
They transport them to Kolyma, stuff them into a barracks put together from
boards, with crevices through which a freezing northern wind whistles. After the
first night one-half of the deportees no longer get up. The survivors place the
stiffened, frozen corpses alongside the walls in order to cover the cracks and
warm themselves a little.
Ivan Trafimavich Smal, a party member since 1917 and member of the Gomel
Regional Committee, related, "In 1937 I worked at the Mogilev Automotive Repair
Works as a deputy director. They took me away following a thoughtless
denunciation by a Komsomolets-Stakhanovite on the grounds that the plant did not
repair two cars on schedule. They pushed me into a cell so crowded with people
clinging to each other that there was no room even to move. These people
suffocated owing to lack of air, went insane, and died standing, with the
corpses standing together with the living, and when there was no room for even
one more prisoner, the guards hurled living people onto our heads.
"To extort his confession, the prisoner was placed in a special dark cell
that was one and one-half meters high and filled with icy water. In the only dry
spot of that cell stood a black coffin, and only there could the prisoner find
shelter from the freezing water. Many people became insane in that coffin."
Ivan Trafimavich endured all the torments without yielding, without signing
the accusation against him. After Yezhov's fall he was released, a sick and
gray-haired man. As it happened, in the early 1950's he and his son went on
business to the Belorussian SSR Ministry of Social Welfare. In the hallway he
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saw a self-assured, elegantly dressed woman with a proudly raised head and
graying hair. "Good day, Ivan Trafimovich," she sang out rather than said, in
her deep voice, and went on. Ivan Trafimovich fainted on the arms of his son.
"Father, who is she?" "It's Baykova. Before the war she was the examining
magistrate at the Mogilev People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs." It was she
who had tortured Ivan Trafimovich. All Mogilev prisoners trembled before
Baykova. This sadist interrogated only males, and she enjoyed in particular
torturing former revolutionaries. She used to order prisoners to undress
completely and dance to the tune of the waltz "On the Hills of Manchuria," which
she also ordered them to sing; next, she took a specially made whip with wire
fringes and beat them on the genitals and other sensitive spots with it,
bringing herself to ecstasy and the prisoner to fainting from pain.
Before 1937 Ivan Trafimovich's son attended the same school as Baykova's son
(Baykova's husband also was a functionary of the NKVD) and visited him often at
home, being ignorant of what happened. The polite, apron-wearing hostess treated
him to candy and tea.
YE. SHMYGALOU: In the mid-1950's, when I was a captain in the
Soviet Army, I served in Volgograd Oblast where I met Lieutenant Piatr Uvarau,
who had in the 1940's taken part in deporting Tatars from the Crimea. He told me
that all the regions inhabited by the Crimean Tatars had been simultaneously
surrounded by NKVD troops. The Tatars were given about one hour to assemble.
They all were herded by rifle-toting soldiers. Anyone who tried to escape was
shot. They were driven onto trains and dispatched to Siberia and Kazakhstan.
While on the trains they were fed exclusively with salted bird's foot
[Ornithopus] and herring without being given any water. Many of them died; first
the sick and the old, and then others. They begged for mercy, but they were not
shown any. Their valuables and money were seized by the escorts. Uvarau enjoyed
telling me about the tortures of the Tatars; he viewed his actions as proper and
praised Stalin's decree on the Tatars.
Z. PAZNYAK: A Book of National Memory should be written. We were
shaken by the images arising from tales told by various people. An inhabitant of
Minsk, Syargiyey Fyodoravich Ladutska, recalls, "I remember how I once passed by
the NKVD building in the winter of 1938. The frost was biting, yet clouds of
steam arose from the gratings on the open windows of cellars, as if from a
locomotive--because so many people were imprisoned there." This image is as
striking as a thunderbolt. [Gazing at the upper floor Ladutska saw] awesome
little figures wearing stiff-collared uniform jackets and baggy military pants,
submitting reports, opening and closing briefcases with papers, and perusing
documents, while underneath them steam, blood, and sweat were being squeezed
from the mass of people stuffed into the cells. Where was this locomotive
racing? Toward what terminus?
We located that terminus, for we could not rest until we would solve the
mystery of the whereabouts of the executed prisoners. Where are they?
In the early 1970's, in the northern outskirts of Minsk, to the left of
Logoyskaya Highway, before the circular trolley line, there still existed the
village of Zialony Lug. Old inhabitants of that village told us that, two
kilometers north of the village, between the trolley line and the road to
Zaslavl, in the woods, during 1937-1941, each summer automobiles brought people
who were then executed daily and nightly. The slightly hilly area was covered by
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dense primeval forests. A section of the forest measuring 10 to 15 hectares in
area was partitioned off with a more than 3 meters tall board fence and topped
with barbed wire. Behind the fence were guards with dogs. People were
transported there on a gravel road stretching from Logoyskaya Highway to
Zaslauye. At the time that road was called "Road of Death."
In 1987-1988 we looked up some inhabitants of the since demolished village of
Zialony Lug and collected the testimonies of old inhabitants and witnesses of
these events from neighboring villages. We cleared up various details and jotted
down the answers to our questions.
The shootings there began in 1937. At first they took place thrice daily: in
the morning, at 1400 hours, and in the evenings. People were transported to the
forest in several automobiles at a time and immediately executed. The corpses
were thrown into previously excavated deep trenches, layer upon layer. Once a
trench was full, it was covered with a layer of sand no thicker than 20-25
centimeters. Sometimes a small pine tree would be planted on top.
In the second half of 1937 that site was fenced off and the condemned people
were brought in following a changed schedule: in the afternoon, in the evening,
and all night. They were brought in ceaselessly, each day. Our informants did
not remember whether there were pauses on Sundays. The inhabitant of Tsna
Village Katsiaryna Mikalayevna-Bagaychuk (born 1919) said, "The shootings
occurred daily. The roar of the automobiles was always heard. The males in our
village would often gather together as soon as it got dark, go outside, and
listen to the shootings. They would talk silently a little, grumble, and then go
home."
"Several automobiles at once would enter the fenced-off area; the stream of
prisoners was continuous," said Daryta Ignatavna-Tavstsik of Tsna Village (born
1911). "The forest road was worn like an asphalted road. When the shootings
began, we could hear moans, weeping, and cursing."
"The whole village trembled with fear. For five years we could not sleep at
night owing to the shootings," said an old inhabitant of Tsna, Raman
Mikalayevich-Batsiyan (born 1913). This was confirmed by Mikolay Piatrovich-
Mikhaychik (born 1929) and other inhabitants of Tsna. "The most daring among the
older boys would even clamber over the fence or punch holes in it, and they saw
a lot." We asked whether any of them had survived, and we were told: Mikola
Karpovich.
Mikalay Vasilevich Karpovich was born in 1919. He is a well-built and still
strong man. In 1939 he had joined the army and saw a lot of the world, moving
from one front to another. In 1937-1938 he had repeatedly witnessed how people
were being killed in the forest. Apparently the graves were excavated before
noon, because they were there by the evening, and often even in the early
afternoon when the first automobiles with prisoners would arrive. M. Karpovich
said that people were being killed in entire groups. They were placed in a row,
gags were placed in their mouths, which were then tied with rags so that they
would not be spit out. The killers wore NKVD uniforms. They fired their rifles
sideways at the first person in the row so as to shoot two people with one
bullet at a time. "After each shot," Mikalay Vasilyevich said, "Two people would
fall into the grave." That was to save ammunition. After an entire group was
shot dead, the positions of the corpses at the bottom of the trench were aligned
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properly, they were covered with a layer of sand, and the next group was brought
in. Once a trench was full, it was covered with sand and the ground leveled.
"One day," M. Karpovich narrated, "I met an upset and nervous guard from
Malanyauki (a village 4 km distant from Tsna). He told me, 'They already kicked
the bucket. Come, look, they aren't even covered with sand.' We approached the
fence, which ran alongside the road and I saw in a ravine a large and broad pit
completely filled with corpses. 'Brother, they are lying there like piglets."
When asked whether anybody had ever escaped, Mikolay Karpovich answered, "How
was it possible, given that fence? To be sure, one evening I was out walking
through the forest with a fellow villager. The atmosphere was somehow uncanny,
for just then the sounds of shooting ceased. We saw a man sitting at the foot of
a tree and wearing a bloodied shirt, looking barely alive. We approached, but we
didn't know what to do. Suddenly we heard the roar of a car engine. We jumped
back and walked away. We met two NKVD men. They asked, 'Who are you?' 'We are
from Tsna. 'Did you see anybody?"No, but,' my fellow villager said,
trembling, 'there is somebody over there, farther off.' A moment later we saw
them dragging thafl man by his feet. They threw him into the car like a log of
wood and drove off. As to how did he escape from there, to this day I can't
figure it out."
And yet, a successful escape did happen. That was in 1938. A prisoner had
escaped before being shot. "He climbed the fence and they did not find him,"
claimed Maryya Rygoravna Potsiarshuk of Tsna Village (born 1911). Just that one
man.... Perhaps he is still alive somewhere. Perhaps he will read these lines
and contact us.
Maryya Rygoravna confirms that before shooting the condemned people were
gagged. This also was mentioned by Vasil Yakavlevich (born 1930), an inhabitant
of Drazdova-Skvarchevski Village, and by others. Even so, many of these
witnesses had heard cries, sobbing, begging for mercy. Perhaps there were not
enough gags? Most likely, something else happened. A person who kills other
people regularly and for a long time tends to gradually become a sadist and to
conceive a desire to torment his victim before killing him.
The point was not to save bullets when the killers tried to shoot two
prisoners at a time with one bullet. It was rather a kind of bravado, a sport
for executioners, a demonstration of professionalism. M. Karpovich apparently
had witnessed precisely that atypical method of shooting with a rifle. We
questioned in detail all the witnesses who heard the shootings and all the
eyewitnesses of the shootings, and we reached the conclusions that the weapons
used in the executions were principally nagans [a type of revolver, seven-
shooter] and pistols (as proved by subsequent excavations of graves).
We asked Valantsina Mikhaylavna Shakhanavay (born 1929) whether the shots
were loud. "No," she answered, "they sounded muffled, like 'putt, putt, putt,'
but they could be heard all the time. There were pauses, and then 'putt, putt,
putt' sounded again." Valentsina Mikhaylovna herself was once inside that
hellish place [Hdushegubka"]. She and a neighbor's son had dug a hole under that
fence in order to gather blueberries; they had been 10-12 years old at the time.
They saw excavations, many trenches, some of them filled in. When they got out
carrying the blueberries, they encountered a soldier. "Halt! Spill them out!" he
ordered the boy. He confiscated the blueberries and suddenly snarled, "Get out!
Quick!"
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The shootings continued until the outbreak of the war. During the war the
inhabitants of neighboring villages dismantled the board fence, using the boards
for household purposes. The old primeval forest was cleared and the timber
pilfered. Now on its site there stands a postwar forest with trees 40 to 45
years old.
"Did not the Germans conduct any shootings there?" we asked Valentsina
Mikyaylavna. "No, no Germans were there, and none of their shootings either,"
she answered. We asked this question of all our informants, and they all
answered that the Germans showed no interest in that locality.
"How did that site look after the fence was dismantled?" we asked V.
Shakhanavay. "It looked swollen as it were, with its swollen sands and tall
grasses with a very large number of red mushrooms, striped ones, standing on
thin legs and looking bloated with blood as it were." People said that human
blood was sprouting. Those red mushrooms on the graves were mentioned by many
informants. They thought that the mushrooms grew from the blood shed. Again a
folkloristic image of martyrdom, I thought. Later it turned out that they were
right. These mushrooms are Marasmius scorodonius. They grow in deeply excavated
sand and smell of garlic.
It is not easy to talk with old women about those times. "0, my children, how
many good people were shot!" wails Katsiaryna Mikolayevna Bagaychuk. "If only at
least a monument would be erected to them," she cries. Nadzheya Yafimovna
Khomich (born 1922) of Zialony Lug said, "It was especially frightful at night."
Before the war she had lived in Bobruysk, but she often came to visit her
sister, who lived in Zialony Lug, in a house near the forest. "There was
continual shooting, barking of dogs, cries, lamentations." She also starts to
cry. "The dogs were vicious, and apparently hungry," added Sonya Andreyevna
Kozyo (born 1925), also of Zialony Lug. "And the shootings were practically
incessant, especially at night." Maryya Ivanovna Patsiarskhuk said, "There was a
lot of spilled blood everywhere. Moans, moans, moans. Even those buried were
moaning."
Vera Fyodorovna Tovstsik (born 1933) of Drazdow remembers how, when she was
seven, she would run along with older children to look on at the killings. Her
memories are fragmentary. She remembers one image: trenches covered with fresh
yellow sand, blood on the grass. "And the sand on top of the trenches still
moved, as if breathing."
When asked whether anybody was taken away from Drazdov, too, she answered, "I
don't remember, because I was little then. Older inhabitants told me that some
people were indeed seized from neighboring villages. An automobile would arrive
at night and the order would fall, 'Get ready!' Then the man thus ordered, not
knowing where he was going to be taken, got ready and put a piece of bread and
bacon in his bag, and was transported there and shot dead at the edge of the
trench. Could somebody erect a monument to such villagers? How many people were
murdered! It was just awful!"
Matruna Mikolayevna Mantasova (born 1914) of Zialony Lug said that in 1937
two males were taken from Podbalotsiye. When we asked her about their identity,
she said that they were ordinary people, workers. No one knew why they were
selected. "In those times nothing was said and no questions were asked. At night
that truck, that 'Chorny Voran' [Black Crow] as it was called, drove from one
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village to another, picking up people and transporting them nobody knows to this
day where. Perhaps they are resting in these graves. They also took Tanya
Matusevich's husband and a neighboring teacher. I don't remember the names of
the others. Everyone was talking about people being seized from the villages.
How many good people were killed! A monument should now be erected to them. Oh,
how the people were martyred!"
V. Shakhanava informed us that she remembers how three people were seized
from the neighboring village of Yakubavichi. What for? "They say that one
denounced another out of malice, and so they all lost their lives. Here in Tsna
Teacher Arseyniy Pavlavich Grushu, a good man, was seized." Valentsina
Mikyaylavna said that she heard some older people talk about an activist-brigade
leader from Tsna Village who was being pressured to provide the needed number of
"enemies of the people."
We asked Maryya Rygoravna Pats iarshuk what she knew about any arrests in the
environs. "From Khmarshchini (a no longer existing village) three people were
taken: Andrey Filipovich, Stiapan Tsiarluk, and a third whose name I do not
remember; he was a newcomer." When asked whether she had heard of proposals or
demands to denounce "enemies of the people," she answered, "As of 1937 the
chairman of the local soviet (at the time we had belonged to the Papiernanskaya
Rural Soviet), was Batsyan Tsimafey Vasilyevich. It was he who had been asked
about 'such people.' He used to answer no, there were not any in his area."
Question: Were people executed anywhere else in the area? "Yes, in
Zdanovichi, near Barvnaya, near Drazdov, to the right of the narrow-gauge
railroad line (now demolished), and in Minsk behind Chaluskineau Park, on the
site of the present Vavilov Factory."
M. R. Patsiarshuk, D. I. Tovstsik, and M. Ye. Patsiershuk (deputy to the
rural soviet, member of the CPSU) were all asked what to do about this site
considering that the city is nearby and the construction of the circular trolley
tracks damaged the graves. They all answered that a monument should be erected.
We also met people who narrated these events in a whisper, almost. They asked
that their names not be made public anywhere. Some were silent in face of our
questions. For example, Mikalay Vasilyevich Ignashau (born 1914) of Zialony Lug,
who fought throughout the war,And advanced nearly to Berlin, told us only that
he feared even to come close to that fence, because he felt that anyone who
crosses it never returns.
On the other hand, there were some bold souls who amused themselves by
digging up the cadavers (especially in the imediate postwar period when there
still was no partition) and leaning them against the trees in order to annoy the
NKVD. V. Skvarchevskiy said, "One day two cadavers were dug out of a trench by
someone who leaned them against trees and placed a newspaper in their hands.
This caused a great stir. People wanted to know who did it. Such was life in
those times."
Analysis of the Stalinist system of genocide and the new facts currently made
public serve to understand why priority had been given to liquidating the
intelligentsia, leading party and military cadres, and industrious peasants. But
it sometimes is hard to understand why uneducated and even illiterate workers
and peasants also were murdered. It is difficult to understand Stalin's logic
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and the logic of those who had been in charge under him, because essentially
this is not human logic but bears some other hallmarks. This mystery may be
partially elucidated by the so-called planned economy of persecutions. In the
thirties Molotov informed Stalin that there was a shortage of prisons and, most
importantly, he complained, prisoners "have to be fed."
At the time there was famine in the country. It was then that the system of
camps was expanded on a broad scale and killings of people en route to internal
exile, by the cold and frost, or by starvation, etc., began to be employed. In
this connection, a planned "progressive" method was used. Every city, town, and
rayon received an "allotment." The repressions were carried out in accordance
with a timetable. "Competition" for fulfilling and overfulfilling the plan for
repressions (uncovering "enemies of the people") arose. The number of
individually uncovered "enemies" was given in reports, speeches, and the press.
If, however, the "allotment" could not be met and the plan period was nearing
its end, just anybody would be seized. It was then that the "black crows" began
to visit the villages.
The area near Zaslavl Road was called "Brod." Formerly swamps extended in its
vicinity. And what about that site which later had been fenced off, that forest
on the rolling hills? Did it have a name too? When asked this question, the
inhabitants of Drazdov answered, yes, its name was Kurapaty. Why? Because in the
spring it would bloom with a carpet of white flowers-- "kurapaty" (anemones).
Kurapaty produces an unusually dismal impression. To the south this site is
bisected by a trolley track built there in 1957; during its construction, bones
and skulls were uncovered. We climb the hill, enter the forest, and immediately
encounter the graves--a countless number of collapsed, grass-overgrown pits. The
corpses had rotted and the earth subsided.
The pits vary in size: 2x3, 3x3, 4x4 meters and larger. Their depth reaches
70-80 cm. In the center runs a range of hills whose crests form a continuous
ridge. The slopes and ravines are pockmarked with numerous collapsed pits. The
ridge is almost level; probably a road used to run there. Probably also, that
road was traversed by automobiles whose headlamps illuminated the site at night.
To the south we found the place where the fence used to be. A trench that used
to be in front of that fence, as told us by the inhabitants of neighboring
villages, was clearly visible. Barely.perceptible depressions in the soil show
us where pylons spaced 4 meters apart used to stand.
The pits differ in size. It may be that their depth differed also and that is
why the number of the victims cannot be accurately determined according to the
number of the graves.
In the 1970's Kurapaty was still fairly rustic. Now the Zialony Lug 6 Borough
of Minsk has spread toward it. The visitor to the graves despairs to find that
nowadays this is a recreational area for the inhabitants of Minsk, with children
playing there.
Z. PAZNYAK:?med> On May Day this year this area was crowded and gay,
like a boulevard. Picnickers arrived gaily in entire families. They started
bonfires on the graves; they ate, drank, roasted shashlik, strummed guitars,
played cards, broke off branches, cut trees, to the whine of transistor radios.
One person was stripping the bark off a small birch tree that had grown in the
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soil of a collapsed grave--he wanted to taste the sap. I wondered why no blood
streamed from it. It is clear that these people did not know anything, that they
did not know that an entire generation was resting underneath them.
YE. SHMYGALOU: When the "silent pensioners" who helped to bring
about this oblivion go to their death, they are placed in coffins and eulogies
are pronounced over their graves, with an orchestra playing. For those who rest
here, the orchestra was the baying of hounds and the sounds of nagan shots. And
how the children and families of the repressed suffered! No! All this must be
remembered. Let everyone get his due after his death.
An inspection of some of the graves produced in us a terrifying suspicion. We
noticed depressions that were too deep, with mounds of earth nearby indicating
recent excavations. Some of the pits were freshly dug up to a depth of one
meter. No bone fragments were to be seen anywhere. In one grave some school
pupils were building a dugout that was slightly more than one meter deep. At the
bottom there lie some loose recently moved sand. Our anxiety grew, because we
remembered the tale of a villager (who asked that his name be kept confidential)
about soldiers digging there for a long time immediately after the war.
On 5 May 1988 a group of archeologists from the Institute of History,
Belorussian SSR Academy of Sciences, excavated one of the subsidences. The
exploration shaft in the center of the pit was 1.5 meters deep. Nothing was
found except sand.
This finding struck our team of five persons as hard as the fact itself of
the mass persecutions. How could we have underestimated their baseness! What
kind of people had busied themselves there right after the war? Traces were
being obliterated then, which means that even then those people knew about the
atrocities! (Oh, you Stalinists!) Where is your "honest" faith in the justice of
your affairs, in the justice of your decisions! It turns out that already then
you had been fearful. Such a tremendous, exhausting, Egyptian labor was
accomplished! So many cadavers were dug up! Where were they concealed? Were they
transported away and buried? Or burned? It was not some minor functionary who
had ordered the exhumations. Who was it? Beria? Tsanava? Malenkov? Who?
But even then it turned out that the murderers did not succeed in
obliterating the traces. We were approached by the boys who had on May Day built
a dugout in a subsidence. They led us to the other side of the area. They pushed
away the spruce branches concealing a partition of sticks and we saw a pile of
human skulls with bullet holes in them, as well as piles of bones and leather
and rubber shoes. On excavating the pit to a depth of 2 meters, in order to
build their dugout, those boys found these piles, in the lower layers of the
grave.
Let us bear in mind that every time the NKVD troops executed a group of
people they covered the corpses with a layer of sand and leveled it. During the
postwar exhumations, soldiers picked out bones to a depth of 2 meters and
apparently thought that there were no bones any deeper. Or perhaps they simply
"goofed off" whenever their supervisors were not nearby. The actual depth of
that grave was 2.8 meters and it measured 3x3 meters in area. The boys carefully
picked out one-half of the layer of human remains (23 skeletons). Among the
skeletons they found mugs of china and enamel, a leather purse with Soviet
kopecks of the 1930s (most recent date on a coin: 1938), a toothbrush in a
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container bearing the brand of a Vitebsk factory, and a large number of spent
cartridge cases traceable to a 7.5 mm caliber nagan as well as round broken
eyeglass lenses in a thin metal frame. All the rubber galoshes bore trademarks
of Soviet factories and the date 1937. Male leather shoes and female footwear
also were found. The bullet holes in the skulls are to be seen mostly in the
occiput, which often shows two holes side by side. In several skulls the holes
were in the temporal and frontal regions, and even in the top of the skull (when
those still alive in the pit were shot from above). All these holes had a
diameter of 7.5 mm.
What do these finds say? The graves were filled in the years 1937-1938. The
victims were executed with nagans, without a trial, and without announcement of
death sentences. They rest in these graves together with their bundles, taken
when ordered to "get ready," with drinking mugs, toothbrushes, and even copper
coins. Clearly, they were not expecting to be executed.
One long pit-grave was broken into by an excavation for a gas pipeline
running on the ridge of hills across Kurapaty. It is a small grave, located at a
distance from the road traveled by the condemned. Apparently, it was somehow
forgotten or "lost" during the exhumations. Workers, and later children,
excavated there bones and 15 skulls with bullet holes in them, along with 20
pairs of leather footwear and galoshes, including also remains of ladies' shoes.
The galoshes bear trademarks of Soviet factories and the date 1939. One galosh
bears the trademark of a Riga factory and an inscription in Latvian. Date: 1939.
This is a 1940 grave in which a Latvian was buried among others (it seems to us
that in those times there had been no trade in galoshes with Latvia).
A record of those excavations was prepared and the Baravlyanska Rural Soviet
was notified. The Chairman of the Council Siargiey Ivanovich Chachanets, showed
understanding of the findings. A committe for elucidating the attendant
circumstances and reburying the human remains was even set up. The bones were
gathered into a special coffin.
At present the priority is to erect suitable tablets on Kurapaty with
information about this site so that people would know that this is not a place
for picnics and recreation. Judging from what we discovered, we do not think
that the exhumation of the graves conducted in the 1940's had been thorough. At
the bottom of these deep subsidence ,of a. certainty there still rest thousands
of corpses.
A public reburial of the excavated remains also is indispensable. Further,
erecting on this site a monument to the victims of Stalinist repressions should
be considered.
One more thing: Should the killers be pardoned or punished? Reader, think
about it. We ourselves feel that genocide cannot remain unpunished. There should
be no statute of limitation for the culprits. When one stands in a cool, 3
meters deep grave and picks up the slippery sole of a tiny female shoe (size
34), one has no doubts about it.
1386
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UNCLASSIFIED
AIMFULL
SUBJECT: 061251ZSEP880050
MoNS
CDS
D 88006RUDOMKA 0050 2501319ZFUR70702 215303M1DB
UPID
HEADER
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA0050 2501316 MTMS-UUUU--RUEBHAA RUEBHAA.
ZNR UUUUU ZYN ZPO ZZO
R 061251Z SEP 88
FM FBIS LONDON UK
TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA
RUCLACC/CDR4THPSY0PGP FT BRAGG NC//SB//
RUDOMKB/FBIS LONDON UK//BBC//
RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC
RUETIAM/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD
RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE
ACCT FBLD-EWDK
BT
CONTROLS
UNCLAS 3R/FAX
SERIAL: PM0609125188
BODY
PASS: COPY TO UD
COUNTRY: USSR
SUBJ: COMMISSION PROBES ORIGINS OF UNMARKED GRAVES
SOURCE: MOSCOW IZVESTIYA IN RUSSIAN 28 AUG 88 MORNING
EDITION P 2
TEXT:
//((REPORT BY IZVESTIYA OWN CORRESPONDENT M. SHIMANSKIY
UNDER THE RUBRIC "GLASNOST VERSUS RUMORS": "WHOSE REMAINS LIE
IN THE FOREST NEAR MINSK"))
((TEXT)) MINSK -- TODAY THE NAME KUROPATY IS OFTEN HEARD IN
BELORUSSIA, AND IS BECOMING SURROUNDED BY DIVERSE RUMORS. MANY
ANONYMOUS GRAVES HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED HERE.
KUROPATY IS A FOREST TRACT ON THE NORTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF MINSK.
TBE "ZELENYY LUG" RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT HAS SPREAD RIGHT UP TO IT.
OLD-TIMERS CONFIRM THAT FROM 1937 TO 1941 SHOTS WERE HEARD EVERY
DAY AND EVERY NIGHT IN TBE WOOD.
RECENTLY WHEN A GAS LINE TRENCH WAS LAID ONE OF THE GRAVES WAS
DISTURBED. BONES, 15 BULLET-RIDDEN HUMAN SKULLS AND THE REMAINS OF
20 PAIRS OF SHOES WERE FOUND IN IT. THE SUPPOSITION WAS VOICED
THAT DURING STALIN'S TIME MASS EXECUTIONS TOOK PLACE IN TBE
KUROPATY WOOD.
THE BELORUSSIAN SSR COUNCIL OF MINISTERS SET UP A
GOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION WHICH WAS INSTRUCTED TO FIND OUT WHOSE
REMAINS LIE IN KUROPATY AND WHAT HAPPENED HERE AT THE END OF THE
1930'S AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 1940'S. I MET WITH G.
TARNAVSKIY, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMISSION AND BELORUSSIAN
SSR PROSECUTOR.
"WE CAN WELL UNDERSTAND PUBLIC CONCERN IN CONNECTION WITH THE
MASS GRAVES DISCOVERED IN KUROPATY," HE SAID. "OUR COMMISSION HAS
STARTED WORK. IT IS HEADED BY N. MAZAY, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE
UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
REPUBLIC'S COUNCIL OF MINISTERS. IT INCLUDES REPRESENTATIVES OF
THE LAW ENFORCEMENT, PARTY, AND SOVIET ORGANS AND THE PUBLIC. HERO
OF SOCIALIST LABOR AND WRITER VASIL BYKOV, USSR PEOPLE'S
ARTIST MIKHAIL SAVITSKIY, AND HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION MARIYA
OSIPOVA ARE AMONG THEM. SPECIALISTS BEGAN TO WORK IN THE ARCHIVES
BUT MANY DOCUMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH BELORUSSIA'S OCCUPATION
DURING THE WAR YEARS WERE NOT KEPT.
EXCAVATIONS ARE ALSO UNDER WAY. HUMAN REMAINS AND VARIOUS
OBJECTS HAVE ALSO BEEN DISCOVERED: CLOTHING, FOOTWEAR, COMBS AND
EYEGLASSES... ALL THESE ARE BEING HANDED OVER TO THE INSTITUTE OF
FORENSIC EXAMINATION FOR INVESTIGATION. THERE ARE HOLES IN SOME
SKULLS WHICH ARE SIMILAR TO BULLET HOLES. BUT THE EXPERT
EXAMINATION WILL ANSWER THIS QUESTION PRECISELY."
"HAS IT BEEN ESTABLISHED WHEN THESE PEOPLE WERE BURIED IN
KUROPATY?"
"IT IS STILL IMPOSSIBLE TO ANSWER THIS PRECISELY. ACCORDING TO
WITNESSES' STORIES, THIS WAS AT THE END OF THE 1930'S AND THE
BEGINNING OF THE 1940'S. BUT THE FINAL CONCLUSION CAN ONLY BE MADE
AFTER THE INVESTIGATION IS COMPLETED. EXPERT EXAMINATION WILL
DETERMINE WHAT HAPPENED IN KUROPATY AND WHEN, WHO IS BURIED HERE
AND WHAT AGE AND SEX THESE PEOPLE WERE. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE EVENTS
IN KUROPATY MUST BE TOLD.
BUT THE DIFFICULTY OF OUR INVESTIGATION LIES IN THE FACT THAT
DURING THE LAST WAR THE NAZIS CARRIED OUT MASS EXECUTIONS OF THE
PEACEFUL POPULATION THROUGHOUT BELORUSSIAN TERRITORY, AND KILLED
POWS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS, INCLUDING IN THE MINSK VICINITY.
CITIZENS FROM OTHER OCCUPIED STATES WERE ALSO BROUGHT HERE TO BE
EXECUTED. FOR THIS REASON HASTY CONCLUSIONS SHOULD NOT BE MADE.
HASTY CONCLUSIONS NOT FOUNDED ON TRUSTWORTHY INFORMATION ONLY GIVE
RISE TO RUMORS AND CONJECTURES, AND ROUSE EMOTIONS. AS SOON AS THE
COMMISSION HAS PRECISE, VERIFIED DATA AT ITS DISPOSAL, THESE WILL
ALL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC.
THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSION CONTINUES ITS WORK.
ADMIN
(ENDALL) 28 AUG HD/JENNINGS/PX 06/1317Z SEP
BT
#0050
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA0050 2501316 MTMS-UUUU
UNCLASSIFIED
?
NNNN
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UNCLASSIFIED
AIMFULL
SUBJECT: 121059ZSEP881629
Nom
CDS
D 27806RUDOMKA 1629 2561133ZFUR77498 225676MIDB
UPID
HEADER
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA1629 2561124 MTMS-UUUU--RUEBHAA RUEBHAA.
ZNR UUUUU ZYN ZPO ZZO
R 121059Z SEP 88
FM FBIS LONDON UK
TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA
RUCLACC/CDR4THPSY0PGP FT BRAGG NC//SB//
RUDOMKB/FBIS LONDON UK//BBC//
RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC
RUETIAM/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD
RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE
ACCT FBLD-EWDK
BT
CONTROLS
UNCLAS 3R/FAX
SERIAL: PM1209105988
BODY
PASS: ATTN BBC BENDER
COPY TO UD
COUNTRY: USSR
SUBJ: BELORUSSIAN THIRTIES' SHOOTINGS INVESTIGATED
SOURCE: MOSCOW IZVESTIYA IN RUSSIAN 12 SEP 88 MORNING
EDITION P 4
TEXT:
//((REPORT BY M. SHIMANSKIY: "TRAGEDY IN KUROPATY: WHO
WAS SHOT HERE?"))
((TEXT)) AS WE HAVE ALREADY REPORTED (IZVESTIYA NO. 241) THE
BELORUSSIAN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS HAS CREATED A GOVERNMENT
COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATHS OF THE
PEOPLE WHOSE REMAINS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED IN THE KUROPATY FOREST
NEAR MINSK. THE INVESTIGATION GROUP OF THE REPUBLIC'S PROSECUTOR'S
OFFICE HAS MADE AVAILABLE TO THE COMMISSION THE RESULTS OF THE
INTERROGATION OF WITNESSES.
V. SOBOLEV, CHIEF OF THE INVESTIGATION SECTION, AND YA.
BROLISHS, INVESTIGATOR FOR ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT CASES, TOLD YOUR
IZVESTIYA CORRESPONDENT THAT 80 INHABITANTS OF THE VILLAGES OF
TSNA, ZABOLOTYE, DROZDOVO, AND OTHERS WERE QUESTIONED.
N. KARZHVICH, BORN 1919: "IN 1937 THEY BEGAN TO ERECT A FENCE
IN THIS FOREST. THE FENCE WAS ABOUT 3 METERS HIGH. THE APPROACH
ROAD WAS FROM THE DIRECTION OF MINSK. THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT
OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS KEPT CONSTANT GUARD OVER THE TERRITORY. THEY
USUALLY BROUGHT PEOPLE HERE IN TWE EVENING, AFTER 1700-1800 HOURS.
THEY SHOT THEM IMMEDIATELY. I DID NOT GO THERE OFTEN, MY PARENTS
WOULD NOT LET ME. WHEN I DID APPROACH I LOOKED THROUGH A HOLE IN
THE FENCE. PEOPLE WERE PUT IN A LINE ABOVE SOME HOLES. ON ONE
OCCASION MY FATHER AND I DROVE BY THIS PLACE IN A CART. A HOLE
ABOUT 5 METERS LONG WAS FULL OF BODIES. THEY WERE COVERED ONLY
UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
WITH BRANCHES.
O. BOROVSKAYA, BORN 1927: "OF THE EVENTS WHICH TOOK PLACE IN
THAT FOREST I CAN SAY THE FOLLOWING: SHOUTS AND GROANS COULD BE
HEARD FROM THE FOREST. PEOPLE SHOUTED: 'WHY US?' AND SHOTS WERE
ALSO HEARD. AT FIRST THE SHOOTING WAS DURING THE DAY AND AT
NIGHT. THIS ALL HAPPENED IN 1937-1938 AND THEN CONTINUED RIGHT UP
TO THE WAR ITSELF. LATER IT WAS USUALLY EVERY COUPLE OF DAYS OR
SO. WOMEN'S VOICES WERE ALSO HEARD.
"IN THE SUMMER OF 1938 WE CHILDREN WERE ONCE OUT PICKING
BERRIES. WE CREPT IN THROUGH A TRENCH UNDER THE FENCE. THE TRUCKS
BEGAN TO ARRIVE. THERE WAS NOWHERE TO GO SO I HID UNDER A FIR
TREE. A COVERED TRUCK FOLLOWED A PASSENGER CAR. THERE WERE BARS
ON THE BODY OF THE TRUCK. MEN DRESSED IN GRAY CIVILIAN SUITS AND
BAREHEADED GOT OUT OF THE PASSENGER CAR. THE MEN LED PEOPLE OUT OF
THE TRUCK. THEIR HANDS WERE TIED BEHIND THEIR BACKS. THEY BEGAN
TO SHOOT THEM. THE PEOPLE CRIED: "OH, GOD, WHY US?"
D. TOVSTIK, BORN 1911: "IT WAS A YEAR OR TWO BEFORE THE WAR,
THAT IS IN 1939 OR 1940. ONE SUMMER'S DAY WE WERE REAPING CORN
NEAR THIS FOREST. A TRUCK WITH AN OPEN CHASSIS APPROACHED US ALONG
THE ROAD. MEN IN CIVILIAN CLOTHING WERE SITTING IN IT. THE TRUCK
WENT INSIDE THE FENCE. WE DECIDED TO TAKE A LOOK AND APPROACHED
THE FENCE, REMOVED THE BOARDS, AND SAW THE MEN DIGGING A HOLE.
THEN THEY LEFT. SOON AFTER THAT A TRUCK WITH A BLACK CABIN PASSED
THROUGH THE FENCE INTO THE FOREST. AND SHOTS AND SHOUTING WERE
HEARD IMMEDIATELY. THEN THE TRUCK LEFT. WE WENT TO LOOK. WHEN
WE HAD CRAWLED UNDER THE FENCE WE SAW THE HOLE HAD BEEN COVERED WITH
FRESH SAND, WHICH WAS MOVING."
N. POTERSHUK, BORN 1929: "EVERYONE IN OUR VILLAGE AT THE TIME
KNEW ABOUT THE SHOOTINGS BECAUSE SHOTS WERE HEARD FROM THE FOREST
ALMOST EVERY DAY. NONE OF THE LOCAL INHABITANTS KNEW WHO WAS BEING
SHOT -- THEY WERE FRIGHTENED TO TALK ABOUT IT, EVEN AMONG
THEMSELVES. I REMEMBER HOW ONCE A FRIEND AND I NONETHELESS DECIDED
TO TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT WAS HAPPENING THERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE
FENCE. THIS WAS IN APPROXIMATELY 1939. WE APPROACHED THE FENCE
TOWARD EVENING. I SAW AND WELL REMEMBER HOW SOME 40 METERS FROM
WHERE WE WERE SITTING ABOUT 8 MEN WERE DIGGING A HOLE. WHEN THEY
HAD DUG THE HOLE THEY WERE PUT IN A TRUCK AND DRIVEN AWAY. WE RAN
TO THE GRAVEL ROAD AND WAITED. SOON TRUCKS APPEARED, ONE COVERED,
THE OTHERS ORDINARY TRUCKS WITH HIGH SIDES. THESE TRUCKS CONTAINED
ONLY MEN, THEY WERE DRIVEN FROM THE TRUCKS BY MEN IN MILITARY
UNIFORM AND PUSHED TOWARD THE HOLE. THEN SHOTS WERE HEARD."
"WE ARE CONTINUING THE QUESTIONING OF WITNESSES," YA. BROLISHS
SAID. "WE ARE ALSO TO CARRY OUT AND TO OBTAIN CONCLUSIONS FROM THE
FORENSIC, CRIMINAL, AND OTHER EXPERT REPORTS WHICH HAVE ALREADY
BEEN COMMISSIONED. WHEN WE HAVE ALL THE CONCLUSIONS, WE WILL
ANALYZE THEM CAREFULLY AND COMPARE THEM WITH THE WITNESSES'
EVIDENCE AND ONLY AFThR THAT WILL IT BE POSSIBLE TO DRAW OBJECTIVE
AND RELIABLE CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE EVENTS IN KUROPATY.
V. KONDRATYEV, FIRST DEPUTY PROSECUTOR OF THE BELORUSSIAN
SSR, IS DIRECTLY SUPERVISING THE INVESTIGATION.
"I WANT TO APPEAL THROUGH IZVESTIYA," HE SAID, "TO ALL THOSE
WHO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE EVENTS IN KUROPATY TO TELL THIS TO THE
BELORUSSIAN PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE."
ADMIN
UNCLASSIFIED
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? ?
UNCLASSIFIED
AIMFULL
SUBJECT: 270801ZSEP885504
sossm
CDS
D 29419RUDOMKA 5504 2710905ZFUR93581
HEADER
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA5504 2710900 MTMS?UUUU--RUEBHAA RUEBHAA.
ZNR UUUUU ZYN ZPO ZZO
R 270801Z SEP 88
FM FBIS LONDON UK
TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA
RUCLACC/CDR4THPSY0PGP FT BRAGG NC//SB//
RUDOMKB/FBIS LONDON UK//BBC//
RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC
RUETIAM/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD
RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE
ACCT FBLD?EWDK
BT
CONTROLS
UNCLAS 3R/ FAX
SERIAL: PM2709080188
BODY
/*********** THIS IS A COMBINED MESSAGE ************/
PASS: COPY TO UD
COUNTRY: USSR
SUBJ: TAKE 1 OF 3 -- STALIN SLANDER SUIT REJECTED
REF: PM1805152688 AND ADD MOSCOW SOVETSKAYA KULTURA
RUSSIAN 19 MAY -- ADAMOVICH WARNS OF ANTIRESTRUCTURING
SOURCE: MOSCOW IZVESTIYA IN RUSSIAN 23 SEP 88 MORNING
EDITION P 6
TEXT:
//((PAVEL GUTIONTOV ARTICLE: "ACTION NO. 17 IN DEFENSE OF
COMRADE STALIN DISMISSED BY THE RAYON COURT" -- WORDS WITHIN
SLANTLINES PRINTED IN BOLDFACE))
((TEXT)) THE ACTION WAS FILED BY IVAN TIMOFEYEVICH
SHEKHOVTSOV, FORMER PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OFFICIAL NOW RETIRED ON
PENSION AND RESIDENT OF KHARKOV. HE TOOK WRITER ALES ADAMOVICH
TO COURT, ACCUSING HIM OF INSULTING I.V. STALIN'S HONOR AND
DIGNITY AND ALSO HIS, I.T. SHEKHOVTSOV'S, HONOR AND DIGNITY.
THAT WAS THE 17TH ACTION FILED BY SHEKHOVTSOV AGAINST A WIDE RANGE
OF PRESS ORGANS AND THEIR WRITERS. THE PREVIOUS 16 WERE NOT
REFERRED FOR TRIAL SINCE THEY EXCLUSIVELY CONCERNED ONLY STALIN
(SOMEONE WHO, IN SHEKHOVTSOV'S WORDS, "CANNOT PERSONALLY EXPLAIN
AND JUSTIFY HIMSELF"), BUT THE FORMER PROSECUTOR PERCEIVED ELEMENTS
OF PERSONAL INSULT IN ADAMOVICH'S ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY SOVETSKAYA
KULTURA 19 MAY THIS YEAR.
THE POINT IS THAT THE WRITER CITED HIS LETTER TO VASIL BYKOV,
WHOM SHEKHOVTSOV HAD TAKEN TO TASK FOR AN ARTICLE IN IZVESTIYA
WHICH, IN HIS OPINION, CONTAINED INSULTING ATTACKS AGAINST THE
LEADER ((STALIN -- FBIS)), ADVISING HIM TO IMMEDIATELY SEND TO
IZVESTIYA A LETTER SAYING THAT HE HAD "REVISED HIS POSITIONS."
UNCLASSIFIED
251756MIDB
UPID
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UNCLASSIFIED
BYKOV FAILED TO REVISE HIS POSITIONS, BUT THE LETTER WAS READ BY
ADAMOVICH, WHO, WITHOUT ACTUALLY NAMING THE WRITER, DEEMED IT
PERMISSIBLE TO QUOTE THE FOLLOWING LINES FROM IT:
"A STALWART JURIST FROM STALIN'S TIME WRITES: 'YOU SAY:
"VAVILOV WAS TORTURED..." BUT THE POINT IS THAT, UNDER THE LAW,
THE USE OF TORTURE AND OTHER ILLEGAL METHODS CAN BE CONSIDERED
GROUNDS FOR QUASHING A SENTENCE ONLY IF THE PERSONS WHO USED THESE
METHODS HAVE THEMSELVES BEEN SENTENCED. SO, WAS INVESTIGATOR
KHVAT, WHO IS ALLEGED TO HAVE TORTURED VAVILOV, INVESTIGATED?.."
"DO YOU HEAR," ADAMOVICH COMMENTED, "THE TRIUMPHANT DEFENDER OF
BUTCHERS, GLOATING OVER WHAT IS, FRANKLY, OUR LIBERALISM? AHA, IN
THE SIXTIES THEY LET THE BUTCHERS EVADE THE COURTS AND HIDE BEHIND
THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS... WELL, TOUGH1 IT IS NOT YOUR
VERDICTS, BUT OURS THAT REMAIN IN FORCE I.. WHEN YOU READ THINGS
LIKE THAT, YOU GROAN AS IF YOU HAD TOOTHACHE, BUT WHAT THEN, HOW
CAN YOU REPLY IF IT IS NOT A PERSON FACING YOU, BUT A BRICK WALL..."
SHEKHOVTSOV HAD NO OBJECTIONS TO HIS OWN LETTER BEING QUOTED.
BUT HE COMPLAINED ABOUT THE TERM "TRIUMPHANT DEFENDER OF BUTCHERS"
AND DEMANDED PROOF THAT THOSE WHOSE DEFENSE HE HAS UNDERTAKEN WERE
INDEED BUTCHERS. AND, AS YOU CAN EASILY UNDERSTAND, LIEUTENANT
KHVAT WAS NO MORE THAN AN EXCUSE FOR A CONVERSATION ON A MUCH
BROADER TOPIC.
IN ESSENCE, IT CONCERNED THE JUDICIAL ACQUITTAL OF STALINISM.
I WAS INVITED TO ATTEND THE TRIAL BY DANIIL GRANIN, WHO HAD
COME TO MOSCOW ON BUSINESS OF HIS OWN AND HAD PUT SOME OF IT OFF SO
AS TO BE ABLE TO ATTEND THIS TRIAL. THE HALL WAS CHOCKABLOCK, THERE
WERE NO EMPTY SEATS AND SOME PEOPLE WERE EVEN STANDING. TELEVISION
AND MOVIE CAMERAS WERE SHOOTING AWAY, AND DOCTORS OF SCIENCES V.
POLIKARPOV, A. MISHIN, AND S. SHEBOLDAYEV AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
WRITER YU. KARYAKIN WERE AMONG THE WITNESSES SUMMONED...
WHAT POSITIONS WERE TAKEN BY THE SIDES IN THIS TRIAL?
SHEKHOVTSOV DEMANDED AN END TO THE PRESS CENSURING OF THE
"PERIOD IN OUR HISTORY WHEN THE PARTY AND STATE WERE HEADED BY
COMRADE I.V. STALIN." ALSO THAT MATERIAL ON TOPICS CONCERNING
REHABILITATION BE WRITTEN ONLY BY "PERSONS VESTED WITH THE
NECESSARY POWERS."
/****** BEGINNING OF TAKE 002 ******/
REF: PM2709080188 MOSCOW IZVESTIYA RUSSIAN 23 SEPWTHE
NECESSARY POWERS."
TEXT:
((TEXT)) ADAMOVICH DECLARED THAT "WE WILL NOT WAIT FOR JURISTS
FROM THE STALIN SCHOOL TO GIVE US PERMISSION TO EXAMINE THESE
THINGS IN THE WAY OUR MORAL SENSE DICTATES."
BY WAY OF EVIDENCE, SHEKHOVTSOV CITED NEWSPAPERS "FROM THE
PERIOD 1935-1948." THE RESPONDENTS (THE SOVETSKAYA KULTURA
EDITORIAL BOARD IN ADDITION TO ADAMOVICH) CITED THE ASSESSMENTS
MADE IN THE REPORT TO THE FESTIVE SESSION DEVOTED TO THE 70TH
ANNIVERSARY OF SOVIET POWER AND A RECENT INTERVIEW GIVEN TO PRAVDA
BY M. S. SOLOMENTSEV, MEMBER OF THE CPSU CENTRAL COMMITTEE
POLITBURO.
SHEKHOVTSOV CLAIMED THAT SINCE THERE HAD BEEN NO TRIAL OF THOSE
WHO INSPIRED THE TERROR, IT IS ILLEGAL TO CALL THEM BUTCHERS AND
EVEN TO ACCUSE THEM OF CRIMES. THE RESPONDENTS COUNTERCLAIMED:
UNCLASSIFIED
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IP
UNCLASSIFIED
SURELY WE ARE ENTITLED TO DESCRIBE MALYUTA SKURATOV ((CHIEF OF
SECRET POLICE UNDER IVAN THE TERRIBLE -- FBIS)) AS A BUTCHER AND
TAMERLANE AS A BLOODY TYRANT. YET NO COURT PASSED A VERDICT ON
EITHER OF THEM, AND NOW IT IS HARDLY FEASIBLE TO GIVE EACH ONE OF
THEM THE FLOOR TO JUSTIFY THEMSELVES...
ALL THIS COULD EASILY BE LAUGHED OFF: "COME ON, YOU GUYS, WE'RE
GETTING READY TO CELEBRATE OUR MILLENNIUMI" BUT BEHIND THIS ACTION
STANDS A TERRIBLE PHENOMENON WHICH IS BY NO MEANS BURIED IN THE
PAST. STALINISM IS STILL ALIVE, AND SWEEPING IT OUT OF OUR PRESENT
MEANS MORE THAN JUST TAKING THE GENERALISSIMO'S PHOTOGRAPH OFF A
BUS WINDSHIELD. STALINISM IS A WAY OF THINKING WHICH SPARES NO
THOUGHT FOR MAN...
BUT WHY "RAKE UP THE PAST"? WHY NOT FORGET IT LIKE A BAD
NIGHTMARE? WHY REOPEN OLD WOUNDS?
IN ORDER TO PREVENT THESE WOUNDS GOING SEPTIC. IN ORDER TO
REALLY CONSIGN THE PAST TO /THE PAST./ IN ORDER TO RESTORE THE
SOLE PROPER MEANING OF THE TERMS "GOOD" AND "EVIL" -- BECAUSE,
INCIDENTALLY, THE DISTORTION OF THEIR ACTUAL MEANING UNDER STALIN
PLAYED BY NO MEANS THE LEAST ROLE IN THE SPROUTING OF DUPLICITY IN
BREZHNEV'S ERA.
THE TRAGEDY OF STALINSHCHINA CONCERNS MORE THAN THE PURPOSEFUL
DESTRUCTION OF THE PICK AND PRIDE OF THE COUNTRY -- IT MERCILESSLY
PERVERTED THE MINDS OF THE SURVIVORS. DURING A BREAK BETWEEN COURT
SESSIONS, SOMEONE ASKED SHEKHOVTSOV: "TELL US THEN, DID STALIN DO
ANYTHING GOOD FOR YOU PERSONALLY?" IVAN TIMOFEYEVICH REPLIED:
"HE DID I" AND HE NARRATED THE FOLLOWING STORY VERBATIM.
BACK IN 1929, HIS FAMILY WAS DEKULAKIZED BY VIRTUE OF A RURAL
SOVIET DECISION. AT 3 YEARS OF AGE, HE WAS THE OLDEST OF THREE
CHILDREN. WHILE ON BOARD THE SPECIAL TRAIN, HIS MOTHER USED TO
WRAP THE WET DIAPERS AROUND HER OWN BODY TO DRY THEM... THE
YOUNGEST DIED... BUT RIGHT AFTER STALIN'S ARTICLE "GIDDY WITH
SUCCESS" HIS FAMILY WAS BROUGHT BACK...
PRECISELY SO: THE RURAL SOVIET SENT THEM TO EXILE, STALIN
BROUGHT THEM BACK...
IVAN TIMOFEYEVICH SHOULD BE PITIED. BUT HE PERSONALLY HAS NO
PITY FOR ANYONE. FOLLOWING THE ARTICLE ABOUT RASKOLNIKOV PUBLISHED
BY OGONEK LAST YEAR, SHEKHOVTSOV ASKED THE MOSCOW PROSECUTOR TO
INSTITUTE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ITS AUTHOR, V. POLIKARPOV,
"FOR DISSEMINATING IN PRINT DELIBERATELY FALSE FABRICATIONS
DEFAMING THE SOVIET STATE AND SOCIAL SYSTEM..." THE JUSTIFICATION
OF HIS REQUEST TOOK SIX WRITTEN PAGES. AS IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS...
NOW HE DEMANDS INCONTROVERTIBLE PROOF THAT REPRESSIONS ACTUALLY
TOOK PLACE AND THAT STALIN WAS ACTUALLY GUILTY OF THEM. FINE,
FACTS WERE ALSO CITED AT THE TRIAL.
THERE WAS MENTION OF A RECENT ARTICLE IN IZVESTIYA ABOUT THE
TRAGEDY OF KUROPATY, AN OBSCURE AND TINY PLACE NEAR MINSK WHERE
REPRESSED PEOPLE WERE SHOT EN MASSE IN THE LATE THIRTIES. THE
BELORUSSIAN PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE HAS LAUNCHED AN INVESTIGATION OF
THIS CASE, AND THE NEWSPAPER CITED EXCERPTS FROM EYEWITNESS
TESTIMONIES BY LOCAL RESIDENTS...
"HAVE YOU READ ABOUT KUROPATY?", SHEKHOVTSOV WAS ASKED IN
COURT.
"AND DID YOU KNOW THAT THIS IZVESTIYA ARTICLE WAS IMMEDIATELY
REPORTED BY VOA?", SHEKHOVTSOV ANSWERED THE QUESTION BY ANOTHER
UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
QUESTION...
ORIGINALS OF THE SO-CALLED "SHOW TRIALS" HAVE BEEN PRESERVED,
WITH EVERY PAGE LISTING BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS OF TBE EXPOSED "ENEMY
OF TBE PEOPLE" FOLLOWED BY A "SUMMARY OF TBE CASE" OUTLINED IN A
FEW LINES. THERE ARE THREE SIGNATURES UNDERNEATH: VYSHINSKIY,
ULRIKH, AND YEZHOV. ALL THAT WAS LEFT FOR STALIN TO DO WAS TO
PUT A FIGURE IN THE CORNER OF THE PAGE -- "1" (EXECUTION BY FIRING
SQUAD) OR "2" (10 YEARS IN CAMP). THE DESTINY OF THOSE LEFT
UNTOUCHED BY STALIN'S PENCIL WAS INDEED DECIDED WITHOUT HIS
KNOWLEDGE, BUT ALONG VERY SIMILAR LINES...
/****** BEGINNING OF TAKE 003
REF: PM2709080188 MOSCOW IZVESTIYA RUSSIAN 23 SEP///VERY
SIMILAR LINES...
TEXT:
((TEXT)) DOCTOR OF HISTORICAL SCIENCES V. POLIKARPOV,
TESTIFYING AS WITNESS BEFORE THE COURT, CITED A FIGURE: IN
1937-1938 ALONE STALIN SIGNED 393 LISTS CONTAINING THE NAMES OF
HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE. AND THEN HE SAID,
TURNING TO SHEKHOVTSOV: "IF YOU REALLY WERE A HISTORIAN, AS YOU
CLAIM, YOU MUST KNOW THAT THE EXPERT STUDY WHICH YOU AS A JURIST
DEMAND BE CONDUCTED WAS CONDUCTED EVEN BEFORE THE 20TH CONGRESS,
AND ITS DEDUCTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS -- BASED ON A MOST THOROUGH
STUDY OF DOCUMENTS -- ARE KNOWN ALL OVER THE WORLD..."
"ARE YOU NOW IN A POSITION TO SHOW ME THE ORIGINALS OF THESE
DOCUMENTS?", SHEKHOVTSOV ASKED...
OF COURSE, IVAN TIMOFEYEVICH SHEKHOVTSOV, A JURIST AND
UPHOLDER OF THE LAW, KNOWS AND INSISTS THAT NO CITIZEN CAN BE CALLED
A CRIMINAL UNLESS HE HAS BEEN TRIED. BUT HE NONETHELESS DEMANDS:
"LET THEM NAME A SPECIFIC IVANOV, PETROV, OR SIDOROV WHO WAS
PERSONALLY EXTERMINATED BY STALINI"
INDEED, HE IS RIGHT HERE. LET US NAME (AND WE NOT ONLY CAN BUT
MUST DO THIS') INDIVIDUALLY ALL THE VICTIMS OF THE TERROR AND THE
ORGANIZERS OF THE TERROR -- THOSE WHO PREPARED AND THOSE WHO SIGNED
THE "EXTERMINATION LISTS," AND THOSE WHO CARRIED OUT THE UNLAWFUL
"SENTENCES." WE MUST DO THIS NOW, EVEN THOUGH IT MIGHT BE LATE.
AND IT IS MORE THAN JUST A MATTER OF RESTORING SIMPLE HISTORICAL
JUSTICE, EVEN THOUGH THIS IS, OF COURSE, HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT.
I WOULD LIKE TO CITE -- MAINLY VERBATIM -- PART OF THE COURT
SPEECH BY WRITER ALES ADAMOVICH, RESPONDENT IN THE ACTION ABOUT
INSULTING THE HONOR AND DIGNITY OF STALIN AND A STALINIST:
"NEITHER I NOR MY FAMILY (MOTHER, FATHER, AND BROTHER) SUFFERED
DIRECTLY IN STALIN'S REPRESSIONS, THERE IS NO PERSONAL INJURY
INVOLVED. NONETHELESS, I CONSIDER MYSELF ONE OF THE VICTIMS AND AM
PREPARED TO FILE MY OWN 'ACTION' AGAINST STALIN AND HIS DEFENDERS.
"IT WAS HE, STALIN, WHO RUINED MY COUNTRY'S AGRICULTURE BY
'DEPEASANTIZING' IT AND I, INHABITANT OF AN AREA ACCOUNTING FOR
ONE-SIXTH OF THE PLANET, AM INCAPABLE OF FEEDING MYSELF. NOT ONLY
DID HE 'DEPEASANTIZE' THE COUNTRY, HE ALSO DEPRIVED IT OF FOOD
SCIENTISTS LIKE NIKOLAY VAVILOV, KILLING THEM THROUGH THE AGENCY OF
BUTCHER-INVESTIGATORS AND BUTCHER-PROSECUTORS LIKE KHVAT AND
VYSHINSKIY.
"IT WAS HE, STALIN, WHO KILLED OFF A SIZABLE PROPORTION OF MY
PEOPLE.
UNCLASSIFIED
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"IT WAS HE WHO MADE PEOPLE LOOK SUSPICIOUSLY AT THEIR FELLOW
CITIZENS FOR DECADES ON END: COULD HE BE AN INFORMER?.. HE THUS
FRAGMENTED US, DEPRIVED US OF THE SENSE OF RESPECT FOR ONE ANOTHER,
AND THUS OF OUR OWN SELF-RESPECT.
"IT WAS STALIN WHO, THROUGH HIS POLICY OF REPRESSIONS, ALMOST
LEFT ME TO THE MERCY OF FASCISM (AND IN FACT DID LEAVE 80 MILLION)
AND AFTERWARD TREATED US (INCLUDING PARTISANS AND UNDERGROUND
FIGHTERS) AS TRAITORS: THEY LIVED IN OCCUPIED TERRITORY'
"AND FINALLY IT WAS HE, STALIN, WHO DISCREDITED SOCIALISM...
"THERE IT IS, MY FAR FROM COMPLETE CASE AGAINST STALIN, AND
THEREFORE AGAINST HIS DEFENDERS..."
...MOSCOW'S SVERDLOVSKIY RAYON PEOPLE'S COURT DECIDED TO
DISMISS I.T. SHEKHOVTSOV'S ACTION. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT AND
PRINCIPLED DECISION, THOUGH THE FORMER DEPUTY PROSECUTOR IS, OF
COURSE, ENTITLED TO APPEAL AGAINST IT. BUT NO MATTER WHAT HE AND
HIS ASSOCIATES MIGHT DO, STALIN AND STALINISM HAVE ALREADY BEEN
SENTENCED BY A /SUPREME/ COURT WHOSE SENTENCE IS FINAL AND NOT
SUBJECT TO APPEAL. THIS IS THE SENTENCE BY HISTORY, AND THIS
SENTENCE IS ALREADY LEGALLY IN FORCE.
ADMIN
(ENDALL) 23 SEP AZ/MARSHALL/JR 27/0904Z SEP
BT
#5506
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UNCLASSIFIED
AIMFULL
SUBJECT: 091502ZN0V888792
mos
CDS
D 06426RUDOMKA 8792 3141913ZFUR41259 326507M1DB
UPID
HEADER
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA8792 3141908 MTMS-UUUU--RUEBHAA RUEBHAA.
ZNR UUUUU ZYN ZPO ZZO
R 091502Z NOV 88
FM FBIS LONDON UK
TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA
RUCLACC/CDR4THPSY0PGP FT BRAGG NC//SB//
RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC
RUETIAM/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD
RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE
ACCT FBLD-EWDK
BT
CONTROLS
UNCLAS 3R/WAVE
SERIAL: PM0911150288
BODY
PASS: COPY TO UD
COUNTRY: USSR
SUBJ: WEEKLY WORKING FOR 'FOREIGN FOES,' READER CLAIMS
SOURCE: MOSCOW MOSCOW NEWS IN ENGLISH NO. 45, 6 NOV 88 P 2
TEXT:
//((READER'S LELIER FROM THE "LE11ERS TO THE EDITOR"
COLUMN: "ONLY CAPITALIST AGENTS STAND TO GAIN. OPEN LETTER
TO YEGOR YAKOVLEV, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF 'MOSCOW NEWS"))
((TEXT)) WITH INDIGNATION AND BITTERNESS I HAVE OBSERVED
OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS HOW YOUR NEWSPAPER HAS BEEN
TURNING INCREASINGLY INTO AN ORGAN WORKING NOT FOR SOCIALISM
AND OUR MOTHERLAND, BUT FOR OUR FOREIGN FOES. FROM ISSUE TO
ISSUE YOUR NEWSPAPER PRINTS MATERIAL ABUSING AND SPITTING
UPON OUR COUNTRY, ITS HISTORY AND PAST. BRANDISHING THE
FLAG OF REPRESSIONS, YOU HAVE BEEN TRYING TO USE THEM TO
OVERSHADOW THE ENTIRE HEROIC PAST OF OUR COUNTRY, PORTRAYING
TEEM AS THE MAIN ASPECT OF THE PREWAR AND POSTWAR PERIODS.
OUR PEOPLE'S HEROISM IN BUILDING THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIALISM (I EMPHASIZE: SOCIALISM) IN OUR
COUNTRY IS BEING OBSCURED. OF COURSE, THE REPRESSSIONS
AGAINST INNOCENT PEOPLE WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE PREWAR AND
POSTWAR YEARS ARE A GREAT TRAGEDY AND PAIN FOR OUR WHOLE
PEOPLE AND COUNTRY. THEY WERE CARRIED OUT ON ORDERS FROM
THE TOP ECHEOLONS OF THE RULING BODY, NOT CONTROLLED BY THE
PEOPLE. BUT THE SHADOW OF THE REPRESSIONS FELL UPON ALL
OUR PEOPLE, UPON OUR ENTIRE SYSTEM AND UPON THE WHOLE
COUNTRY. THE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF REPRESSIONS HAVE TO BE
REHABILITATED. BUT, TO RAISE SUCH A HULLABALOO AROUND THE
REPRESSIONS, TO PUT OUR TRAGEDY ON DISPLAY FOR OUR FOES TO
SEE AND ENJOY IS BOTH UNSEEMLY AND CRIMINAL. WHATEVER
LITTLE BITS BOURGEOIS AGENTS PROCURED BEFORE TO DENIGRATE
UNCLASSIFIED
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UNCLASSIFIED
OUR MOTHERLAND IN THE EYES OF THEIR PEOPLE, YOU TREATY THEM
TO WHOLESALE THROUGH YOUR PAPER. HOW WOULD YOU, YEGOR
YAKOVLEV, FEEL IF YOUR FAMILY AFFAIRS AND SECRETS WERE READ
OUT FOR YOUR NEIGHBOURS AND OTHER STRANGERS TO ENJOY? EVEN
THOUGH IT MIGHT BE THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FAMILY AFFAIRS, YOU
WOULD NOT REJOICE AT IT. YOU, YEGOR YAKOVLEV, ARE BY FAR
NOT A FIRST-CLASS JOURNALIST, BUT YOU ARE A BRILLIANT
MEDIOCRITY, AND YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO POSSESS AN INTELLECT
ENABLING YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT DENIGRATING OUR COUNTRY'S
PAST IN A NEWSPAPER BY PARADING BEFORE THE ENEMIES DATA
DETRIMENTAL TO THE COUNTRY'S PRESTIGE IS UNWORTHY BOTH OF A
SOVIET NEWSPAPER AND OF A SOVIET JOURNALIST. IT WAS WITH A
FEELING OF DISGUST THAT I READ IN YOUR PAPER OF OCTOBER 9,
1988, THE ARTICLE ENTITLED "XUROPATY":-, WITH WHAT DELIGHT
YOU RELISH THE DETAILS OF OUR PEOPLE'S EXECUTION NEAR MINSK:
HOW PEOPLE WERE SHOT THROUGH THE BACK OF THEIR HEAD, FROM
UNDER THE SKULL OR THROUGH THE SIDE. WHO NEEDS THESE
DETAILS? AFTER ALL, YOU PROVIDE THE FOES WITH MATERIAL FOR
EDUCATING THEIR PEOPLE IN THE FEELING OF DISGUST FOR OUR
COUNTRY AND HOSTILITY FOR SOCIALISM AS A SYSTEM. I FEEL
ASHAMED AND HURT BY YOUR NEWSPAPER AND BY YOU, YEGOR
YAKOVLEV, AS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THIS NEWSPAPER.
RESPECTFULLY, BUTIVCHENKO ALEKSEY FEDOROVICH, VETERAN OF
THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR, D.SC. (MILITARY SCIENCES),
PROFESSOR
ADMIN
(ENDALL) 6 NOV WYLIE/LC 09/1906Z NOV
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UNCLASSIFIED
AIMFULL
SUBJECT: 091710ZNOV888816
Atm
CDS
D 07056RUDOMKA 8816 3142106ZFUR41380 326688M1DB
UPID
HEADER
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA8816 3142058 MTMS-UUUU--RUEBHAA RUEBHAA.
ZNR UUUUU ZYN ZPO ZZO
R 091710Z NOV 88
FM FBIS LONDON UK
TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA
RUCLACC/CDR4THPSY0PGP FT BRAGG NC//SB//
RUDOMKB/FBIS LONDON UK//BBC//
RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC
RUETIAM/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD
RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE
ACCT FBLD-EWDK
BT
CONTROLS
UNCLAS 3R/FAX
SERIAL: PM0911171088
BODY
PASS: COPY TO UD
COUNTRY: USSR
SUBJ: 'FRONT' MEMBER WARNS AGAINST ANTI-REFORM FORCES
SOURCE: MOSCOW MOSCOW NEWS IN ENGLISH NO. 45, 6 NOV 88 P 13
TEXT:
//((INTERVIEW WITH WRITER VASIL BYKOV BY LEONID
MILOSLAVSKIY: "BELORUSSIAN INITIATIVE" -- DATE, PLACE NOT
GIVEN; FIRST PARAGRAPH IS EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION))
((TEXT)) SPEAKING ABOUT THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN
BELORUSSIA, WRITER ALES ADAMOVICH RECALLED VENDEE, A
PROVINCE IN FRANCE, WHICH RESISTED THE 1989 REVOLUTION
("OGONEK", NO. 39). THE BELORUSSIAN PRESS RESPONDED WITH AN
ARTICLE CALLING ADAMOVICH INCOMPETENT AND POORLY INFORMED.
A FEW DAYS LATER THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF MARTIROLOG, A
SOCIETY TO COMMEMORATE THE VICTIMS OF STALINISM, DECIDED TO
SET UP AN INITIATIVE GROUP OF BELORUSSIA'S POPULAR FRONT.
THIS STEP BY THE CREATIVE INTELLECTUALS GENERATED NEW
PUBLICATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS. THE IDEOLOGICAL OBSTACLES TO
MARTIROLOG'S INITIATIVE ARE AN ALARMING SUGGESTION THAT
PERESTROIKA IN BELORUSSIA IS BRAKING, SAYS NATIVE WRITER
VASIL BYKOV, MARTIROLOG BOARD MEMBER AND PARTICIPANT IN THE
POPULAR FRONT INITIATIVE GROUP. PUBLISHING THE FOLLOWING
INTERVIEW WITH BYKOV, "MN" STANDS READY TO PRINT OPPOSING
POINTS OF VIEW.
MN: VASIL VLADIMIROVICH, UNTIL NOW THE COUNTRY KNEW VERY
LITTLE ABOUT INFORMAL MOVEMENTS IN BELORUSSIA. FROM
PUBLICATIONS IN "VECHEVNYY MINSK" (EVENING MINSK), WE NOW
KNOW THAT BELORUSSIANS OPPOSE THE "ANTI'POPULAR POPULAR
FRONT". ITS INITIATORS ARE CALLED EXTREMISTS, WHILE THE
BELORUSSIAN YOUTH FROM THE TOLOKA SOCIETY ARE LABELED
UNCLASSIFIED
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?
UNCLASSIFIED
NATIONALISTS. MANY PEOPLE COMPARE THE ARTICLE ABOUT TOLOKA
WITH CRUSHING PREWAR JOURNALISM. BUT THE ARTICLE ALSO
CONTAINS FACTS, DOESN'T IT?
VASIL BYKOV: IF YOU HAVE NOTICED, THERE ARE FEW FACTS AND
EVEN THOSE, IN MY OPINION, ARE DUBIOUS. MAINLY THEY ARE
ARGUMENTS. TOLOKA SUPPORTERS' EFFORTS TO REVIVE THE
BELORUSSIAN COAT-OF-ARMS AND THE FLAG ARE CALLED
NATIONALISTIC ONLY BECAUSE SOMEWHERE ABROAD THESE SYMBOLS
ARE USED TO RALLY BELORUSSIAN EMIGRANTS. SIMILAR
ACCUSATIONS ARE AIMED AT ANY ATTEMPT TO RESTORE BELORUSSIAN
CULTURE WHICH HAS BEEN DEGENERATING FOR DECADES. THESE
TENDENCIES ARE NOT NEW IN THE REPUBLIC. BUT WHEN, IN THE
FOURTH YEAR OF PERESTROIKA, THE PRESS STARTS OPENLY FIGHTING
ETHNIC SELF-AWARENESS.. .THAT'S SAD. EVEN IF THE TOLOKA
PROGRAMMES COULDN'T DO WITHOUT EXCESSES, THE EXPERIENCE OF
THE BALTIC REPUBLICS SHOWS THAT THE MOST COMPLICATED ISSUES
CAN BE SOLVED REASONABLY AFTER SOBER DISCUSSION. BY THE
WAY, THIS ARTICLE ISN'T JUST A SIGN OF THE PAST. ONE OF ITS
FIVE SIGNERS, A. FILIMONOV, DOCTOR OF SCIENCE (HISTORY), IS
NOTORIOUS FOR THE SUBJECT OF HIS CANDIDATE'S THESIS:
"LAVRENTIY PAVLOVICH BENYA -- LOYAL FRIEND OF THE GREAT
STALIN..."
MN: BUT MANY PEOPLE AGREE WITH THESE AUTHORS AND SEE THE
MAIN DANGER IN THE POPULAR FRONT....
VASIL BYKOV: YOU KNOW HOW THE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE
POPULAR FRONT WAS ORGANIZED WITH THE UNOFFICIAL SOVREMENNIK
CLUB? THE PARTY COMMITTEES OF ENTERPRISES GATHERED ABOUT
900 PEOPLE AT THE POLITICAL EDUCATION CENTRE TO REBUFF THE
"ENEMIES OF PERESTROIKA". AMONG THE ENEMIES WERE THE FAMOUS
BELORUSSIAN WRITER ADAMOVICH AND KOROTICH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
OF OGONEK, WHO ALLEGEDLY CAME FROM MOSCOW SPECIALLY TO MAKE
TROUBLE. ADAMOVICH WAS DESCRIBED AS TEL-AVIV'S HIRELING,
GETTING DOLLARS FROM THERE TO MAINTAIN TWO FLATS - IN MOSCOW
AND IN MINSK - AND TO BRIBE PARTY AUTHORITIES... "THE
ENEMIES OF PERESTROIKA" DIDN'T COME (AND SHOULD NOT HAVE),
BUT THEY WERE REBUFFED.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT OUR POPULAR FRONT WILL BE LIKE OR
WHETHER IT WILL GET OFF THE GROUND. BUT I THINK THAT SUCH A
RESPONSE FROM OUR "IDEOLOGISTS" TO A PROGRESSIVE IDEA WILL
CONVINCE MANY WAVERERS OF THE NEED TO FIGHT THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF STAGNATION. R. BUZUK, REPRESENTATIVE OF BELORUSSIA'S
COMMUNIST PARTY CENTRAL COMMITTEE, WAS AT THE MARTIROLOG
MEETING. HE TRIED TO UPSET THE VOTING WHEN THE BOARD WAS
BEING ELECTED, DEMANDED THAT HE BE GIVEN THE FLOOR. AFTER
THE VOTING, WHEN BUZUK WAS GIVEN THE FLOOR, IT TURNED OUT HE
HAD NOTHING TO SAY.
MN: I WAS TOLD THAT YOU THEN TOOK THE MICROPHONE AND
SAID, POINTING TO BUZUK: "THIS IS WHAT WE MUST FIGHTI"
WHAT, IN YOUR OPINION, IS HOLDING PERESTROIKA BACK IN
BELORUSSIA?
VASIL BYKOV: I WOULDN'T LIKE TO THINK THAT BUZUK'S WORK
METHODS AND POLITICAL VIEWS ARE TYPICAL OF BELORUSSIA'S
CENTRAL COMMITTEE. BUT AMONG THE HIGHER AUTHORITIES THERE
ARE STILL QUITE A FEW PEOPLE WHO THINK PERESTROIKA WILL BE
UNCLASSIFIED
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HURT BY A REVIVAL OF ETHNIC CULTURE. IN FACT, OUR PEOPLE,
WHO HAVE HALF-FORGOTTEN THEIR PRIDE, HAVE YET ONE MORE
PROBLEM, ONE MORE PAIN - STALINIST REPRESSIONS. IT SEEMS
STRANGE AND HORRIBLE TO ME THAT TODAY THERE ARE SOME WHO
WANT TO CONCEAL FROM TBE PEOPLE THEIR PAST WHICH HAS FOR SO
MANY YEARS LAIN IN KUROPATY GRAVES. WHO NEEDS ALL THIS?
WHO NEEDED THE CROWDED MEETING IN MEMORY OF THE KUROPATY
VICTIMS, WHICH INCIDENTALLY WAS ADDRESSED BY PARTY
FUNCTIONARIES, WAS LATER DECLARED ILLEGAL - AND ITS
ORGANIZERS FINED? I RECALL THAT ONE OF THE DELEGATES AT THE
19TH PARTY CONFERENCE SAID: "WE ARE STRUGGLING FOR
PERESTROKA, BUT WHAT ARE THOSE BAWLERS AT THE MEETINGS
STRUGGLING FOR?" MANY PEOPLE CONSIDER THEMSELVES AUTHORS OF
PERESTROIKA WHILE DENYING OTHERS THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE.
UNLESS WE UNDERSTAND THAT EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO HIS OWN
VIEW, THAT ALL IDEAS AT MEETINGS, JUST AS THE MEETINGS
THEMSELVES, HAVE BEEN ENGENDERED BY PERESTROIKA, CONFLICTS
ARE INEVITABLE. FOR OUR PEOPLE THE MEMORY OF VICTIMS IS AN
IDEA WHICH CAN UNITE US IN THE STRUGGLE FOR PERESTROIKA, FOR
THE TERROR OF STALINISM NEVER TO BE REPEATED AGAIN. AND TBE
FACT THAT SUCH AN ASSOCIATION IN OUR COUNTRY IS DECLARED
ILLEGAL IN ADVANCE IS TANTAMOUNT TO DEFENDING STALINISM
BEHIND PERESTROIKA SLOGANS.
MN: YOU'RE SPEAKING ABOUT A NATIONWIDE ASSOCATION. BUT
THE POPULAR FRONT IS OPPOSED (AT LEAST IN THE PRESS) BY
WORKERS AND ORDINARY CITIZENS.
VASIL BYKOV: UNFORTUNATELY, NOT EVERYONE IN OUR COUNTRY
HAS LEARNED TO THINK INDEPENDENTLY. NOT EVERYONE
UNDERSTANDS THAT IN ORDER TO CRITICIZE SOMETHING, IT IS
NECESSARY TO KNOW WHAT THAT SOMETHING IS ABOUT. FOR TOO
LONG PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TAUGHT TO LIVE ACCORDING TO A GENERAL
PLAN, TO THINK IN TIME WITH SLOGANS, TO TALK AND TO KEEP
SILENT BY TURNS. THEREFORE, MANY PEOPLE TODAY, IN ORDER TO
PROTEST, DO NOT HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION - THE VIEW
OF THE STAFF FUNCTIONARY FROM "TEE IDEOLOGICAL COMMISSION OF
THE MICRODISTRICT" IS ENOUGH TO ELIMINATE IN THE SOULS OF
PEOPLE EVERYTHING PUT THERE BY THE BOOKS OF ADAMOVICH AND TO
DECLARE ADAMOVICH AN "ENEMY OF PERESTROIKA"....
THE SITUATION IS ALARMING. WE MUST DO EVERYTHING FOR
BELORUSSIA NOT TO BECOME THE VENDEE OF PERESTROIKA.
ADMIN
(ENDALL) 6 NOV WYLIE/LC 09/2057Z NOV
BT
#8816
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1111
UNCLASSIFIED
AIMFULL
SUBJECT: 101631ZN0V880067
omos
CDS
D 13439RUDOMKA 0067 3151803ZFUR42506 328344M1DB
UPID
HEADER
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA0067 3151751 MTMS?UUUU--RUEBHAA RUEBHAA.
ZNR UUUUU ZYN ZPO ZZO
R 101631Z NOV 88
FM FBIS LONDON UK
TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA
RUCLACC/CDR4THPSY0PGP FT BRAGG NC//SB//
RUDOMKB/FBIS LONDON UK//BBC//
RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC
RUETIAM/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD
RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE
ACCT FBLD?EWDK
BT
CONTROLS
UNCLAS 3R/FAX
SERIAL: PM1011163188
BODY
/*********** THIS IS A COMBINED MESSAGE ************/
PASS: COPY TO UD
COUNTRY: USSR
SUBJ: TAKE 1 OF 3 -- YEVTUSHENKO ON COMMEMORATING PURGES
SOURCE: MOSCOW LITERATURNAYA GAZETA IN RUSSIAN 2 NOV 88 P 2
TEXT:
//((YEVGENIY YEVTUSHENKO LETTER CARRIED AS PART OF "PULSE-88"
FEATURE: "HELP 'MEMORIAL" -- FIRST FIVE PARAGRAPHS ARE
INTRODUCTION))
((TEXT)) WHAT HAPPENED OVER THE 2 DAYS OF 29-30 OCTOBER IN
MOSCOW'S CENTRAL HOUSE OF CINEMATOGRAPHY WORKERS WAS IN ITSELF
YET ANOTHER INCONTROVERTIBLE PROOF OF THE CHANGES -- IN DEED AND NOT
JUST IN WORDS -- THAT ARE NOW UNDER WAY IN THE COUNTRY'S SOCIAL
LIFE. WE RECALL -- AND IT SEEMS ONLY A SHORT WHILE AGO -- HOW
SIGNATURES WERE COLLECTED IN STREETS AND SQUARES IN SUPPORT OF THE
IDEA OF CREATING A MEMORIAL PERPETUATING THE MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS
OF STALIN'S REPRESSIONS.
THE MOVEMENT TO ERECT A MONUMENT GAINED SUPPORT AT THE 19TH
PARTY CONFERENCE. ACCOUNT NO. 700454 WAS OPENED, AND IT
IMMEDIATELY STARTED RECEIVING VOLUNTARY DONATIONS FROM CITIZENS,
INSTITUTIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS.
THE "MEMORIAL" PUBLIC COUNCIL WAS FORMED, AND ACADEMICIAN
A. SAKHAROV WAS ELECTED ITS HONORARY CHAIRMAN. THE ACTION GROUP
WAS JOINED BY THE PUBLIC COUNCIL AND THE FOUNDER MEMBERS OF THE NEW
ALL?UNION VOLUNTARY HISTORICAL EDUCATION SOCIETY -- THE
CREATIVE UNIONS OF CINEMATOGRAPHY WORKERS, ARCHITECTS, THEATER
WORKERS, ARTISTS, AND DESIGNERS, LITERATURNAYA GAZETA, AND
OGONEK -- AND THEY EMBARKED ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS NOBLE
IDEA. MEANWHILE PREPARATORY WORK WAS BEING DONE TO ORGANIZE A
UNCLASSIFIED
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COMPETITION FOR THE CONCEPT AND PLAN OF THE FUTURE MEMORIAL COMPLEX,
AND ALSO TO COLLECT DOCUMENTS AND MEMOIRS. AND NOW A MEETING HAS
BEEN HELD TO PREPARE FOR THE CONSTITUENT CONFERENCE OF THE
"MEMORIAL" SOCIETY.
WHAT SHOULD "MEMORIAL" BE LIKE? WHAT SORT OF MEMORIAL COMPLEX
SHOULD BE ERECTED? HOW TO PROVIDE SWIFTER AND MORE EFFECTIVE
ASSISTANCE TO FORMER PRISONERS AND THEIR RELATIVES, WHO NEED IT SO
URGENTLY? THESE AND MANY OTHER QUESTIONS WERE DISCUSSED AT THE
MEETING. ITS PARTICIPANTS TOOK A FIRM STANCE AGAINST ATTEMPTS BY
SOME INDIVIDUALS CONNECTED WITH THE NOTORIOUS "DEMOCRATIC UNION" TO
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SACRED CAUSE OF "MEMORIAL" IN PURSUIT OF
THEIR OWN UNSEEMLY GOALS.
IT WAS DECIDED TO CONVENE THE CONSTITUENT CONFERENCE OF THE
"MEMORIAL" ALL-UNION VOLUNTARY HISTORICAL EDUCATION SOCIETY IN
MOSCOW 17-18 DECEMBER. IT WILL FINALLY DETERMINE THE FUTURE
PUBLIC ORGANIZATION'S TASKS AND FORMS OF WORK.
ALMOST EVERY FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY HAD AT LEAST ONE OF ITS
MEMBERS KILLED OR WOUNDED DURING THE WAR AGAINST THE FASCISTS.
ALMOST EVERY FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY HAD AT LEAST ONE OF ITS MEMBERS
KILLED, ARRESTED, EXILED, OR WOUNDED THROUGH ALL SORTS OF
HUMILIATIONS DURING THE WAR WAGED AGAINST OUR OWN PEOPLE BY THOSE
WHO SPOKE IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE.
AND EVEN IF THERE ARE SOME FAMILIES UNAFFECTED BY EITHER OF
THESE TWO WARS, SURELY OUR MULTINATIONAL PEOPLE ARE A UNITED
FAMILY, AND SURELY OUR MEMORY SHOULD MOURN OUR SHARED FAMILY
LOSSES? TO MOURN THE VICTIMS OF JUST ONE OF THESE ACCURSED WARS
WOULD BE AS CRIMINALLY UNNATURAL AS IT WOULD BE TO ALLOW COMPASSION
TO BE FELT BY JUST ONE-HALF OF ONE'S HEART WHILE FORCIBLY CLAMPING
THE ARTERY FEEDING THE OTHER HALF.
OUR PEOPLE'S WAR AGAINST THE FASCISTS LASTED 4 YEARS AND,
ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL DATA, WE LOST 20 MILLION LIVES, THE
UNOFFICIAL FIGURE BEING EVEN HIGHER.
THE WAR WAGED AGAINST THE PEOPLE BY THOSE WHO SPOKE IN THE NAME
OF THE PEOPLE LASTED FOR DECADES, AND NOBODY HAS YET ACCURATELY
CALCULATED HOW MANY MILLIONS OF LIVES WE LOST.
/****** BEGINNING OF TAKE 002
REF: PM1011163188 MOSCOW LITERATURNAYA GAZETA RUSSIAN 2
NOV///LIVES WE LOST.
TEXT:
((TEXT)) THERE IS A THEORY THAT THE REPRESSIONS WERE SUPPOSEDLY
A HARSH NECESSITY AND THAT OTHERWISE WE WOULD NOT HAVE WITHSTOOD
THE CLASH WITH FASCISM. BUT THIS THEORY IS BASED EITHER ON
HISTORICAL IGNORANCE OR ON HISTORICAL CYNICISM. HOW CAN ANYONE
PERCEIVE THE PREWAR DESTRUCTION OF THE PEOPLE AS PREPARATION TO
PROTECT THE PEOPLE FROM DESTRUCTION?
HERE ARE FIGURES FROM LIEUTENANT GENERAL TODORSKIY ABOUT THE
BLOODLETTING AMONG RED ARMY COMMAND CADRES BEFORE THE WAR: THE
REPRESSIONS ACCOUNTED FOR 3 OUT OF 5 MARSHALS, 3 OUT OF 5 ARMY
COMMANDERS FIRST RANK, ALL 10 ARMY COMMANDERS SECOND RANK, 50 OUT
OF 57 CORPS COMMANDERS, 154 OUT OF 186 DIVISION COMMANDERS, ALL 16
ARMY COMMISSARS FIRST AND SECOND RANK, 25 OUT OF 28 CORPS
COMMISSARS, 58 OUT OF 64 DIVISION COMMISSARS, AND 401 OUT OF 456
COLONELS.
UNCLASSIFIED
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THERE WERE ALSO LIEUTENANTS AND PRIVATES WHO WERE INTERNED FIRST
IN HITLER'S CONCENTRATION CAMPS, AND THEN IN STALIN'S. EVEN WHEN
THEY ESCAPED FROM HITLER'S CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND FOUGHT AGAINST
FASCISM WITH THE ITALIAN OR FRENCH PARTISANS, THIS DID NOT PREVENT
THEM FROM BEING CLASSED AS "TRAITORS." WE ARE AWKWARDLY AND
HALTINGLY LEARNING THE BASIC TRUTHS OF HISTORICAL MEMORY, LEAVING
BLEEDING OPEN WOUNDS WHERE WE HAVE TORN OFF THE BRAIN-CONSTRAINING
CAMELSKIN BELTS OF MANKURTY ((ALLUSION TO PEOPLE IN AYTMATOV NOVEL
WHO ARE DEPRIVED OF THEIR MEMORY BY INVADERS WHO TIE BELTS AROUND
THEIR HEADS -- FBIS)).
WE ARE BEGINNING TO HONOR THE MEMORY OF OUTSTANDING
REVOLUTIONARIES, MILITARY LEADERS, SCIENTISTS, AND WRITERS WHO
PERISHED IN PRISON CELLARS OR BEHIND BARBED WIRE. NAMES THAT WERE
FAMOUS IN THE PAST AND WERE ONLY WHISPERED FOR SO MANY YEARS, CAN
AGAIN BE HEARD ALOUD. BUT THE PEOPLE'S CONSCIENCE AND THE PEOPLE'S
TALENT ARE NOT THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE OF THE FAMOUS. IT IS OUR
DUTY TO HONOR THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD INNOCENT GRAIN GROWERS,
WORKERS, ENGINEERS, PHYSICIANS, TEACHERS, AND PEOPLE OF ALL
PROFESSIONS, NATIONALITIES, AND RELIGIONS, EACH OF WHOM REPRESENTS
A FRAGMENT OF THE ASSASSINATED PEOPLE'S CONSCIENCE AND PEOPLE'S
TALENT
IN ALL CORNERS OF THE COUNTRY THERE ARE FLICKERING ETERNAL
FLAMES WHICH WERE LIT IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THE WAR
AGAINST FASCISM.
IN ALL CORNERS OF THE COUNTRY, BY THE PEOPLE'S WILL, THERE MUST
BE MEMORIALS COMMEMORATING THE VICTIMS OF REPRESSIONS, LIKE ETERNAL
FLAMES CAST IN STONE. HALFHEARTED REMEMBRANCE LEADS TO HALFHEARTED
CONSCIENCE.
THERE CAN BE NO RESTRUCTURING WITHOUT THE RESTRUCTURING OF
MEMORY.
THEREFORE HELP "MEMORIAL"1
TO THIS DAY, CHILDREN ON THE BANKS OF KOLYMA RIVER SOMETIMES
CARRY BERRIES INSIDE HUMAN SKULLS THEY HAVE FOUND, AND SMILE IN
THEIR INNOCENT IGNORANCE.
HOW ARE WE NOW TO DECIPHER THE CODE SIGNS "B-13," "V-41," AND
"YA-178" ON THE NAMELESS RICKETY PEGS AND SMALL BOARDS IN THE
TAYGA? HOW ARE WE TO MAKE OUT THE SIGN WRITTEN IN INDELIBLE PENCIL
ON SOME PLYWOOD TAG TIED TO AN EMACIATED BARE FOOT WHEN THE
TUNDRA'S PERMAFROST YIELDS ONE MORE OF ITS TERRIBLE SECRETS IN
SPRINGTIME?
BELORUSSIAN PEASANTS IN KUROPATY LOOK IN TERROR AT THE DITCH
FILLED WITH HUMAN SKELETONS AS WITNESSES FOR THE PROSECUTION IN THE
TRIAL OF HISTORY.
MUSCOVITES SHUDDER ON LEARNING THAT THE KALITNIKOVSKOYE
CEMETERY IN THE VERY HEART OF MOSCOW HAS ITS OWN TERRIBLE SECRET
DITCH, MOSCOW'S BABIY YAR, WHERE NAKED BODIES WERE BROUGHT IN
CARTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT DURING THE THIRTIES, WITH RAGS
STOPPING THE TWO BULLET HOLES IN THEIR HEADS.
OUR MORAL LAW -- "NOBODY HAS BEEN FORGOTTEN AND NOTHING HAS BEEN
FORGOTTEN" -- MUST APPLY TO BOTH OF THESE TERRIBLE WARS, THE GREAT
PATRIOTIC WAR AND THE WAR AGAINST OUR OWN PEOPLE.
THE MEMORY WE POSSESS TODAY ACCOMMODATES NEITHER THE TEARS, NOR
THE BLOOD, NOR THE HOPES. NOT BEING ARMED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF
HISTORY, WE MAY FIND OURSELVES DISARMED WHEN WE FACE UP TO HISTORY.
UNCLASSIFIED
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HISTORY CANNOT BE ESCAPED BY MEANS OF MONUMENTS, NOT EVEN THE
MOST BEAUTIFUL ONES. THE BEST MONUMENT IS MEMORY. WE TAKE THE
TERM "MEMORIAL" TO INCLUDE THE AIR OF HISTORICAL MEMORY AROUND THE
MONUMENTS THEMSELVES. THE MEMORIALS ARE CONCEIVED BY US NOT ONLY
AS ARCHITECTURAL COMPLEXES BUT ALSO AS SPIRITUAL COMPLEXES, AS
LIBRARIES OF FACTS AND TRIBUNES OF PUBLIC THOUGHT.
THE "MEMORIAL" SOCIETY MUST BECOME THE ORGANIZER OF THE
RESTRUCTURING OF MEMORY, A CAUSE OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE, A UNIVERSAL
CAUSE. THE RECREATION OF THE PEOPLE'S MEMORY IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT
THE PEOPLE'S HELP.
/****** BEGINNING OF TAKE 003 ******/
REF: PM1011163188 MOSCOW LITERATURNAYA GAZETA RUSSIAN 2
NOV///THE PEOPLE'S HELP.
TEXT:
((TEXT)) THEREFORE HELP "MEMORIAL"'
THE RUSTY BARBED WIRE OF THE FORMER CAMPS, LYING IN WAIT IN THE
BRUSHWOOD, IS A VIPER THAN CAN STILL CAUSE A DEADLY BITE. THE
POISON CONTAINED IN THE BARBS OF THE CAMP WIRE HAS CONTAMINATED
THOSE WHO PERCEIVE THE PATH INTO THE FUTURE AS LEADING NOT THROUGH
DEMOCRACY BUT THROUGH FORCIBLE SUBORDINATION, NOT THROUGH PLURALISM
BUT THROUGH CONVEYER-BELT UNIFORMITY. THIS CAMP WIRE ENTANGLED SO
MANY TALENTED SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ALL NATIONALITIES IN OUR
MOTHERLAND -- PEASANTS, PROLETARIANS, MEMBERS OF THE
INTELLIGENTSIA, PARTY MEMBERS, NONPARTY PEOPLE, CLERICS, AND SIMPLE
BELIEVERS. WHO KNOWS, HAD THEY REMAINED ALIVE MAYBE DEMOCRACY AND
GLASNOST WOULD HAVE DEVELOPED NATURALLY AS FAR BACK AS THE
TWENTIES, AND THEN THERE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SO MANY CRIMES, THE
WAR AGAINST FASCISM WOULD HAVE BEEN WON MUCH EARLIER, AND MAYBE THE
FASCISTS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO CAPTURE POWER BY REFERENCE TO
WORLDWIDE "RED TERROR" AND THE ENTIRE POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE IN THE
WORLD COULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT. OUR FUTURE WAS STOLEN FOR SEVERAL
DECADES. WE MUST KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED SO THAT OUR FUTURE CAN
NEVER AGAIN BE STOLEN. THE STUDY OF THE PAST IS THE SALVATION OF
THE FUTURE, THE GUARANTEE OF THE FUTURE. THE TASK OF "MEMORIAL" IS
TO STUDY THE PAST NOT FOR THE SAKE OF ACCURATE RECORDS BUT FOR THE
SAKE OF ACCURACY IN MAPPING OUT FUTURE PROSPECTS, FOR THE SAKE OF
ENSURING THAT THE TRAGEDY THAT BEFELL OUR RECENT FOREBEARS DOES NOT
RECUR TO BEFALL OUR IMMEDIATE OR DISTANT OFFSPRING.
THEREFORE HELP "MEMORIAL"'
FOLLOWING THE TRAGIC YEARS WHEN CONSCIENCE, JUSTICE, AND TRUTH
WERE LOCKED BEHIND BARS, IT IS NECESSARY TO MORALLY SENTENCE
STALINISM TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT AS AN ANTI-PEOPLE PHENOMENON. THIS
IS NOT SO MUCH A MATTER OF STALIN'S ACTUAL PERSONALITY OR HIS CLOSE
ASSOCIATES, IT IT A MATTER OF STALINISM. ITS RESULT HAS BEEN
PARADOXICALLY TRAGIC -- THE STATE AND MAN, CLASS INTERESTS AND
UNIVERSAL INTERESTS HAVE ALL SUFFERED THROUGH IT. AN ANALYSIS OF
THE TRAMPLING OF DEMOCRACY IN THE PAST MEANS ENSURING THE
PROTECTION OF DEMOCRACY IN THE FUTURE. THE MEMORIAL IN MOSCOW MUST
BE AN ALL-UNION LECTURE AND RESEARCH CENTER WHERE THE MORALITY OF
THE PRESENT IS ELABORATED AS THE FOUNDATION OF THE FUTURE ON THE
BASIS OF VERIFIED FACTS OF THE PAST. RESEARCH ACTIVITY MUST NOT
FOLLOW THE BIASED LINE OF BRINGING ONLY NEGATIVE FACTS TO LIGHT AND
DELIBERATELY SENSATIONALIZING THE HORRORS. WE MUST MAKE PUBLIC NOT
UNCLASSIFIED
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ONLY THE CRIMES AND BETRAYALS BUT ALSO THE COURAGE OF RESISTANCE,
THE FEAT OF MERCY, AND THE SPIRITUAL HYGIENE OF NONPARTICIPATION.
IT WAS IN THOSE TERRIBLE YEARS THAT MANY GREAT BOOKS WERE WRITTEN
AND MANY REMARKABLE TECHNICAL IDEAS WERE PUT FORWARD. BUT AT THE
SAME TIME WE MUST NOT USE THE TALENTED AND HONEST WORK OF MANY
PEOPLE IN THOSE YEARS TO JUSTIFY THE SELF-GENOCIDE THAT WAS BEING
SIMULTANEOUSLY CONDUCTED.
THE TASKS OF THE "MEMORIAL" SOCIETY LACK ALL VENGEFULNESS. WE
ARE NOT ADVOCATING THE PHYSICAL PERSECUTION OF THOSE WHO WERE IN
SOME WAY OR ANOTHER INVOLVED IN STALINISM'S BLOODY CRIMES. WE DEEM
IT PROFOUNDLY IMMORAL TO GROUNDLESSLY ACCUSE PEOPLE WHO ARE STILL
ALIVE OR ARE ALREADY DEAD. BUT IF THERE IS IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE OF
GUILT BEFORE THE TRIAL OF HISTORY, THEN LET THE SOCIAL PUNISHMENT
TAKE THE FORM OF PUBLISHING THE TRUTH ABOUT SPECIFIC CRIMES
COMMITTED BY SPECIFIC PEOPLE, ACCOMPLICES IN THE WAR WAGED AGAINST
OUR OWN PEOPLE. THE COVERUP OF THE TRUTH ABOUT CRIMES CONTAINS A
POTENTIAL DANGER THAT THEY MIGHT RECUR.
THE "MEMORIAL" SOCIETY MUST BECOME ONE OF THE CENTERS FOR MOST
ACTIVE ASSISTANCE TO RESTRUCTURING, GLASNOST, NEW THINKING, AND
DEMOCRACY.
THE "MEMORIAL" SOCIETY WILL STRENGTHEN INTERETHNIC TIES BETWEEN
OUR COUNTRY'S FRATERNAL PEOPLES, BECAUSE NOTHING BONDS AS FIRMLY AS
SHARED SUFFERING.
THE "MEMORIAL" SOCIETY HOPES THAT IT WILL RECEIVE INTERNATIONAL
SUPPORT BECAUSE OUR SOCIETY'S DEMOCRATIZATION AND COMPLETE
DE-STALINIZATION OFFER ONE OF THE MAIN HISTORICAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE
SAKE OF NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND MUTUAL TRUST BETWEEN PEOPLES.
THEREFORE HELP "MEMORIAL"1
THE "MEMORIAL" SOCIETY GRATEFULLY ACCEPTS DONATIONS FOR THE
ERECTION OF A MEMORIAL COMPLEX TO THE VICTIMS OF REPRESSIONS
(ACCOUNT NO. 700454).
THE "MEMORIAL" SOCIETY AWAITS ANY DOCUMENTARY MATERIAL AND
SUGGESTIONS FROM YOU, ADDRESSED TO: 125319 MOSCOW, NO. 2
CHERNYAKHOVSKIY STREET.
ON INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC COUNCIL,
((SIGNED)) YEVG. YEVTUSHENKO
ADMIN
(ENDALL) 2 NOV AZ/MARSHALL/CM 10/1751Z NOV
BT
#0069
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA0069 3151750 MTMS-UUUU
UNCLASSIFIED
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AIMFULL
SUBJECT: 151421ZN0V881231
mos
CDS
D 38644RUDOMKA 1231 3201456ZFUR47315 335301M1DB
UPID
HEADER
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA1231 3201449 MTMS-UUUU--RUEBHAA RUEBHAA.
ZNR UUUUU ZYN ZPO ZZO
R 151421Z NOV 88
FM FBIS LONDON UK
TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA
RUCLACC/CDR4THPSY0PGP FT BRAGG NC//SB//
RUDOMKB/FBIS LONDON UK//BBC//
RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC
RUETIAM/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD
RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE
ACCT FBLD-EWDK
BT
CONTROLS
UNCLAS 3R/FAX
SERIAL: PM1511142188
BODY
/*********** THIS IS A COMBINED MESSAGE ************/
PASS: COPY TO UD
COUNTRY: USSR
SUBJ: TAKE 1 OF 2 -- 'TWO VIEWS' ON MINSK CEMETERY CLASH
TEXT:
((EDITORIAL REPORT)) MOSCOW KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA IN
RUSSIAN 13 NOVEMBER 1988 CARRIES A FEATURE ON PAGE 4 UNDER THE
HEADING "DAY OF CONFLICT; LESSONS FROM EXTRAORDINARY SITUATION
IN WHICH TRADITION CLASHED WITH ARROGANCE."
THE FEATURE OPENS WITH A LETTER FROM WRITER VIKTOR KOZKO,
LENIN KOMSOMOL PRIZEWINNER UNDER THE SUBTITLE "LETTER TO THE
EDITOR," WHIH READS:
"FOR SOME 2 WEEKS BEFORE 30 OCTOBER -- MEMORIAL DAY -- THE
NEWSPAPERS WERE FULL OF SENSATIONALIST ITEMS. ALAS, THE
INTELLIGENTSIA, CULTURAL WORKERS, AND, MORE SPECIFICALLY, THE THREE
CREATIVE UNIONS (OF WRITERS, ARTISTS, AND CINEMA WORKERS) WHICH
WERE THE FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC'S HISTORICAL EDUCATION SOCIETY IN
MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS OF STALINISM -- THE 'MARTIROLOG BELARUSI'
WERE REALLY PERSECUTED. IN WORKER AUDITORIUMS AND THE NEWSPAPERS
THEY WERE DESCRIBED AS NOTHING BUT A GROUP OF IMPOSTORS AND SCUM
AND, IN THE BEST TRADITIONS OF THE ERA OF STAGNATION, THE QUESTION
WAS REPEATEDLY ASKED: WHO ARE THEY SPONGING OFF? SO A WEDGE WAS
DRIVEN BETWEEN THE CREATIVE INTELLIGENTSIA AND THE WORKING CLASS.
THUS THE PROVOCATION -- THERE IS NO OTHER WORD I CAN CHOOSE -- WAS
NURTURED AND BROUGHT TO A HEAD.
"IT HAPPENED ON 30 OCTOBER. AT 1340 HOURS THE REPUBLIC'S
CHARMING MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS, COMRADE PISKAREV, APPEARED
BEFORE THE PEOPLE OF MINSK ON THEIR TELEVISION SCREENS IN THE
PROGRAM 'MEETING FOR YOU.' THE MINISTER SYMPATHIZED WITH AND
UNCLASSIFIED
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FELT SORRY FOR V. RASPUTIN: WELL, WHY SHOULD HE SQUANDER HIS
TALENTS ON JOURNALISM RATHER THAN WRITE NOVELS? THEN HE READ A
POEM BY R. GAMZATOV, THE FAMOUS ONE, ABOUT THE ROAD AND THE HORSE
-- WHO SHOULD BE BLAMED IF THE HORSE STUMBLES?
"AT THE SAME TIME, 1340 HOURS, Z. POZNYAK, CHAIRMAN OF THE
SOCIETY MENTIONED ABOVE, WAS ARRESTED BY A GROUP OF CIVILIANS ON
THE WAY TO THE MOSKOVSKOYE CEMETERY. THIS CAUSED A REAL SENSE OF
OUTRAGE AMONG THE OTHERS IN THE PROCESSION BUT DID NOT STOP THEM
FROM CONTINUING ON THEIR WAY TO THE MOSKOVSKOYE CEMETERY. THEY
WERE WALKING ALONG THE SIDEWALK WITH FLOWERS IN THEIR ARMS,
STRICTLY OBSERVING THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS. ALTHOUGH MEMORIAL DAY --
IDZYADYt -- AND ANY RALLIES IN THIS CONNECTION HAD BEEN CANCELED BY
THE CITY AUTHORITIES, PEOPLE WERE GOING NEVERTHELESS TO LAY FLOWERS
ON THE GRAVES OF THEIR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES AND OF TWO PEOPLE
WHOSE NAMES ARE DEAR TO ALL BELORUSSIANS -- P.M. MASHEROV AND THE
WRITER V. KOROTKEVICH.
"BY 1400 HOURS THERE WERE ALREADY SEVERAL THOUSAND PEOPLE AT THE
MOSKOVSKOYE CEMETERY. THERE WERE ALSO A LOT OF MILITIAMEN.
THERE, AT THE CEMETERY, I FIRST SAW SOVIET WATER CANNONS AND
ENORMOUS BLACK MARIAS WITH BARRED WINDOWS.
"THE ENTRANCE TO THE CEMETERY WAS SEALED OFF BY MILITIA CADETS
AND THEY WERE NOT LETTING ANYONE THROUGH AT ALL. THE SCULPTOR A.
ANIKEYCHIK, THE CREATOR OF THE MEMORIALS TO MASHEROV AND
KOROTKEVICH, WAS NOT ALLOWED THROUGH WITH FLOWERS; LIKE MANY
OTHERS, HE HAD NOT COME TO TAKE PART IN ANY RALLY, HE JUST WANTED
TO VISIT THE GRAVES OF HIS NEAREST AND DEAREST.
"BUT EVERYTHING STILL SEEMED QUITE CALM, EVEN GOOD-HUMORED. THE
LIEUTENANT COLONEL REPRESENTING THE DEPUTY CHIEF OF THE CITY
MILITIA ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCED THROUGH A MEGAPHONE TO THOSE
PRESENT THAT WE LIVE IN A RULE-OF-LAW STATE. BUT THEN, LINKING
ARMS, THE MILITIA CADETS BORE DOWN ON THE PEOPLE.
"HERE PEOPLE SHOWED SIMPLY AMAZING SELF-RESTRAINT. I DID NOT
HEAR ANY SHOUTED INSULTS, ONLY CRIES OF BEWILDERMENT: 'COMRADES,
WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?' YOU WILL FEEL ONLY SHAME TOMORROWII
"A YOUNG MAN WAS LIFTED UP ABOVE PEOPLE'S HEADS. HE SHOUTED:
'TO KUROPATY, COMRADESI'
"BROKEN UP, THE CROWD MOVED IN ALL DIRECTIONS. THE MAN IN
MILITIA UNIFORM WITH THE MEGAPHONE ADVISED PEOPLE TO GO ABOUT THEIR
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS OR SIMPLY MOVE A LITTLE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE
CEMETERY -- INTO THE FIELDS AND THE FOREST, TO BREATHE A BIT OF
FRESH AIR.
"I WAS AT THE CEMETERY FOR AROUND 20 MINUTES. THEN, JOINING
THE CONVOY OF MILITIA VEHICLES, I FOLLOWED. THE CAVALCADE CAME TO
A HALT IN KUROPATY. THE KUROPATY HILLS THEMSELVES -- THE PLACE
WHERE THE VICTIMS OF STALIN'S REPRESSIONS WERE SHOT AND BURIED --
WERE CORDONED OFF BY SEVERAL RANKS OF MILITIAMEN READY TO ARREST
ANYONE....
"THERE IS, HOWEVER, ONE LESSON IN THIS STORY THAT WE LEARNED
FROM THIS TERRIBLE DAY, 30 OCTOBER.
"TODAY IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR ONE PERSON ALONE TO DECIDE ON
BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE EXACTLY WHAT TRADITIONS THE PEOPLE CAN HAVEI
I REMEMBER THE FIRST YEAR AFTER THE WAR. MY FATHER HAD STILL NOT
COME BACK FROM THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR. BUT A MEAL APPEARED AT
MY GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE -- OATMEAL KISSEL, I THINK. I ASKED HER
UNCLASSIFIED
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WHAT WE WERE CELEBRATING, WHAT HAD HAPPENED. 'IT IS DZYADY
TODAY,' SHE REPLIED. THAT IS HOW PEOPLE LIVED THEN. BUT HOW DO
WE LIVE NOW? SEVERAL YEARS AGO, BELORUSSIA WAS SHAKEN BY THIS
INFORMATION: IN ONE SETTLEMENT THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES HAD OPENED A
DANCE FLOOR ON THE SITE OF THE FORMER FRATERNAL GRAVE OF SERVICEMEN
WHO HAD DIED IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR....
"NO, REMEMBERING AND PRAYING FOR THOSE WHO GAVE YOU LIFE HAS
ALWAYS BEEN A TRADITION AND A CUSTOM OF THE PEOPLE'S MORAL HEALTH.
THIS WAS PROVEN BY 30 OCTOBER: IT WAS THE POPULATION THAT WENT TO
THE RALLY AND THE PEOPLE THAT LEFT IT. THIS IS THE MAIN LESSON TO
BE LEARNED FROM 30 OCTOBER."
/****** BEGINNING OF TAKE 002 ******/
REF: PM1511142188 MOSCOW KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA 13 NOV///FROM 30
OCTOBER."
TEXT:
((EDITORIAL REPORT)) THE LEI1ER IS FOLLOWED BY AN "OFFICIAL
OPINION" FROM MAJOR GENERAL OF MILITIA K.M. PLATONOV,
BELORUSSIAN SSR DEPUTY MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS (THE FIRST
PARAGRAPH IS AN EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION):
"OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT ASKED MAJOR GENERAL OF MILITIA K.M.
PLATONOV, BELORUSSIAN SSR DEPUTY INTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER, TO
COMMENT ON THE EVENTS OF 30 OCTOBER.
"THE RALLY AT THE MOSCOW CEMETERY ON 30 OCTOBER WAS AGAINST
THE LAW, BECAUSE IT HAD NOT BEEN AUTHORIZED BY THE MINSK
GORISPOLKOM; CITIZENS HAD BEEN INFORMED OF THIS IN ADVANCE THROUGH
THE NEWSPAPER VECHERNIY MINSK. THE LAW IS THE LAW -- IT IS
BINDING ON EVERYONE.
"HOWEVER, WE WERE INFORMED THE DAY BEFORE THE EVENT THAT MEMBERS
OF THE 'TYTEYSHIYA' INFORMAL YOUTH ASSOCIATION WERE MAILING
INVITATIONS AND POSTING UP ANNOUNCEMENTS ABOUT THE RALLY AT THE
CEMETERY. ON 28 OCTOBER WE HAD ARRESTED A STUDENT FROM THE MINSK
THEATER ARTS INSTITUTE WHO HAD BEEN URGING PEOPLE IN THE STREET TO
TAKE PART IN THE UNAUTHORIZED RALLY. ON 29 OCTOBER, WHICH I WOULD
LIKE TO EMPHASIZE IS THE KOMSOMOL'S BIRTHDAY, DURING A MEETING WITH
WRITERS AT THE WRITERS' CENTER, ALL PARENTS PRESENT WERE INVITED TO
COME ALONG TO THE VERY SAME RALLY AND BRING THEIR CHILDREN.
"NATURALLY, IN THIS SITUATION WE WERE FORCED TO TAKE ADVANCE
MEASURES TO PROTECT PUBLIC ORDER. THESE MEASURES WERE TAKEN.
AFTER ALL, A CROWD DID GATHER AT THE MOSKOVSKOYE CEMETERY. AND
THE MILITIA IS OBLIGED TO CONTROL THE SITUATION.
"((CORRESPONDENT)) DID THE PEOPLE PRESENT COMMIT ANY ACTS
AGAINST THE LAW?
"((PLATONOV)) OF COURSE THEY DID. FIRST OF ALL, THEY SHOUTED
ANTI-SOVIET SLOGANS: 'SOVIETS WITHOUT COMMUNISTSI' AND
'BELORUSSIA DESERVES A BETTER FATE THAN TO BE A FEED TROUGH FOR
MOSCOW'; AND INSULTS WERE SHOUTED IN OUR DIRECTION -- 'STALINISTS,
MURDERERS I' THE MILITIA WAS PROVOKED INTO USING FORCE, PEOPLE SPAT
IN THEIR FACES, STOOD IN THE WAY OF THEIR VEHICLES, AND CALLED FOR
THE FORMATION OF A NATIONAL FRONT.
"WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BY THIS TITLE? IF IT MEANS THE KIND
OF DEMONSTRATIONS THAT TOOK PLACE ON 30 OCTOBER, THEN BELORUSSIA
REALLY DOES NOT NEED A NATIONAL FRONT. ESPECIALLY AS THE SOCIAL
AND ECONOMIC SITUATION IN THE REPUBLIC IS STABLE AND THE GOVERNMENT
UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/09/23: CIA-RDP92-01361R000100110030-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/09/23: CIA-RDP92-01361R000100110030-6
? IIP
UNCLASSIFIED
IS FOLLOWING A COURSE OF RESTRUCTURING IN A MODERN, EFFICIENT WAY.
"((CORRESPONDENT)) WERE SPECIAL MEANS EMPLOYED TO ARREST
PEOPLE: TRUNCHEONS, TEAR GAS, WATER CANNON?
"((PLATONOV)) NO, THEY WERE NOT. BUT THERE WERE CASES WHERE
PARTICULARLY ACTIVE, AGGRESSIVE PARTICIPANTS IN THIS ILLEGAL ACTION
WERE ARRESTED. A TOTAL OF 72 CRIME REPORTS WERE MADE OUT. WITHIN
3 HOURS, AFTER EACH ONE HAD BEEN INDIVIDUALLY QUESTIONED, ALL WERE
RELEASED. I WILL ALSO ADD THIS: AFTER THESE MEASURES HAD BEEN
TAKEN, NO ONE HAD RECOURSE TO THE COURTS, THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE,
OR PUBLIC HEALTH BODIES. THIS SHOWS THAT THE MILITIA CONDUCTED
ITSELF WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF THE LAW...."
FINALLY, THE NEWSPAPER'S OWN CORRESPONDENT O. YEGOROVA SUMS UP
THE EVENTS IN A REPORT DATELINED MINSK UNDER THE SUBTITLE "OUR
CORRESPONDENT'S COMMENTARY":
"SO, TWO DIFFERENT VIEWS ON THE SAME EVENT.
"WHAT IS THE TRUTH? WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN THE CITY IN WHICH
THERE IS SUCH A 'STABLE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION'? TRUE, REAL
DEMOCRACY HAS NOTHING IN COMMON WITH ANARCHY. OUR FREEDOMS MUST
NOT ONLY BE GUARANTEED -- THEY MUST ALSO BE PROTECTED. THAT IS
BEYOND QUESTION. BUT MANY PEOPLE LIVING IN MINSK WERE NOT VERY
CONVINCED BY THE APPARENT MOTIVES FOR THE BAN ON THE REQUIEM
RALLY: 'THE LACK OF A TRADITION IN THE CITY OF MARKING MEMORIAL
DAY AND THE FACT THAT THE GORISPOLKOM IS CURRENTLY STUDYING PUBLIC
OPINION ON THE QUESTION OF ESTABLISHING A DATE FOR AN ANNUAL
MEMORIAL DAY....'
"COULD THE CITY LEADERS HAVE ACTED MORE WISELY? AFTER ALL, THEY
ALSO OFFENDED PEOPLE WHO HAD ABSOLUTELY NO THOUGHT OF GOING TO ANY
RALLY. NOT COULD -- SHOULD. ESPECIALLY AS THEY DID NOT HAVE TO
LOOK FAR FOR AN EXAMPLE. IN NEIGHBORING POLAND, FOR EXAMPLE,
MEMORIAL DAY HAS RECENTLY BEEN CELEBRATED BY THE WHOLE COUNTRY AND
EVEN HERE IN BELORUSSIA, IN GRODNO, FOR EXAMPLE, EVERYONE REACHED A
REASONABLE COMPROMISE, ALTHOUGH EVEN THERE AT FIRST THERE WERE
FEARS ABOUT CROWDS OF PEOPLE GATHERING ON MEMORIAL DAY.
"WE ARE SURE THAT THE CITY AUTHORITIES ARE CERTAINLY NOT OPPOSED
TO THE REVIVAL OF POPULAR TRADITIONS. THERE IS ALWAYS A CERTAIN
DEGREE OF RISK IN ANY MASS MEETING. BUT HOW, ON WHAT BASIS ARE YOU
TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION? ONLY BY FOLLOWING THE DICTATES OF
COMMON SENSE AND ON THE BASIS OF A THOROUGH KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOCIAL
CLIMATE AND THE ABILITY TO PREDICT A SITUATION. HASTY BANS MOST
OFTEN OCCUR WHERE THERE IS A GULF BETWEEN OFFICIALS AND ORDINARY
PEOPLE. THAT IS WHEN YOU GET RUMORS, SUSPICION, AND EXCESSIVE
VIGILANCE. THEN, THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE MADE RESPONSIBLE FOR
'ANTI-SOVIETISM' AND ISOLATED EXTREMIST STATEMENTS.
"LEARNING DEMOCRACY TODAY IS NO EASY TASK BUT IT IS A VITAL
NECESSITY -- FOR THOSE WHO ATTEND RALLIES AND THOSE WHO DECIDE
THEIR FATE. WE NEED MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITY AND MUTUAL STANDARDS.
IF WE CAN ATTAIN BOTH TOGETHER, AS ONE, RESTRUCTURING WILL WIN
THROUGH. IF NOT -- WE COULD RUIN ANY IDEA, EVEN THE MOST LOFTY AND
JUST "
ADMIN
(ENDALL) 13 NOV JW/OWEN/GW 15/1511Z NOV
BT
#1239
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA1239 3201509 MTMS-UUUU
UNCLASSIFIED
NNNN
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nne-ImccifiPri in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/09/23 CIA-RDP92-01361R000100110030-6
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/09/23 : CIA-RDP92-01361R000100110030-6
.r
?
UNCLASSIFIED
AIMFULL
SUBJECT: 061251ZSEP880050
CDS
D 88006RUDOMKA 0050 2501319ZFUR70702 215303M1DB
UPID
HEADER
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA0050 2501316 MTMS-UUUU--RUEBHAA RUEBHAA.
ZNR UUUUU ZYN ZPO ZZO
R 061251Z SEP 88
FM FBIS LONDON UK
TO RUCWAAA/FBIS RESTON VA
RUCLACC/CDR4THPSY0PGP FT BRAGG NC//SB//
RUDOMKB/FBIS LONDON UK//BBC//
RUEBHAA/STORAGE CENTER FBIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DEFINTAGNCY WASH DC
RUETIAM/MPC FT GEO G MEADE MD
RUFHVOA/VOA MUNICH GE
ACCT FBLD-EWDK
BT
CONTROLS
UNCLAS 3R/FAX
SERIAL: PM0609125188
BODY
PASS: COPY TO UD
COUNTRY: USSR
SUBJ: COMMISSION PROBES ORIGINS OF UNMARKED GRAVES
SOURCE: MOSCOW IZVESTIYA IN RUSSIAN 28 AUG 88 MORNING
EDITION P 2
TEXT:
//((REPORT BY IZVESTIYA OWN CORRESPONDENT M. SHIMANSKIY
UNDER THE RUBRIC "GLASNOST VERSUS RUMORS": "WHOSE REMAINS LIE
IN THE FOREST NEAR MINSK"))
((TEXT)) MINSK -- TODAY THE NAME KUROPATY IS OFTEN HEARD IN
BELORUSSIA, AND IS BECOMING SURROUNDED BY DIVERSE RUMORS. MANY
ANONYMOUS GRAVES HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED HERE.
KUROPATY IS A FOREST TRACT ON THE NORTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF MINSK.
THE "ZELENYY LUG" RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT HAS SPREAD RIGHT UP TO IT.
OLD-TIMERS CONFIRM THAT FROM 1937 TO 1941 SHOTS WERE HEARD EVERY
DAY AND EVERY NIGHT IN THE WOOD.
RECENTLY WHEN A GAS LINE TRENCH WAS LAID ONE OF TBE GRAVES WAS
DISTURBED. BONES, 15 BULLET-RIDDEN HUMAN SKULLS AND THE REMAINS OF
20 PAIRS OF SHOES WERE FOUND IN IT. THE SUPPOSITION WAS VOICED
THAT DURING STALIN'S TIME MASS EXECUTIONS TOOK PLACE IN THE
KUROPATY WOOD.
THE BELORUSSIAN SSR COUNCIL OF MINISTERS SET UP A
GOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION WHICH WAS INSTRUCTED TO FIND OUT WHOSE
REMAINS LIE IN KUROPATY AND WHAT HAPPENED HERE AT THE END OF THE
1930'S AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 1940'S. I MET WITH G.
TARNAVSKIY, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMISSION AND BELORUSSIAN
SSR PROSECUTOR.
"WE CAN WELL UNDERSTAND PUBLIC CONCERN IN CONNECTION WITH THE
MASS GRAVES DISCOVERED IN KUROPATY," HE SAID. "OUR COMMISSION HAS
STARTED WORK. IT IS HEADED BY N. MAZAY, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE
REPUBLIC'S COUNCIL OF MINISTERS. IT INCLUDES REPRESENTATIVES OF
UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/09/23: CIA-RDP92-01361R000100110030-6
Declassified in Part-Sanitized Copy Approved forRelease2013/09/23 CIA-RDP92-01361R000100110030-6
vc.
UNCLASSIFIED
THE LAW ENFORCEMENT, PARTY, AND SOVIET ORGANS AND THE PUBLIC. HERO
OF SOCIALIST LABOR AND WRITER VASIL BYKOV, USSR PEOPLE'S
ARTIST MIKHAIL SAVITSKIY, AND HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION MARIYA
OSIPOVA ARE AMONG THEM. SPECIALISTS BEGAN TO WORK IN THE ARCHIVES
BUT MANY DOCUMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH BELORUSSIA'S OCCUPATION
DURING THE WAR YEARS WERE NOT KEPT.
EXCAVATIONS ARE ALSO UNDER WAY. HUMAN REMAINS AND VARIOUS
OBJECTS HAVE ALSO BEEN DISCOVERED: CLOTHING, FOOTWEAR, COMBS AND
EYEGLASSES... ALL THESE ARE BEING HANDED OVER TO THE INSTITUTE OF
FORENSIC EXAMINATION FOR INVESTIGATION. THERE ARE HOLES IN SOME
SKULLS WHICH ARE SIMILAR TO BULLET HOLES. BUT THE EXPERT
EXAMINATION WILL ANSWER THIS QUESTION PRECISELY."
"HAS IT BEEN ESTABLISHED WHEN THESE PEOPLE WERE BURIED IN
KUROPATY?"
"IT IS STILL IMPOSSIBLE TO ANSWER THIS PRECISELY. ACCORDING TO
WITNESSES' STORIES, THIS WAS AT THE END OF THE 1930'S AND THE
BEGINNING OF THE 1940'S. BUT THE FINAL CONCLUSION CAN ONLY BE MADE
AFTER THE INVESTIGATION IS COMPLETED. EXPERT EXAMINATION WILL
DETERMINE WHAT HAPPENED IN KUROPATY AND WHEN, WHO IS BURIED HERE
AND WHAT AGE AND SEX THESE PEOPLE WERE. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE EVENTS
IN KUROPATY MUST BE TOLD.
BUT THE DIFFICULTY OF OUR INVESTIGATION LIES IN THE FACT THAT
DURING THE LAST WAR THE NAZIS CARRIED OUT MASS EXECUTIONS OF THE
PEACEFUL POPULATION THROUGHOUT BELORUSSIAN TERRITORY, AND KILLED
POWS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS, INCLUDING IN THE MINSK VICINITY.
CITIZENS FROM OTHER OCCUPIED STATES WERE ALSO BROUGHT HERE TO BE
EXECUTED. FOR THIS REASON HASTY CONCLUSIONS SHOULD NOT BE MADE.
HASTY CONCLUSIONS NOT FOUNDED ON TRUSTWORTHY INFORMATION ONLY GIVE
RISE TO RUMORS AND CONJECTURES, AND ROUSE EMOTIONS. AS SOON AS THE
COMMISSION HAS PRECISE, VERIFIED DATA AT ITS DISPOSAL, THESE WILL
ALL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC.
THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSION CONTINUES ITS WORK.
ADMIN
(ENDALL) 28 AUG HD/JENNINGS/PX 06/1317Z SEP
BT
#0050
RTTUZYUW RUDOMKA0050 2501316 MTMS-UUUU
UNCLASSIFIED
NNNN
k Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/09/23: CIA-RDP92-01361R000100110030-6