Day of Political Repression Victims’ Commemoration is marked on October 30 in Russia, RIA Novosti informs. Today we mourn millions of people who were unfairly exiled to correctional-labor camps and deprived of their lives during Stalin’s Great Terror and afterwards.
The annual mourning ceremony took place in Magadan by the monument of The Mask of Grief. The regional administration has reminded that a notorious transit location was situated at this place, where people were distributed between different camps. Almost nine hundred thousand prisoners passed through the Kolyma forced labor camps from 1932 to 1954, many of them were convicted out of political reasons, around one hundred and twenty of them died.
Crowded strikes and campaigns are going on today called to remind people of the national tragedy and honor the memory of numerous victims of political repression as well as to attract attention of the young people and society to the problem of intolerance and violence towards people with different political attitudes.
The first national memorial to victims of political repressions titled The Wall of Grief will be unveiled in Moscow today. Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the opening ceremony.
In his opinion, opening the monument in the year of the Great October Revolution’s anniversary is very symbolic. The head of state hopes that for the Russian society this date would become a kind of border finishing the dramatic events, which split the country and its people. “I believe that this date would be perceived by our people as a border line under the dramatic events, dividing the country and its people. It would turn into a symbol of overcoming this gap and a symbol of total forgiveness and acceptance of national history as it is with its grand victories and tragic pages as well”, Putin said.
Russkiy Mir
