In Solovki, someone desecrated the memorial to Ukrainian victims of Soviet terror

The stone plate that honours Ukrainian victims of Stalin’s terror has been removed from the local Solovki memorial alley. Also memorials to Chechen and Ingush victims have been desecrated, human rights organisation Memorial informs.

Local activists have now put flowers on the stone where the Ukrainian memorial plate used to be.

#мемориактивизм на Соловках

Активисты принесли цветы к Аллее памяти на Соловках, скверу с памятными камнями узникам Соловецкого лагеря особого назначения. Они обнаружили там разрушенные и испорченные памятники — так с украинского памятника была снята табличка, а памятник… pic.twitter.com/po66SIoLIH

— Общество Мемориал (@MemorialMoscow) August 14, 2024

It is not clear who ravaged the memorial alley, but similar damage has recently been made to numerous other memorials across Russia. The alley in Solovki includes memorials also to a number of other repressed peoples and groups.

The Solovetsky Islands was site for one of the most gruesome GULAG camp in the Soviet period.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn called Solovki “the mother of the GULAG.”

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In the period between 1923-1939 more than 100,000 people are believed to have perished in the camps.

Solovki has housed a Russian Orthodox monastery since the 15th Century, and the islands are today strictly controlled by Patriarch Kirill and his men.