Russia dismantles Gulag memorial after demands from soldiers returning from Ukraine

Authorities in Vorkuta have dismantled a memorial marker for victims of political repression at the memorial cemetery in the settlement of Yur-Shor.

The monument was unveiled on October 14, 2010. Thirty-three surnames are engraved on its plaque, above which the coat of arms of Ukraine was displayed.

In June, veterans of Russia’s war with Ukraine filed a complaint about the monument. At a meeting with the city administration, an advocacy group stated its position: “The bitter truth about the crimes of the Nazis and their collaborators must not be lost. We must all remember what happened so that it never happens again. The burial site itself should just be marked on a map. And the memorial marker should be removed from this location — there is no reason for it to stand in our city.”

The administration reviewed its archives and determined that the cemetery does indeed contain the remains of prisoners convicted for their involvement in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists — documents that had been declassified and published back in 2004. The Vorkuta Public Chamber supported the veterans’ initiative, and the monument was dismantled.

Yur-Shor is one of the principal sites of memory associated with the Vorkuta camp complex, the human rights group Memorial notes. From 1944 through the mid-1950s, prisoners of Vorkutlag and Rechlag, as well as civilian employees of Mine No. 29 of the Vorkutaugol trust, were buried there.