Kurapaty

Kurapaty forest graves

Kurapaty(Belarusian:Курапаты,IPA:[kuraˈpatɨ]) is a wooded area on the outskirts ofMinsk,Belarus,where a vast number of people were executed between 1937 and 1941 during theGreat Purgeby theSovietsecret police,theNKVD.

The exact count of victims is uncertain, asNKVDarchives are classified in Belarus.According to various sources, the number of people who perished in Kurapaty is estimated to be at least 30,000 (according to the Attorney General of BSSR Tarnaŭski), up to 100,000 people (according to "Belarus" reference book),from 102,000 to 250,000 people (according to the article byZianon Pazniakin the "Litaratura i Mastactva" newspaper),250,000 people (according to Polish historian and professor ofUniversity of WrocławZdzisław Julian Winnicki),and more (according to the British historianNorman Davies).Most of the victims were the Belarusianintelligentsia.

In 2004, Kurapatymass graveswere included in the register of theCultural Properties of Belarusas a first-categorycultural heritage.

Discovery and remembrance

Meeting in Kurapaty, 1989

The discovery by historianZianon Paźniakandexhumationof the remains in 1988 gave added momentum to the pro-democracyand pro-independencemovement in Belarus in the last years of the Soviet Union before it wasdissolved.There have been investigations by both the Soviet, and Belarusian governments, which have been conclusive as to the perpetrators were Soviet NKVD. This is based on former NKVD members' confessions and the eyewitness testimonies of 55 villagers, from villages such asCna,Cna-Yodkava,Drazdova,Padbaloccieand others, who gave evidence that NKVD brought people in trucks and executed them during 1937–1941.

President of the United StatesBill Clintonvisited Kurapaty forest in 1994, when he came toBelaruswith a "thank you" visit after Belarus agreed to transfer their post-Sovietnuclear weaponstoRussia.Clinton gifted a small granite monument "To Belarusians from the American people", perhaps the first post-Soviet cultural artifact from the U.S. on the Belarusian soil. The monument was damaged three times by unidentified vandals, but subsequently restored.

In 2001, when the Kurapaty site was threatened by a planned widening of theMinsk Ring Road,youth from theBelarusian Popular Front,Zubr,and smaller organizations occupied the site and sat out a bitter winter in tents, trying to halt the road construction, however with no success.

On October 29, 2004, theJewishcommunity of Belarus installed a monument in memory of the Jews and other nationals who were murdered in Kurapaty forest. The brown granite stone has two inscriptions, inYiddishand inBelarusian:"To our fellow-believers—Jews, Christians and the Muslims—the victims ofStalinismfrom the Belarusian Jews. "

Each year in November, onDziady(the All Saints or the day when Belarusians commemorate their deceased forefathers), hundreds of people visit this site of crimes of Sovietpolitical repression.

Gallery

• 
  Kurapaty 1989 (Kalinowski street)
• 
  Kurapaty, 1989
• 
  Minsk ring road under construction through the Kurapaty massacre site (2001)
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  Protesters' tent (2001)
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  Police watch over protesters (2001)
• 
  Crosses and 1989 memorial stone at center of site (2001)
• 
  Close-up of memorial stone (2001)
• 
  Remnant of a memorial placed by US President Bill Clinton, later destroyed (2001)

See also

• Bykivnia
• Dem'ianiv Laz
• Great Purge
• Katyn massacre
• NKVD massacres of prisoners
• Vinnytsia massacre

Bibliography

• Kuropaty: The Investigation of a Stalinist Historical Controversyby David R. Marples -Slavic ReviewVol. 53, No. 2 (Summer, 1994), pp. 513–523
• 'Kurapaty The Road of Death'ISBN5857001498

External links

• Kurapaty – The Road of Death
• Kurapaty memorial in danger: business versus historical memoryat theWayback Machine(archived 2022-11-28) Belarus Digest
• Kurapaty (1937–1941): NKVD Mass Killings in Soviet Belarus